Psalms 46:10 Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
	This passage is well known to many of us. We have considered it over the course of many years, not necessarily in studies and discussions, but in our hearts before the Lord. There is tremendously vital truth held within the depths of its consideration and its effect on our life in Christ. In the context of our current considerations of prayer, specifically intercessory prayer, we should once more bring our hearts before God in deliberate concentration on why the truth of this verse needs to be so thoroughly part of our lives.
	It has become an increasingly dear verse to me, one of those used by the Holy Spirit many times in making impressions of spiritual consequences. I know that many here have those verses, maybe even this same one, which have become anthems of our spiritual lives. I remember the Wednesday Night meeting at which this verse, on a plaque in the kitchen, so struck me to the core. I was sitting there, in utter frustration, heedless of the study. I couldn’t quit struggling with my problems and worries and concerns. It felt like life was bombarding me from every angle with fierce intensity, and it just seemed like I was about to implode from the sheer force of everything happening at once. I was trying to work out in my mind how to handle all the various predicaments with little hope of success in handling any of them. Then I saw this verse portion  Be still and know that I am God. 
	That started a frenzy of questions and tears. I spent days struggling with the Lord over this passage, yet I could never get it out of my mind or heart. Be still, be still, be still and know that I am God... Everything was exploding, and I kept hearing the Lord’s Word, be still. I tried every conceivable human effort to make myself still, and it didn’t work. The more I tried, the more frustrated I got and the more my nervous system twitched, and jerked, and strained. Migraines, shakes, sleeplessness, hysteria, thoughtlessness, nausea it all was anything but stillness. Finally, drained and distraught, I simply cried out that I could not be still, I could not be anything, do anything, say anything, fix anything! If the Lord didn’t do something I was utterly lost and forsaken. Only God could make any sense out of my life, because I had lost it all. 
	In that emotional distress before God and man, I sensed a peace in my spirit. It was not earth shattering, but it was enough to allow me to get some rest that night. In one sense, I was even afraid to sleep because I thought what little peace there was might disappear in the morning light and I would be left to face the onslaughts of the world alone, again. In the morning, the peace of God was still there. All the problems were too, but there was an actual sense that I was not alone to face them, the Lord was there. Together, we got through the day, the week, the month, the year and I have been learning to rely on Him ever more every day.
	This is but an intimate introduction to the passage before us. There is tremendously more truth packed within it in light of intercession. What is the reality of stillness in relationship to prayer before God as His Church, His Beloved? There is a history in stillness that sweeps us back to the banks of the Red Sea. In Ex. 14:13, we find the Children of Israel crying out in total despair as the army of Pharaoh is descending upon them. They had been sent forth from Egypt, and were now seemingly trapped between death at the hands of the Egyptians and drowning in the waters of the Red Sea. They were screaming and yelling in absolute terror over the disastrous plight that they saw was to befall them. In utter frustration, they besieged Moses with the disparaging statements “Why did you bring us out here to die? We were better off in Egypt. Didn’t we tell you to leave us alone? It was better to live a slave than to die in the desert.” At this, we see the command of God, through Moses to the Children of Israel ...Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye see to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
	How typical of the Israelites, and how typical of us, to focus our attention on the immediate circumstances, and to get so worked up and defeated by what is seen at hand. The realization that God was leading them forth from bondage was forgotten in the sight of the advancing army of the chariots of Pharaoh. Forgotten were the lessons of how God had worked mightily in the release of His people from the hands of the Egyptians. All that they could see was the dust of the on-coming assault, rather than the redemption of the Lord God Almighty. In that frenzied state of despair, there was no means of pointing them to God. A very stringent message was forth coming, Be Still and see God!
	Stillness before God is not a manipulative, it is not something that can be meditated into place, like the practitioners of yoga attempt. Stillness before God is a heart position, a spiritual condition that is part of our very essence. It is the life force of the knowledge of God. This concept has been contrived and twisted and manipulated by this world and contorted into various elements that are a mockery of the things of God. Transcendental Mediation usurps the principle in a man made effort to come into some sense of reality, which it will never find.
	Stillness before God is the confident knowledge of and complete trust in the Person of Jesus Christ being active in our lives. As He is the increasing focal point of our attention and our lives, so does the Holy Spirit develop and nurture a complete rest in Him that flows forth from our lives unto others.
