The Nature of God, of Kings and the Place of Encounter

Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;
   to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

Before we go too far into this topic, let me take a little side step and define (briefly and poorly) one of the aspects of the word "glory".   --- If you want a great read about Glory, I highly recommend my friend Paul's book "What on earth is Glory?"  it's fantastic!  --- For this time the aspect of glory I want to refer to, is that glory = Nature/innate character.

This is proven in the encounter of Moses whilst hidden in the cleft of the rock : Exodus: ^{18 (M)}Then ^[c]Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” ¹⁹ And He said, “^(N)I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and ^(O)I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” ²⁰ But He said, “You cannot see My face, ^(P)for no man can see Me and live!” ²¹ Then the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place ^[d]by Me, and ^(Q)you shall stand there on the rock; ²² and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and ^(R)cover you with My hand until I have passed by. ²³ Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but ^(S)My face shall not be seen.”

Wow - what an amazing passage. Perhaps one of the most amazing passages in scripture.   "²¹ Then the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place ^[d]by Me, and ^(Q)you shall stand there on the rock"   and who is the rock? Of course it's Jesus.    Listen and hear again the promise of God:  Behold!  There is a place, by me {FOR YOU}, and you shall stand there on the Rock!   Also, no man may see Him and live... but we now count ourselves dead to sin and alive/born again IN Christ!  Hidden, by God's own Hand IN Jesus, IN the cleft of the ROCK! It is IN Jesus (the rock) that the place of Encounter is found.  IN Jesus, we are not alive to/for ourselves anymore, but we are dead to sin/this world, but alive to God, IN Christ.... therefore we get to see HIS face!

And listen to the Heart of God for us from Song of Solomon 2:14 "My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely."

Look at that!  IN THE CLEFT OF THE ROCK!!!! In  the hidden place IN Jesus, is the place of encounter. It is where we get to see/experience/know Him  & where He gets to see/experience and know US!  It should not be overlooked that the heart of God is longing to have you and I reveal ourselves to Him. 

There is SO much in this passage about the promise of seeing and knowing Him.

Moses asks/prays/begs to see Gods glory... God's response "I will make all of my goodness..."  I Will make (NOTE*** Everything God does initiates in the heart of God.  He is not compelled by us, He is compelled by His own nature.  He is released through our faith - in order to be Himself in our midst.) A.W. Tozer put it this way "God is the reason for all He does" and again he says "let us not suppose that God loves us because we are loveable, but because He is love."   In this passage one of the things that God is saying is "I will do what is in my heart to do...not because of you, but because of me"  *paraphrase is mine.

The other interesting thing here * and this is back to my original point* is that Moses askes to see/encounter Glory and God doesn't say no, He says yes.  But what He shows Moses is an aspect of His own Nature! 

Back to the verse I opened this with : It is the glory "Nature" of God to conceal a matter...  if you feel that God is hiding something from you, that what you're looking for always seems just beyond your reach... that you have dreams in your heart (from Him/He is behind them) but they seem like they are always hidden from plain view........ well that's simply God being himself towards you.  It's part of who He is.  Jesus spoke in riddles Matt 13:13 ""Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand."   *Ezekiel 12:2 shows us that the cause of being unable to hear/see is a rebellious heart. Therefore it can be assumed that a repentant/broken/contrite heart is able to see and hear!
NOW - get this "It the glory "Nature" of Kings to search it out

IN Jesus we have been made co-heirs with Christ.  It is often assumed that this makes us "Princes/Princesses" in His Kingdom.  but that's not what a co-heir is... a prince is one step removed from being the King.  HE is in fact training us to be kings, not princes. 
In hiding/concealing a matter he is causing our Kingly nature to be forced to rise to the surface.  Prov 25:4  "remove the dross from the silver, cause the true metal to come forth, and the silversmith can produce a vessel." italics mine*
In concealing from us, He is forcing us to allow our Kingly glory/nature to rise up on the inside of us, in order that we may continue to be transformed into a nation of Kings. Revelation 1:5,6 says, “...Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father...”


