247. Five Postures of Encountering God: Lessons from Psalm 27

Hey, everybody.

Welcome back to Holistic Hearts.

I'm your host, Kristin Chadwick, and you are listening to episode 247.

I want to just shout out real quick as I was looking at our podcast analytics here and I was just curious to see where listeners were listening from because we have more than doubled our download numbers, which shout out.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I appreciate you guys sharing.

Um, but I want to specifically call out Pittsburgh.

I see you, I know exactly who you are, and I just want to say hello my friends.

I am so excited that you're all you guys are still listening to the podcast and I met some beautiful people at a retreat in the fall and had the honor to get to hear their stories and to help lead encounters with them.

And I just want to say hello and thank you so much for listening and sharing and also want to give a shout out to a dear friend out in California as well.

Hello.

Hello.

And okay, I don't know how to say this name, but it is Coraopolis.

I think that's how you say it in Pennsylvania.

I gotta give a shout out to you as well because you guys are my top three cities that are listening.

And then of course, Colorado Springs is right there.

So thanks you guys for listening.

I to tell you, I have been sitting in so much gratitude over being able to do this as a podcaster, to share really what the Lord has been teaching me in my heart and to invite you guys into that headspace.

It's really a gift.

So thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening, for sharing with friends, and also to those of you who do the buy me a coffee, which is a part of supporting this show, especially as I do not have my podcast business anymore.

It does help to fund certain things to get keep this podcast going.

So I just appreciate each and every one of you for creating space and opportunity for me to continue to record each week and bring you things that hopefully bring you closer to to him, to encourage you to make time and space to encounter Him.

And that's what we're going to talk about today to.

So, yes, I'm excited about it.

But first I had to give you guys an update.

Our vision board night went so well.

It was such a beautiful experience.

We had about 14 women in our my home.

And Susan and I, we're so blessed to have such sweet, kind, creative women, hungry women come together.

And there were lots of laughs, some tears, some just precious time to just pause, ask questions of Jesus, journal them down, and then to find space.

And with Susan's grace and her instruction on how to create an.

An incredible vision board.

It was so much fun to just kind of step into that childlike faith and go for it.

So if you haven't seen the reel from it, you can check it out on Instagram.

It was really fun.

You can see some examples of some vision boards.

So I want to hear if you guys have participated in the vision board yourself from last week.

That was really fun to create an episode to help guide you along in that if you were not able to to join us in person.

So I encourage you to go back and, and listen to that.

If you have not yet created a vision board, it was really helpful for me to just put down a process that is.

Is helpful for anyone really to come and create a vision board with the Lord.

So go back and listen to that if you haven't listened to episode 2 46.

So for today's episode, I am really excited.

So my first question for you is, do you have a word for the year?

And Joshua and I have never had a word together until this year.

And we felt like it was super important this year as we prayed about it, which it was a really funny experience because I was like, babe, I feel like we're supposed to do a word together and I think we should pray about it.

And then the next conversation we had was like, I think our word is behold.

And he said, yep, I think you're right.

So nothing fancy there.

It was literally just a conversation.

And then we both were like, yeah, the word behold feels like the Holy Spirit's on that word.

So we can find this word behold all over Scripture.

But there's two very distinct places that the Lord has been highlighting to us.

And it's Isaiah 43:18 through 19, which has behold, I am doing a new thing.

I talked about that a little bit last week and this week.

Psalm 27 is the other 1, 4 and 5.

And Psalm 27 has been one of those life verses for me.

And I so resonate with David's heart in these verses.

And it's another verse that has the word behold in says one thing I've desired of the Lord, that will I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

And as I've been revisiting and meditating on this psalm, the Holy Spirit showed me something beautiful.

And there are five distinct postures that David is taking to encounter God in the secret place not just one, but five.

And I know there's so many out there, too.

But we're going to talk about five distinct postures that David is talking about in the psalm.

And friends, these aren't just night postures, nice religious words.

These are actually Hebrew verbs, action words that teach us how to position ourselves for intimacy with Jesus.

And today we're going to be unpacking all five of these verbs that are mentioned in that little chunk of verses right there in Psalm 27, 4 and 5.

All five are desire, seek, dwell, behold, inquire.

And at the end of this episode, we're going to have a moment to encounter him, as well as an invitation for the week, AKA homework, if you want.

So grab a journal, open up your Bible to Psalm 27 if you want, and let's dive in.

Okay, so Psalm 27.

I'm going to read the entire thing because it's always helpful to hear the whole psalm in its context.

