Prayer Time Can Be A Mysterious Business
Posted 04-12-2008 at 11:08 AM by ZephThree17
That GOD can be known and yet remain unknown is fine by me. I accept the fact that I can grow in the knowledge of Him, yet never completely penetrate the deep mystery of His Being.
In reading scripture I want GOD's Word to be “active and alive.” I want the LORD to speak to me and reveal what GOD is opening for me now. In other words, I want the Holy Spirit to pull back the veil and show me a bit of His mystery.
I’ve read Isaiah, chapter six, many times. It’s the call of Isaiah and his response to the LORD.” Taken like this, it's easy to overlook the drama that is taking place here. In so doing, we can miss GOD Himself and His fresh word to us. So I ask myself the question: what is actually happening here and what part of GOD’s great mystery does He want to reveal to me today?
Isaiah 6:1-5. In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and His train filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
Prayer times are a mysterious business. A person can have a hundred regular prayer times and experience nothing particularly striking, but then there’s that one time, as in this instance, when the LORD reveals Himself in a spectacular way. Like Isaiah, we sometimes think we’re [just] going to pray, and this King, whom we know in part, decides (when we least expect it) to break into our prayer and reveal His presence in some remarkable way.
The first thing I noticed in Isaiah’s experience was that the angels didn’t say GOD was holy; they didn’t even say He was holy, holy - but rather they declared GOD to be “Holy, Holy, Holy.” He was three times holy! This was their way of describing the LORD in the superlative degree. I believe this is the only time in scripture that an attribute of GOD is mentioned three times in succession. GOD is never described as “love, love, love” or “just, just, just.” His holiness stands alone. It is the distinctive attribute of the Living GOD - it is the hallmark of who He is. His holiness stands above any other of His many qualities.
He’s magnificent. He fills the temple. He is mighty. He is great. The seraphim know it and express it. They stand in His presence daily and acknowledge that He is "Holy, Holy, Holy".
His majesty is boundless!
I was also struck by the fact that like Moses at the burning bush who took his shoes off because he was on holy ground, the angels in this passage cover their feet in His Most Holy Presence. (Could this be a kind of protocol that is followed by all of GOD’s creatures when admitted into the LORD’s sanctuary?).
I see them acknowledging their lowliness by covering their feet in His Glorious Presence. There is a deep reverence, humility, and mystery in this gesture.
In Exodus 33 Moses was only permitted to see the LORD from the back, and Isaiah only saw GOD’s reflected glory. What was just a hope to them now becomes a promise to us as His people, the church: “Beloved, we are GOD’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). We are destined to enjoy not the mere reflected glory of the LORD, but rather His pure nature in all His manifest glory! Hallelujah!
Another observation for me from this passage was that in the presence of the LORD, the door posts and thresholds quaked. And I think that Isaiah quaked as well. In fact, I think he shook the most in such a charged atmosphere. The body of Isaiah must have been visibly moved as he pronounced judgment upon himself, saying, “Woe is me!” To put it another way, Isaiah was undone. He came apart at the seams. He was “blown away.” In a moment he was totally exposed before the absolute standard of holiness. He became aware of his complete unworthiness: “I am a man of unclean lips,” he says. He saw his sinfulness. At that moment he knew who GOD was and who He really was.
Normally, when we experience GOD and our own unworthiness it comes to us as a gradual revelation. The mystery unfolds before us slowly, but with this prophet it was instantaneous!
However, as difficult as this experience was, it did not annihilate him. Look at how Isaiah responds to this overwhelming vision. Sure, Isaiah was undone, but after groveling, he makes one of the most important declarations in all of sacred scripture: “Here am I. Send me!”
I think Rabbi Hershel, a renowned Talmudic scholar and professor at Yeshiva University in New York City, described a moment like this best when he wrote, “Awe, unlike fear, does not make us shrink from the awe-inspiring object, but on the contrary, draws us near to it.”
