The Wall Street Journal reported just a few weeks ago that antidepressants were the second most prescribed drug category in the United States in 2010. This has by far continued to escalate in 2011. Is this any wonder when the day and the hour in which we live is one of SUPER IMPOSED STRESS, busyness, distractions, noise, and cognitive overload which leaves many people with a cluttered mind and has the potential of trouble, calamity, anxiety, and fear?

 

Nearly 90 % of the men who come into Shiloh Ministries have previously been prescribed antidepressants for their mental torment. It is sad indeed that the root of the problem is rarely discussed, while band aids are being dispensed rapidly for those who have deep oozing cancers that require surgical removal by The Chief Surgeon (THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY). It is a mass marketing of greed displayed within pharmaceuticals and much of the Medical Arena alike. Billions of dollars are being spent while all the while the cure for the cause is without charge. And for sure firstly it is a subtle tool of the enemy to keep one’s mind numb, and prevent hearing The Voice of God, thus resulting in forfeiting ones calling. Our destinies are to know God, love God and enjoy His presence, and there will never be long lasting fulfillment and peace absent of the original design.

 

God Almighty formed us as triune beings, made up of spirit, soul, and body. The soul is comprised of the mind, will and emotions. The soul of mankind is exclusively created to follow the spirit. The soul was never meant to lead the way and when out of order there is a set up for defeat through compromise. However, the nearer your spirit draws to God, the further you become separated from the carnal, soulish demands. Salve is an ointment, lubricant, balm, medicine, emollient, remedy, help, and cure.  There is SALVE FOR THE SOUL.  HE is an ointment poured forth onto our minds when we allow HIM access. God’s attraction is both a perfume to allure and an ointment to heal.

 

HE awaits those who will enter into HIS Presence, those who will indeed pursue and press on in to the inner court. There is a place of SOLACE AND REST FOR THE SOUL. Abandonment is the key to entering into the inner court of fellowship and to tabernacle with God. Ardent faith, love, devotion and passion produces great abandonment. Abandonment means casting off all selfish cares in order to be altogether at HIS DIVINE DISPOSAL. God, The Source of all good, communicates Himself to the Soul that longs to partake of Him. You will not find consolation in anything other than the love of the CROSS and total surrender, that is to say dying to one’s self and truly living out No longer my, but THY WILL BE DONE. Romans 12:1-2, “I urge you therefore because of God’s Great Mercy to present your bodies as Holy and living sacrifices unto God which is your reasonable service, and do not be conformed any longer to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, (YOUR SOULISH REALM) (YOUR MIND WILL AND EMOTIONS) so that you will be able to discern God’s will, His good, and acceptable and perfect will.” This is the key to unlocking the everlasting joy peace and rest in ones life.

 

The spirit of man is always seeking a connecting with The Creator, and that of Divine intimacy.  No words exceed the splendor or completeness of David when he said of The Lord, “HE RESTORES MY SOUL” Psalm 23:3. David went through bouts of great distress in his soul. He found peace only in communion and dialogue with the presence of God. And today we are blessed to have the majority of the Book of Psalms through the intimacy that David had with God Almighty. The Psalms that were an expression of David’s heart under the inspiration of The Spirit of God are still the source of comfort to anyone who is weary and will invest the time to meditate on this power house. “God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee.” “I will remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches” (Psalm 63:1,6). HIS WORD is healing balm for our minds. A Christian Broadcast aired a few weeks ago in which a couple of Christians were asking people who confessed to be Christians if they read The Bible.  Nine out of the ten said they did not. Many said they forget. Is this why many Christians are living poor pitiful sad depressed defeated lifestyles? PASSION WILL PRODUCE DISCIPLINE! There are many advertised books on the Christian market that are titled five minutes with God, or quick Devotionals for the busy Mom or Dad. My goodness people we must get to a place where we prioritize and give God more than a few minutes of our 24 hour day. He is the most important Figure in the universe and something is seriously wrong when we try effortlessly to squeeze HIM in thinking we have done HIM a favor. Devotion focuses on the tenacious pursuit of intimacy with God. It is devoting oneself to passionately knowing Jesus Christ. “I want to know Christ and the power of HIS resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in HIS sufferings becoming like Him unto death” (Philippians 3:10). One measure of maturity is the degree to which this pursuit becomes our consuming focus and desire. Nowhere is the disciple of Jesus more challenged to become a man or woman after God’s own heart than here.

 

 Having Peace and rest in the midst of a troubled, confused, mixed up world is not found in man- made chemical comforts, which only produce an artificial quick kind of counterfeit fix of rest, that is fleeting and continuously robs one of truth. When unrest, fear, insecurity and depression manifest, this is a sure sign that we need to call out to God as did David the Psalmist did time after time. The enemy would have us medicate ourselves to keep us from exactly that. We all have opportunities to worry, to get over into fear, to scramble and engage in anxiety and to be blue, yet there is a REMEDY. There is “SALVE FOR THE SOUL”. THERE IS A SOLACE IN HIM. Psalm 46:10, “BE STILL AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD.” In these days  of great emotion and radical changes we need the steady persistent and refreshing inspiration of spiritual thoughts which entering the texture of our life in the morning will guide and refresh us through the day and in the evening give us one of confidence and peace.