The Season
This is a season, for me, of the fear of the Lord. As I look at my own life, at the lives of those around me, at the life of the body of Christ as it exists today - I cry mercy, O Lord, have mercy on me for I am but a sinner, have mercy on us for we are but sinners. Have mercy on your creation Lord God. For you are from everlasting to everlasting. You have know the end since the beginning and I ask you Lord God for your mercy on this generation.
In my spirit I feel the awesomeness of the coming glory of God and it makes me want to all at once rush in to Him, where I know that I am safe and yet, at the same time it makes me want to hide myself from Him because His glory is so fearsome, so heavy, so awesome, so unfathomable to me. And in this, I believe it is the mercy of God to us that He hold back the fullness of His glory. Even though we cry out for it, I do not believe we really can comprehend what His glory is, what it looks like.
I have this holy reverence building inside of me. The fear is a good thing, it doesn't make me want to run away from Him, it makes me want to run to Him. However I am so ashamed when I see my sin reflected in the light of His glory so then I know I must go and be cleansed. This fear of God has been building. When I say fear I want you to know that this is good because it causes me to call out to God, it causes me to seek God, it causes me to desire God, it causes me to desire holiness, it causes me to seek righteousness.
The Jealousy
I feel this holy jealousy in my spirit that shows me how jealous God is for His glory. That He is SO Holy, so set apart, that every piece of Him is precious and righteous. He must be held in awe and in fear. And in that He is also angry that His name and His glory have been handled so carelessly. That it has so lightly been tossed around. It reminds me of the story of David having the ark brought back to Jerusalem and yet it had been sitting around in someone's house for years and had become common, almost an everyday object. The people no longer knew how to handle His presence. They were careless and reckless, dancing around without understanding as they brought the ark back. Because they did not know how to carry his glory, there was death. Uzzah died when he tried to take the ark into his own hands to keep it from falling. God had laid out very specific guidelines for how the ark was to be carried. It was to be carried by the Levites who were to be consecrated. The people that were bringing the ark in were not the ones who were to be carrying it; they had not been properly prepared, properly consecrated in readiness for His presence. (2 Sam 6)
Need for Clean Hands & Pure Heart
It's a fearsome thing to me to look at all of this and to look at how we, today, call out for the glory of God to come. Don't get me wrong. I WANT the glory of God to come. I believe that we are to be reflections of His glory here on earth bringing light into the darkness. I, also, believe there is a coming fullness and understanding of the glory of God that we must be ready for. There needs to be a place of preparation, of consecration, in each of us and in the church before it comes. So that when the glory comes we can stand in awe of His presence, to actually be able to stand in His Holy presence. Even David and the psalmist pondered this possibility as though to say , WoW! WHO can ascend the hill of the Lord? No really, WHO? Who can do this without burning up? Who can STAND in His Holy place? WHO? Is this even possible? Lord, I have merely glimpsed the awesomeness of your glory and yet I tremble in fear and in awe. Lord, you cannot even look upon evil. You cannot tolerate sin. So then WHO? WHO? Ah! It is those that have clean hands and a pure heart. It is those who have sought first your kingdom and your righteousness. It is those who have cleansed themselves in the blood of the lamb. It is those who do not carry the blood of others on their hands for they have stood for truth and have brought truth to both the righteous and the unrighteous. It is those whose only desire is for you. Who do not want your glory for themselves, it is those who worship you because the glory is yours and it is you! All they want to do is worship you because of it.
God is jealous for His glory too many have spoken so lightly of the glory of God, the anointing of God, the presence of God and yet God's glory is so rich in love and in goodness that it contains things that we could never dream or imagine. It goes beyond anything that we have ever experienced, anything that we have ever known. Yes, we have tasted it and it is SO sweet, so filling but we have not yet received the fullness of it. Yes, He wants His Glory to be known. He wants his glory to be evident to all. He wants us to be reflections of His glory but the glory is His!