So my friends... you and I are being made into a nation of kings.  And it is in our very nature, our dna, to search out what He has concealed.  The best place to start is by opening our eyes and ears, through repentance of rebellion in our hearts... the next step is to find the place in the cleft of the Rock.  The Place of Encounter, in Jesus.  He is hiding... not from you.  But FOR you.  Selah.  

He never promised it would be easy... just that He would be Faithful

So, friends - are you like me? Do you forget that He never promised it would be easy? 

I think that I can get so "American-ized" in my view of the Godhead (Father,Son Holy Spirit) that I think that if I'm walking in obedience, that everything should just be "blessed"...meaning I get what I want, when I want and nothing is ever difficult.

I don't mean to slight my American brothers, it's just a predominant message that seems to come across in the US Christian culture.  However, here in Canada, I'm sure what the predominant "Christian" message is. I don't know... "be nice"?
Anyway, somewhere along the line I picked up the notion that Jesus would make my life here on earth easy, drama free, pain free and well... "blessed" {meaning I get what I want when i want it with little to no effort or patience}

That's not to say that He doesn't do those things.  He totally does!

 I just think that too often people go through a really hard time and think that they have left God's path.  "If I was walking with God/if God was walking with me, it wouldn't be so hard."

Tell me friend.  Where does HE ever promise that in Scripture?  If you can find it please correct me.  I find more passages talking about going through hard times WITH Him being faithful.

SO today I'm reminded to lift up my head.  The difficulties in my life are not so great as to destroy me.  This is but a chance to love Him in the midst of a manifestation of Hell.  Something I won't be able to offer Him in heaven, so I'd better make the most of it now.

Aside:

Have you ever thought how beautiful suffering/trials can be?  After our bodies decay and stop housing our immortal souls, we run out of chances to experience the trials/sufferings of this life.  Going through the shit of daily life was so important that Jesus Himself was made perfect through the process of going through shit storms. 

A servant is not above the Master...so we probably really need a lot of those storms to take the edges off of us.   I know I do.  And I'm going to work to open my heart, lift up my gates and let the King of Glory come into my garden.

I am far far far from perfect, and far from knowing obedience.  But I'm learning and it's through the storms that I'm finding Him faithful.

"Yes I know every circumstance is a gift from you. If I should take happiness from your hand, shouldn't I take sorrow too...You took away the idol of my guilt, You're the one who saved me, from myself. Taught me how to love, to forgive the greatest debts, and the mercy you don't give...is the mercy you don't get."  -Kevin Prosch

love to the germans

So it appears that there are several people in Germany who enjoy reading what I have to say.  Just wanted to send some love out to my German friends. Big Hugs!

The Green Mile, I'm not sure if I love that movie or not. I am sure in the reality of becoming aware of our own mortality.

The Mile refers to the last walk of an inmate as they move down the hall towards their impending execution. Obviously it is a walk that by it's nature forces one to become aware that they will soon stop breathing.

If you lift your perspective a little bit, perhaps you can see that you too are already walking your own "Green Mile". I don't mean to be morose, instead what I'm referring to is the fact that today each of us is one day,'a few more steps towards the end of our own path.

Now, here's the GOOD NEWS and it comes in two parts; 1) you are not alone in your walk. 2) if you are in fact taking this walk with Jesus, the end of this path, is not the destination, instead you will see that in one sense this path has been merely the walkup to the gates of your home!

Now today, what I'm thinking about is the walk itself. Yesterday my friend and Pastor spoke about walking with Jesus. It got me thinking about all the people HE has walked with in Scripture, and the walk that I've been on with Him these past 12 rotations of the sun.

In fact as I type, I'm wondering how many people in churches have yet to start really walking with Him; rather than just stopping to pay respects at intervals along the way.

