Voices Proceeding from the Throne
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” – Revelation 4:8 ESV
All around the throne there are voices. Day after day, night after night they never stop. The throne room never knows silence. They live in the presence of the One upon the throne and, though they attempt to cover their eyes, they cannot help but shout out how utterly majestic and different from us He is. There voices are strong and loud as though they are calling all of creation to worship. They shout out what they see, hear, and feel around that throne. They lift their voices that all of creation might cast its gaze steadfastly upon that throne and the glorious One upon it. They desire that all of creation feel the simultaneous joy and terror of being near the Uncreated One.
It is critical that we fully understand the ministry of these creatures if we are to understand what it really means to be human. It is tragic that focus so little attention on the activity in the throne room because, in so doing, we end up missing our own calling. Man was made, like these terrible creatures, to gaze upon and experience the raw reality of the One on the throne. We were made to experience the simultaneous joy, pleasure, terror, and awe that comes from being near the throne. In many ways, our call is similar to the living creatures, but there is also a critical difference. Man was not made just to experience God, but he was made to gaze upon that glory and then cry out calling all of creation to worship. Man is to both experience the glory of God and declare it to creation. Man is meant to be a voice proceeding from the throne.
What is stunning about this is that it is one thing to cry out amidst the weight of the glory of the throne room, but it is altogether a different thing to cry out throughout creation to those who have not known the weight and the glory of the throne room and yet this is the high calling of man. We are to take the glory of the One upon the throne, experience it, and then declare it so vividly, so alive that creatures who have never caught a glimpse of that glorious room will be struck with awe and compelled to worship because of the power of our proclamation of His beauty.
Given the high nature of this call, what man is sufficient to communicate the glory of the throne room to the rest of creation? In order to bring creation into the knowledge of God, man’s duty is not just to cry out concerning the glory of the throne room, but to actually carry the glory of that throne room so that his proclamation to creation may be accompanied by the testimony of the weight of glory resting on him. God does not just intend that we tell creation of His glory, He intends that the weight of glory on us as we describe the Uncreated One is a witness to the words that we speak. Our proclamation is to be confirmed by the weight of the presence on us.
Jesus commanded us to disciple men from every nation, but we must understand that Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19 was not a brand new command. Jesus was calling man back to his original purpose. Man has always been called to disciple creation. Man was created to communicate to all of creation the grandeur and glory of God. Man was always meant to have the weight of glory resting on him from His privileged place before God and then travel the great expanse of creation declaring the glory of God.
This is why the union of prayer and missions that we are currently seeing is so significant. It is the recovery of man’s ultimate purpose. In the place of prayer, men gaze upon the throne room and the weight of glory begins to rest on them. From that place then, they are to be sent, as voice from the throne, declaring the glory of God and discipling creation. Only when prayer and missions are combined, can the desire of Jesus’ heart be fulfilled. Men must obtain the knowledge of God in the place of prayer where they hear His voice and are then sent like arrows into all the earth to declare what they have seen and heard.
We are called to be voices, not echos, proceeding from the throne. A voice has to have seen and heard and what they have seen and heard must be burning and alive within them. When creation encounters a messenger like this, they are brought into a raw confrontation with God. No longer is the issue one of the message or one of the words brought by the messenger. The messenger did not just bring them a new message, the messenger brought them a confrontation with God. This is what it means to be a voice proceeding from the throne.
When we live in sin and compromise, we forfeit our ability to call the nations to the glory of God. When we forfeit this calling, then creation lacks the knowledge of God because we were made to carry it throughout creation. Part of the reason we so love to explore creation and search out locations is because we were made to carry the knowledge of God throughout creation. God gave us the desire to search out creation so that we might declare His glory and bring all of creation into the knowledge of God.
Your sin does not just destroy you as an individual, it keeps creation from coming into the knowledge of God. This is why the enemy gives so much effort and energy to polluting mankind. So long as mankind is bound in sin, he fails to bring the creation into the knowledge of God. The bondage of man becomes the bondage of creation. This is what is behind the enemy’s temptation. Every pornographic image, every bit of the lust of the flesh and the pride of life is aimed at this one thing. Demons are working night and day to keep men enslaved to sin in order to keep them from bringing the knowledge of God to creation. Your sin then is more than a “failure” it is a war that we do not fully comprehend all aimed at keeping all of creation from coming into the knowledge of God.
