The month of August is like climbing a mountain. It is a time for reassessing and rechecking our equipment and taking another good look at evaluating where we 
are in the climb and what it might possibly take to step into the next level of the climb. It is time to endure and cast aside any unnecessary weights that might cause us to stumble. We must be assured that the process of climbing is one step at a time and be determined to journey by faith, encouraging ourselves in the Lord. We know there is still a summit ahead and we aim for the summit and nothing less will suffice. 1Sam.30:6, KJV — ”And David was greatly distressed… but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” v.6, Msg — “David strengthened himself with trust in his God.”
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Embracing God’s Timing
Kathy — We need to embrace God’s timing by realizing it is not about counting hours, it is about trusting God. So, embracing His timing includes keeping our attitude right until His processing in us is complete. Isa.49:23—”They that hope in the Lord will not be disappointed.” It does not say “they that hope in their desired time frame.” Our hope is in the Lord of the process, the Lord of timing.
Important Relationships
God had spoken to David years before he met those guys in 1Chron.12. But 
relationship with them played a major role in bringing him to the throne. David was not able to get into his God-appointed position without those important relationships. Rom.12:4-5 shows us that we cannot prove the will of God by ourselves but only in relationship. Rom.12:4-5, Amp — “For just as in one [physical] body we have many parts, and these parts do not all have the same function or special use, 5 so we, who are many, are [nevertheless just] one body in Christ, and individually [we are] parts one of another [mutually dependent on each other].”
Possibility of Missing God’s Timing
Kathy — Remember those restless nights before an important day when you were 
afraid you would not hear the alarm so you tossed and turned? I think we are sometimes driven to anxiousness by the possibility of missing God’s timing. But if we learn to think of His timing as a process rather than an hour, some of the anxiety subsides. Phil.4:6-7, Msg — “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”
Please Make it Pain Free!
How often do we want to cry, “God, please make it pain free!” The zone of God’s rank and order may not be a pain-free zone. The relationships God puts us in may be for the purpose of causing the friction that burns off the things that cannot come into harmony with the destiny of Jesus. David dodged javelins and John Mark had to dodge Paul. Steel sharpens steel. (Gal.4:19)
Seven in the Bible
Kathy —The biblical significance of “seven” is “a completed SPIRITUAL work.” So the number “7” in Ps.12:6 and Job 5:19 is about a comprehensive maturing process in us. Be it “7” confrontations, or a trial that lasts “7” days or “7” weeks or “7 x 70” weeks, I do not believe God is counting to seven; rather He is overseeing the progress in us in order to bring us to completion and fulfillment.
Wage Warfare With Prophecies
As the people of God assemble today may they encourage one another to look unto 
the hills from whence cometh their help, that help that comes from God (Ps.121:1-2). May they declare that they will not stop praying and believing and declaring the truths of God Almighty and call one another into alignment with the words of the Lord they have received before the chaos and the tumult and the storms. 1Tim.1:18-19, TPT — “…in keeping with the very first prophecies that were spoken over your life, and are now in the process of fulfillment in this great work of ministry, in keeping with the prophecies spoken over you. With this encouragement use your prophecies as weapons as you wage spiritual warfare by faith and with a clean conscience…”
My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me
“My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me” – William C. Martin
1 I trust in God wherever I may be,
Upon the land or on the rolling sea;
For come what may, from day to day,
My heav’nly Father watches over me.
Refrain:
I trust in God, I know he cares for me,
On mountain bleak or on the stormy sea;
Though billows roll, he keeps my soul,
My heav’nly Father watches over me.
2 He makes the rose an object of his care,
He guides the eagle through the pathless air;
And surely he remembers me,
My heav’nly Father watches over me.
3 I trust in God, for, in the lion’s den,
On battlefield, or in the prison pen;
Through praise or blame, through flood or flame,
My heav’nly Father watches over me.
Video: “My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me”
Sung by West Angeles COGIC Mass Choir
Goodness and Mercy Run After Me
Kathy — Psalm 23:6 says most certainly goodness and mercy will run after me and pursue me all the days of my life. May I be aware of each time they reach me, and may I be grateful . . . all the days of my life.
Where we are Supposed to Be
Since everything flows out of Jesus (Col.1:17), rank and order is not hierarchy, it is 
each person being where they are supposed to be and functioning as they are supposed to function. That is how the world will see His glory; when we are where we are supposed to be, doing what we are supposed to do, releasing Heaven into earth. (1Cor.6:20; 1Pe.2:12) Matt.5:16, Amp — “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds and moral excellence, and [recognize and honor and] glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
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