And just remember, we're highlighting a couple of these verses in here.

The Lord is my light and my salvation Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes they stumbled and fell.

Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear the war may rise against me in this I will be confident.

Here's our key verses right here.

One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion in the secret place of his tabernacle he shall hide me he shall set me high upon a rock and and now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me.

Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice.

Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

When you said, seek my face, my heart said to you your face, Lord, I will seek.

Do not hide your face from me do not turn your servant away in anger.

You have been my help.

Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God, of my salvation.

When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me.

Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in a path, smooth path, because of my enemies.

Do not deliver me to the will of My adversaries for false witnesses have risen against me.

And such as breath and such as breathe out violence, I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait on the Lord.

Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart.

Wait, I say, on the Lord.

I know, I just read a lot.

I'm going to reiterate the verses of one thing I have desired of the Lord, that I will seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire his temple.

And I love how when you read the entire psalm, David isn't talking about someday you'll encounter God's goodness in.

In heaven.

He's also declaring that he will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, in the here and now, not just in eternity, but right now.

One of my dear friends, Jenny, she introduced me to the wonderful ways that of the Holy Spirit.

She's been on this podcast a couple of times, and her life mission is to share about the goodness of God today.

Does that mean that we push away our emotions and ignore life's trials?

Absolutely not.

David is an example of wrestling this out.

And at the end of the day, recognizing that God is good, life is found in his temple, his throne room, the secret place.

And that's what we're all hungry for.

We don't just want to know about God.

We want to experience Him.

And we want encounters, we want intimacy, we want to actually know Him.

And so that's what these five postures teach us.

And what it made me think of how there was a story that was shared to me many years ago about honoring the point.

And with an.

With a hunting dog, or like a group of dogs that go hunting, there's one who does this little position when they have found the duck, right?

So they've shot the duck.

The duck is down in the grass.

And this hunting dog does the point.

So where he lifts up his, you know, front paw, he's got his nose pointed toward, towards.

Towards where the duck is, so that it alerts the other dogs and the hunters where they're going.

And the example of that story of honoring the point is sometimes you are in the lead, you are the one that is pointing in the direction, posturing your heart in that direction.

And sometimes you're honoring someone else's point.

And here's what I want you to understand about these before we.

We dive into these five postures.

Is that sometimes it's honoring the point of someone else.

Maybe it's a leader in a group or your pastor or someone, like on a podcast, and we'll talk about that a little bit.

But it is about positioning yourself in the same way because sometimes we don't always feel it, quote, unquote.

So I encourage you to honor the point.

Is there someone in your life that you're like, wow, I love how they study scripture and they're so knowledgeable.

Honor their point.

Ask them what do they do?

Or if there's somebody who you watch that is worshiping freely and you are fascinated, like, how do you have that much intimacy and you don't care what other people think?

Honor the point.

Take action.

Each of these postures is about taking action.

So these aren't steps.

This is not a formula.

They're not, do this and God will show up.

These are postures, positions of the heart that creates space for encounter.

And here's the key.

A yielded spirit is the how of intimacy.

It is the oil of intimacy, meaning pausing, submitting, that is, the how is yielding.

He could show up in whatever way.

And that's what David is showing us in these verses.

So, all right, let's break down each of these five postures that I mentioned.

I'm going to give you the Hebrew meaning and what it looks like practically, and then what is the opposite of the word?

Because sometimes it's easier to understand what something isn't in order for us to understand what it is.

So the first posture that we read in this, these verses, one thing I have desired of the Lord.

So the first posture is desire.

This is a Hebrew word.

And forgive me, I am not a Hebrew scholar, like I say, but this word is shael, which is S H, A apostrophe, A L. And it means to ask, to beg, to request, to wish, to inquire, to demand, to earnestly inquire.

So desire.

This is a longing, this is a holy hunger.

And what it looks like is you wake up wanting more of God.

You're hungry.

You're not satisfied with surface level Christianity anymore.

There's a yearning in you that won't go away.

You keep hungering for, for the more you're praying and asking for, the more.

What it's not is numbness, apathy, going through religious motions without hunger and settling for less.

And here's the key about desire.

In this verse, David says, one thing I have desired.

Not 10 things, not a list, just one.

He's laser focused, he's single minded.

All his longing is aimed at one target, God Himself.

So here's a question for you.

What is your one thing?

And if you stripped away all other desires, whether it's for ministry to success or breakthrough or answers, what's underneath all of that?

Underneath all of those desires is Him.

And I'm.

