Are you a Starved Christian who has never experienced the Glory of God?

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

"Were a starved generation that has never seen the glory of God. We have men and woman in their 20s and 30s who have neve seen the glory of God. They're Christians, they're in Bible schools, but they have never seen the glory of God. They have never known what it is to be in a service where the presence of God is so awe-inspiring that you cant speak aloud.

They have never heard God preached about so high and lifted up that they went home in silence and would'nt talk. When A.B.Simpson preached in Buffalo, New York, he preached on the glory of Jesus Christ and when he was finished , they dismissed the meeting and no one got out of their seats. They sat there because they were afraid to get up and walk around in the presence of God. But a whole generation of young people have never seen anything like that. "Oh God restore thy glory by whomsoever thout wilt restore thy glory." (Tozer,Fellowship of the Burning Heart)

Tozer was writing about the problem of the age. Can I suggest that it is a deeper problem today. The departed presence of the Living God from His Temple is now almost complete. The stage is set. Perhaps you are a young person who has never experienced what Tozer was writing about? Perhaps you are a not so young person who has never experienced what Tozer was writing about? The new wineskin is coming........Frank

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

thank you frank i needed that

A

ADisciple Dec 11, 2009

Thanks for that, Frank, very much.

I've been thinking a lot along this line of late, and have been reading Isaiah Ch.6 and Malachi Ch.3 over and over again.

God said He would send His messenger to "make ready a people prepared for the Lord" Lk. 1.17.

I believe we are closer to being that prepared people when we are crying out how undone we are, how unclean we are, how in need of Him we are, how we can't live this Christian life without Him any more.

When we are feeling dry, and empty, and barren, this is evidence of His workings in our lives: He is preparing us for His appearing.

"But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap."

Oh, how He longs to come forth like this! And when we are feeling the same passion and longing, aware of a need that only Fire can answer, we are closer to being ready!

Blessed are the poor, the meek, the weak, the hungry, the blind. Woe to the rich, the comfortable, the complacent, the satisfied, the seeing.

An hour is at hand when we are going to see the fulfillment of prophecy: 1 Sam. 2.1-10, and Lk.1.46-55. "The poor have the gospel preached unto them, and the rich He hath sent empty away."

We have had the Gospel preached unto us, I know.

But again I say, we have not yet had the Gospel preached unto us.

...I found this very moving:

"Oh God restore thy glory by whomsoever thou wilt restore thy glory."

Do we-- do I-- love His glory so much that it doesn't matter to me anymore whether He uses me or not in bringing it back? If He uses another, and puts me on the shelf... will I rejoice just as greatly to see His glory return?

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

Presence of God? Yeah...Prove it.

H

HeartSong Dec 11, 2009

Oh Father, help paulmcg1 to see . . .

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

All I see is man made experience that even Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses could have. I don't see the glory of God...sorry.

H

HeartSong Dec 11, 2009

If you do not see Him, how can you love Him?

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

If you do not see Him, how can you love Him?

1john 4:19-21 We love him, because he first loved us.
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

So if we love our brethren, we see God, because God is love! If we don't love the brethren, God doesn't dwell in hate. If we dwell in love, then we see God.

When we feed the brethren, it's as if we are feeding God. If we take in the poor and needy, it's as if we have warmed and provided for Jesus. This is what it means to see God. God is not seen because He is a Spirit, but God can be seen in His creation and especially in the household of faith.

Matt 25:40 Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

We love Him by loving the brethren. The poor and needy are those that are in the Church, not outside, because the world will look after it's own, we who are on the inside look after our own, the body of Jesus Christ.

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

paulmcg1 wrote:
Presence of God? Yeah...Prove it.

Paul we don't have to prove it. The presence of God needs no "proof". The fact of Him is all around in the Heavens and the Earth.

But..lets see.. if you think of it as radio waves. you can't "see" them but they are there.
You just need a "tuner" adjusted correctly to "recive them.

Paul, your tuner is not tuned in to percieve and recieve His presence. Adjust your tuner back to His frequency.

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

We have men and woman in their 20s and 30s who have never seen the glory of God.

You need to go one up Frank, 40s. ;-)

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

Hi Adisciple,

You are spot on brother, spot on. You have captured exactly what Tozer was getting at. Isa 6 was the verse the Lord awoke me with early on the morning of the last day of the Wales conference.

Isa 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died I then saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.

What the Lord was saying to me made me weep. I was leading prayer at the conference that morning and the question I was to ask God's people was "Have you seen the King?" Then He gave me Rev 3 and 4.....

Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with Me.

Rev 4:1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door was opened in Heaven.
Rev 4:2 And immediately I became in spirit. And behold, a throne was set in Heaven, and One sat upon the throne.

He then directed me to go and wake brother Brian Long and pray for the prayer service that morning. It was a powerful morning, slightly controversial, but powerful.

You also mentioned Mal 3. This very Scripture was very much a central focus of the Barnsdall conference and again its about the coming presence of the Lord and do we really want it? I think your last statement is great brother....

"Do we-- do I-- love His glory so much that it doesn't matter to me anymore whether He uses me or not in bringing it back? If He uses another, and puts me on the shelf... will I rejoice just as greatly to see His glory return?"

