To See God---Alone!
(Gleanings from We Would See
Jesus
and journal notes
Jan.,2004)
I just love the way the Holy Spirit orchestrates the
way He leads us and the teachings we receive on Sunday meetings and through the
week. Last Sunday evening, Brother
Gerry Baughman, brought us a very vivid message on God being the Potter and we,
being the clay. My devotional for
tonight was already prepared and I was delighted to see the Holy Spirit
continuing to confirm His direction in molding us and directing us in the
direction the Lord would have us to go.
Tonight’s devotional is adapted from my personal
journal written in January 2004. It
is what I call ‘gleanings’ from a book I was using with my
devotions,
We Would See
Jesus by Roy Hession, at the time. I’ve reread this little book many times
and would encourage you to read it if you have not.
Let’s begin tonight by turning to [B]Deut.
What is it the Lord requires according to this verse?
To fear the LORD (that is, YAHWEH, the One Who draws near to
redeem me from the tyranny of sin), to
walk in HIS WAYS, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God – HOW? with
ALL thy heart and
with ALL thy
soul”. For the sake
of application we could probably make this even more succinct by saying we are to (respectfully) fear, to walk, to love, to serve
the LORD with
ALL---period!
ALL includes EVERYTHING!
In Micah 6:8, God’s Word says, “He
hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee,
but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God?”
And in Mark
To respond to God’s call of commitment, to walk the walk God would have
us to walk, to love as God loves, to serve as God would have
us to serve,
we have to see God---ALONE.
We never enter into the picture. That is, we don’t decide what it is we
will do for the Lord and what we will not do. That’s not our decision. We are, after all, “the clay”.
We have to ask ourselves, have we as believers lowered God’s intended
goals? Are we serving God in
our own power and strength rather than allowing Him to work through us? Are we vessels
surrendered and available for His use or are we doing
service for the Lord as we see
fit: according to our own personal will
and choice?
Here are a few of Scripture’s “thermometers” to help us all examine ourselves
before the Lord:
Jeremiah 18:1-6 is the well known
account of the LORD’S message through Jeremiah to the house of
A Temperature Check: Are we “clay” in the LORD’S hand? That is, are we supple, moldable,
without resistance to whatever it is that the LORD would desire to do with us or
make us become? The LORD is, after
all, molding us into the image of His Son.
[B]Philippians 2:5-8 – Our mind,
verse 5 says, is to be the mind of Christ
Jesus. Our temperament should be
likened unto Christ’s.
Verse
8 tells us what that is: Jesus
humbled Himself and became obedient unto death. His obedience was not an emotional
response, nor an intellectual response.
His obedience was a heart response.
A Temperature Check: How willing are we to “humble ourselves”?
Are we willing to take the form of a
servant? Are we
willing to die to our own self
will? Have we emptied ourselves of our own desires, our own
wants, our own self-imposed limitations? Is our
emptying of ourselves a once in a while response, or one, like Christ’s
that is once and for all settled in our hearts? Is Christ on
the throne of our hearts or are we on the
throne?
Isaiah 64:8 says, “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and
thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy
hand.”
We are the workmanship of the Potter’s Hands. He is Sovereign over us and has dominion over us…
we are not our own.
A Temperature Check:
-If we are without the Potter, we are but
dust.
-If we are without the Potter, there is no
water applied to the dust.
-Without the Potter, there is no shaping and
forming into a vessel FIT for the Master’s use.
-Without the Potter, we cannot bring Him
glory.
Then, in verse 4, remembering that
Jesus is speaking, we see His dreaded, “Nevertheless”! The Lord tells them they have
left their first love. Their first
love is God Himself.
Ryrie’s notes tell us that the word “left” implies an
intentional and not accidental act.
More than 30 years before, this church had been commended for its love
(Eph.
A Temperature
Check:
How easy it is for us to be doing good and right things for the Lord’s
sake…and to become at ease and comfortable through the years doing good and
right things. The Christian walk is
one of progression. The faithful
use of our gifts and talents is certainly a good thing. However, the Lord seeks to stretch us in
If we were to examine ourselves, truly
examine ourselves with the Lord’s magnifying glass, would we
perceive we have come to know the
Lord Himself more intimately than we knew Him a year
ago? Five years ago?
Ten years ago? Etc. Or, have we become swept up in service,
in the good works, in programs, etc., and have forgotten Him?
As some of us heard at a recent Song of Songs conference, the Shulammite
describes herself as “black” because of working in the sun in another’s
vineyard, but she failed to keep her own vineyard.
(SS 1:5,
6). To be swept up in the “doing” of things,
and especially if those things are not the Lord’s will for us, we are in danger
of not cultivating our personal relationship with the
Lord; we can be busy, busy, busy, but not honoring
or glorifying Him in all our busyness.
Have “good deeds and good works” taken the place in our lives of sitting
at the feet of the Lord? Have we
through familiarity in serving Him forgotten to seek Him consistently,
passionately, diligently? Have we
diligently met with the Lord in our “closet” and asked Him His Will for our
lives and His direction? Have we
submitted our hearts and minds to
Him and are we listening for His voice?
And, hearing Him, will we do as He says?
The Lord has made us HIS peculiar vessel to be filled with Himself and
His particular purpose for us, that we might bring Him Glory! Let us purpose and make it our heart’s
desire to seek God and His Will for our lives; let us give the Lord ALL we are, ALL we have by His grace without reservation
or fear.
The Potter has made us His Clay.
Let us submit ourselves to His Will and enjoy the blessing of seeing what
it is the Potter can do in and through us as we rest in His Hands.
[B] Revelation 4:11 says, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and
power: for thou hast created all things,
and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
God created us for His pleasure. The Greek word,
“THE’lema” = is the word for pleasure. Pleasure speaks of His determination, His choice, His purpose, His inclination, His desire
and His will.
[Re-read Rev. 4:11 with the above definition of pleasure
inserted:]
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power:
for thou hast created all things and for thy (pleasure) “thy
determination, thy choice, thy purpose, thy inclination, thy desire
and thy will” they
are and were
created.”
Let our prayer be: “Have thine own way, Lord, Have thine
own way; Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after thy will. While I am waiting,
yielded…and
still!”
It truly is an
exciting “adventure” to see where the Lord will lead us as we are obedient to
His Will.
Ephesians 3:20, 21a – “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power
that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ
Jesus…”
Devotional prepared for Dorcas Missionary
Circle
October, 2006
By Mercedes S. Whelan