In this last issue of Rhema Now: The Word of the Lord for the Decade of the 2020s, we are intentionally making Psalm 24 the final instalment because this passage of Scripture is immensely vital and pivotal. It gives God’s people the key to both ascend and enter into the fullness of what the LORD is doing in this kairos hour!
We are standing at the crest of the wave of something unique, unprecedented, and unsurpassed that God is doing in and through us in our time and generation! This is the sovereign appointed time of God where many Biblical and prophetic promises of God pertaining to the End of the Age are beginning to be fulfilled.
It is foolish to live within the fulfilment of God’s promises yet not to have comprehended. It is sad or even tragic to live within the reach of the divine fulfilment of God’s promises yet not to have taken hold of them.
This is the heart behind Rhema Now! We desire to proclaim and make known what the Spirit is saying and doing. However, more than simply knowing, we want to enter into the fullness of God’s divine promises and partner with Him in the finest hour of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Word of the LORD for 2024
In the latter half of 2023, the Lord highlighted Psalm 24 to us and to others in His Body as an important Scripture to pay attention to as we entered into 2024. However, more than just a Scripture for this year, it is a crucial key to what He has been speaking to us regarding this decade of historic transition unto the Dawning of the New Era in 2030.
Psalm 24 reveals the heart of our Bridegroom-King to have a holy, surrendered, and mature people who will deeply and gloriously partner with Him in fullness and authority. It also admonishes us to crown Jesus as King and Lord of our lives, and to deal with the things that will hinder and disqualify us from being able to ascend into His glory and enter into His promises for this generation.
The Lord is so zealous for His people to step into the fullness that He led us on a 24-day Psalm 24 Fast (from 29 February to 23 March 2024) with a focus on lifting up His Name in worship and seriously dealing with sin, uncleanness, and unrighteousness in our hearts and lives.
Our Bridegroom God is the King of Glory
On 16 April 2021, the Lord spoke to us clearly through Revelation 3:20. This is one of the words for the decade of 2020s. Jesus our passionate Bridegroom is knocking at the doors of our hearts (issue #18). Now is the time and season where He is zealously desiring to awaken us from a life of compromise that is steeped in the Laodicean spirit. This is an invitation for us to come to the table of fellowship with our divine Bridegroom even in our weakness, where He will restore and impart His zeal for Him and His Kingdom purposes into our hearts.
However, in Psalm 24, He is coming as a glorious, mighty, and powerful King who seeks a holy, wholehearted and fully surrendered people in partnership. As the King of Glory, He will brook no disobedience or hindrance to His rule and reign. This means that we will need to deal with every misalignment in our lives and prepare ourselves to be ready for His coming into our midst.
In Psalm 24:1–2, Jesus is the Creator King who made the earth and all who dwell within it. Thus, He is the rightful King and Owner of all nations and the world. In verses 7–10, He is the King of Glory who is victorious against His enemies and who will take His rightful place as King over Jerusalem and all nations.
However, more than just knowing and accepting Him as King over the earth and nations, He is issuing individual admonishments to each of us to crown Him as our personal King and to remove every hindrance that prevents us from giving Him the title deed of our lives.
The King’s Holy Invitation and Divine Summons Through Psalm 24
Through Psalm 24, Jesus reveals His invitation to us for deep communion and His summons to a strategic partnership. It is an invitation for us to ascend to His realm of glory and enter into the fullness of His promises (v3), but it also reveals His desire to break into our earthly realm (v7–10).
This is why the psalmist asks this rhetorical question: “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place?” (v3)
Implied in this is God’s invitation to come up higher to Him and partner with Him. He is calling us to not just be where He is but also to dwell and remain in His very presence and glory (Zech. 4:14), and from that place, to partner Him in strategic spiritual warfare and intercession. This is the very same summons to the Jeremiah 23:18 Table of Counsel (issue #19)!
However, more than a question and invitation, this verse points to verse 4, which spells out the issues that may disqualify us. Because we are being summoned to stand before and partner with a holy King of Glory, there are “criteria” that we as believers need to possess in order to be able to do so. We are no longer simply just approaching our tender-hearted Bridegroom (although He never ceases to be so), but also a mighty and powerful King who rules the nations! To be able to partner with Him, we need to be found ready!
