DELIBERATELY PURSUING GOD
PART 11
HOLY GROUND

To worship God in Spirit and truth, one must receive the revelation of divine knowledge and understanding of His holiness. Without it our subconscious produces a lower, earthly way of thinking that say’s he is just another king trying to rule us. There is a danger of trying to lean too much to the earthly Jesus and not enough to the reality that He was always the King of all Kings. When men and their new styles of church try to present God as one of us, it is much easier to manage Him and debate His teachings. The liberal crowd tries to portray Him as a regular guy with regular problems in order to make Him more approachable. The truth is that no one can approach Him unless they are miraculously drawn by His super-natural power. The idea of humans checking Him out and accepting Him is advertising Him like an option or a brand name. This is an attitude that has damaged the understanding and view of God to the church and the world. When seeds of disrespect are planted they grow into a twisted concept of who God really is. When the holiness of God becomes distorted it does not take long for His word to become misinterpreted and mingled with humanism which opens the floodgates of heresy and sin.

God is so holy and mysterious; He can only be fathomed through tiny cracks in the spiritual realm of grace of love and we must leave Him high and lifted up because that is the only way He can be adored. We sing that we long to touch Him but as we try to take Him into our imagination we discover He is too much for us to fully comprehend. Why do the angels in Isaiah chapter 6 cover their eyes and feet and why do the twenty four elders in Revelation chapter 4 fall down before Him and cast their crowns? Because His glory and Majesty is so overwhelming and spectacular, we are reduced to the expression of worship as we bow down with all creation. He holds the galaxies in His hand; He knows every thought in every mind and even sees every sparrow – all at the same time. He is so magnificent and omnipotent that darkness hides and the brilliance of His glory illuminates as far as the East is from the West. Infinity, eternity and perfection are His attributes. As He passes, our eyes ache from the reflection of His person and through the cleft of the rock we remain breathless because that is all we can handle and still live. Even those who have seen and been in the presence of His angels fall on their faces as dead men because it is too overwhelming to the senses. When will we realize there is no difference when we step on stage and experience the power of God’s presence than when Moses was told to remove his shoes because the ground he was standing on was holy ground? Or what is the difference between us moving from the outer courts of praise into the paralyzing peace of His presence and the Tabernacle priest that carried the blood into the Holy of Holies? God has not changed; He demands total reverence – and rightly so.

When we disrespect Him it reveals our lack of understanding and wisdom to know the realities of His person. When we do not take it seriously it is similar to taking the communion without self examination. It is a very serious and dangerous act of mockery to stand before God without a humble and repentant state of mind and spirit. We must have confidence in believing He is who He say’s He is, because without this revelation of His holiness our subconscious produces a lower, earthly way of thinking that say’s he is just another king trying to rule us. Our concept of God effects how we act and this in turn can have an influence on others either good or bad. (People are watching how we respect God and building their own ideas from what they observe in us.) But no matter how the world perceives His omniscience, it does not change the way He is.

We will never truly worship Him unless we know that we can depend on Him completely. To know Christ is to love Him and those who love Him will worship Him. In the realm of worship there must be a sense of awe and reverential fear accompanying our holy knowledge and divine wisdom or it is not true worship. As our relationship grows stronger we learn to trust Him as the perfect authority of all things and that He is worthy of all adoration. A.W. Tozer once said, “Churches do not succeed in trying to “induce” reverence. You cannot do it with statues, beautiful stained glass windows, choir robes and talking through your adenoids. But a man who has passed the veil and looked even briefly upon the face of Isaiah’s God can never be irreverent again.” Humility and brokenness is a spiritual state of mind and an attitude that realizes how truly awesome God is. As this revelation grows and develops, His presence floods our heart and conscience as we are transformed (daily) into a clearer image of His character.