I want you to let that soak in.

Really what we desire is more of Him.

I'm going to recommend if you want to do some research on desire.

Tony Stoltzfus is a Kingdom coach who has written multiple books we as Holistic Hearts Home group have done in the past.

We did his book called Questions for Jesus and it's really based off of learning desire, like what's underneath all of those desires?

And I just want to read this little paragraph to you in his other book called the Invitation where he talks about desires as well.

Desires are the fundamental motivations that drive our behavior.

As James4.2 puts it, you desire and don't have, so you blank, blank, blank or dot, dot, dot.

Desire drives action.

The 16 desires in this desire wheel.

Below are categories for these fundamental psychological needs we all share.

And in it it's broken down to justice, challenge, significance, freedom, worth, be known, joy, love, belonging, comfort, security, peace, come through goodness, recognition, approval.

Those are all desires that he talks about.

In this desire is the power behind our actions, both for good and evil.

Whenever we feel compelled to do something or have an unusual struggle to stop doing it, a desire is usually the culprit.

Sometimes at first, we confuse desires and emotions.

You can look at the desire wheel and think, I feel joyful or I feel worthwhile sometimes.

Is that what a desire is?

No.

And here's the difference.

Emotions are voluntary, involuntary responses to stimuli.

I see the sun come out after a week of gray, rainy days, and I feel joyful.

Emotions are reactive.

Desires, by contrast, are proactive.

They are motivations.

They drive me to act.

After a week of rain, I am longing for some sunshine.

So my desire for joy drives me to take action and pray that the sun comes out or flow, fly to Florida where it's sunny.

When my desire for joy is filled by a real experience and I feel the corresponding emotion of happiness.

So hopefully that helps kind of unpack what desire is.

And I love that David boils it down to this.

One thing I have desired is more of him, more of him.

And I think really underneath all of our desires is the same.

It's not going to be that different.

One thing I have desired of the Lord that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

All right, so let's go to posture number two.

Seek.

David doesn't stop at desiring.

He says, that will I seek.

The Hebrew word is Bakash, B, a Q, A, S, H. And it means to search out by any method, specifically in worship and prayer, to strive after, to make inquisition, to procure, to make request, and to require.

So this is an active pursuit.

So what does that look like?

It means that you carve out time intentionally.

You prioritize presence over productivity.

You worship, you pray, you ask, you search, you pursue God like a treasure hunter.

I love that image.

He has so many mysteries, and it is a joy for him to see us seek him out and to discover and to be curious.

What it's not.

The opposite of seeking is hiding, being stagnant, not willing to move, and being passive in our relationship.

So here's what I love about this word.

It includes worship, and it includes prayer, and it includes going after.

It's not just one method.

And David is saying, I will search you out by any method.

So some days that looks like worship.

Some days it looks like silence.

Some days it's digging into scripture, Some days it's journaling.

Some days it's tears, and some days it's listening to a podcast or sermon or being with community and honoring their point.

Whatever it takes to find you, God, I will do it.

I stand at the door, knock and knock.

That.

That verse just popped into my memory of Jesus saying, he's always there knocking.

That's the heart of seeking.

Posture.

Number three.

Dwell.

David goes a little bit deeper in this verse.

One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

The Hebrew word for dwell is yashab.

Y A S H, A B.

And it means to sit down in a quiet.

In quiet means to remain, to settle, to marry, to abide, to continue, to establish, inhabit, to make a home.

To Terry.

Isn't that beautiful when you think about that word yashab?

There's two definitions there that make me smile.

To marry and to make a home.

Some of you know what it's like to marry.

Some of you know what it's like to make a home, to dwell in the house of the Lord.

This is permanent per permanence, and this is staying power.

And what it looks like is not just visiting with God, it's actually living with Him.

It's making his presence your home.

It's settling in for the long haul.

Abiding, not just dropping by.

And I encourage you to go and read this week.

This was something that I did and as I was preparing for this and really wrestling this out of, what did it look like to dwell?

And Jesus talks about abiding, his famous message of abiding in the vine, right?

So go read John 15.

It's beautiful.

And it talks about exactly how to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

What it's not the opposite is quick visits, thinking that he comes and goes, not staying.

A hit and run spirituality.

And here's where this hits for me.

Most of us visit God, right?

We think we're just popping in and out for a quiet time.

We check the box and then we go on with our day.

And my friend, this was my default mode.

It still can be.

It can be an old nature habit and an area that God repeatedly in his grace redeems me and saves me from that old stinking thinking.