Biblical Criteria to Ascend and Enter Into
Verse 4 reveals four criteria (i.e. two positives to acquire and two negatives to remove) for us to possess so that we can be counted worthy to ascend and stand in His holy hill, and be ready for the entrance of the King of Glory:
who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
nor sworn deceitfully.”
Clean hands — this refers to our actions and dealings, as well as what we touch, whether literally or figuratively. God is looking for those whose actions are righteous before His sight (Ps. 141:4, Ps. 15:2);
Pure hearts — this refers to having an undivided and sincere heart of devotion to the Lord that is without mixture (Ps. 86:11, 2 Cor. 11:3, Acts 13:22);
Not lifting our souls to idols — this refers to anything that we place above God in our hearts and lives. It could be something we pursue after, place our confidence in or are preoccupied with. It could even be something good, but as long as it takes a higher place in our hearts than God, it is considered an idol (Ex. 20:3–6);
Not sworn deceitfully — this is an issue of integrity. More than just honouring our words to those around us, it is also about taking our vows and promises to God seriously (Matt. 5:33–37, Ecc. 5:4).
As this is the 1 Peter 4:17 Moment (issue #31), this is the time when God wants us to deal radically with all hindrances so that our King of Glory can break into the hearts and lives of His people!
Furthermore, the Lord directed us to another four of His Names from this psalm. Together with His nine covenantal names from Psalm 23 (issue #20), He highlighted that encountering and growing to know Him through them will establish us in confidence and also restore a much-needed fear of the Lord in His people. These four names are:
- Melek Hak Kabod — King of Glory (v7–10)
- YHWH Izzu Wa-Gibbo — the LORD Strong and Mighty (v8)
- YHWH Gibbor Milchamah — the LORD Mighty in Battle (v8)
- YHWH Tseva’ot — the LORD of Hosts (v10)
Necessary Realities in Our Lives
During this fast, God emphasised some keys that need to be realities in our lives as believers. More than just something we know in our minds, we have to truly step into living them out.
1. The Power of the Blood of Jesus and the Work of the Cross
Through the course of the fast, the Lord broke in at certain moments and brought us through a time of standing before Him to be washed by the blood of Jesus, like in Zechariah 3 (issue #19). He highlighted His Names — YHWH Tsidkenu and YHWH M’Kaddesh — as the One who is our righteousness and who will sanctify us!
It is a reminder that ultimately, it is because of the cross that we can have confidence before Him, our sinful nature can be put to death, and we can be conformed to the image of Jesus. Truly we need to reckon ourselves dead to sin, alive in Christ, cleansed by the power of His blood, and walking in the grace of God! This is just a down payment of what He is going to do in His entire Body of Christ, unto a pure and spotless people of God.
2. The Necessity to Settle the Issue of Lordship
What was just a whisper in our journey through Psalm 23 in 2023 (issue #20) became a loud and firm call during the fast. The Lord was seriously placing His finger on the issue of lordship and kingship in the lives of His people. While it is easy for us to give the earth over to Jesus as Lord, it is much harder for us as individuals to surrender all of our lives to Him as our personal Lord and King.
Yet, this is His admonishment to us! It is necessary to crown Jesus as the true Lord and King over our individual lives and possessions. Without our total surrender, we will not be able to go far with Him or step into the fullness He has for us.
The Arising of the End-Time Esthers
Finally, the Lord has been directing us and many others in the Body of Christ to the Biblical character of Esther. Unbeknownst to us when the dates were initially decided upon, the 24-day fast wound up ending exactly on the Jewish festival of Purim (23rd March 2024)!
Furthermore, Kay-Chong had recently received from the Lord a vision related to the arising of Esthers in the End-Time generation:
As he was praying on the morning of 12 December 2023, he heard the sounding of a trumpet followed immediately by a loud voice that proclaimed, “Watch and pray!”
He then saw an open vision…
Two large clouds came from two opposing directions — one was dark and stormy, while the other was full of light. Both clouds collided, and the words “Isaiah 60 Moment” immediately appeared just below both clouds.
