Greetings again my Brethren. 15 years of “Thoughts!” It is hard to believe it has been 14 years since the first edition of Beholding His Glory (BHG). Through the years God has been faithful to us and BHG in so many ways time and paper is not enough to share them all. As we start year 15 my heart is troubled for the church in American and for the sharing of the Gospel message around the world. It seems great forces (spiritual and non-spiritual) have divided out the church in America causing strife, bitterness, and confusion to the very message Jesus gave us to share with the world. Every denomination seems to be for themselves and to hell with the rest, well my friend God will not put up with this He will see to it our enemies will defeat us until we can learn to work together and come into some degree of unity. God will use the enemies of the righteous to discipline the righteous. All throughout the Bible we see this in operation and are we better than those found in the Bible? Let us purpose to look towards the LORD and allow Him to use us day by day for His glory as we behold the beauty of the LORD.
This month we continue to look at Isaiah’s qualifications when God called him into the ministry. Last month we began to look at revelation for service taken from Isaiah 6:2-4. In verse 6:2 we read, “Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.” (Isaiah 6:2) Here we see the activity of the seraphims, nothing. What a wonderful place in God when He can bring us to place of inactivity. The Psalmist said, “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10) Most Christians cannot even sit in a car without turning on their favorite praise and worship song, no wonder God cannot speak to us. We will never know God unless we can be still.
The seraphim was just standing there before the LORD. So often we cannot sit still long enough to hear from the LORD. We must always be doing something. sadly the church of today has a performance based religion trying to work their way into heaven or thinking if they can just work hard, give money, do something God will accept them more, well that my friend is wrong thinking. Our salvation is through grace by faith, no work required on our part to be saved, but after that God expects us to engage with Him and plod the field together with Him. Plowing the field (what most Christians think is their job) is not so important, but what is important is laying the foundation of salvation correctly so we will not have to go back again and again to lay the foundation. The writer to the Hebrews said, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,” (Hebrews 6:1) We are to be saved once then we are to, “grow in the grace and the knowledge of the LORD Jesus Christ.” We will never grow spiritually unless we can be still and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work inside of us. In North Carolina there are huge Pine trees some 200 feet tall and do you know what they do all day? Outwardly you would say nothing, just sway in the breeze, but inwardly they are hard at work lifting 1,000s of gallons of water from the bottom to the top (all day long) so the tree can receive the water of life needed to grow. So too in our lives God must be able to work in the inward man so that we can grow spiritually. No outward silence no inward growth. From verses 3 and 4, we see the Seraphim in worship when it was time, “And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.” Notice one not all of the Seraphims (there is order in Heaven) spoke when he was told or when the Spirit moved him and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full if his glory.” I believe the Seraphim was busting at the seams as he stood there waiting for his time to let out what was inside of him. He could hardly contain his emotions, “Holy, holy holy” wow what worship. There was no loud music playing to jack up his emotions nor was there a slow soulful song playing softly in the background, just an awe and love from a heart that has been filled with God’s Spirit. When our hearts are filled with God’s Spirit to over flowing we will not need our emotions to be jacked up nor will we need our spirit to be mellowed. No feelings, desires, or manipulation will control our heart. The love of God and all that He has been able to put in us will just come pouring out of us like rivers of living waters. Then and only then will the “the posts of the door moved” in our lives. We will see the King and all of His beauty and the earth will shake in us, our hands will hang at our side, and our knees will be feeble. Now that is a place of true worship.
Next month we will begin to look at another qualification “divine cleansing” for service from Isaiah 6:5-7. So Please take a good study and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart. And listen closely my friend do you hear Him call now?
