When did God last take you to the floor with the reality of who He is, and with the nearness of eternity and the triviality of this life by comparison? Im asking you straight up—when was the last time you were gripped? When was the last time you let God get a grip on your heart? No vague answers to this question, ok? Get specific. What year? What month? How long has it been? This isnt the kind of thing you can forget. Has it ever happened? Please, no guilt here. There was a time in my life when my honest answer would have been, no!
But there is hope. A couple of years ago I was gripped, I was shaken afresh by Gods awesome, holy, sovreign character. Buckle your seat belt, because you in for the ride of your life. (Yeah, really!) God is not safe, and He will not be squeezed into some neat, respectable Sunday discussion. God in a box—with a little packet of hot sauce and a toy surprise. No. To know God at all is to watch Him explode any box we put Him in with His terror, majesty and indescribable wonder. God says “Get Me out of the box. Know Me as I am—the One who was and is and is to come. [Revalation 1:8] Eternal. Holy. Awesome. Sovreign. Lord of all.”
God invites us to be gripped by His greatness. Shaken to the core of our being with the realization of what He freely offers. The King of creation welcomes us at His throne room for just a glimps of His glory, and we fall on our faces.
Are you scared? Are you wondering if I am talking about some weird, way-out-there, flesh-manufactured strangeness? I’m not. I think I understand why people do a lot of bizarre things to get their piece of God. Im not surprised when folks drive across the country of fly across the world to be a part of such supposed supernatural happenings. (As if God would make some He loves bark like a dog!?) The counterfeit is present because the reality beckons so strongly. Each of us longs to not just know God, but to experience Him.
But we must not let our zeal for God lead us away from the way He revealed Himself—through Scripture. Genuine encounters with God must be measured against and can never stray from the anchor of Gods Word. Dont settle for cheap substitues. Jesus said, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)
The kind of gripping encounter Im talking about has nothing to do with unbiblical extravagance. Im talking about what Paul felt on the Damascus road, and John in his revelatory vision of things to come. And the burning awesomeness that Moses experienced as he stood by a bush or hid in the cleft of the rock. I have in mind what Samual must have sensed as he spoke the transforming words, “Speak LORD, for your servant is listening.” (1Samuel 3:9)
Some will argue that the dramatic encounters of the Bible are not essential for us today because we have the Scripture in our hands and the Holy Spirit in our hearts. But dont let those facts allow you to settle for a faith from the shoulders up.
That kind of experience only happens when God penetrates our hearts through the truth of His word and drives the indifference and complacency from our souls.
We dont long for the dramatic—we long for the unmistakable, the genuine unveiling of the glory of God. Isaiah is considered to be the prince of all prophets. He minsitered without compromise in a day of moral decline (much like ours)and preached holiness of God during the reign of four kings (much like we will). From Isaiahs lips poured forth dignified oratory like the world had never heard. Hebrew scholors will tell you his language is the most eloquent in all of the Old Testament.
Even Isaiahs personal testimony spoke of courage and faith. While Jonah ran, Jeremiah wept, and Habakkuk cried, “How long?” Isaiah stood and proclaimed the righteous majesty of God and the coming Messiah. He delivered our most treasured prophecies concerning Christ—740 years before the Saviour was even born. Ever wonder how Isaiah became such a pure, powerful and prophetic spokesman for God? Ill tell you. On the day that God called him to minitry, He gave him an unparalleled, unprecedented, private tour of His heavenly throne room. And Isaiah was changed forever by what he saw. This same vision is that we desperatley, desperatley need in the Church today. Such a view of God rocks your world and turns it upside down…but wow, right side up.
So if yoru weary to death of labouring under an almost ceremonial remembrance of God and a distant reminiscence of when your faith was vibrant, if your ready and willing to engage in a current experience with God, to be gripped afresh by the Father, the Creator, the Judge, the King…please return your seats to the upright position and stow all carry-on baggage under the seat in front of you.
I felt so burdened to write this to you all, because I have felt this dryness lately, please let us all wear the armour of God and stick close to our commanding officer, Jesus. Spend time, a lot of time in the Word and in Prayer to the most High God. Be open to His Spirit hammering away at the stuff in your life that doesnt belong there and building on the good things He has already done in your heart. Kneeling down, folding your hands, and bowing your face to the ground, praying out loud—each of these actions in the physical realm through prayer. If you “get into it” you will get more out of it.
Get ready to be stunned by His glory—gripped by almighty God. Shaken in a way that is greater then any richter scale can measure. This is the God who owns the universe. This is the God Isaiah saw “sitting on the throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.” (Isaiah 6:1)
Remeber this is just where it starts, or starts again. We will spend the rest of our lives and into eternity captured by the most glorious, life-rattling, astounding discovery a human being can make. To be gripped, truely gripped by the greatness of God. Its never going to end. So lets get started.
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called out to another and said,
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.”
And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
Then I said,
“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”
AMEN
See you on the front lines & in the throne room bowing facedown,
Jenn
Amen.