	God proves Himself over and over again in every physical aspect of our walk on this earth. Yet, the sad truth is that even this is seemingly not sufficient to develop a true rest in God, stillness before Him. Evidence the Children of Israel, who were saved, victoriously from the Egyptians as they crossed the dry land of the parted Red Sea. God manifested Himself in all His glory before their eyes and those of the Egyptian hosts. The salvation of the Lord was constantly before the Israelites in the pillars of cloud and fire, the giving of manna and water. But their hearts were never in stillness before God. They kept striving for what more they could get that would make them like the rest of the nations. They never found a rest in God. Their hearts desire was never focused on knowing Him more and more. It centered on what He could make them, how He could help them and how He could magnify them.
	This is a fundamental aspect of being still before God. It is a matter of to whom the glory in every given situation in a life belongs. One of the reasons that being still is so difficult is that, by resting in the working of God, we are removed from any credit or glory in the outcome. It becomes a major battle between self or the Lord receiving the credit. It is easy to handle the little things in life, and blowing them out of proportion in order to claim a semblance of control in our lives. We do things in order to get esteem, honor and praise for a job well done. We show ourselves to be able to handle things, at least while we are able to. Then, as circumstances begin to develop into catastrophes, we find that we are not able to even begin to deal with them on our own. Our deluded self interests are seen for the facade that they really are, and we flounder in our own inadequacies.
	Juxtaposed to this self-engrandisement, is the utter reliance upon the Lord to be our everything. As we continuously learn to be still before Him, His glory is evidenced, in all things, large and small. Our focus becomes ever more firmly rooted in the desire to see God manifested livingly in our lives, and in the lives of those with whom we are brought into contact. That is the purpose of intercessory prayer, is it not? To be the vessels through whom only Christ Jesus has freedom, complete freedom, to touch the lives of others. It is nothing of ourselves, and most of the time, we will never know the earthly outcome, but our hearts are firmly set on the spiritual consequences of each and every aspect of the ones we hold forth in prayer. God’s glory will be seen in all His majesty. For that to take place, we must be perfectly still before Him, settled in the knowledge that He is in complete control, and yes, even fearful of doing anything, anything at all that might hinder the effective working of God in the lives of those for whom we are in travail.
	 In the stillness of Christ, before the throne of Grace, we find our beings flooded with the unmistakable resplendence of God. We find this evidenced in what is considered by some to be the oldest book of the Bible, Job 37:14 Hearken unto this O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. It is arguable that not many have had the severe dealings that Job faced. He lost everything except his life. At the apex of his earthly woes, we find this command to be still and consider the wondrous works of God. There was no other course left for Job, nor for us in the midst of all earthly calamity. There is no worldly place to turn, there is no earthly power to heal, there is no way out. Everything becomes so determinedly worthless in the shadow of the majesty of God and His work. When we consider God, our sufferings become viewed with a glimpse toward that which God will accomplish through them. We behold the face of God, and long for His will to be done, absolutely and thoroughly. 
	Too often, our spiritual vision is clouded by the force of the storms that surround us on our earthly sojourn. There are so many distractions which seek to hinder our on going with the Lord. We find that it seems almost impossible to have a time of stillness before God. The truth is, however, that stillness before the Lord is not a time set aside, but a heart utterly reserved unto Him. It is a stillness of being that is kept humbly before the Lord in all His splendor. There becomes evidenced a quiet confidence in the salvation of God which buffers against the most strident of the gnashing waves of desperation crashing upon us.
	The Apostle Paul refers to this as the whole armor of God in Ephesians Chapter 6. The whole purpose of this armour is that we might stand, stand still against the onslaughts, not to be swayed or moved. Verse 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Witness the fact that we are not called forth to do anything heroic on our own. We are not given the leeway to try this or that out of our own devices. We are called to stand, to not be moved. This is that place of stillness before God, the place where we are covered over by the whole armour of God against that day.
	Notice the inventory of the armour which is supplied by God in the following verses: Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; and above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. 
	There is the truth, the living truth of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom we are fully covered. Christ, the Son, the Word sent to us by God to make us part of His very Beloved. He is all truth. He is also our righteousness. There is nothing of us, or expected for us to bring forth into this spiritual battle. We are simply to be still, and standing in the place that God deems for us. The preparation of the gospel of peace is as well our footing. That is the peace of God that becomes part of us as we learn to be still in the presence of God. No matter what the storm around us, the peace of God, in Christ Jesus, indwells us and will envelop us as we ever increasingly turn to Him, as we have already mentioned. In Christ, we are brought to the very heart of God, in Whose presence all peace abounds. The tempests may rage about us, but we are securely protected in the heart of God. We are at peace with God, knowing that He does all things well. We know that He is the One in charge of all things and that in His Omnipotence we are securely at rest and at peace. 
