NOTHINGNESS

NOTHINGNESS

Psalm 106:7-15

Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea. Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left. Then believed they his words; they sang his praise. They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

The many hours I sat on the side of highways in America. Sometimes the view were mountains, plains, deserts, and even the concrete jungles in the big cities; for hours I would sit, in some places all day, waiting for the appointed person or persons to give me a ride to the next waiting station.
This was my life of hitch hiking from one church to the next as a teenage evangelist. The one thing I learned in the long waiting times without a human to talk to, no TV to watch, just simply nothingness was "I am not in control."
I learned that "nothingness" is only a perception. In those hours of nothingness were the greatest moments of conversations I and Daddy God spent with each other. It was as though the nothingness I encountered were the greater opportunities I had to spend with Him or for Him to spend with me.
It is not that our world is spinning to fast or that we do not have the time, it is simply we humans are to uncomfortable with nothingness and cannot see the value of empty space. God is waiting to fill the empty space, waiting to burn in that little bush on the back side of the desert. It was the void in the beginning of time that the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of the waters. Just to be empty once again and to know the value of nothingness. Is it possible for us to dismantle our denial of being in control? Are we to busy; are we to full? Is this the leanness of soul God gave to Israel when He gave them their request? Moses could see what the people could not see; it was in the nothingness of his own life that opened his eyes to the greatest presence in the middle of nowhere on the back side of the desert. When we cannot change a thing about where we are is when where we are changes us. It is not in the world that we shape that we find ourselves and understand who we are; it is when we see past our world and are able to see His world that we truly find ourselves and understand ourselves for who we really are.

MOSES' INTERCESSION CONCLUDED

Moses' Intercession Concludes

EXODUS 33:12-23 (ESV)

12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

17 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

Our text is the conclusion of the intercession Moses had with God concerning the people God had chosen to separate unto Himself. This intercession began at the point of revelation; God revealed to Moses what was going on with the people in the conclusion of a forty day encounter with God in the fire top of MT. Sinai. This revelation was that the people had compromised their worship to God to worshiping a molten calf the elders had allowed them to make.

Before this revelation was imparted to him He had encountered a heap of positive information given to him by God during these forty days. In this encounter God gave him specific names, people who God had anointed with the Spirit of wisdom to craft and implement the vision He had given him concerning the Tabernacle (Tent of Meeting) and the garments that were to be tailored for the priestly office... (Exodus 28:3 ; 31:3 ; 35:31).

It is important we capture the picture in our mind of the full canvas covering these forty days. All these items in the encounter is relevant to Moses being moved to intercede. Just before Moses had taken this accent to the mountain where the fire was burning, He had concluded a cut covenant with God and the people; they had covenanted to obey all that the Lord would say to them.

Jeremiah 34:18-20 is a good example and reflection of what took place at the foot of the mountain before the accent in this covenant: “And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof. The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf; I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth” (Jeremiah 34:18-20).

This is the same Hebrew "cut covenant" God made with Abraham as the anointed lamp (Jesus Christ) passed between the pieces before Israel had even been born: “And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites” (Genesis 15:7-21).

Genesis 15 “describes this covenant rite in some detail, only the covenant is unilateral. God alone walks between the spliced parts of the animal and commits himself to the covenant (= PROMISE) regarding the gift of land to Abraham and his descendants.” [1]

This gives us a clearer picture of the severity and involvement between God and Israel and the relevancy as to the intercession Moses was having with God concerning Israel. Blood was involved in all this, blood that God had committed to Abraham and the blood that Israel had committed to God.

Once again, before Moses ascends the mountain he took half of the blood gathered from the sacrifices, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar, and the other half he took and sprinkled it upon the people. As he did he says, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words” (Exodus 24:8).

After this, the scripture tells us this happened, “Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink” (Exodus 24:9-11).

Beyond the cutting of sacrifices and the gathered blood sprinkled on the altar and the people, we see the leadership or representatives of Israel get to see God, “And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness” (Exodus 24:10).

They got a glimpse of God standing on the floor of heaven, just a silhouette; nonetheless, it was a vision of God. After a good super of eating God calls Moses to this forty day encounter with Him in the mountain of His presence, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God” (Exodus 24:12-13).

