"The LORD says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name."" Isaiah 65:1 (NLT)
Wherever we live, we live in a sick nation, an ill society and among a broken people. The big question I find so compelling to answer while men argue politics, fight for position and possession, and even counter each other contentiously and obsessively over what God Himself has said...
...is why?
The answer's not hidden. It's not sealed away in some dark vault left under an impenetrable guard. It's been in front of us the whole time, emblazoned forever in the permanence of eternity as a moment that God's patience was tried sorely by His very own creation, because...
...We've forgotten who God is.
I'm sure many would argue that point in an effort at self justification, though I do not count myself exempt from disrespecting Him. But the truth is that while we may remember Him with scheduled regularity, we fail to recognize the immense height of His majesty, the catastrophic magnitude of His power, and the extent of His complete sovereign rule that extends far beyond the realm of mankind, every waking moment of every day. He's not a part time God - one given to abide by the constraints of man's scheduled activity or confined to reign in the time man might remember to set aside as permissible for Him to rule over every detail of our lives.
If we truly remembered Him, we'd not only find our knees, but our faces touching the earth before Him. Our voices and our hands would be lifted up to Him in continual worship and praise - not caring who among the inconsequential assembly of men heard it as long as there was a chance that He did. We'd look to Him continually as the true source of our provision rather than placing our faith in the hands of any man or institution - even our own hands. We would acknowledge in desperate honesty our complete and total dependence on Him continually and express unending gratitude at every turn for the magnitude of His grace.
It should be no surprise to us that as we ignore the ultimate power in all that exists, that He would look away from us as we disrespect Him and His authority over our plight and allow darkness to slowly overtake our path. In insolence we might declare that I'm going, I will, I... forgetting to consult God's will and authority over our lives and not instead declaring "If God wills or "If God allows". Our lack of fear and respect in our statements, while at the same time declaring our remembrance of Him, speaks for itself in its insolence. Complete, full time, reverent, submission declares that He is God.
I'm understanding that there are occasionally some who may seek to disrupt what God might seek to do in corporate gathering in our churches and require exception, but the freedom of abandonment in worship is often restricted in the institution of man's church order. I think it's shameful and disrespectful to God that any honest offering to Him, prompted by the movement of His Spirit, be waylaid by the constraint of human order (Remember King David dancing before the ark). Whose people and whose houses do we claim them to be? The Holy Spirit should reign freely over the assembly of God's people and they should respond respectfully and honestly in submission to God's highest order, with complete respect for His sovereign direction and in the freedom He's allowed us in intimate relationship with Him as His deeply beloved children...
... And we wonder why there's no revival.
If we want to see a revival of God's people among the nations, then we have to unbind His Spirit - let Him direct the assemblies and let Him move among them. If we want the nations to recognize Him then we must let Him be seen. If we want God's justice and righteousness to reign over our societies and for light to shatter darkness, then we must speak up for those issues and stop quivering in fear as though God has no authority or ability to act in the face of the darkness, brokenness and corruption. If we want Him to hear us, see us, and remember us,... we have to...
...remember who God is...
...and BE HIS PEOPLE.
"Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish. I will call a swift bird of prey from the east— a leader from a distant land to come and do my bidding. I have said what I would do, and I will do it. Listen to me, you stubborn people who are so far from doing right. For I am ready to set things right, not in the distant future, but right now! I am ready to save Jerusalem and show my glory to Israel." Isaiah 46:9-13 (NLT)
"No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8 (NLT)
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