Not Lifting Up Our Souls to an Idol
The psalmist talks not only of the need for clean hands and pure heart. He also speaks of the importance of not lifting up our souls to an idol (idol = vanity kjv; ) or swearing by what is false. Frankly after the recent upset of a well known prophet in North America I was appalled at some of the things I read posted on a web site to him. It was nothing short of idol worship. Speaking of the amazing works, the amazing wisdom, the amazing this and the amazing that of this man. More about him and very little about the God whom he served. You know, we build public pedestals for individuals and then we wonder and condemn them when they fall. I, to be honest, am amazed when they don't fall. To be placed on such a lofty pedestal would certainly make an individual pretty light headed and susceptible to a fall. Who has placed them there? Maybe us, maybe themselves or perhaps we all have. Too often we neglect our responsibility before God to examine God's Word, to test the spirits, to look for the fruit - we are called to do this and yet much of the time we believe that if the platform is public it must be right - when we neglect our responsibility before God, we also neglect our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to be an encouragement to one another, in this, even those in a public forum within the church, whether a pastor, teacher, evangelist, apostle, prophet, prayer co-ordinators, the church janitor - whomever we may be and whereever we may be functioning within the body of Christ we must hold ourselves accountable and teachable. Let us NOT lift up our souls to an idol or, unto vanity. It is too precarious of a position for any of us to be placed in. Let us only lift up our souls to the living God and worship him. This calls each of us to intimacy and complete transparency before God. It leaves none of us exempt. Our responsibility is both individual and corporate, it is not only those who have elevated an individual's teaching, preaching, prophecy or works who have an accountability before God, for without the willingess to be placed on the pedastal and remain there, there would be no 'idol' at all. Individuals in this type of visible ministry must also remember they are accountable to God and that around them God has placed an entire family - an entire body - of members, with varying functions, all of which require interaction in order to bring a proper functioning body. They, too, must hold themselves accountable for they are even more visible and will be judged more harshly if they, in fact, have more knowledge - as they are conveying this knowledge to the more invisible members of the body. Better to judge ourselves now and be accountable for our words before the body of Christ than to wait in judgment for what was spoken before God.
Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit
I was reminded of scriptures in Isaiah which had struck me years ago and it speaks of woes. (Isaiah 5:18-19) "Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit and wickedness as with cart ropes, to those who say Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come so we may know it." I would imagine when the ark was being returned to the land it was brought on a cart pulled with cords and ropes. As I have reflected on these passages I have seen a parallel of the call for the return of the Lord. The word informs us that in the end times deception will be at it's height, deceiving even the very people of God, if possible. The parallel lies in this - that just as we are told that His glory is here or there, in this place or that, that His anointing is here or there, there is a deception which has come in to confuse the very elect of God. I do believe there are glimpses of God's glory at work, however, I more so believe that we are so hungry for a taste of His glory that we have become willing to believe that it is already here and is operating through just about every person whom calls himself a minister, a pastor, a prophet or a speaker and we have neglected to examine the fullness of truth of scripture for ourselves.
We would rather go to the fast food lane of faith where we can consume what resembles food but which is, often, a ground meat with additives, making your meat less than 100% and the rest of it saturated in an oil which is detrimental to the body. The meat of God's word is wholesome and true perfectly designed to strengthen the body of Christ - you - and your faith. The oil of the Lord is a treasure entirely of it's own, it is one which, when poured out, literally oozes the presence and the poignancy of the power, strength and glory of God. The oil of anointing which the Lord pours out ALWAYS has visible impact in signs and wonders - it ALWAYS reveals the glory of the Lord - it does not need to be 'practiced', it just 'is' because He 'is'. We have begun to believe that any of us can have this oil, at any place, at any time regardless of the circumstance and yet if you are to examine God's word the Lord tells us that He cannot even look upon evil let alone live with it. Yes - we CAN live in the manifest presence of God through His Holy Spirit as we are all prepared and consecrated for Him we will, together, reveal His glory in the earth.
So then, how is it possible that so much of what is being taught and caught as God's glory can be so common, while requiring little or nothing of us, save for a simple prayer or an attendance at an assembly? Are we seeing the signs and the wonders of the revealed glory of God? As it says in the passages in 2 Samuel 6, as well as in 1 Chron 13, the people were really excited and they were celebrating with all their might before God with all sorts of songs and all various types of musical instruments as they welcomed the return of the ark to Jerusalem. These scriptures begin to form a picture of the excitement of the church of today, excited about the coming glory of the Lord. We read in Chronicles that David and his officers & commanders wanted to bring the ark back because they had not inquired of it, (that would be the Lord), during the reign of Saul and they all agreed this was the right thing to do. However, they did not consecrate themselves first. They did not follow the very specific guidelines that God had set in place for the ark of His presence which was the consecration for the Levites that were to carry his presence. This raised the question to me, "Is the church of today ready for the glory? Has the church been presumptious in proclaiming His coming and our readiness?" I believe there is much to be done in prepartion and readiness for His coming. Yes, let us also get excited for we are about to see the revealed the glory of the Lord but let us be ready.
The Call to the Bride to Get Herself Ready
I have been reflecting on the call to the bride to get herself ready. In the same way, the church needs to get ready. There are many things that a bride does in preparation to meeting her bridegroom at the altar however the bride never assumes to be married until the marriage ceremony has been completed. There are immediate privileges that come with an engagement. It is a time that allows for each party to come to know one another better. A time to share jointly in the excitement of what that marriage will bring. A time for closing doors to the past and seeing doors opened for the future knowing there will soon be a time for crossing over. Our readiness and preparation now brings a demonstration of the rights and the privileges that we have as the bride of Christ.