As God calls him to this encounter He frames the content of the encounter by saying, “I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them” (vs12).

Forty days is a long time in a human mind. Much discussion went on during these forty days, and as this was taking place between God and Moses we need not to forget that Joshua was standing close by hunkered down eagerly watching and waiting as his assistant during this encounter (Exodus 24:13).

Moses and Joshua were not eating during this time yet sustained by the presence of the Almighty; on the other hand, the people were eating and drinking in normal human activity, and with distant Egypt and their familiar homes in mind, they were loosing patience with having to be still at the foot of the mountain. They came to a conclusion that the stillness in the desert was a waste of their time.

We as humans have the tendency to become so discontent with stillness. We interpret stillness as nonproductive; without some form of involvement or activity we are unfulfilled and discontent. We struggle with the present unless we can earmark the moment as movement towards our future.

The apostle Paul said, “…for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:11-13). And also he tells Timothy his assistant as Joshua was to Moses: “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen” (1Timothy6:6-16).

What was exactly going on between God, Joshua, Moses, the elders, and the people? What was the difference in them as they encountered God? It can be summed up with one word, “involvement;” the difference between them was the involvement they had committed to the encounter.

Involvement determines our willingness to endure and it determines our level of revelation. The elders caught a glimpse of God standing on the floor of heaven, Moses encounters God in the fire, Joshua encounters Moses’ encounter as a witness, the people encountered a verbal exchange or telling of what God was expecting from them.

As Moses and Joshua was coming back down from the mountain concluding the forty day encounter, Joshua reveals his level of revelation thinking what he was hearing as a war torn commotion; Moses reveals his level of revelation as interpreting what was being heard as celebration and worship to the molten calf as God had imparted that information to him.

The elders reveal their level of revelation by serving the people with their desire concerning the molten calf; the people reveal their level of revelation by worshiping the molten calf.

Therefore, the level of involvement with God determined both the level of endurance with patience and the level of revelation in the relationship with God.

It was in the midst of all this that Moses’ intercession took place with God beginning with the conclusion of his forty day encounter with God, his encounter with God’s frustration towards the people and his own frustration with the people as he brakes the tables of stone given to him by God.

As a result, it is in the middle of this intercession he carries in his chest Joshua’s limited revelation, God’s frustration towards the people and his own frustration towards the people; not to mention, the lack of commitment from the elders and the people. Regardless, he maintains his position in the spirit of intercession as he continues to remind God that Israel is His people and that the blood He committed to Abraham in covenant was as important as the blood that was committed to Him before all this took place.

The significance that God knew Moses name is found in the meaning of Moses name. This is declared in Exodus 2:10: “And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water” (Exodus 2:10).

In Scripture water represent two significant things, running water represents the Holy Spirit, and still water represents the Word of God. The two working together carries the emphasis of cleansing, deliverance, and healing.

Moses as an infant floating in the water was the chosen deliverer; God drew him from the water. When God chooses to use anyone, regardless of their spiritual infancy, He chooses to draw us from the water; He draws us out of the Word and the Spirit working in our lives what He desires to work in others.

“That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26). Much washing of the Word, washing over and over us, again an again brings deliverance and healing. This is the water that God draws us from that we may become a deliverer to those needing deliverance.

“He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions” (Psalm 107:20). God will always draw His deliverance and healing from the waters of deliverance and healing; this is His Spirit and Word working together to fulfill His heart in the commission He gave His people and He gives to His church.

So, this intercession Moses was being influenced and carried by reminded God of the blood He had committed to Abraham and it reminded the people the blood they had committed to God.

As a result, the people strips themselves of the gold and silver and God moves from them being the people Moses had brought to the mountain to the people he had come to own through the cut covenant He made with Abraham. God had moved from wanting to destroy them all and make a new nation from the loins of Moses and from having no desire to go with them anywhere to making this statement: “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Vs 14).

In this case intercession becomes the same as an interception in a football game. When someone makes an interception in a football game it turns everything around; the ball changes from defense back to the offense. In the context of our text, Israel is commissioned in the beginning of the chapter by God to remove themselves from this place and move towards their promise.