For me, I started walking with Him in the Summer of 99. I had been saved and filled with Holy Spirit several years earlier, but it was then that my journey started to take into account the fact that I was not alone, and that He had better direction than I did.

In a practical way, in the spring of 2000 I started taking walks with Him. As in I would go on a walk, without other people, but just with Him. I started thinking that if I was to one day marry Jesus, that we'd better start by dating.  So since I didn't really know how to "know" God, I started interacting with Him the way I would when I would start dating someone. 

So we started going on walks, I would talk, He would listen.  He would talk, I would cry. It was good.  I talked to Him about my childhood, memories I had, my first kiss, my first BMX bike and how much I loved BMX riding as a kid.  I talked to Him about HighSchool and how much it sucked.  How my heart hurt all the time, and how afraid I was.  I laughed at myself, He laughed at me too.  We talked about dreams in my heart, dreams in His heart.  He would tell me where He was when I got my first BMX, or how He remembered the crush I had on Kelly Shiplack all through grade school.   He would talk to me about my parents and give me perspective on what they were going through as I was growing up.  He would talk to me about His heart, His thoughts on what was happening with His family. (His kids really) Talked about how He sees time, and how He is outside of Time and yet present in Time as well. (That was a long talk ; ) 

Most of all we just walked.  Sometimes we would hold hands.  (I'm serious, if you've never physically felt Him hold your hand, you should ask Him to sometime.  BUT be open for it to be different than my experience...)

SO - back to the Green Mile.  I think that depending on your destination, you are in the foothills of Heaven, or the Mountain tops of Hell.

If you are walking without Him, I don't know how you do it. I have a respect for you.  but also I am sad for you. I'm sad the way you'd feel if your friend was at the beach on a perfect day, but refused to come out of the port-a-john because they believed that they had everything they needed in there. 

If you are walking with Him, be encouraged, He is leading you to His own realm and showing you hints of Heaven along the way.

If you are following Him, why don't you ask Him to wait up and walk the rest of the way together. It's far more fun to Hold His Hand.

Selah.

I'm a pusher.

Yep.  I'm a pusher.  And I'm not ashamed of it.

What do I push? A better question might be, whom do I push?  The Answer; most everyone I can.  And I think it's time for a little blog style pushing.

I can clearly remember the summer of 1999.  I must have seen at least 2 dozen punk shows that summer plus a fabulous day at a windswept warped tour.  If you could ever get your hands on a copy of Skateboard Canada's summer issue from that year you will find a close up photo of yours truly which was taken as I was walking away from a crazy slam dancing pit for the band 7 Dust. You see back then I LOVED pushing people!

These days I'm much more laid back.  Gone is the wild bleach blonde hair style, the chain necklaces and the urge to stick my tongue out at every photo op.  I've put away the giant baggy shorts, wife beater tank tops and the chain from my wallet to my belt.  I've stopped throwing elbows into the faces of strangers and calling it "dancing".  But I think that in a new way, I still LOVE pushing people.

In place of the reckless, thoughtless, angry 20 year old who loved the Holy Spirit but hated most Christians; sits a much softer guy in early 30's (33 to be exact), someone who actually loves Christians, and the Holy Spirit.  For those who see me regularly at church, it may surprise you to know I am probably outwardly the calmest and quietest I've ever been in church. (Post Holy Spirit)

But here's the thing, I think I'm burning hotter than ever before.  And I pray that I can help catch you on fire!

One thing I don't understand is indifference in the hearts of people who profess Jesus.  I don't dislike the people who are indifferent, I just don't get it.  It doesn't make me angry, it makes me sad to see those who profess to be awake, walking through life in a stupor.  It's like their neither awake or asleep.  It seems to me that mediocrity when it comes to Jesus is just about the stupidest place anyone could ever live.

To go through life on the fence must be the worst torture...but the thing is, if you're on the fence, fear is probably what's keeping you there.

