God's Glory

This is from the blog Daily Meditation:

Psalm 57:11: Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!

The psalmist is expressing desire for God to show forth himself on the earth, asking that his glory will be above all the earth, that his name be exalted. When Jesus taught on prayer he said that we should pray to our heavenly father: let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). We are to seek that the will of God to be exalted on the earth.

With Adam and Eve in their sin (Genesis 3), there was the throwing down of the will of God, the will of God was jettisoned, trampled upon, disregarded. The will of God was rejected. But in Christ we are to actively in the place of prayer seek that the will of God be done. Through that we are removing ourselves from the rebellion of the first Adam.

When God said that they  should not eat the fruit of the free of the knowledge of good and evil, they were convinced by the devil that God was exaggerating, that the tree only had good and not evil, he sold them a half truth, and caused them to eat the poison of disobedience to God. Now all that has got to change, man has to be called back to loving God, which Jesus defined as obedience. Jesus told the disciples if you love me, you will obey my commandment (John 14:15-23). That will lead to God being exalted in our lives.

Paul wrote that at the name of Jesus everyone knee must bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:5-11). The name is exalted and everything else would have to bow to it. The destiny of the earth is in the direction of being covered by the glory of God and man was to be the medium for this. But man allowed himself to be distracted into selfishness, and was disqualified from being conduits of the glory of God. Selfishness is the alternate motivation to the love of God, and when it comes to manifesting the glory of God, motivation is everything.

When the psalmist said: “be exalted oh Lord”, what he wants is for God to “come out,” for him to be manifestly exalted, show himself for who he really is, for public knowledge, to leave no shadow of doubt about who he is. Otherwise the fools will continue to say that there is no God (Psalm 14:1). But God is exalted above the earth, there will be no gainsaying.

There was no hiding place in the land of Egypt when the God was ready to deliver his people by his mighty outstretched arms (Deuteronomy 26:8). Though Pharaoh was headstrong, he was no match for God when He is ready to show his supremacy. In judgement, Egypt was forced to its knees, when God was ready to set his people free, manifesting his glory as the earth had never seen.

The magnificence of God was shown in Egypt so much that the children of Israel became an object of fear (Psalm 105:26-45, Exodus 15:14-16, 23:27-28). He became the exalted in their lives, his manifest presence in the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, was upon the assembly of the people all the time. He covered them with his protection and grace.

Jesus’ life was about God’s glory. He did not seek his own glory or try to make a name for himself; rather God rewarded him with a name greater than any other name, when he laid down his life. Jesus said that he who seeks to protect his life will lose it. As he laid down his life at God’s request, he was reward with a higher life, resurrected life.

Paul said that it is required in stewards that they are found faithful. And Jesus was faithful to God. He was all for God’s glory. He said to God: I have glorified you on the earth. He said that he had to go about his father’s business; he has to go about doing the will of his father (Luke 2:49).

To God is all the glory in all things because we are nothing more than earthen (earthly) treasures with heavenly treasure in us (2Corinthians 4:7).

God’s glory should be uppermost in our mind and not just our own desire and will. We should be ready to do is bidding; seek to magnify his name. Paul told Timothy: preach the word, in season and out of season, whether it is convenient or not, do the work of an evangelist (2Timothy 4:1-8). He wants him to seek the eternal reward that will come when Jesus will appear and reward the faithful with eternal portions.

Since we walk with a God we do not see, and so walk with him by faith, we have to serve him also by faith, seeking for the reward beyond the veil of time, the realm of what is seen. The writer of the book of Hebrews says: wherefore we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (Hebrews 12:28).

There is a kingdom that we are working towards on this earth (and working for the king); there is a glory that we must manifest, a fire we must set, a task we must fulfil, and we need to lay aside every sin and the fear, the weight that easily besets us to be able to do that (Hebrews 12:1-2). There is a race set before you, a mandate of heaven you must fulfil. As bearers of the glory of God, our service becomes an outlet of his glory. Wherever we sit, there should have a deposit of the glory of God there, whoever we touch should experience God’s glory.