But David is saying, I want to dwell.

I want to live here all the days of my life.

And friends, this is exactly what Jesus promised in the New Testament.

Ephesians 3:17 says that Christ dwells in our hearts through faith.

And again, John 15, 7, 8 says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and and it shall be done for you.

By this my Father is glorified in that you bear, may bear much fruit.

Abide, dwell, remain.

This is where the power is.

And not in the quick touch point, but in the staying, in the ruminating, in the meditating dwelling.

As a family, we have been reading through John 1 and really trying to teach our boys how to let Scripture and the Word speak to their own hearts.

And this week we were in John 1:6 through 18.

And part of our time together was just to take a moment and ask the Holy Spirit what verse was sticking out.

And for me personally, John 1:18, on the second half of that verse, it says, the one and only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.

And that struck out to me and I wrote it down in my journal and I just had this moment of picturing Jesus in the heart of the Father.

It's such a beautiful picture.

And let us imagine that for ourselves that we are tucked into the bosom of the Father, like Jesus and the word bosom.

I looked it up as we were sitting there and it means the extra fold in the garment of their robe.

So, you know, they like tied the Piece of leather belt around, and then there's a little bunch of extra fabric sticking over the belt like a little kangaroo pouch.

That's the bosom.

And I just love to imagine, like an infant being in a Baby Bjorn or, you know, tucked into one of those wraps or.

My kids called it a cuddle puddle.

That's what I picture is Jesus is that way to the Father, and we are that way with Jesus and the Father.

That's intimacy, that's closeness, and that's what dwelling looks like.

Okay, posture four is behold.

I love this word so much.

Now we get to unpack the word behold.

But in that verse, let me repeat that verse.

To behold the beauty of the Lord.

That's the context.

The Hebrew word is chaza, C, H, A Z, A H. And it means to see, to look, to prophesy, to provide, to gaze at, to, to mentally to perceive, to contemplate with pleasure, to have a vision of.

And here's what got me.

I looked up this word in the Hebrew lexicon and it said to behold the face of God is used metaphorically to enjoy his favor, to know him as propitious.

An image taken from the custom of kings who only admit to their presence those whom they favor.

Friends, do you hear what that's saying?

To behold God is to enjoy him, to take pleasure in him, to gaze at him with delight.

And we are able to approach the throne as custom to a king who admits people into their presence.

Because of the favor on them, we are able to come into the throne.

Ephesians 4:16 in the Amplified says, therefore let us approach the throne of grace.

Grace, that is, the throne of God's gracious favor, with confidence and without fear, so that we may receive mercy for our failures and find his amazing grace to help in time of need.

An appropriate blessing coming just at the right moment.

So what does behold look like?

It looks like contemplating who God is.

Delighting in his beauty, Gazing at Him.

Not just glancing, having vision, seeing what he's showing you, enjoying his favor, knowing you're invited into the throne room, into his presence.

What it's not is ignoring all those God winks, is taking advantage of the access.

It's rushing past him to go do the next thing.

This is my favorite posture because this is what holistic hearts is all about.

We behold him, we gaze, we contemplate, we delight, we see him, we encounter Him.

We use our sanctified imagination.

Psalm 34.

5 says, those who look to him are radiant.

What you behold, you become.

If you behold your problems, you Become anxious.

If you behold other people's successes, you become jealous.

But if you behold Jesus, you become like him.

You become radiant.

Posture number five.

Inquire.

Finally, David says and to inquire in his temple.

The Hebrew word here is bakar B A Q, A R. And it means to plow, to break forth, figuratively, to inspect, to admire, to care for, to consider, to make, inquire, to make search, to seek out, contemplate, to inspect, look at with pleasure.

This part is about bringing your questions to God.

What it looks like is asking God your honest questions, searching for understanding, caring enough to inquire, bringing your confusion, your doubts, your why, your to him and seeking out his perspective.

What it's not is not using your voice, pretending you don't have questions, stuffing down your doubts, never asking why.

God, friend, God invites our questions.

He's not threatened by them.

And David is saying, here I'm bringing everything to your temple.

My desires, my seeking, my dwelling, my gazing, and yes, my questions.

And that is about intimacy, real relationship.

Inquire, inquires of each other.

It includes dialogue and includes the wrestling.

So don't be afraid to ask God hard questions he can handle.

And he already sees.

He already sees.

So let's bring it all together.

Here's what the five postures look like in real life.

So we got desire plus seeking plus dwelling plus behold plus inquire.