In the end, Isaiah was no “Humpty-Dumpy” who couldn’t be put back together again by anybody in his kingdom. GOD, seemingly in an instant, put Isaiah back together while leaving his identity intact. His personality was overhauled; he was changed, but not destroyed. Isaiah was still Isaiah when he left the temple as a new man. There is a pattern in this whole process we mustn’t miss. After a divine encounter, Isaiah is greatly moved. GOD forgives and transforms him, but then He sends him forth. In this temple visit, Isaiah goes from brokeness to mission. In the end he stands up as a volunteer: “I am ready,” he says, “I will go!” His mystical vision propels him to ministry. His worship isn’t an end in itself. It yields a mission. Grace contained is grace lost. Isaiah has received a great grace, and so he becomes a means of great grace to others.
GOD id Good!
In reading scripture I want GOD's Word to be “active and alive.” I want the LORD to speak to me and reveal what GOD is opening for me now. In other words, I want the Holy Spirit to pull back the veil and show me a bit of His mystery.
I’ve read Isaiah, chapter six, many times. It’s the call of Isaiah and his response to the LORD.” Taken like this, it's easy to overlook the drama that is taking place here. In so doing, we can miss GOD Himself and His fresh word to us. So I ask myself the question: what is actually happening here and what part of GOD’s great mystery does He want to reveal to me today?
Isaiah 6:1-5. In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and His train filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
As I read this, I thought, What a prayer time Isaiah was having! He thinks he is simply going up to the temple to honor the memory of his revered leader now deceased, but instead, he encounters the supreme King of all Kings! – What an experience he had! He got a lot more than he bargained for!“Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of Hosts;And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of Him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
the whole earth is full of His Glory. ”
Prayer times are a mysterious business. A person can have a hundred regular prayer times and experience nothing particularly striking, but then there’s that one time, as in this instance, when the LORD reveals Himself in a spectacular way. Like Isaiah, we sometimes think we’re [just] going to pray, and this King, whom we know in part, decides (when we least expect it) to break into our prayer and reveal His presence in some remarkable way.
The first thing I noticed in Isaiah’s experience was that the angels didn’t say GOD was holy; they didn’t even say He was holy, holy - but rather they declared GOD to be “Holy, Holy, Holy.” He was three times holy! This was their way of describing the LORD in the superlative degree. I believe this is the only time in scripture that an attribute of GOD is mentioned three times in succession. GOD is never described as “love, love, love” or “just, just, just.” His holiness stands alone. It is the distinctive attribute of the Living GOD - it is the hallmark of who He is. His holiness stands above any other of His many qualities.
He’s magnificent. He fills the temple. He is mighty. He is great. The seraphim know it and express it. They stand in His presence daily and acknowledge that He is "Holy, Holy, Holy".
His majesty is boundless!
I was also struck by the fact that like Moses at the burning bush who took his shoes off because he was on holy ground, the angels in this passage cover their feet in His Most Holy Presence. (Could this be a kind of protocol that is followed by all of GOD’s creatures when admitted into the LORD’s sanctuary?).
I see them acknowledging their lowliness by covering their feet in His Glorious Presence. There is a deep reverence, humility, and mystery in this gesture.
In Exodus 33 Moses was only permitted to see the LORD from the back, and Isaiah only saw GOD’s reflected glory. What was just a hope to them now becomes a promise to us as His people, the church: “Beloved, we are GOD’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). We are destined to enjoy not the mere reflected glory of the LORD, but rather His pure nature in all His manifest glory! Hallelujah!
Another observation for me from this passage was that in the presence of the LORD, the door posts and thresholds quaked. And I think that Isaiah quaked as well. In fact, I think he shook the most in such a charged atmosphere. The body of Isaiah must have been visibly moved as he pronounced judgment upon himself, saying, “Woe is me!” To put it another way, Isaiah was undone. He came apart at the seams. He was “blown away.” In a moment he was totally exposed before the absolute standard of holiness. He became aware of his complete unworthiness: “I am a man of unclean lips,” he says. He saw his sinfulness. At that moment he knew who GOD was and who He really was.