Suddenly, three persons began to emerge from the two clouds. From the dark cloud, a woman emerged dressed in a purple and scarlet dress, with a smaller cloud below her inscribed with “Revelation 17 & 18”.
From the cloud that was full of bright light, two women emerged — one was Mary of Bethany and the other was Esther. There was another smaller cloud below these two women inscribed with “Psalm 18”, “Psalm 24” and “Hebrews 4”.
Finally, the vision ended with another voice proclaiming, “Do not neglect the buying of gold, white garments and eye salve!”
From this encounter, the Spirit caused us to understand that:
- We are stepping into the Isaiah 60:1–3 prophetic moment in this decade and beyond, where both light and darkness will simultaneously increase.
- The Harlot Babylon will begin to emerge and it is something that God’s people need to pay attention to (issue #30). In this season, instead of watching out for what will occur in Revelation 13, we need to first watch for the emergence of the Harlot Babylon (Rev. 17 – 18), as it will be the primary cause of the Great Falling Away (2 Thess. 3:5), and will pave the way for the rising of the Antichrist and the Mark-of-the-Beast economic system (Rev. 13).
- The End-Time prayer movement will possess the heart of Mary of Bethany and the mantle of Esther. These will be people who know and understand Jesus’ heart from a place of intimacy with Him, and also know how to partner with King Jesus as His Ekklesia from the position of the mature Bride of Christ.
- The End-Time Ekklesia of Jesus Christ has to be built upon John 13 – 17 (gold), Revelation 2 – 3 (white garments), and Matthew 5 – 7 (eye salve).
As we postured our hearts before God, He further led us to pay closer attention to Esther’s story in the book of Esther.
God is emphasising a few things to His people through this book:
- Esther provides a picture of the mature Bride of Christ and how we are to partner with Jesus in power and authority, from the place of intimacy, at the End of the Age (we also talked about the equally yoked Bride in issue #23).
- Esther was strategically positioned by God (whose Name is never mentioned once in the book) to stand in the gap for the Jewish people. In the same manner, He is now calling His people to arise as the End-Time Esthers to stand in the gap for Israel in the face of her coming persecution.
- Just as Esther went through a process of preparation (Est. 2:12) before becoming queen, God’s people would have to go through a preparation and maturing process before becoming ready for mature bridal partnership with Jesus.
- We will need to be a people who are completely and utterly obedient to and walking with the Holy Spirit, just like Esther who heeded the voice of Mordecai and the advice of Hegai (Est. 2:15).
Indeed, through this psalm and fast, the Lord is giving us another piece of the puzzle in the preparation process to be ready for the 2030s. Placing this in context of His very word to us for this decade, we see with greater clarity how we will arise to burn and shine in the coming unprecedented darkness:
The decade of the 2020’s is a Historic Transitional Decade that requires the Preparation for the Times in order to be ready for the Dawning of a New Era (issue #2).
Ultimately, Psalm 24’s final fulfilment will be at Jesus’ Second Coming when He marches in all His glory into the city of Jerusalem. However, before we witness that reality, the global mature equally yoked Bride of Christ would have arisen to partner with Jesus to stand in the gap for Israel, push back darkness, and judge the enemies of God and His people.
Today, as we escalate towards the Isaiah 60:1–2 and Psalm 2 reality, will we settle once and for all, the issue of lordship and kingship over our lives?
Will we seriously deal with the sin, impurity and idols in our hearts so that we can ascend and enter into all that God has for us?
And like Esther, will we surrender to His will and step up to take our stand for God and His Kingdom?
May we crown Jesus as our Lord and remove every hindrance to the King of Glory.
May we arise as Esthers, surrendered to the purposes of God in our lives, having the same cry of her heart on ours: “…and if I perish, I perish!” (Est. 4:16).
May the King of Glory have His mature Bride, faithfully standing with Israel until the very end, and partnering with Him to bring His Kingdom down on earth!
Word of the Lord 2024 I | Teaching Series
“A Season of Open Doors — To Ascend and Enter In”
Click to watch
Word of the Lord 2024 VII | Teaching Series
“Psalm 24 — Key to the Fullness of God”
Click to watch
Psalm 24 Fasting Guide
(29 February – 23 March 2024)