With the conclusion of Moses' intercession an interception took place. Now, they have territory to take and they must move forward to fulfill the commission God had given them. In this commission God's heart is that they become a fulfillment of all He had spoken to Abraham in the beginning, and that is they become a blessing to all nations by being carriers of His presence to them.

This is the heart of intercession today. We must intercede, that when things goes side ways with God's people and our mission is compromised; intercession must become an interception. Things must be turned around that we may refocus on what has been in God's heart all along, and that is to fulfill the commission He has given us. We must remove ourselves from the place of fulfilling our hearts to fulfilling His. We must move forward as carries of His presence to a world that needs His presence.

[1] Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary, “Jeremiah,” Terence E. Fretheim, pg 490.

THE HEART OF GOD

THE HEART OF GOD

“The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (Psalm 33:11)

The "Sound of War" is Judah going before the battle with Praise unto God; prophetic singing from the heart of God. Our vision, our dreams is buried with us in our grave; His heart, God’s heart endures to all generations.

“His Heart”

Mary cradled the Life of God; she raised Him in the house of Joseph. When she began she was a teenager, when He began she was in her middle age. She lived a generation for the generation that would sacrifice it all.

Likewise, we cannot live to ourselves and for ourselves; we must too live a generation for a generation that will sacrifice it all. This world and everything in it depends upon it.

We must sing ----- dance ----- whisper ----- scream ----- write ----- gnaw the meat to the bone till we communicate the heart of God!

When we cradle the generations, when we develop and bring to maturity the generations; we have held the heart of God.

The house is the family extended from generation to generation. The sons and the daughters are looking for the fathers and the mothers that will show them the heart of God.

Your heart oh God is to all generations. From the beginning it has been Your heart to bring it to the end; it is the scarlet thread sewing the fabric of one generation to another as it burns in the sacrifice of the red heifer. You are the consuming fire burning in our hearts.

CELEBRATING HIS PRESENCE WITH THANKSGIVING

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

There are many different ways we can make noise; in physics noise is a disturbance, it is a presence that demands attention. Therefore, noise does not have to be a sound to determine its presence. We are to make a joyful noise unto the Lord; whether it is with sound or it is with our actions of determination, God desires that we cause a joyful disturbance. We are to make our presence known. We are here God; we acknowledge you and desire that you acknowledge us.

There are those that make their presence known by their disposition of anger and dissatisfaction. They do not have to make a sound for you to know they are there; you can feel their disposition as they make a clear sound in the atmosphere that they are an unhappy camper. This is a negative disturbance.

God is not interested in such disturbances; He desires that we make a joyful noise a joyful disturbance; He desires that we serve Him with gladness and that we come before presence with singing.

This is my story; this is my song praising my savior all the day long. My story is my statement and my song is the emotion expressing my statement. What are we trying to say to God and how are we trying to say it. God wants a joyful noise; He wants our presence to disturb the darkness and exhilarate the light, disturb the devil and his lies as we magnify the Lord God Almighty.

Many people live out their lives as though they are the creator and center of their own little world. This mind-set leads to a greedy possessiveness with the desire to control everything surrounding it. “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. The message translation of the Bible reads it this way, On your feet now—applaud God! ² Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourselves into his presence. ³ Know this: God is God, and God, God. He made us; we didn't make him. We're his people, his well-tended sheep. ⁴ Enter with the password: "Thank you!" Make yourselves at home, talking praise. Thank him. Worship him. ⁵ For God is sheer beauty, all-generous in love, loyal always and ever.

Thanksgiving is actually a form of praise; a gratefulness that acknowledges the good fortune received in a relationship. Psalm 69:30 declares, “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.”

THE CRUCIBLE

THE CRUCIBLE

Jeremiah 23:29

Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Jesus said, "And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder" (Matthew 21:24). God dwells with those who are of a contrite heart; (easily broken) consequently, the presence of Jesus (the anointing) is in the breaking, the crushing. It is not until the olive is crushed that the precious oil is released.