Normally, when we experience GOD and our own unworthiness it comes to us as a gradual revelation. The mystery unfolds before us slowly, but with this prophet it was instantaneous!
However, as difficult as this experience was, it did not annihilate him. Look at how Isaiah responds to this overwhelming vision. Sure, Isaiah was undone, but after groveling, he makes one of the most important declarations in all of sacred scripture: “Here am I. Send me!”
I think Rabbi Hershel, a renowned Talmudic scholar and professor at Yeshiva University in New York City, described a moment like this best when he wrote, “Awe, unlike fear, does not make us shrink from the awe-inspiring object, but on the contrary, draws us near to it.”
In the end, Isaiah was no “Humpty-Dumpy” who couldn’t be put back together again by anybody in his kingdom. GOD, seemingly in an instant, put Isaiah back together while leaving his identity intact. His personality was overhauled; he was changed, but not destroyed. Isaiah was still Isaiah when he left the temple as a new man. There is a pattern in this whole process we mustn’t miss. After a divine encounter, Isaiah is greatly moved. GOD forgives and transforms him, but then He sends him forth. In this temple visit, Isaiah goes from brokeness to mission. In the end he stands up as a volunteer: “I am ready,” he says, “I will go!” His mystical vision propels him to ministry. His worship isn’t an end in itself. It yields a mission. Grace contained is grace lost. Isaiah has received a great grace, and so he becomes a means of great grace to others.
GOD id Good!
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 |  Resopnding to Sandra's question.Dear Sandra, I'm not slack in responding to your question and some men might count slackness -- I'm Computer Challenged" Today, I found myself going here and there throughout the praying.org website when I came across these wonderful comments to my previous posted blogs. Now this explains why I received from praying.org an email that someone had responded to my posts! And when I came to the site to see who was "praying" for me - I found no one new had been added.... I thought what is going on here? Today, I just might have solved this mystery, praying.org must email a notice when a person responds to our blogs OR prayer requests posted! duh. :{}Yes, well, now, - to your question - There was an incident in Acts 5, where a man and wife lied to Peter about a plot of land they sold - where they kept part of the proceeds for themselves. Peter confronted them both and as a result of lying to the 'Spirit of GOD, they both fell over dead! The Bible says great fear came upon all the Church and upon all who heard these things. "And they were all with one accord in Solomon's Porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. And believers were increasingly added to the LORD, multitudes of both men and women. (Acts5:12-14) None of the rest dared join them. Yet the next verse says believers were increasingly added to the LORD. What gives? It is simple: No one dared join themselves to Yeshua without first repenting. Multitudes were repenting and being converted and were added to the LORD. Why did this man and his wife fall over dead? There have been people who lied to ministers since then and not fallen over dead. The reason is - "......so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them." (Acts5:15) The Glory of the LORD was manifesting so strong on Peter that just getting near him would drive out any manner of sickness or darkness. That man and his wife, Ananias and Sapphira lied in the presence of the glory of the LORD, The glory of the presence of the Holy Spirit. When you bring sin in contact with GOD's glory, there will be a reaction. Sin and anything that willfully bears it will be destroyed. When the ark of GOD's presence was being brought back to Jerusalem by King David and his men, one of the men put forth his hand to steady it at the threshing floor and was immediately struck dead! "The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverant act; therefore GOD struck him down and he dies there beside the ark of GOD." (2 Samuel 6:7) Maybe the reason GOD has not yet manifested His glory in the Church as strongly as He did in the book of Acts is because there would be many people falling over dead, like this couple. Malachi 3:1 - before the LORD comes in His Glory to His temple (Church) He will first send His messenger Elijah the Prophet to call the people back to the heart of YHVH. |
Posted 05-25-2008 at 07:05 PM by ZephThree17  |
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