	He also is our shield against all onslaughts. We are not to protect ourselves, but rather are to let the faith of Christ, as He wells up in us, be that protection which is so vital in our lives. As He proves Himself over and over again, so our rest is assured in Christ Jesus. There are those accusations of this realm which pour out upon us as we are still before God, seeking after His glory. We are endlessly assaulted with abuse for seemingly doing nothing in the circumstances that beset us. Allegations rain down upon us of being lazy and uncaring, of permitting evil to flourish instead of fighting against it, of not standing up for our rights, of being doormats to the world. Many of these denunciations even come from well-meaning Christians who have been deluded by the twisting of scripture and implantation of sayings that are not even scriptural, such as “God helps those who help themselves.” Credit Benjamin Franklin for that one, not the Word of God.
	 The helmet of salvation, again is no doing of our own, but given in Christ Jesus. We can not save ourselves, much less anyone else. Only God can perform that miracle, and it is a true miracle of life in Christ Jesus. As we rejoice in His great love wherewith He has so loved us, we are assured of that so great a salvation. We are in Christ Jesus, now and always. Nothing can wrest us out of His arms. We know that we are protected and kept by the sealing of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. As such, there is no fear nor terror that can remove us from the placement into the family of God that is ours as the Body of Christ Jesus.
	And the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is actively working in us. It is a two-edged sword, cutting asunder soul and spirit, as we are told in Heb.4:12. The Holy Spirit is very active, and thank God that He is so active to make discernment of spiritual truth the living core of our life. We are not the possessors of wisdom in our feeble selves. Rather the Holy Spirit opens and works to show the truth in a very living manner. As we need wisdom, He is our wisdom. As we need strength, He is our strength. As we need long-suffering, He is that long-suffering. He becomes the very essence of our total ability to live on this earth. He is the source, the provision, and the means by Whom we are even able to function moment by moment. He is our very life’s breath.
	 How do we come into this living relationship which is signified by the whole armour of God? It is as we are in that stillness before Him. The Holy Spirit is actively at work in us, but how many of us give Him the obedience that He deserves, that He needs to bring about the fullness of Christ in us? When we are distracted, as the world will try to do, when we are frustrated, when we are seeking after any other means of settling our difficulties, running here and running there for any other possible avenue of help, we can not and will not be able to see the Lord’s glory at work. The Holy Spirit brings us to the point, the utter point of nowhere else to turn, and then, as we call upon Him alone, in our dire distress He quietly speaks peace into our hearts and it is as if we had never heard such a beautiful voice before. He brings us to the end of ourselves in order to manifest the fullness of Himself in quiet stillness in the heart of the Father. We are able to listen, to learn and to obey. We are taught to stand still in the face of this world’s onslaughts, and to trust the Lord through it all!
	Please notice, as we are standing, to what purpose we stand, in verse 18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; We are not standing before God for ourselves. We are quietly confident in the face of this world’s attacks for the sake of the Lord. We are in that position of stillness before God for the purpose of presenting a bulwark of Christ Jesus in prayer for all the saints, for each other, for our children and for all those whom God places upon our hearts in prayer. We are in the gap not for our sake, but for their sake. The fiery darts, the evil assailments, the accusations, all defeated by the whole armour of God protecting His Church, His Beloved. We are to stand still in the quiet confidence of our God, lifting each other up with the singleness of heart that He alone will be completely glorified. Our heart must be as one in the quiet confidence that our God reigns, eternally and supremely and knowing unwaveringly that He is triumphant over all the forces that do wage war against Him and His people. If we meddle, if we strive, if we frustrate, we are not ready to be put into the battle line of this spiritual warfare of intercessory prayer. God needs to so fully effect His good work into each one of us to the point that we are not even desirous of any glory for ourselves, only His Glory, with a view fully to His Victory. This requires a tremendous death to self, that hither to fore has been foreign to us. Are we ready for all that is involved in this complete devestation of self, that Christ alone will be seen in His Church? That is what is at the heart of intercessory prayer. That is what Christ Himself proclaimed in His High Priestly prayer, The Oneness that is ours in Him, and in Him alone.
	Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.