Worship call 0693 Seeing God

Robert, stick to the plan! Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. We often develop strategies, game-plans, life-plans – and then, at some obstacle or critical point, we say – "Just stick to the plan!" It's usually good advice. Life is always sending unexpected surprises, but praise God, nothing takes Him by surprise. He's the master planner. Our family might turn against us, our friends let us down, illness, afflictions, problems and "situations" on every side...God still has a plan, for you, and for me. Joseph is a prime example of life's surprises. It took 13 years of endurance and character-building for him to fulfill this part of God's plan. Sold as a slave into Egypt by his own brothers, betrayed and imprisoned, he must have wondered a lot where God was and what He was doing. But finally, as a prepared vessel, Joseph was placed in the highest position in the land, second only to Pharaoh, and commissioned to execute God's plan for saving the world from famine. So the Lord had surprises of His own. Revealing himself to his brothers, Joseph summed it up beautifully: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, in order to bring it about as [it is] this day, to save many people alive." (Genesis 50:20) When our situations are difficult to handle and downright impossible to explain, we need to remind ourselves that God said, “I know the plans I have for you.” Through these situations we discover how faithful and sovereign He truly is. He knows what we can handle and He will never give us more. When the test is completed, we come out with character, stronger in faith, more in love, more useful to Him, and ready........... for our next test. :) (Oh yeah...) Robert, the fact that we have problems is a sign that we also have a promise. It’s only a matter of time before God reveals His good intentions – so until then, let’s stick to the plan! His!!! Your family in the Lord with much agape love, George, Baht Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah Baltimore, Maryland

Matthew 5:8 (NASB95) — 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

The Purifying the heart is the process of Sanctification in the life of the believer the complying with what James is telling the believer to do.

James 4:8 (NASB95) — 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

It is the Lord God that we are seeking for, asking for, knocking for. The Katharitzo process of the life of the believer is in the pursuit of God having one’s heart cleaned out of the garbage of this world. the purification begins at the point of being born again of cutting off the influences that have so long been filtering in through the eye gate and the ear gate.

Do you think that there is a reason that the great commission emphasized the making disciples over and above beating the bushes for converts?

The problem with many is that they continue to be fed hours a day with sewage of the world flowing into the heart and only a few minutes a week of spiritual sustenance coming into the heart.

There are 168 hours in a week.

Let’s say 56 of those hours you are asleep.

That’s 112 hours left

How much time do you give taking in God’s word?

An hour on Sunday, that is if there is anything being taught from the pulpit?

Maybe another hour on Wednesday night and maybe Sunday.

Ok, we will go with 3 hours.

Also subtract the time you spend meditating on the Lord and in prayer. That time should be subtracted.

Actually, there are a lot of waking hours given to pursuits within the devil’s world and very few we actually can count being occupied with the Lord.

No wonder spiritual growth is such a slow process. We have two feet in the world and a just a little toe testing the waters of the spiritual life in following Christ.

The Pursuit of God begins with centering your life around God’s word.

2 Corinthians 10:5 (NASB95) — 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

We are guarding the heart, keeping in check those things that we are allowing to influence it.

Philippians 4:8–9 (NASB95) — 8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

What goes into the eye gate and ear gate is very important. Especially these days, given to our entertainment in music movies tv shows the things we read, (that is if we even read anymore.)

We are pushing out the old thinking by taking in the pure milk of God’s word.

We begin with the milk, the elementary teaching of God’s word and then we advance further when we apply and begin to live in accordance to the instruction of the world in Spiritual growth to the point where we are taking in the meat and potatoes.

Hebrews 6:1–3 (NASB95) — 1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do, if God permits.

You know it seems like as spiritual babes in Christ we care little about eating our vegetables. We don’t even like the meat. We want cake and Ice cream. You could imagine the health we’d have growing up on that diet if our parents had not trained us to eat good food with sustenance.

Same with the spiritual life. there are many spiritually weak believers due to the diet of candy and cake rather than the meat of God’s word.

Whatso ever a man thinks in his heart, so he is.

There is also the computer analogy of Garbage in Garbage out.

Your daily walk with the Lord, your thinking your speech, Your dealing with people, every area of your life reflects your diet of God’s word being taking into the heart.

In such a capacity not only will you see God, but others will see God in you.

Matthew 5:8 (NASB95) — 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

3708. ὁράω hŏraō, hor-ah´-o; prop. to stare at [comp. 3700], i.e. (by impl.) to discern clearly (phys. or ment.); by extens. to attendto; by Hebr. to experience; pass. to appear:—behold, perceive, see, take heed.[1]

It is not a visual seeing of God. God is a spirit. And much like the wind that blows and seeing the effects of the wind as it blows the limbs on a tree we say we have seen the wind.

My friend Michael and I used to ask each other from time to time what one’s defining moment of the day was. That is what was it in that day in such a way that we saw God move in our lives. Maybe in such a small way but we knew it was God’s hand in some circumstance of the day. Maybe it was being at the right place at the right time to meet and talk to the right person. The providential hand of God guiding our lives this way or that.

As we grow in the Lord by the means of his word and by the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit you will find that each day will have that touch or that moment in it that you see the movement of God in your life.

This is the promise that we find in James

James 4:8 (NASB95) — 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Sometimes it may seem like God plays favorites. That God works closer with some than he does with others. Why does it seem like others have a stronger faith and God is working in their lives and not in yours?

God is no respecter of persons. He is waiting to work in the lives of his children. He is the Father of the Protocol son, waiting for his Son’s return that he might come running out to and to be a part of His son’s life. It was the son’s choice to leave. It is the father who gave him the choice. The father did not beg or plead for the son to stay. The Son went on out into the world and tied himself with the pleasures of the world.

Note that The Son never stopped being The Father’s son.

When the Famine hit, the son who is not the son of the world found that the world was really no friend of his.

In repentance the son returned. The father seeing his son, ran, not walked to receive his son back and to honor the son. It was the son who chose to leave, and the son chose to humble himself and return.

We make decisions every day as believers.

The Father does not coerce our choices. The door is open that we might as the protocol did, to leave and to play in the world.

Is the Father grieved? I’m sure he is. I know the Holy Spirit is (Ephesians 4:30)

IN the world the son did not have the benefit of being close to the father. There was no longer fellowship between the two. There was no comfort when the son felt down, there was no council when he was worried and afraid. Ignoring the loving boundaries of the father’s love, all inhibitions of the flesh was removed sucking the son further into the destructive darkness of his sin nature. And every day of life in the world the father drifted further and further away from that loving relationship.

With just an ounce of the Father left in his heart, the son turns fo home. what does he see not the father waiting for him but a father who is running to close the gap.

Our Father who is worshipped in spirit and in truth has provided every asset for his sons and daughters to draw near and be able to perceive God in their lives. and God is all so ready to be show himself to the one who seeks him with a purified heart.

It is not your actions that they Lord is most concern with. It is the heart. it is what is in the heart that will drive the action. If the heart is filled with the idols of the world your actions will be in alliance with the world. if your heart is filled with the Lord then your actions will be in alliance with God’s will.

You can have both. God does not care to share himself with the double minded. When our hearts are set on the Lord leaving behind our idols then we can see and perceive God in our lives not once in every few years but we will come to see God and his hand in our lives each and every day.

Every day there will be that defining moment when we had witnessed the movement of God in our lives.

[1]Strong, J. (2009). In A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible (Vol. 1, p. 52). Logos Bible Software.