Miracles happen when cloth items were taken from the body of Paul; devils were cast out, and the sick were healed (Acts 19:11-12). The shadow of Peter healed the sick that were lined up on the street (Acts 5:15-16).

The manifestation of the sons of God which Paul talked about is all about unleashing the glory of God like never before on the earth through God’s vessels (Romans 8:18-21), who are dead to themselves by alive to God, dead to human acclaim but fully given to God, having no eye for human gain but eyes set on God. They will lead many from hell to heaven with the banner of the grace and power of God. They will not be afraid or back down, they will not be shaken, and they know that there is a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Men, You Can No Longer Assume That A Woman Is “Good”, Just Because She’s A Woman!

Men, You Can No Longer Assume That A Woman Is "Good", Just Because She's A Woman!

Things your pastor never told you: the coming reformation

Things your pastor never told you:  the coming reformation

No Shame in Stillness

No Shame in Stillness

An Open Letter to John MacArthur From A.W. Tozer: He Being Dead Yet Speaketh

A.W. Tozer (1897-1963)

This is from CharismaNews:

Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from God's Pursuit of Man by A.W. Tozer and used by permission of WingSpread Publishers.

That every Christian can be and should be filled with the Holy Spirit would hardly seem to be a matter for debate among Christians. ... I want here boldly to assert that it is my happy belief that every Christian can have a copious outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a measure far beyond that received at conversion, and I might also say, far beyond that enjoyed by the rank and file of orthodox believers today.

It is important that we get this straight, for until doubts are removed, faith is impossible. God will not surprise a doubting heart with an effusion of the Holy Spirit, nor will He fill anyone who has doctrinal questions about the possibility of being filled.

In light of this, it will be seen how empty and meaningless is the average church service today. All the means are in evidence; the one ominous weakness is the absence of the Spirit’s power. ... The power from on high is neither known nor desired by pastor or people. This is nothing less than tragic, and all the more so because it falls within the field of religion, where the eternal destinies of men are involved.

Fundamentalism has stood aloof from the liberal in self-conscious superiority and has on its own part fallen into error, the error of textualism, which is simply orthodoxy without the Holy Ghost. Everywhere among conservatives we find persons who are Bible-taught but not Spirit-taught. They conceive truth to be something which they can grasp with the mind.

If a man holds to the fundamentals of the Christian faith, he is thought to possess divine truth. But it does not follow. There is no truth apart from the Spirit. The most brilliant intellect may be imbecilic when confronted with the mysteries of God. For a man to understand revealed truth requires an act of God equal to the original act which inspired the text. ... "Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things which are freely given us of God.”

For the textualism of our times is based upon the same premise as the old line rationalism, that is, the belief that the human mind is the supreme authority in the judgment of truth. Or otherwise stated, it is confidence in the ability of the human mind to do that which the Bible declares it was never created to do and consequently is wholly incapable of doing.Philosophical rationalism is honest enough to reject the Bible flatly. Theological rationalism rejects it while pretending to accept it and in so doing puts out its own eyes.

Few there are who without restraint will open their whole heart to the blessed Comforter. He has been and is so widely misunderstood that the very mention of His name in some circles is enough to frighten many people into resistance.

It is no use to deny that Christ was crucified by persons who would today be called fundamentalists. This should prove to be disquieting if not downright distressing to us who pride ourselves on our orthodoxy. An unblessed soul filled with the letter of truth may actually be worse off than a pagan kneeling before a fetish. We are saved only when our intellects are indwelt by the loving fire that came at Pentecost. For the Holy Spirit is not a luxury, not something added now and again to produce a deluxe type of Christian once in a generation. No. He is for every child of God a vital necessity, and that He fill and indwell His people is more than a languid hope. It is rather an inescapable imperative.