And that is the intimacy with God.

It starts with desire, a holy hunger, which by the way started with him because he's the one that is putting that desire within you.

That desire leads you to seek.

It means to take active pursuit, right?

You're, you're in the action mode.

And your seeking causes you to dwell, to stay, to be present, to observe what he's doing, to dwell, to make home, to marry all of those.

And as you dwell, you behold, you gaze at him with delight.

And as you behold, you inquire, you bring your questions and search for his heart while he is searching your own heart.

This is the secret place and this is encountering God.

So let me tell you what it looks like in my own life, as I am a work in progress.

But some days it looks like waking up with desire.

Holy Spirit, I need you today.

I desire to be in your presence.

It looks like seeking in the way of worship, putting on a song that helps me to connect with Him.

It looks like dwelling, sitting in his presence and not rushing.

Some days it looks like being quiet, and some days it just looks like sitting and reading his scripture and imagining his face, beholding asking Jesus, what do you want to show me to hit today?

Inquiring, bringing my questions, my confusions, my frustrations, my I don't understand, my Lord, why am I so tired?

And talking it out with Him.

And friends, this is where transformation happens.

Not in the doing, but in the being, in the beholding and in the encounter.

And here's the invitation for you and for me.

What if we approached our time with God this week with these five postures?

What if instead of rushing through our checklist, you desired him, sought him, dwelt with him, beheld him and inquired of Him?

What if you saw the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living this week?

Not someday.

Not when you're more spiritual, not when you have more time now, today, in the land of the living, as David says.

So let's close by practicing one of these postures together and behold Him.

If you're driving and can't fully engage, just bookmark this and come back.

But if you can, close your eyes or just imagine and take some deep healing breaths with me.

Holy Spirit, guide this time, this encounter, time of beholding you.

Picture yourself in a beautiful place.

Maybe it's a room, a garden, maybe on a mountain, on the ocean.

Wherever you feel safe and at peace, Jesus is there with you.

He's not far away.

He's right there, looking at you with such love.

For the next few moments, I invite you to simply behold Him.

Don't ask for anything.

Don't bring your list.

Don't perform.

Just look at Him.

Gaze at Him.

Delight in Him.

Notice his face, particularly his eyes, his gentle expression towards you.

What is he showing you about who he is?

Let your heart be seen in his presence.

Now, if you have a question, anything you've been wondering, anything you've been confused about or curious about, bring it to Him.

Inquire.

Ask him your question.

Listen.

What do you sense?

A word, A picture?

A feeling.

Peace.

Glory.

Go ahead and thank him for this encounter.

Thank him for inviting you into his presence.

When you're ready, open your eyes.

Take some time to write down what you saw, heard or felt.

Go ahead and you can pause if you need to.

We're going to close out this episode with a little bit of homework.

Take home experience, and I encourage you and invite you to read Psalm 27 this week and let these five postures sink deeper into your heart.

Right?

We need more of less of information and more experience and encounter with Him.

So read through Psalm 27 and imagine these five postures.

So desire.

Maybe on Monday you talk about desire.

Ask God to stir holy hunger in you.

On Tuesday, you talk about seeking that posture of actively pursuing him through worship and prayer and studying.

Wednesday dwelling.

Spend extra time sitting and just being in his presence.

Behold, gaze at Jesus.

Delight in who he is and the last of inquire.

Bring your questions to him and journal it out.

Ask those questions and then sit and respond and write his response to you.

I encourage you to journal what you experience because this is how you track God's faithfulness.

We remember what we write down.

And my friends, there is nothing sweeter than looking back at what God has revealed to our hearts.

It is a beautiful thing to see and to remember because we so easily forget what he's taught us or what he's put on our hearts or in an encounter.

Encounter a gift or something like that.

It's beautiful to go back and look at these journals to see what he has done before and remember and thank him.

And then lastly, I just encourage you to share this with someone.

If this episode impacted you, if this resonates with you and you resonates with someone that you know might resonate with them, I encourage you to share it with them and practice these postures together.

Talk about which one is is the easiest for you to or which one is challenging for you to do.

You were made for intimacy with God and you were made to encounter him, not just know about Him.

You were made for this experience like David had because on this side of of the New Testament, right?

And Jesus fulfilling like we read in Ephesians or in Hebrews that we can approach the throne boldly.

That's amazing.

So these five postures are available and they are your invitation every day.

So will you say yes?

And I hope you do.

And I'm excited to hear how he comes for you this week.

All right, I'll see you on the next episode.

Take care.