I Feel My Help Coming On

Part One: The Words of the Old Saints

There's a phrase I grew up hearing, and I still say it to this day. It came out of the mouths of the old saints, the mothers of the church, the ones who had been through something and knew God for themselves. And when I say it now, I'm standing in a long line of people who said it before me.

My Aunt Willie Mae used to say it. You could be sitting there, and something would shift in her, and she would say it out loud.

"I feel my help coming on."

I feel my help coming on. And I heard it all through my church life. From the old mothers on the front pew. From the deacons. From the saints who had walked with God long enough to recognize Him when He showed up. They'd say it different ways, but it was always the same thing.

Some of them would say, I feel my strength coming on. Some would say, I feel my help coming on. Some of them wouldn't even have words, they'd just start to pat their foot, or lift a hand, or hum, because they felt something rising up in them that hadn't been there a minute before.

Let me tell you what they were talking about, because it's real, and it's biblical, and you need it.

They were talking about a moment. You could have come into that room low. Heavy. Sad. Discouraged. Weighed down by something you couldn't even put into words. You could have been sitting there with your head down and your spirit dragging the floor. And then, without anything on the outside changing, something would come over you. A joy you could not explain. A peace that made no sense given what you were facing. A strength that rose up from somewhere down deep, that you did not manufacture and could not have talked yourself into.

And the old saints had a name for that. They said, I feel my help coming on.

They weren't being cute. They were testifying. They were announcing, out loud, that God was showing up in the room, in real time, and they could feel Him coming. That's not emotionalism. That's not hype. That is the felt arrival of the help of God, and I want to teach you where it comes from and how to recognize it, because you are going to need to know how to feel your help coming on.

Part Three: How to Feel Your Help Coming On

So let me get practical, because I don't just want you to know about this. I want you to know how to feel your help coming on when you're down. The old saints knew how to position themselves for it. Let me show you what they knew.

Lift Your Eyes Off the Trouble

Psalm 121 starts with lifting your eyes up to the hills. That's the first move. When you're low, your eyes are naturally down on the trouble. Your help doesn't come from staring at the trouble. It comes from lifting your eyes up off of it and onto the Lord.

That's why the old saints would lift their heads, and lift their hands, and lift their eyes. It wasn't just a style. It was Psalm 121 in motion. Lift your eyes. You have been looking down at what's wrong. Look up to the One your help comes from, and you put yourself right in the path of the help that's coming.

Open Your Mouth and Say It

Here's something the old saints knew that we've almost lost. They said it out loud. I feel my help coming on. They testified to it while it was happening.

There's power in that. Psalm 107 says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Say so. When you feel the least bit of help stirring, don't sit there quiet and let it pass. Open your mouth and call it out. I feel my help coming on. Because speaking it agrees with it, welcomes it, makes room for more of it. The saints weren't just describing the help. Their saying it was part of how it came all the way up.

Start to Praise Before It's Finished

And this is the secret weapon of the old church. They would start praising God before the help had fully arrived, before the situation changed, before there was one thing on the outside to show for it.

Psalm 22:3 says God inhabits the praises of His people. He lives in the praise. So when you start to praise Him in your low place, you are building Him a place to sit down right there in your circumstance. That's why praise so often is the thing that turns the tide. You feel your help coming on strongest right in the middle of praise, because your praise made room for His presence.

Paul and Silas did this. Beaten, locked in the inner prison, feet in stocks, midnight. And the Bible says at midnight they prayed and sang praises to God. And while they were praising, the earthquake came and the doors flew open. They started praising before anything changed, and the help came on in the middle of the song.

Wait On Him, and Let It Rise

And sometimes you just have to wait on Him. Not wait like doing nothing. Wait like the saints waited — leaning the whole weight of your expectation on God, watching for Him like a watchman watches for the morning.

Isaiah said they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. The waiting is part of it. You sit in His presence, you keep your eyes lifted, you keep saying so, you keep praising, and you let the help rise up in its own time. And it comes. Maybe not the second you want it. But for the one who waits on the Lord, it always comes on.