Now the Bible teaches that there is something in God which is like emotion. ... God has said certain things about Himself, and these furnish all the grounds we require. “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing” (Zeph. 3:17). This is but one verse among thousands which serve to form our rational picture of what God is like, and tell us plainly that God feels something like our love, like our joy, and what He feels makes Him act very much as we would in a similar situation; He rejoices over His loved ones with joy and singing.

Here is emotion on as high a plain as it can ever be seen, emotion flowing out of the heart of God Himself. Feeling, then, is not the degenerate son of unbelief that is often painted by some of our Bible teachers. Our ability to feel is one of the marks of our divine origin. We need not be ashamed of either tears or laughter. The Christian stoic who has crushed his feelings is only two-thirds of a man; an important third part has been repudiated. Holy feeling had an important place in the life of our Lord. “For the joy that was set before Him” He endured the cross and despised its shame. He pictured Himself crying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.”

The work of the Holy Spirit is, among other things, to rescue the redeemed man’s emotions, to restring his harp and open again the wells of sacred joy which have been stopped up by sin.

Aiden Wilson Tozer (April 21, 1897–May 12, 1963) was an American Christian pastor, preacher, author, magazine editor and spiritual mentor.

Reprinted from God's Pursuit of Man by A.W. Tozer, copyright © 1950, 1978 by Lowell Tozer. Previously titled The Divine Conquest and The Pursuit of Man. Used by permission of WingSpread Publishers, a division of Zur Ltd., 800.884.4571.

God's Pursuit of Man is protected by copyright and may not be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, translated, transmitted or distributed in any way.

CharismaNews
50 Year Old Prophecy from Tozer
The Old Cross and the New
John MacArthur Rebuked by a Prophet

The Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London In That Apocalyptic Year, 1666 by Neil Hanson

Chapter 2, “The Hellish Design”:

Page 27: “Humphrey Smith’s Vision Which He Saw Concerning London, also written years before the event [1660], predicted a fire in 1666 ‘in the foundation of all her buildings and there was none could quench it . . . .The burning thereof was exceeding great . . . .All the tall buildings fell and it consumed all the lofty things therein . . . . And the fire continued, for though all the lofty part was brought down yet there was much old stuff and parts of broken down, desolate walls, which the fire continued burning against.’

“Daniel Baker also warned where the ‘evil ways’ of London would lead. ‘A fire, a consuming fire shall be kindled in the bowels of the earth, which will scorch with burning heat . . . .a great and large slaughter shall be throughout the land.’ And Walter Gostello ‘looked up to heaven and there saw such a cloud of blackness and dirt as could not possibly arise from any place but hell . . . .If fire make not ashes of the City, and thy bones also, conclude me a liar for ever . . . .Repent or burn, you and your city London.’”

_____

Chapter 10, "Firestorm":

Page 149: "The greatest fire that ever happened upon the earth since the burning of Sadom and Gomorrah."

--Rege Sincera, Observations both Historical and Moral upon the Burning of London

_____

Chapter 11, "A Dismal Desert":

Page 162: "Thus fell great London, that ancient city, that populous city. London, which was the queen city of the land . . .and yet how is London departed like smoke and her glory laid in the dust. . . .How does the whole nation tremble at the sound of her fall. How is the pride of London stained and beauty spoiled, her arm broken and strength departed, her riches almost gone . . .since the firing and fall of this city which had the strength and treasure of the nation in it. The glory of London is now fled away like a bird, the trade of London is shattered and broken to pieces, her delights also are vanished and pleasant things laid to waste."

--Thomas Vincent, God's Terrible Voice in the City

Page 167: "The judgement that has fallen upon London is immediately from the hand of God and no plots by Frenchmen or Dutchmen or Papists have any part in bringing upon you so much misery."

--Charles II

Page 176: "The King, 'in a religious sense of God's heavy hand upon this Kingdom in the late dreadful fire happened in the City of London . . .a visitation so dreadful that scarce any age or nation has ever seen or felt the like,' had ordered that October 10 be observed as a 'day of fasting and humiliation . . .to implore the mercies of God that it would please him to pardon the crying sins of this nation, those especially which had drawn down this last and heavy judgement upon us, and to remove from us all other his judgements which our sins have deserved.'"

