Daily Devotions

Posts tagged “Psalm 83

The Toughest Wilderness Experience

KATHY GABLER—The toughest wilderness experience on record for me stretched out over five years of confusion and anger and ulcers. Before our daughter Melissa was born, I had prayed two specific things, that she would never have asthma or kidney trouble because both were bloodline issues. By the time she was eighteen months old, we were in Texas Children’s Hospital Houston because she’d had a bronchial asthmatic attack due to a severe kidney infection. After two weeks in two hospitals, we were facing kidney surgery.
Each night after I’d get her to sleep, I’d look out that tenth floor window. There were lights and noises and people filling the city, but I had never felt so alone. Marty was in Missouri in seminary and for the first time since I was nine, God was not there for me. I couldn’t figure out why He had abandoned me. I wanted to scream what David prayed in Ps. 83:1, “God be not silent and be not still”, but I just stood there, hurting, angry and confused.
The day before surgery I sat on the twenty-third floor waiting for Melissa to come out of nuclear X-ray when a sudden headache hit me between the eyes. I barely got her back to the room in time to throw up my toenails. I then laid down on the cot by her bed and closed my eyes. I felt a little hand on my head and heard a little voice say, “Jesus, heal my momma.” As her hand lifted, the headache left. I should have been grateful but that made me angrier.
My identity was gone because I felt abandoned, orphaned. My self-worth was shattered because there was no backing, no affirmation, no inheritance of healing within reach. I was disappointed enough to be angry and disregarded boundaries and self-government to be rebellious. Why follow the rules when you are no longer even in the game? My silent reaction to the sudden relief from the headache was far from grateful. Jaw locked, I demanded, “Why would You answer her prayer but not mine?”
It took five years for me to hear and acknowledge Father’s response to my question. “Kathy, Melissa prayed in faith, but you prayed in fear. You can’t take that fear where you are going. I had to let you confront and defeat what threatened you.” The thing most important to me was what God could do but didn’t. The most important thing to Him was His Original Intent for our lives. If that fear remained, it would cause road blocks to where both Melissa and I were born to go. Fear would be a contradiction to both our assignments. I was intent upon surviving the experience. Father was intent upon bringing us to glory. If we focus on self, glory is a problem. If we focus on Father, glory is a certainty.
Our Father’s Original Intent is Relationship with Mature Sons that reflect the image of Christ as they fulfill their life assignment and thereby share His Glory in their generation. Please be encouraged. Our faithful and patient Father will keep working with us and through us until we get this!
(SEEC PAK Meeting September 11-12,2026 with Marty and Melissa Gabler. Click on this link: martygabler.com/pak/ )

Active Voice Of God On Earth

The active voice of the Kingdom of God on earth is the ecclesia (Gk. “ekklesia” pronounced ek-klay-seé-ah). We use this particular word for “church” when actually in the Greek it means “called-out ones.” One source has it that ekklesia was the name given to the governmental assembly of the city of Athens, duly called out by proper officers and possessing all political power including the Constitution02administration of justice—and that is with reference to actions of a judge. The word was in use before the New Testament was written and, when inspiring the writers of Holy Scripture, was chosen by Holy Spirit who was attempting to show believers what they were to be about when they were assembled. If we go merely by the religious/cultural view today, we would understand the voice of “the church” to be one of continual petition for things that would maintain us in our comfort zones. But if we forsake a modern, western mindset and get into the thinking of first century believers who understood the pure meaning of “ekklesia” in their times, we would realize that the voice of heaven on earth is a governmental one either allowing or disallowing, which would be sufficient to stay the malevolent powers of darkness which are vehemently attempting to thwart the advancement and practice of redemptive, divine government in culture. The called-out, authorized, righteous-character citizens of heaven must continually contradict darkness by verbal affront and command. Put simply, we must lift our voices in declarations of the known will of God and pray imprecatory prayers (e.g., Ps.5, Ps.35, Ps.56, Ps.69, Ps.83) against institutional evil that the Light of God’s Kingdom may break in upon the dark minds of lost humanity, That they may know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, Are the Most High over all the earth.(Ps.83:18)

(This is the second excerpt from an article by Marty Gabler entitled “The Kingdom Of God In Action.)