I remember a day when I was about 8 or 9 and my friend Brad and I were having a competition/race to see who could get from one end of my street to the other.  Except the thing was we had to go through people's backyards, climbing fences and not getting caught/stopped by any home owners along the way.  I remember this now because I recall what happened to Brad when he slipped mid climb and came down with one leg on either side of a 6 foot fence.  NOT a feeling/sight anyone forgets.

I think the same type of thing is experience by "Christians" who live their life on the fence, eventually you come down with one foot on each side.  Ouch.  It would have been far better just to hop down and live your life in one reality or the other.


This is the fence...the dividing line.  Jesus.  And what you are going to do with Him is the most important decision you will ever make.

You see, Jesus compels people to live on one side or the other.  Walking on the line is a refusal to make a choice as to which reality you are going to live in.  Or, maybe, the refusal to really commit is the choice that's being made.  If that's the case, I think you are behaving cowardly. But, what do I know right?

I do know that the Gospel of Jesus is the most polarizing/divisive thing I can think of. In fact Jesus said this as recorded in Matthew " 34 "Don't think that I came to bring peace to earth. I didn't come to bring peace but conflict. 35 I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 A person's enemies will be the members of his own family. 37 "The person who loves his father or mother more than me does not deserve to be my disciple. The person who loves a son or daughter more than me does not deserve to be my disciple. 38 Whoever doesn't take up his cross and follow me doesn't deserve to be my disciple. 39 The person who tries to preserve his life will lose it, but the person who loses his life for me will preserve it."

Jesus was a "pusher"  He wouldn't let you come to church on Sundays only. He wants your entire life. Every minute, thought, deed.  HE is ALL Consuming.  and He is wonderful. Jesus wouldn't let you sit in worship service with your arms folded, mumbling along to some of the words.  

So my friends, I hope you make a decision about Jesus.  Either HE is real, and everything He says is Truth.  Which, if that's the case, demands that you lift your eyes from this temporal place and throw your life at His feet continually.   OR Jesus is not real, not who He says He is,  Which if that's the case demands that you do everything you can to keep people away from believing in Jesus, even a little bit.  


Time to jump off of the fence.  or... you could always let the Holy Spirit push you ; )

Losing my damned mind...

So, I haven't written this in a while...it's not that I've run out of things to share, it's just that the sharing of what I'm going through lately makes no rational sense and I'd rather share everything in hindsight rather than in the lamplight of my flickering faith.

Because that is what is happening with me, in the midst of limping along in the dark, chasing after "the constantly moving cloud/pillar of fire", I am losing my damned mind.  I hope that I am gaining a renewed mind in exchange... sometimes it appears that I am; other times my damned mind won't go quietly and starts reminding me of all of the reasons I need to be stressed, fearful, depressed, heck - at one point in my life I would have been so scared of my current situation I would have been fixating on suicide.

But I'm not, I'm often very relaxed, full of confidence and assurance that everything is going to be better than OK - that my life is on the verge of experiencing the backlog of years of promises.  It's funny - but the more I take stock in how peaceful/relaxed I feel - then I can get stressed out.  Thinking that I "should" be way more stressed out than I am


My life at the moment should be stressing me out to the point of ulcers & hysterical fear and anger (at the very least indigestion & whimpering under my desk).  Yet for the most part I'm still full of Hope.  I'm still dreaming with expectancy of vacations, buying a house, funding a few orphanages, funding my churches growth plans.  (I won't even go into the details of how ludicrous that is when facing the financial situation that confronts me)


I gotta stop writing about the details, they want to overwhelm me with fear, because of the improbability of the situation.  So instead let me focus on Jesus!

And that's my secret.  That alone is how I am managing to lose my mind and not my heart.  This just may be the secret to renewing our minds.  Maybe most people don't renew their minds because they have to go through a shit storm like the one I find myself in; and frankly it could be the worst time of my life right now.
But I'm not letting it.  Instead I keep force feeding myself the Truth of His Nature.