The fire burns the steal until the fire and the steal becomes as one, then the steal can submit to the hammer. Once the hammer has shaped it's torso it is dipped in the water (the Word). The steal screams as it is permanently set to hold the edge it is destined to take. The prophet said it was like fire shut up in his bones: "...But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones..." (Jeremiah 20:9).

The precious oil in the alabaster could not be spent on the savior until the alabaster was broken. The very object that houses the anointing is the very object that must be broken. The anointing that is in us can only be released as we either, fall on the rock and be broken, or until the rock falls on us and crushes us to powder.

The crucible is Him, the "mercy-smith" placing us in the fire, the "mercy-smith" who swings the hammer, the "mercy-smith" who thrust us into the water with perfect timing. The "mercy-smith" serves us the "Sure Mercies of David:" "Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David" (Isaiah 55:3). "And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David" (Acts 13:34).

LOVE

Love

1John 2:7-11

7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

The Love of God is not difficult, complicated, or unattainable; the love of God is deliberate, real, and undisguised. When it touches you, you feel it. When it speaks to you, you hear it. When it appears, you see it. It does not take great knowledge to know it; it just takes the desire to want it. As simple as it is, most humans need to have it spelled out for them. Differed hope, lost dreams, broken expectations, and failed relationships are among the many encounters that have numbed the sensory of heart to attain it, or to even have the desire to want it.

This is why John uses the Greek word koinonia to describe the fellowship we are to have with God and with each other. The true Love of God cannot be fully manifested out of “not yet” healed lives suffering from broken hopes, dreams, and expectations.

Proverbs 13:12 declares that, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick…” There are too many sick hearts in the church today; while needing love themselves, they with sick hearts are trying to manifest the Love of God under the auspice of attending the church of their choice.

We cannot know the Love of God as we should know it until we have been delivered and healed of the devastating episodes life serves. It takes fellowship with God and fellowship with saints who know and have experienced that fellowship to show us what the Love of God looks like.

This is why it is not the name of a church, or even the religious institutional affiliation we ascribe to that qualifies us to manifest the Love of God. It does not matter if we are Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Pentecostal, or any other name we want to put on ourselves. It is the fellowship we have with God and with each other that defines who we are in Christ Jesus.

There are many religious people in the world that can manifest church doctrine without possessing the conviction in their own heart that produced that doctrine. Doctrine evolves out of conviction as a result of fellowship with God. Therefore, doctrine is not something we own because it has been quoted to us from a list; doctrine is something we live out because our fellowship with God calls for it.

We must understand doctrine does not produce fellowship with God; fellowship with God produces doctrine. Consequently, as we teach doctrine we must somehow impart our fellowship with God to others.

People are not going to understand our convictions until they experience the fellowship causing our convictions. If we do not have fellowship with God, we can teach church doctrine and fail at imparting God to others.

It is not getting people involved in church activities that saves them or bring healing to their relationships; it is when we use church activities with the soul purpose of getting people involved with God that they are saved and healed in their relationships.

It is our fellowship we want to impart to others. The love of God happens and is manifested out of loving and caring relationships as people are drawn into fellowship.

The greater our fellowship is with God the more we have to offer in our fellowship with others. This is why John starts these three letters to the church with the koinonia. Fellowship of redeemed people with the apostles and ultimately with the Father and the Son is the theme of this letter as evidenced in verse three of chapter one: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1John 1:3).

The Greek word koinonia for fellowship here means communion by intimate participation. The word is used frequently in the New Testament of the Bible to describe the relationship within the early Christian church.

The essential meaning of the koinonia embraces concepts conveyed in the English terms such as, community, communion, joint participation, sharing and intimacy. Koinonia also embraced a strong commitment to Kalos meaning “good and good,” or an inner goodness toward virtue, and an outer goodness toward social relationships.

Therefore, koinonia reflects the Christian faith of sharing, relationships, and community. This is also why John includes “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (1John 1:1).

In other words, it is through the means of what we hear, what we see, and what we touch that brings fellowship into focus. John with chapter one brings this to our attention by describing what our fellowship with God should look like. If our fellowship with God is out of focus then our fellowship with others will be out of focus.

