is the last of the three poems that have more to do with the spiritual battle we find ourselves in. It is about many things having to do with worship in general and how we are changed in God's presence. We are living in a time where people are hungry for an authentic powerful walk with God. As God's people are supernaturally changed, the body of Christ will be cleaned and empowered to change the world with Him. Many prophetic voices seem to agree that God is about to manifest His power on earth in a way that He has never done before. Lord, lift us higher and help us be ready to be a part of that wonderful time!
Lift Me Higher
Lift me higher.
Hold me tighter.
If I could be, even for a while,
really free, not just temporarily distracted,
from the weight and sadness
of a world where Your love is not allowed to shine
and so much evil is being revealed
and so many suffer, controlled by lies.
It’s not enough to know God is stronger
if we can’t tap into His strength.
Strength as an impersonal commodity,
even if it was available, would still be so incomplete
to a soul created for communion
with pure love from a reachable heavenly Father.
Worship is not just escape,
or an equipping place,
or a place for revelation,
or sanctification.
Yes, it is all that,
but His presence is not just a means to many ends.
Most of all it’s a beautiful end in itself,
because He’s worthy.
He’s not depressed or scared.
He is all powerful goodness and joyful holiness.
Let me crawl inside that
and stay completely there a while
and come out shining,
laughing at despair,
not insensitive to suffering,
but not suffocating under it.
Because, even when I’m not
completely given to His presence,
I’ll be living on the edge of ecstasy.
Too long I’ve lived on the other edge,
almost overwhelmed by the heaviness of the world.
He said He’s overcome the world.
No matter how deep the darkness,
His light is always stronger.
Let’s crawl in Him and stay there until we
are so covered by Him that it’s not like a mantle.
It’s more like skin.
It’s not a part we can play and leave the stage.
Identity is not something we can wear and lay aside.
Identify is who we are.
It may feel like we’re completely changed,
but we’re not being redesigned.
We’re being restored by our Creator
to our original design.
God doesn’t make deficiency.
He makes unfinished masterpieces
who get to participate in their own completion.
Along the way we discover our own identity.
At first we can’t even spiritually see,
much less step into, our unique identity.
We were originally in Him
before we were born into this earth.
We can only get in touch with who we are again
in communion with Him, by some kind of rebirth
and continuing connection with the One
who knows us better than we know ourselves.
Let Him show us who we are
when we’re connected to our source,
moving and being in union with Him.
Let Him wear us like a glove
and slap the devil silly,
make that rebel be the one completely overwhelmed
by the power of holiness unleashed.
When God’s shalom hits, darkness shatters,
demonic forces scatter.
We don’t even have to tell them to go.
They self deport.
They are so threatening by our light
that exposes their lies.
We are meant to have dominion.
We never blend in
unless He hides us,
like when Jesus walked through crowds unseen
when it wasn’t time to confront certain enemies .
He knows our seasons, and His,
and blends all the strategies.
He let’s us know enough to help with His grand plan
and we attempt to sort out the details assigned to us.
He weaves it all in,
even our mistakes and delays.
The results look like us and look like Him
The part we play
can be more blessed and fruitful
when we stay higher,
above the fray,
letting Him hold us tighter.
Lord, let it be not just once in a while,
but a lifeline, a lifestyle.
Every breath is prayer,
Every movement is worship.
At first we may continually adjust,
but in time we will intuitively trust.
We won’t have to try to be who we are.
To live in worship is living in Him.
Safe, home, joy, wonder—
sound like heaven?
It is.
Worship can be a preview
of something for later far away,
or we can go far enough in to bend time and space
and experience now “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Whatever that is Lord, take me there.
I may not be worthy, but You are.
I will worship even if I don’t feel or see much at all.
If it blesses You and You promise to come when we call,
then here I am, an open portal—
sending what I can, receiving what I’m able.
Love is all I have to give,
I’m pushing all my chips to the middle of the table.
I will either lose or win it all.
Those who lay down their lives for You will find them.
Faith collides with revelation.
Worship is not hide and seek.
When the pure in heart seek, He will find them.
He already came, made the way,
opened the portal
for us to come under
and, in some sense, stay
(by carrying the wonder).
Worship is the connection.
We don’t have to understand much.
Experience will teach and change us,
prepare us to go higher and deeper.
New places in Him wait.
The more we trust, the further we can go.
The more we choose to listen, the more He will say.
There are no instructions except relationship.
That must be why He said, “I am the way.”
© by Margaret Westphal (Nov 2023)