I recall another time when the natural situation I was in was clearly impossible to fix in any way I knew how. I recall this phrase "  Blessed is the man who has nothing but the Nature of God"

Notice how I'm not talking about the "promise of God ? ".  You see, my experience with Jesus and His people has been (like many of you) intensely "prophetic" & "Charismatic".  I think I went through a 5 year period where I couldn't go 24 hours without receiving a word from someone or for someone.  The prophetic word was what I lived on!  I look back at that and smile a little ironic smile, I think it's the kind of smile that can only come from someone who has been broken a certain way.  You see I took the "word of the Lord" and turned it into a gavel by which to judge and beat the character of God.
Do you do that?  Do you look at your life, at someone else's life, watch the news... and judge God's heart?   Have you been given a promise or a "prophetic word"  that totally read your mail, caused your heart to soar and think YES! This is what I was made for!!! Only to see that word NOT come to pass?  Have you had someone you love look in your eyes and die as you held them?  Have you watched a loved one die slowly of cancer? AIDS? Or is it that you just witness the wickedness and corruption of the world? Is it the existence of the sex trade? Or starving children? Or natural disasters?  Or for you is it based around money?  
Oh Beloved, how foolish are we?  That we can sit and presume to judge the heart of the UnCreated One.

***Little aside:  any promise is only as good as the character of the one promising, and their ability to carry out what they have promised.    Example;  a 5 Pound note in England is actually worthless.  It says on it "The Queen owes the bearer of this note 5 Pounds".  And so the note becomes an I.O.U. from the Queen which = the worth it carries ie 5 pounds.  If the Crown were corrupt the note technically becomes worth nothing, if the Crown becomes unable to pay the owed 5 pounds, technically the note worthless.  Make sense?  (I know that modern economy makes this point breakdown, but you get the analogy)   The paper is worth something because of the character and the ability to honour the promise
This is what makes a prophetic word/promise from God worth anything.  Without His Nature, they're just words.  But because of His character you can take them to the bank.  The danger lies in placing our hope in the promise, rather than in the Nature of the One who Promised. 


So, back to the main point.

I am continuing to lose my damned mind.  And I love it!  The passage of the Gospels that keeps resonating with me is where Peter bursts out the "You are the Messiah" revelation and Jesus says on this Rock He will build His church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.  But the following verses are getting me just as much.  A moment later Peter says that Jesus shouldn't go to the cross; Jesus turns to him and says "get behind me Satan, for your mind is full of the things of man" 
How does Peter go from getting revelation by the Holy Spirit, to speaking the words of Satan in 60 seconds or less?  He filled his mind with the things of Man... which opened the gates of Hell and allowed the message of Satan to walk right through. 

So I'm working on refusing to set my affections and attention of the screaming world of the things of men, which yell at me the glaring deficiencies in my life and constantly judge and accuse God.  Instead I am commanding my soul to bow and worship. To trust in the Nature of the One who promised that He would never leave me, that He is the One who provides my very breath.

I am renewing my mind. by His grace.

selah 

There's power in poverty...

There's a power in poverty, that breaks principalities, and brings the authorities down to their knees.  There's a brewing frustration, an ageless temptation. To fight for control by some manipulation. But the God of the Kingdom and God of the Nations, the God of Creation sent this revelation.  To the poor and the pennyless, Jesus the Son " the poor will inherit the Kingdom to come".  And who will we praise when we've praised all our lives, men who build kingdoms and men who build things; but Heaven does not know their names? And where will we turn when our world falls apart, and all of the treasures we've stored in our barns, can't buy the Kingdom of God? And what will we fear when all that remains, is God on a throne, with a child in His arms, and love in His eyes...

I don't know why, but I can't get this out of my head, and the Holy Spirit is swirling around me.  I love you Jesus.