If you ever doubted the call of man, gaze at the man Jesus. When man failed to carry the knowledge of God into creation, God’s response was not to call angels to the task, but rather to become a man Himself. He kept His covenant with man. Man forever would be the creature called to declare the glory of God to all creation. Is this not what Jesus constantly did? Throughout His entire ministry He was very clear that He was demonstrating the nature of the Father. He was carrying the message and likeness of the Father. In doing this He was also calling all mankind back into their original calling. This is why He insisted the disciples wait in Jerusalem for the power of the Holy Spirit. He did not just want them to just carry words, He wanted them to also have the presence within, as He did, so that they actually carried the knowledge of God to the nations and not just stories about Him.
Volumes could be written on these things, but from these few words, I call you out of your sin and bondage. I call you out of despair. I set before you the high call of gazing upon the throne and carrying the knowledge of God into all creation. I call you to the redemption and cleansing of Jesus that you may gaze upon that throne. I call you to disciple men in the nations of the earth that creation may encounter the knowledge of God (which it will know fully when the ultimate witness, Jesus, returns to the earth and brings creation into the full knowledge of God as God). I call you to actually fight. You are in this war whether you know it or not. You can be a casualty or a soldier. Power from the throne room is available. Let’s receive the full power of the Holy Spirit under the cleansing blood of Jesus and release a witness in the nations of the earth. Let us become, and raise up, voice proceeding from the throne.
Greater Works than These
I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father. – John 14:12
Many of us have heard this passage preached many times with various interpretations of the passage. While I do not want to try to evaluate what the proper interpretation of the passage is, I do want to propose that there is a nugget in this passage that could radically affect the culture of ministry that we operate in.
The Ministry Culture of Jesus
If you examine Jesus’ ministry, one thing that immediately stands out is how limited His sphere of ministry actually was. While His ministry was spectacular, it is also amazing how He limited Himself to a specific area, refused the promotion of men, devoted only 3 years of His life to public ministry, and poured Himself into His disciples. To understand why Jesus orchestrated His ministry in this way, it is critical that we examine how He launched the gospel through the disciples.
What is so amazing is that rather than seeking the largest public platform, Jesus poured Himself into the disciples. In some cases, His ministry was limited to the 12 and in other cases it was the 70, and at times it included some other followers. Regardless of the exact number, the point is that Jesus really only gave Himself to a small number of followers. He also freely shared His power with them even when they were immature. Not only did He send the disciples out with power, He even sent Judas out with supernatural power on him. That alone should astound most of us.
Have you considered that Jesus invested His life in this small group of people and then He entrusted them with the propagation of the gospel to the nations? If you think about it, it is almost inconceivable that Jesus would ascend just after His moment of triumph and leave the declaration of His victory to a handful of unstable followers. If we are honest, we have to admit that we would consider Jesus’ ministry strategy to be ridiculous.
How many of us would adopt that kind of strategy? How many of us would repel the crowds that were ready to exalt us and instead invest in a small group that were struggling with proper theology? How many of us would put power on a group of young men still struggling with their own egos? How many of us, at the very height of victory, would step aside from visible ministry and instead give our spirit to others that they might be empowered to take the gospel to world and do great exploits?
Now, understand the point here and don’t read too much theology into it, but if you judge Jesus purely by ministry output you will see that the apostles superseded Him in virtually every way. Most of them had much longer ministries, affected much wider areas, and produced more converts. What was so radically different about Jesus’ value system that caused Him to minister in this way? The answer has profound implications for just how deep our own ministry can go. (more…)
The Law – Part Five – Christ is Supreme
In the last post we attempted to put some definition around the New Testament law. We are now brought to the climax of the law, which is the person of Jesus Christ. As we have seen in these last installments, God’s requirement of mankind in the New Testament, far from being minimized, is actually filled up and maximized in the revelation of Jesus Christ. As God has now indwelt man, He now has every legal right to make inner requirements of man that far exceed the Law of Moses. We have seen how this dramatically affects our evangelism and our understanding of our own calling.
The Great Need of Mercy
You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. – Matthew 5:48 (AMP)
As we consider the requirements of God’s morality upon the inner man, we see that absolute need of Christ. We see that there is no way any living human being will ever be able to assert any measure of morality against the standard of God, for we are all left completely helpless before His requirements. When we finish the words of the Sermon on the Mount, if we have truly understood it, our hearts cry out, “What shall we do?”
The requirement of God is so deep, so vast, and yet so just that you and are are left without excuse and without hope before the judgment bar of God. This is not without purpose however, for we are left in this great place that God may be all in all. God Himself, in His own perfect love for man in our predicament, brings salvation through His own right hand in the person of Jesus. By understanding the law, and its present application, we can understand more than ever the great need of the person of Jesus. Jesus said, “those who are forgiven much love much,” and as the law of God penetrates our heart, our inner man should sing the highest praises to the One who has made a way for us to be redeemed from the just and proper condemnation of God’s law.
