"Live out of your imagination, not out of your history."
- Steven Covey

We all make mistakes. Thomas Edison was known for his blunders. Benjamin Franklin failed and has said so. But they refused to look at and focus on their mistakes. They would always continue working towards the goal that they perceived as possible.

The apostle Paul was in a tiny uncomfortable jail cell just outside of Rome when he wrote his letter to the Philippians: "Rejoice, I say. Again, I say Rejoice. The Lord is at hand."

These men and people like them amaze me. The more I experience life's ups and downs, the more impressed I am with the apostle Paul and other men of faith who faced adversity and fought through 'til victory was had.

"The Lord is at hand." Will you meditate this with me?

In the Hebrew language this saying is very powerful. To you and I this simply means that He, the Savior Yehshua, is nearby or on His way. We can even say He is there to sustain us or to help us in some unknowable way.

Religious people have taught us for many years that the Lord will help us to suffer through our bondages with joy. They have taught this is where we are to develop character and that God actually creates these situations for our good. "Suffering is good for you," they would say.

The apostle Paul was not thinking this way. The Lord in the Bible is translated most often from the Hebrew Letters, yud, heh, vav, heh or YHWH. Paul was invoking the unspeakable name.

To say YHWH is at hand is to say that YHWH is at Yod. Yod is hand in Hebrew. It could be spelled Yud, Vav, Dalet.

However, there is a letter Yod or Yud. This letter is the smallest letter in the Hebrew language and they say that from it come all of the letters.

It is the point where pen meets paper and it is in every letter that is written from A to Z, (in English) from Alef to Tav, (in Hebrew).

Believing scholars and rabbis revere their language as the living Word. Each letter has power and has creative attributes. We believe the same. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word WAS God."

The rabbis, however, take this very literally and by studying the alef-bet that God gave directly to Adam, they believe they are studying God Himself at His most knowable point of revelation.

In other words, they study God's Word to know God. This is what we are to do, but we do so through a veil that is our English language. Much is lost in the translation.

Paul was a believing scholar and he was a rabbi with all of the hallowed degrees and certificates of his day. Paul was not merely saying that God was nearby when He invoked the Baruch Ha Shem, the Blessed Name. He was saying that the Lord was at Yod.

He, God, had his pen on the paper and was about to write a new chapter in Paul's life. He was invoking the Word of God at it's creative source.

For Paul, the Lord is at hand means the Lord is at the point of creation. He was saying that even though I am in this jail cell, I can rejoice because God is writing a new chapter that will break down these prison doors and set me free.

He is at the yod. His pen is on paper and I am rejoicing.

Paul was living in the realm of His imagination. He was not bound by what he had seen or what he had experienced in the past. His faith was vivid and alive. His knowledge of God and the Word was not historical.

Rather, it was inspirational and imaginative. He knew that God was able and willing to write a new chapter that would set him free from bondage and adversity.

There are no accidents in the Hebrew language, just as there are no accidents in YHWH or in creation itself. You are not an accident. God wants to do for you what he did for Paul and what he is doing for many people around the world.

Refuse to look at your history for boundaries and for possibilities. God can turn things around and bring new and amazing things to pass in your life.

Don't live out of your history, live out of your imagination. "Rejoice, I say. Again, I say rejoice. The Lord is at hand."

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