Excellent question...........Frank

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

"You need to go one up Frank, 40s."

I agree with that brother :-) ......Frank

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

Hi Paul,you wrote.......

"Presence of God? Yeah...Prove it."

That dramatically proves the point of the post. Do you mind telling us how long you have been a Christian? Please do not feel that I am critizising you, this is the tragedy of the age.........Frank

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

"Do we-- do I-- love His glory so much that it doesn't matter to me any more whether He uses me or not in bringing it back? If He uses another, and puts me on the shelf... will I rejoice just as greatly to see His glory return?"

There are two scriptural thoughts on this.

There is Gideon's fragmented army where a large portion was left behind, on the shelf as it were.

And there is Isaiah who's tongue has been touched and now willing and eager to be sent because he had seen the LORD.

It's hard to imagine Moses being in the wilderness for 40 long years (that is less than half our lifespan today) not doing anything for the LORD until he sees God in the Burning Bush. What a waste of life. I'd like to cry right now, but I am unable to. It's painful to know that as a believer most of us are just driftwood on the beach waiting for someone to add fire to it.

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

Wow Deepthinker, there is such humility in your reply, thank you brother for your tranparency, it is so refreshing. Your points are right on, right on.........Frank

quote......

"
"Do we-- do I-- love His glory so much that it doesn't matter to me any more whether He uses me or not in bringing it back? If He uses another, and puts me on the shelf... will I rejoice just as greatly to see His glory return?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are two scriptural thoughts on this.

There is Gideon's fragmented army where a large portion was left behind, on the shelf as it were.

And there is Isaiah who's tongue has been touched and now willing and eager to be sent because he had seen the LORD.

It's hard to imagine Moses being in the wilderness for 40 long years (that is less than half our lifespan today) not doing anything for the LORD until he sees God in the Burning Bush. What a waste of life. I'd like to cry right now, but I am unable to. It's painful to know that as a believer most of us are just driftwood on the beach waiting for someone to add fire to it.

I

IWantAnguish Dec 11, 2009

"You'll never convince me that there's revival in America, I'm too smart to know that... I'll bring statistics that will drown you."

-Leonard Ravenhill

A

ADisciple Dec 11, 2009

I understand what people mean when they say the glory of the Lord is all around us. It's true in a sense.

But if you look up and read the passages in Scripture that tell what happened when the glory of the Lord filled the house of God, or when different ones saw His glory-- they were on their faces, or they could not stand to minister... THIS is the kind of glory Isaiah was prophesying of.

What Isaiah meant in Ch. 6, when the seraphim cried out, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is filled with His glory," this is a prophetic word.

There is coming a time-- the LORD has sworn it will happen-- when "all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD" (Num. 14.21).

In another place Isaiah prophesied, "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11.9, see also Hab. 2.14).

We are not there yet, obviously. Far from it. Not even the church yet is filled with the glory of the Lord. Far, far from it. But it shall be. (Eph. 3.21). This ought to be the one burden of all Christians, particularly of those who are in a place of leadership.

E

elected Dec 11, 2009

We dont see the glory of God because we dont know the pentecostle fire. The tragedy of today is that people are deceived into believing in the counterfeit.

Holiness movement is not holy anymore, pentecostal movement is not pentecostal anymore, fundamentalists movement has grieved the holy Spirit with their dead formality. Legalsism, wild fire, dead othodoxy, these are the effects that we reap in our churches today.

Appolus:

"They have never heard God preached about so high and lifted up that they went home in silence and would'nt talk. When A.B.Simpson preached in Buffalo, New York, he preached on the glory of Jesus Christ and when he was finished , they dismissed the meeting and no one got out of their seats. They sat there because they were afraid to get up and walk around in the presence of God. But a whole generation of young people have never seen anything like that. "Oh God restore thy glory by whomsoever thout wilt restore thy glory." (Tozer,Fellowship of the Burning Heart)

This was old time religion in america. Whether you went to holiness, pentecostal or fundamentalist churches in those days, preachers were endowed with power from on high and you would have felt the power of the Spirit bringing conviction to sinners.

sermonindex Dec 11, 2009

Elected writes.....

"We dont see the glory of God because we dont know the pentecostle fire. The tragedy of today is that people are deceived into believing in the counterfeit.

Holiness movement is not holy anymore, pentecostal movement is not pentecostal anymore, fundamentalists movement has grieved the holy Spirit with their dead formality. Legalsism, wild fire, dead othodoxy, these are the effects that we reap in our churches today."

Amen brother. We are indeed reaping the judgments of God which has started at His house. The glory of the Lord's presence has left the Temple as in Ezek. Brother Brian Long preached about it at Wales, I have spoken about it on my own site as the Lord has led but it is the promises of God in Amos 9:11-15 which excite me. This too was preached on in Wales(David Guzik) The promises found there are coming to a hungry and a thirsty people...............Frank

M

MeiLi Dec 11, 2009

Perhaps you are a young person who has never experienced what Tozer was writing about?

Yes I am :-( ... and I'm fully aware of that lack. So what advice does Tozer give to such a person?

I guess seek, knock and keep knocking?