Let us now see that great paradox that God uses our very violation of the law to bring us into the demonstration of its requirements. As the gospel is proclaimed in truth and power our hearts become heavy under the weight of condemnation and conviction. This condemnation is just and true for we can never fulfill God’s requirements on us. Many avoid this pressure point by lessening God’s requirements, but the solution is not to lessen God’s requirements, but to come into the reality of our spirit’s situation and then receive God’s solution.
While we struggle under the weight of our own condemnation and the black hell of hopelessness closes in on our hearts which have been awakened to God’s law, God comes in like a shaft of light and presents Himself as the ultimate sacrifice and rescue from our own black heart. We see Him in that instant as the liberator from all that we are and all that we have become. This experience is slow for some and quicker for others, but for all there is that moment when light dawns and we see that the very One who has condemned us by making just requirements of our heart, now offers Himself to us as the very redeemer for our blackness. At this moment, we are born again as we grab onto the glorious hope of God whose love is so vast that He is, in that moment, both the One who condemns and the One who rescues.
God’s plan is so glorious though, that it continues from there. Being liberated by His glorious love, the natural response of the human heart is then to love Him desperately, passionately, and completely for His act of redemption from our own condemnation. In the wisdom of God then, it is the pressure of our condemnation that forms in a heart a love for the God who rescues us and this love then naturally begins fulfilling the first great commandment of God’s law to love God with all our hearts.
You see, it is the knowledge of the depth of our depravity and condemnation that leads us to the heights of love. We become those with the capacity to fulfill the law only once we have been awakened to our birth position as those under the condemnation of the law. Only the wisdom of God could take the very thing that condemns us and sets us at odds with Him and use it as the seed of eternal love and holiness in His redeemed people. Once again, we find that God is all and all and that Jesus is worth of supreme adulation for His great redemption. He alone provides mercy for our sins as we stand helpless before the judgment bar of God. Let us love Him desperately for the mercy He provides and then vigorously share that mercy with others understanding that God uses the tool of condemnation as the key to open the door to divine mercy. (more…)
Are you Jealous?
I have been deeply moved the last few days over the issue of Jealousy for the Lord and for His name. Are we truly jealous for the name “Jesus” and the demonstration that are attributed to His name? As the world continues to use that precious name as nothing more than an expletive and ministers use it for their own purposes, I wonder if we are truly jealous for His name or if we have slowly become desensitized to it all. Recently I have watched some videos of various ministers and ministries that have simply made my heart sick. The antics on stage, if not blasphemy, were probably as close as you can get and yet the crowd loved it. In all of this I wondered, where are those that are jealous for the Lord and for His name? As I noticed the crowd laughing and taking it all in, I wondered where are those jealous for the bride? I mean this is Jesus’ wife we are talking about and these men are making a spectacle of the Lord before His own bride and she is drinking it all in. In a dream I had recently there was both a deep anger and a deep weeping over things.
Something within is burning and asking the deep question, are we not jealous for Him? I understand there are differences in ministry styles, personalities, and giftings and we have to give grace to different members of the body, but I was observing things that were clearly demeaning to the Lord and His people and they were being opening attributed to the Lord and His Spirit. They were allowing the Lord, His name, and His Spirit to be demeaned and mocked by men claiming to be ministers. Where are those who will stand and separate the holy from the profance? Where is the holy jealousy that caused Jesus to overturn money tables?
As I considered this issue of jealousy, I began considering what a pure and holy jealousy really is. After all, many are “jealous for the Lord,” but what they often mean is that they are jealous for their ministries, or their own perception of how things should be. Often “jealousy for the Lord” is really the desire to criticise and tear down those you do not agree with. Seeing then as jealousy for the Lord is an urgent need in our time and, at the same time, there is much jealousy that is not truly jealousy for the Lord, how are we to discern the difference?
I believe we can discern if our jealousy is pure or not very simply. When you feel that burning within you to defend the Lord’s honor and name, especially publically, there is one quick test that will determine the authenticity of your jealousy. Before you express your jealousy for the Lord publically (note this means others, not just the pulpit), make sure you have passed this private test.
The way to determine if your jealousy is a pure one is to examine the issue of jealousy and yourself. Oh, I know you may be jealous for the Lord’s name where it regards that other man or ministry you cannot stand, but are you jealous for the Lord’s name in your own life? Have you examined your own life, both your inward and outward life, and considered just how jealous you are for the expression of the Lord and His name in you.
