Joan Boney … apostle/prophet
We fight against destructive thoughts that come to our mind by turning to God in prayer and laying the subject brought by the destructive thought out before God in prayer and asking God for HIS help.
It is God who knows exactly what we need in dealing with the problem.
We rejoice when God brings to our memory that which helps us to overcome the situation.
We continue in peace and joy.
I believe God also uses hymns to build up gaps in our thinking which left unattended would give opening for destruction to return to us in form of destroying thoughts.
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Recently I awoke with a hymn going through my mind. That hymn was inside my heart and I kept hearing it over and over.
It is a hymn that shows us our unworthiness and how we were made worthy of salvation by the cross of Christ.
I believe God brought that hymn to me to stave off an attack … to seal up a hole in me.
***
Here is the hymn used that morning to help me:
(The cross of Christ stands between us and darkness. The cross is life for us. The cross is not sad but our hope, our deliverance from our self, eternal joy. I believe this is the theme of this hymn … our unworthiness and our glory in the salvation provided by that which Jesus did by the cross and dying and shedding HIS blood.)
* Beneath the cross of Jesus
1. Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty Rock
Within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness,
A rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat,
And the burden of the day.
2. Oh, safe and happy shelter!
Oh, refuge tried and sweet!
Oh, trysting place where heaven’s love
And heaven’s justice meet.
As to the holy patriarch
That wondrous dream was given,
So is my Savior by the cross
A ladder up to heaven.
3. There lies beneath its shadow,
But on the farther side,
The darkness of an awful grave
That gapes both deep and wide;
And there between us stands the cross,
Two arms outstretched to save,
Like a watchman set to guard the way
From that eternal grave.
(The cross is the only thing standing between the human and an "awful grave". People of this world often know how fearful death is although they do not know the answer is the cross. Many of this world show open terror and do all to avoid speaking of death or thinking of death. They can't even say the word "death" because it is so fearful to them. I'm 80-years-old, and occasionally I will say to a medical person there is no reason to do such & such treatment to me for I will likely die in 3-6 years and they argue with me immediately even though they know what I say is true. But I'm not afraid of death because I believe in Jesus, The Word, the blood of Christ and the resurrection of the dead through Jesus. I believe this is what verse 3 of this hymn is saying … we know the cross stands between us and an "awful grave".)
4. Upon that cross of Jesus
Mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One,
Who suffered there for me;
And from my smitten heart, with tears,
Two wonders I confess,
The wonders of His glorious love,
And my own worthlessness.
(our worthlessness: until we come to understand this concept, we try to trust in that which we do. Instead we must put our trust in that which Jesus did through God by going to the cross to pay for our sins. We must continually trust in salvation through the blood of Jesus and not through what we do. The only thing that will work is trust in the blood of Jesus which cleanses us of all unrighteousness. I John 1:7)
5. I take, O cross, thy shadow
For my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than
The sunshine of His face (word);
Content to let the world go by,
To know no gain nor loss,
My sinful self my only shame,
My glory all the cross.
***
Several weeks ago, this hymn was called to my attention. I pulled it up on internet and played the music and followed the verses.
I then deleted the hymn from my list of hymns.
A few days later this same hymn was brought to my mind. I looked again. Still I couldn't handle it. There are parts of the words that just seem too fleshly.
But the third time it came to my attention, I felt God was showing me to use it. So I did.
The hymn seems "dark" but it is actually joyful when you look at it spiritually.
The overall theme is our glory in what Christ did to open the door for our salvation. The cross stands between us and that "awful grave" which the world so fears.
And above all, it is by the cross of Christ that we who are unworthy are made worthy!
*****