 We must first minister to God, to each other, then to the world. It is ministering to God correctly that we are empowered to minister to each other correctly, and ministering to each other correctly empowers us to minister to the world correctly.

This is koinonia in action and it is the commission of the church in action. Our whole purpose is to Love God and to Love people. To Love means to manifest the presence of God that is in us to others. In chapter four and verse eight John declares: “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

This brings us to our text and places it within the context of which John is writing to the church. The same darkness we have with God is the same darkness we will manifest to others, and the same light we have with God is the same light we will manifest to others. We can only manifest what we have.

The hope we should have is that we can say what verse eight says: “…the darkness is past, and the true light now shinneth.” Relentlessly it is true, when the darkness in us becomes the past is when the true light can shine in the present.

We do not have to fear the darkness in our past if the true light is shinning in our present. John tells us straight up; darkness is associated to hate and light is associated with love. If we have hate in our hearts toward others then we are full of darkness; if we have love in our hearts toward others then we are full of light.

As it is with God, we cannot walk in darkness and say we have fellowship with God, neither can we walk in darkness and say we have fellowship with each other. Light is the only position in our hearts that positions us for fellowship.

Hate disqualifies us from fellowship while love qualifies us, and the two are equated to light and darkness. Darkness is all about lies, denial, and hidden things; light is all about transparency, truth, and the willingness to work through it.

Love cannot work in darkness, denial, and hidden places, or maybe, it chooses not to. Love is all about light, exposure, and transparency. It is where God operates and is where we as believers must operate; otherwise, we are operating without a net.

THERE IS HERE AND HERE IS THERE

Sermon from Sunday morning three years back

THERE IS HERE AND HERE IS THERE

The Revelation 4:2

And immediately I was in the spirit; and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

With our series of “THERE IS HERE AND HERE IS THERE” we are looking at two places; here is the place we live in, the natural world of all we can see limited by both time and space, and there is the spiritual world that is invisible and eternal. The apostle Paul instructs us as believers that our sights should be set on the invisible world as evidenced in 2 Corinthians 4:18 “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

The Revelation of Jesus Christ given to John by God is a map-quest giving us directions into the invisible world of the spirit. God has directed me to preach this series to give us a greater awareness of these two worlds as being one in the same geographically, and that if we could manage to live out our lives in that awareness; we would become carriers of His presence and His presence would have a greater effect on our here and now as our hearts burn as an eternal candle there in that place, the place where God abides.

The psalmist has said “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11). There are pleasures yet for us to experience as we hunger and linger in that place where God abides; a fullness of joy that our absence keeps us from, outside of that place we cannot see beyond ourselves nor see the possibilities of what could be, opposed to what is. Out side of that place we can only focus on what is here and now; that place where God abides takes and reveals to us all that was, all that is, and all that is to come.

It does not take our imagination for us to encounter the here world of all that we see, hear, touch, smell, and taste; nor does it take our imagination to encounter the there world, the world of the invisible. Just because the “there world” is invisible does not mean that it can be any world we imagine it to be; imagination does not negate the “there world” as being valid and real.

The world of the spirit exist whether we can imagine it or not; likewise, the here world exist whether we can imagine it or not. Therefore, the “there world” is not a made up world in our minds; it is as real as this world “here and now” is.

In fact, the world of the spirit cannot be encountered without practical and reasonable access no more than the here world can. For instance, I cannot stand in front of a train moving ninety miles per hour and not expect that it will not run me over destroying me in the process. Nor can I live a carnal life without any acknowledgment that the spirit world exist, then think that I will navigate myself into that world unrestricted; especially, not into the presence of God without it having an effect on how I see God and how I see myself.

This brings us to our text scripture; not any novice reader of the scripture can understand fully the immediacy John tells, when he said, he was immediately in the spirit. This immediacy was followed by many years of spiritual discipline, many years of walking with Jesus in ministry, and as we have noted before, years of being a custodian of Jesus’ mother.

John was a faithful servant to the Lord to receive such an invitation into the place he found himself in; as the apostle Paul, he was seeing things that was not lawful for man to utter as evidenced in 2 Corinthians 12:4.