_____

George Fox–An Autobiography
Edited by Rufus M. Jones

Chapter XVI
“A Year in Scarborough Castle”
1665-1666

“The very next day after my release, the fire broke out in London [The Great Fire of London, 1666], and the report of it came quickly down into the country. Then I saw the Lord God was true and just in His Word, which he had shown me before in Lancaster jail, when I saw the angel of the Lord with a glittering sword drawn southward, as before expressed.

“The people of London were forewarned of this fire; yet few laid to heart, or believed it; but rather grew more wicked, and higher in pride. For a Friend was moved to come out of Huntingdonshire a little before the fire, to scatter his money, and turn his horse loose on the streets, to untie the knees of his trousers, let his stockings fall down, and to unbutton his doublet, and tell the people that so should they run up and down, scattering their money and their goods, half undressed, like mad people, as he was sign to them; and so they did, when the city was burning.

“Thus hath the Lord exercised His prophets and servants by His power, shown them signs of His judgments, and sent them to forewarn the people; but, instead of repenting, they have beaten and cruelly entreated some, and some they have imprisoned, both in the former power’s days and since.

“But the Lord is just, and happy are they that obey His word.”

Wikipedia
Jackson, Wyoming Fire
This is Sodom! This is Sodom!
The Killer Angels
The Drought in the United States is because of Sin
Flee California!
Las Vegas Earthquake

Why do Evolutionists Believe in the Religion of Evolution?

God Creating Adam--Genesis 1: 27

1: They do not want to be responsible for their actions
2: They want to be separate from God
3: They want sexual freedom
4: They want a way to hide from God
5: They want to live like animals
6: They want knowledge apart from God
7: They want to destroy religion

The above excerpt was taken from:

Evolutionists Explain Their Objectives

_____

Wistar Destroys Evolution
Laughing at Evolution
OOPARTS

Satan Puppets Destroying God Seed (DNA)

Genesis 1: 26-28:  ”And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Harvest

This is from the blog Daily Meditation:

Job 24:6: They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked. (KJV)

The harvest is the culmination of all efforts in a planting season. Every farmer looks to the harvest. His labour is informed by the hope of harvest. Therefore, whatever time, resources or effort you put into your relationship with God will yield the harvest of increased expression of God through you, and stronger and better relationship with him.

Paul said that he plants and Apollos waters but it is God who gives the increase, bringing forth the harvest. His and Apollos’ efforts as fellow workers with God are based on the hope of harvest in the lives of the people, in the needed changes in their lives (1Corinthians 3:6-9).

Jesus described his life as a seed; saying except a corn of wheat falls to the ground and dies it abides alone; after it is sown, it brings forth much fruit (John 12:24). His life as a seed sown in the death on the cross brings the harvest of harvests of souls into the kingdom of God.

The psalmist says he plants the word of God in his life so that he will bring the harvest of righteousness. The sowing in the word starts a process, and the change within us is the harvest.

It will be a sad situation when there is the scarcity of the seed of Word of God. It happened in the time of Eli, when the bible says that the word of God was scarce and there was no open vision (1Samuel 3:1). There was spiritual starvation, since the word of God which was scarce is seed. If the seed is scarce, there will be not much planting going on and there will be starvation.

We need the word as we need food, with Job saying that he loves the word of God more than his necessary meal (Job 23:12). In the same way, we should recognise our intense need for spiritual sustenance from the word of God (Matthew 4:4).

The bible says that as the earth remains seedtime and harvest will not cease. So if we do not sow the word there will be no harvest of enhances spiritual blossoming.