You see it’s easy to see where all the others are wrong, but it is also easy to overlook things in your own heart. When you do this, you can quickly give yourself over to a zeal that is superficially for the Lord, but also rooted in a zealousness for things that are more related to your own self, ministry, or church.
We must become jealous for the Lord within us. It must begin to grieve us how the Lord’s name is demonstrated in and and through us. Do others see a consistent witness of Jesus in you? Are you jealous for those things in your life that defame His name? I am not just talking about the “big sins,” I’m talking about all the little things that you are quite comfortable with, but are not to be found in His nature. Beyond the visible things that others can see, what about the issues of the heart?
Do the things that you allow in your mind, heart, and imagination demonstrate a jealousy that the Lord would be demonstrated in you? Are you jealous for your own heart and spirit? Do you weep for your own sin that His name might not be defamed by your own actions? Do not deceive yourself that your outward righteousness is enough to honor the Lord. Jesus brutally attacked the Pharisees on the issue of outward versus inward righteousness. If our inward thoughts, fantasies, and motivations were broadcast for all to see would it bring honor to our Lord, or would there be reproach on the name of Christ since we call ourselves Christians? We must become jealous for the demonstration of the Lord in our secret things as well as public things, as the secret things are what truly make the man.
Do not forget that all those little things that men do not see, all those little illicit imaginations you taste inwardly, may not be visible to other humans around you, but they are known in the spirit realm. While humans may see you one way, the kingdoms of light and darkness know you as you really are. We must be jealous for the demonstration of Jesus and His name, not only among flesh, but also among the powers and principalities that war against our Lord. We are an embarassment to the Lord before the heavenly hosts (both light and dark) when we live inward lives that are not jealous for the expression of our Lord through us.
The powers look to see if we are demonstrating the Lord or not. Saints, we must become jealous for the expression of Jesus within us before we can become jealous for His expression among others. We must be honest with ourselves that we might be those who demonstrate an authentic Jesus both among men and among devils.
How many of us have a burning jealousy that Jesus be revealed in us in a way that is pure, holy, and complete? To be perfectly clear, I am not talking about a burning that Jesus work through us in power or ministry, I am talking about the demonstration of His person, His nature, and His character in us. It would do us well to sit down and read very slowly through the first verses of Matthew 5. Are we jealous that these characteristics are our own? Do we pick one or two that we feel good about or do we embrace all of them in their totality? Do we cry out that we might not just demonstrate Jesus in a few areas, but that He is demonstrated in totality within us according to the measuring stick that He set forth in the Sermon on the Mount.
Saints, we desperately need spokesmen of righteousness. We desperately need prophets who can stand against all the foolishness that is going on in Christ’s name in this hour. We need those who will risk reputation, ministry, and personal comfort because they are jealous for the demonstration of the Lord among His people. They are jealous that only that which is authentic is named of Christ. They are jealous for that name that must be reverenced above all. We must speak out and rescue the bride from those who are ravaging her.
These bold, burning spokesmen are an urgent need of the hour, but we must first go to the place of preparation if we are to be this kind of spokesman. There is a progression of preparation we must endure. First we must, as mentioned above, begin burning with a jealousy for the measure and purity of the Lord that is in us. What are we demonstrating to the seen an unseen world and how jealous are we that it be pure and offer no reproach to our Lord?
Secondly, we must first weep for things that are currently defiling the bride and bringing reproach to Jesus. No man should speak out before he has wept over these issues. The place of weeping and brokeness brings the proper character and removes the strength of pride that would otherwise find its way in our rebukes, no matter how religious they may appear. We must have both sides of God’s heart over the issues and He is both grieved and angry to see the enemy plunder His people.
God desperately needs those who can pass these tests of preparation. I am looking for a generation of those who are burning with a fire in their heart for the honor of the King. I am looking for those who can separate the holy from the profane that an authentic bride may emerge in this hour. These are desperately needed, however they can emerge only after they have passed through this process. The issue is one of honor and the only ones who can defend God’s honor are those who have renounced their own personal honor and made His honor, not just the issue of the church, but the issue of their own personal lives.
Such messengers will be of the calibur of John Baptist, but do not forget the lessons of his life. Preparation may well exceed ministry. Your ministry and speaking must move aside and make way for the exaltation of Jesus Himself, not matter what the personal cost. Finally, the earthy end of one with great jealousy for Jesus and His bride may not be a pleasant one.