I want us to note that living in the awareness of this place (the throne room of God) is not the same as standing in that place in full reality. Geographically these two places, “the here and there,” dimensionally intersects between the visible and the invisible. Although geographically we may be standing in both places; dimensionally the carnal world and the spiritual world are not the same.

Consequently, I can navigate through this world without any problem. I know my way out of this building; I know how to get to Cleveland, TN, I drive myself there once a week. Just because we can navigate ourselves in the carnal world does not mean we know how to navigate ourselves into the world of the spirit. We cannot go on to the internet and Google up map-quest, punch in the throne room of God and think it will give us a map that can take us there.

Our GPS is the Word of God and the patent name is not Tommy, it is Jesus. You see, although John says he was immediately in the spirit does not mean that immediacy took place without a disciplined life of the spirit. This is why I say it takes as much practicality to navigate into the world of the spirit as it does in this carnal world; practical rules of engagement that must be adhered to if we are to move from one place to the other.

Would we like to see what John saw, would we like to visit the same place John visited? Then we must begin where John began. We too must be willing to drop our nets (profession,) our pleasures in this life, even our comforts as he did to learn spiritual navigations.

Jesus said, “24 If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

28 Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:24-28).

Thinking with the carnal mind, one cannot see any of those folks seeing Jesus coming in His kingdom. In fact, we think this will not take place until after what we call the rapture. Nonetheless, the reality is, Jesus said, “There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.”

Jesus does not lie nor did He lie. There was some standing there that saw Him work the works of the kingdom daily. Jesus did come in the power of the kingdom, even before He died on the cross, arose from the dead, and ascended into the heavens.

For instance, Jesus also said to some of those that were standing there at another time, “But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you” (Matthew 12:28). Dimensionally Jesus knew how to bring the there into the here; it was bringing kingdom power from there to here. When Jesus took authority over demons, cast them out and wrought healing in the mind of the demoniac concerning the possessed life he lived. Jesus had come in the power of His kingdom.

The carnal mind could only see the difference in the way the man conducted himself; the spiritual mind could see more than that. The spiritual mind can see how kingdom power from heaven delivered that man of his possession, and that the difference in his actions was a result of the intersecting power of the spirit bringing the kingdom of God into his messed up world that was controlled and tormented by demons.

This is why Jesus instructed us to pray: “9 Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Matthew 6:9-13).

In this prayer Jesus shows us three spiritual disciplines that brings His world into ours. Those three disciplines are:

1. 11. Give us this day our daily bread. This is simply a daily diet of the Word of God.

2. 12. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. This is simply living a lifestyle of forgiveness.

3. 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. This is simply finding the way of escape provided to us by God from the temptations that pull us further away from the presence of God and the reality of that place.

These are three spiritual practical measures that teach us how to navigate our way into the world of the spirit. We must develop a passion and hunger for the Word of God daily, not just when we are going through a crisis and need the answers to get out of the crisis. The Word of God must become our daily bread, food for the soul and instruction for the spirit.

We must learn how to assimilate the Word of God into becoming the living organism of our character until it becomes both our walk and our talk in living out our lives.

It is a scientific fact, we become what we eat; likewise, in the spirit we become what we ingest. Our spiritual diet has everything to do with both our spiritual abilities and inabilities.

Beyond the discipline of the ingesting of God’s Word; we as believers must learn the art of living above and beyond offense. We must learn the art of forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness is the vehicle taking us into spiritual navigations.

In other words, we cannot navigate our way into the spiritual things of God when we carry offense on our shoulders. We cannot find our way into the spiritual things of God when we fall prey to bitterness and twisted resentment towards people who have hurt us, abused and taken advantage of us.

There is no where in the CPS of the scripture that we take “Grudge Avenue” into the throne room of God. When we walk through the door that leads into the heavens we must let go of everything that is weighty and that hinders our love from reaching out to the God of love.

He says how you can love me who you have not seen if you cannot love those whom you do see. The dimensional intersection leading us into the spirit is plugged by unforgiveness.

There is nothing that escapes the presence of God. Everything happens in the throne room of God; the earth is His footstool that the Scripture say sets upon nothing. Geographically we are there, dimensionally outside of the spiritual we are not.