There is more labour and time involved in the sowing and the processes leading up to the harvest than the harvest itself. Therefore between sowing and harvest we need endurance and patience. The bible says that we should follow those who through faith (the initial response to the promise) and patience (continued response to the promise) obtained the promise (Hebrews 6:12). When the promise (the word of God) was made that was the seedtime, when the realisation came, that was the harvest. The harvest does not immediately follow the sowing; there is a time lag involved. Nevertheless, harvest is inevitable as we continue being hopeful (Hebrews 6:17-19). (Both faith and patience emanates from hope [Hebrews 11:1, Romans 8:25, 1Thessalonians 1:3]). That will keep us on the path of doing what is needed to have a good harvest. Without hope, even after the sowing, there will be no harvest.

In another place we read: do not be weary in well-doing because in due season you will reap if you faint not (Galatians 6:9). Therefore good deeds are seeds sown in which there will be harvest. It is the same with hospitality; the bible says that we should take hospitality serious because some have entertained angels unawares (Hebrews 13:2). That was how Abraham got the harvest of a son he had been looking for decades. He sowed the seed of hospitality, entertaining God and two angels, and had the harvest of a son from his aged wife Sarah, against the natural course of things (Genesis 18:2-10).

Harvest speaks of return on investment. We invest out time, our resources and our actions; because these three are common to all humanity, everyone has something to sow for a desired harvest. You can change the pattern of your life by changing the pattern of your sowing. The meritorious, circumspective and judicious investment of those three, will count for better harvest of in our lives. We can either invest them by effort or by default, either way the harvest is inevitable; for better or worse.

Time

Jesus said I must do the work of him who sent me while it is day because the night comes when no man can work (John 9:4). There is time for everything, the time to sow and the time to reap.

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-2). But if we don’t use the time to sow well, then there will be nothing to reap. We need to sow into having rich relationships with those closest to us. We need to sow into developing ourselves. It is recorded that those with better education have better lives. So the time put in studies (or developing skills) is sowing time and the harvest will definitely come in the future, when the time of sowing would have past and we have come to the time of reaping. There is the time when we have the opportunity to make certain investments; afterwards such opportunities will not be there again and you are left with regrets, and a shallow feeling from missed opportunities.

Resources

Everyone have resources to sow. For example, there are mental resources. Jesus said that everyone should be careful about what you listen to, how effectively you hear will determine the harvest it brings into your life (Mark 4:24). Your capacity for something grows by the attention you give it and the depth of attention you give to what you hear will determine the resultant effect in your life. Jesus would say: let him that has ears let him hear what the Spirit says to the church (Revelation 2-3).  The capacity to give attention to something is one of our human resources.

The bible says: guard your heart with all diligence because out of it flow the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). The heart is the centre of desire, and desire is a seed that will bring in the harvest either of sin or of righteousness. That is why we are told to beware what sort of desire start growing in our hearts, and focus on guarding hearts so that the wrong desire seed will not be planted there (as we avoid wrong associations [1Corinthians 15:33, 2Corinthians 6:13-18]), while we should actively cultivate the right desire-seed (through right associations [Hebrews 10:24-25]).

Sin, we are told is merely wrong desire (to please self) that has grown and developed to the point of harvest, while the harvest of righteousness comes from the desire to please God (James 1:13-16).

What about finances? That is a resource that we have, and the measure of the money-seed we sow is linked with the level of the harvest of financial abundance (2Corinthians 9:6). When the church in Philippi sowed their resources into the life of Paul, in turn he prayed for them: my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:15-20). By meeting his needs he told them of the inevitable harvest of God meeting their every need. What they did was sowing, and the harvest was coming.

Action

Every action is a seed. That is the sense behind the phrase: practice makes perfect. Every action is a seed for the harvest for a better performance. Every piece of writing is a seed for better writing, every seed of a musical performance is for an harvest of a greater performance. Every journey of a thousand miles starts with a step, every writing of a thousand words stated with a letter, those steps and those words count towards an end- the harvest.

What you say is a seed that can bring an harvest; that is why Paul said that we should let our words be seasoned with salt, ministering grace to the hearers (Ephesians 4:29), the effect in the life of the hearer is the harvest.