My question is: "Has today's church adapted the North American world view of marriage that dating, courtship and engagement gives the full rights of a bride?" There is so much presumption in the world today - dating for much of the world equate to one or two dates and into bed; courtship -what is that??? maybe a phone call, an e-mail, interaction on a chat line, meeting in a bar, a club (or a ...church???!). Common law is more 'common' than marriage; children - perfectly acceptable inside or outside of marriage particularly if you 'love' the individual; divorce - (of course!). Have we as the church forgotten, or just never known, the importance of the preliminaries to marriage? Times where you spend time together, talk together, walk together, get to know what makes the other person tick, fall more and more in love as you learn more about one another, becoming more and more compatible and meant for each other as the days go by. Have we as the church decided that it is good enough for us to go to a "marriage counselor" (in the person of a pastor, speaker, teacher. . .) in order to work out all the kinks rather than going to The Counselor for ourselves? Yes, it is important to have wise, godly counsel about each one of us but that alone is not enough - we must be willing to spend more time preparing for The One whom we are about to marry. Believe me, once you're married if there are any warts or blemishes they can no longer be hidden - better to look after it before marriage rather than try to leave it until after the ceremony.
The bride is called to "make herself ready" for the bridegroom IS coming to take her to a home which He has prepared for her. I really like Paul who said that he never considered himself of having yet laid hold of the completeness of his salvation. Therefore, he pressed on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (NASB Phil 3) If anyone had a right to assume that he had already achieved this higher calling it would have been Paul. But throughout his ministry and service of the gospel of Christ he never claimed it as his own. Comparatively much of today's church proclaims the presence of the glory and the anointing and yet in very few cases do we see God's glory being revealed in signs and wonders. We do, however, see many ministries proclaiming the anointing of God - when God's glory and anointing are present it will not have to be announced from a pulpit or a speakers microphone that it is there - God's glory will evidence itself. Paul, at one point, in disgust and in shame for what he saw around him, said that, in fact, he could have boasted of the same things, and more, of what the others were boasting of. However, he chose to boast only of the Lord. I like Paul! He brought truth and he did it in the face of adversity and in the face of religious practices and divisions within the followers of Christ. Even back then just a few short years after the death and ascension of Christ, it did not take long for pride to creep its way back into the church and for division to set in on who to follow or not to follow. Paul called the people to points of truth and accountability before the Lord and with one another. The church of today is still in need of this before God's glory comes, before the wedding is begun, the bride must make herself ready for the ceremony.
Become Reflections of His Glory Here on Earth
In all of this, we are recognized as works in progress, "being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus", and need not be confused nor discouraged as the fashioning of the work is not yet completed. Does this mean that we are to do nothing until this work is complete? Not at all! Our faith in Christ's work of death on the cross and His victory over death is the beginning - and every step of faith that we take is a step forward in Him; every insight into the person of Jesus Christ becomes a reflection in us to the world of who He is and it must be shared. 2 Peter 1:3-11 makes it clear to us that His power has been given to us in order to acquire life and godliness and it discusses the importance of adding to our faith various aspects of the divine nature - goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love. This is what the preparation of the bride will look like. In so doing - it will bring about a reflection - as one looking in a mirror - of what God himself is like. When He comes in the fullness of His glory we will then see more than the reflection, we will see the multifaceted, multidimensional glory of God.
I want to live out my life of faith always pursuing the greater things of God so that I can come to an ever new knowledge of the glory of God in my life. How about you?
Let us get ready. Let us prepare now. Let us go deep and let us go wide. Let us become reflections of His glory here on earth. Let us ready ourselves and take out what we have received and begin to liberally give it away to those that are lost. Not in order for us to become known before man but rather in order that the Glory of God may be revealed before man. In this we will not be found wanting, we will not be found in a state unprepared and unready. We will be found in a place where we have actually been able to take the revealed glory of the Lord and give it away so that He becomes known..
Let us not cry too loudly for this all to be over because there is much to be done first. Let us cry for mercy just as David when he sinned was given a choice of the source of his punishment and he threw himself on the mercy of God because it was the only thing that he new he could trust.
I cry mercy. Lord have mercy on us. For as you, O Lord, look on us and you seek us, I ask that you remember us with favour Lord, I thank you for the mercy you have shown us in Christ and I cry Lord, have mercy!
Deborah Ritz - (Cry Mercy - Revised 2005) (www.footstoolministries.org) Questions? Comments? E-mail admin@footstoolministries.org
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