Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. Those words echoed like thunder from the lips of the Seraphim in praise of Jehovah. He is uncommon. He is set apart. He is sacred. He is pure. The voice shook the threshold and foundations of the temple. This made up only a part of Isaiah's vision of God in Isaiah 6.
Few attended the service last night. God remained my focus. He burned His word in me from [Is 6:1-8]. He expanded my view of Him and I pray He did the same for those in attendance. Here is just part of what we looked at.
Part of Isaiah's vision of God included seeing Him sit on the throne as the Sovereign ruler and the scripture tells us the train of His robe (or the edge of His robe or the hem of His robe) filled the temple. The word filled means to overflow. Get this. Not God Himself. Not the robe of God. Just the hem of his robe filled the temple. When Solomon constructed the temple it totaled 183,618 square feet. When we lived in Seminole the school district built a new Jr. High. The massive two story building totaled a little over 170,000 square feet much smaller than the temple Solomon built yet the whole community of Seminole seemed awed at the new facility. In that massive temple just the hem of God's robe filled and overflowed the building. When I think about the temple in relation to that Jr. High facility I am blown away. The edge of God's robe overflowed 183,000 square feet in Isaiah's vision.
We are talking about a massive God. Isaiah later records in [Is 66:1] that heaven is His throne. We learn in [Rev 21:16] that Heaven is laid out in a square. The length, height, and width all being 1,500 miles. That makes the total square miles of Heaven 43,814,275 square miles if I did the math right. And all of that is but a sitting place for God. Heaven is His throne. This passage in Isaiah 66 records that earth is a footstool for God. This planet we reside on is a place for God to prop up His feet. The average radius of planet earth 3,959 miles. We do not get God. We are continually trying to shrink Him down to size. HE IS A MASSIVE GOD!
We are talking about a massive God larger than we know. Back in Isaiah 6 the Seraphim covered their faces before God and covered their feet. I think back to Moses' prayer in [Ex 33:18] to see more of God's glory. God's responded that no man could see Him and live. Just the back side of God's glory passed by Moses while God hid him in the cleft of the rock and Moses could never be the same.
The Seraphim also covered their feet. Again I am reminded of an encounter Moses had with Jehovah at the burning bush. In [Ex 3:5] God told Moses to take off his sandals because the place he was standing was holy ground. We stood on holy ground last night as God revealed more of Himself to us.
The Seraphim stated that the whole world is filled with the glory of God. From prairies to the hill country. From dense forests all the way out to the deserts. From mountain streams to the Great Lakes and from rivers all the way out to the oceans all creation shouts glory to God. From the Pine trees to the giant Redwood trees, they sway in worship of God. Not one of many gods. Not equal with any. The one, true, sovereign, eternal God.
My mind could barely grasp the fact that we were meeting in a 4,000 square feet warehouse and we had the audacity to ask God to come meet with us. The building could not contain Him much less our hearts and minds. Yet this superior God chooses to stoop down to relate to us as inferior beings. It is all absurd and yet He does so because He loves us.
Let that sink in. He, as massive, powerful, holy, and majestic as He is, chooses to relate to us. That one truth is more mind boggling to me than all the other things mentioned above. He took away our sin and like Isaiah we are forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God used a coal from the altar with Isaiah to cleanse Him. God used His Son to purchase our redemption and to pardon our guilt.
You probably know [Is 6:8] "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send and who will go for us?' Then I said, 'Here am I. Send Me!" That is the biblical response to such a great salvation from such a great God. We make ourselves available to Him. So I keep preaching. I keep asking God for revival. I keep witnessing to lost people. I keep serving Him. And when He wanted a new church in Paradise and needed someone to pastor and plant that church I found myself like Isaiah, though initially resistant and hesitant, holding my hand up like grade school child eager to answer the teacher's question, "Pick me. Choose me. I will go."
You know the rest of the story. Though we have seen God move we have NOT experienced revival on a broad scale. I have met with God and been touched deeply by Him all three days thus far. God has not shaken the entire church much less the city at this point. So we continue to plead for more of Him. I continue to plead that God would put a hunger in the hearts of His people. I will never cease challenging people to give God their all when I see them give their all in support of schools, sports, and civic organizations. We labor on and pray on for more of Him.
Chris ended the night with a song based on Isaiah 6:1-8. I wanted to shout. I do not know what God has in store for tonight. I do not even know what I will be preaching yet. I only know God is calling us deeper and we trust Him to shake this city.
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