When we allow ourselves to be drawn away and enticed by our own lust, let alone by the temptations thrown at us by the enemy; the warp zone between “here and there” is broadened and we are walking the wide path Jesus said the majority walks.

This is why Jesus has instructed us to pray as such that His kingdom may come and land in our being so all that we are and do out of our being is where He is. These are practical disciplines that must become apart of our being. After all, if it is not in our being to be as such, then we simply cannot be.

If it is in our being to crave the Word of God, in our being to practice reconciliation through forgiveness, and in our being to eschew all evil, the immediacy of being in the spirit or to be caught up in the spirit becomes as practical as breathing is to live in this world.

Therefore, positioning ourselves in the practicalities of spiritual disciplines transports us into the “There world of God’s Kingdom.” Gabriel brought God’s Kingdom into Mary’s world; Gabriel said, “I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings” (Luke 1:19).

It was not what the Seraphim’s did that made them holy Seraphim’s; it was where they were that made them holy. It was where Gabriel came from (…I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God…) that made Him a holy being with a holy mission.

Where are we coming from? Where are we? We must long to be in His presence, not in a church (religious) setting way; we must live in His world that we may bring His world into this world that is in need of His world.

I remember many old saints in my child hood that brought His world to church with them. They did not go to church to be in His presence, they lived in His presence daily, and when they stepped into the sanctuary so did His presence.

We assemble ourselves together with the saints that we may share with each other what we got out of His presence during the week when we were not with each other. You may have gotten something I did get and I may have gotten something you did not get; we are not going to get from each other what we got if we do not at least bring it with us when we come together.

So, let us get up all in there so we can bring there into here. Let us get up in there so we can bring His presence to those that are in need of His presence and what it brings. It would be good to say as Gabriel said; I come from standing in the presence of God.

Those throne beasts have eyes from without and from within. If we stand in the presence long enough as they have, we will grow eyeballs in places we did not know we could have eyeballs. We will have what I call circumference vision; standing in God’s presence gives us the ability to see in all different directions from without and from within. Being in His presence gives us revelation into things concerning His presence in this present world and the world to come, He is the God of “our was,” “is,” and our “is to come.”

Here is there and there is here.

The Artist

The Artist God is the artist painting the portrait of our lives; we are the paint and He is the artist. It depends on how we work with Him as He works with us as to the outcome of the portrait. It would be good for us to understand that God is working something in us that is worth far much more than the moment. All that we have encountered thus far and compounded upon all that we will continue to encounter in this life is the brush strokes of God in our lives; yes, God working in us is the artist painting a picture that can only make since after the full picture has been completed. Consequently, there are some strokes upon the canvas of our lives that make no sense at all, but when connected with other strokes; the artist brings together every event both joyful and hurtful to say something, to say what He and He alone can see in us. This is why our destination is not as important as the journey itself. God is not as concerned with what we are trying to accomplish as He is with the process it takes to get us to the other end of it. It is in the process that the relationship with us is cherished and that the journey has its worth. For example, I have never been one with the desire to see the sights to be seen across America; to me, one mountain is no different than another, one city than another or one monument than another. My wife Ramona has been the one with the desire to see these things. Even though I have had no desire to see these things I have enjoyed every mountain, every city, and every monument; simply because, I have enjoyed the journey with Ramona. She has had enough excitement for the both of us. It has been the joy in the relationship that these events have meant anything to me. Her joy became my joy, her excitement over these things has become mine; the journey with her has been more important to me than the objects in the journey. Likewise, the events in our lives are no more different than another to God; it is the process that has taken us through the events that means something to God, it is how the process has affected us that God is moved in His heart. God just wants us; God wants to be with us, He wants to experience us as we experience Him. "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life" (Psalm 42:7-8). The deep way down inside of God calls for those things that are deep down inside of us. He longs for us to taste the journey, to experience the artist in every stroke; to feel the emotion behind the intention of the heart as the brush reveals what He sees in us. Only God can reveal who we are and make sense of why we are in this life. He is both the author and finisher of our faith. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:1-2). Pastor Joseph Robinson