Month: July 2020

337. Dwell in Midst

Ezekiel 43:7, 9 And he said unto me Son of man, the place of my throne, and place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings by their whoredom, nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places. Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.

When God dwells in the midst of the people, there will be no sin, no temptation to sin, and no desire to sin. There will be no death, disease, sickness, sadness, depression, troubles, problems, or anything negative to a full life. There will be no devil, demons, or evil of any kind whatsoever. Every redeemed person in the Kingdom of God will be holy and perfectly loving. We will love God and others all the time. Life would be much more beautiful, peaceful, and wonderful than we could ever dream about. When God is in the midst.

This is what it will be like forever in the New Jerusalem of the new heaven and new earth, where there is no temple, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. There is no night for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. This is our destiny, our true home. The dwelling place of God is with man. Everyone there will always be good and do good when they see and feel God all the time, day and night (but there is no night). One who is living in the Presence of God in such an obvious and powerful way will ever be sensing the Love of God, which is Glory. That person living in the palpable presence of God would never again think of sin, selfishness, or rebellion.

This amazing promise of God dwelling among us is also true even now in the midst of an evil world and a sinful self. We just don’t see it, until we see by faith the nail marks in the hands and side. The Spirit causes us to understand the Gospel, and so we enter the Kingdom where God dwells. The indwelling God brings heaven to earth. Since we don’t see it, we need to be reminded again and again of the total and unconditional love of God through the Gospel. So we repent and believe the gospel.

336. Poured Out Spirit

Ezekiel 39:29 Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.

The Lord promises that He will never hide His face from us any more. He will always be with us, present and available. At any time for any reason He will respond to our prayers and our needs. It may appear to us that God is hiding His face from us from time to time. God seems distant; our prayers don’t reach past the ceiling; we feel like we are alone. But such appearances (or disappearances) are not real. He is there; He is here.

There is such a thing called the deus absconditus, which means “the hidden God.” There is much that we would like to know about God, which we cannot know. We have many questions that will not be answered until we see God face to face in heaven. There are mysteries, questions we cannot answer or know anything about. God has reserved these things to Himself, possibly because our weakened human mind cannot comprehend even if we were told.

However, everything about God and our relationship with Him that we need to know has been revealed. What we need to know God reveals; what we don’t yet need to know God has not revealed. And it is foolhardy to attempt speculations and make up theories about the hidden God. We get into trouble when we take traditions of men as doctrines of God. If God did not clearly reveal it, we cannot take it as truth; if God did reveal it, we must take it as the Truth.

The promise of “not hiding” simply means that God is Present for us, and what we need from Him we will receive; what we need to know He will reveal. We can be sure of this because God said He would pour out His spirit. This He did for all people on the Day of Pentecost. Because the Spirit is poured out after Jesus’s Ascension we can be sure that we all have access to God any time and any place. He is not hidden from us, and secret rituals are not necessary to find Him. Just open your heart to the revelation of the Lord.

335. Mercy and Jealousy

Ezekiel 39:25 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name.

After God brings Israel back again from captivity He will have mercy upon the people and He will be jealous for His holy name. This the Lord will do for us, the believers in Christ: He brings us back from our captivity to the Enemies of the soul in His great mercy. If it were not for mercy we could not live well; in fact, if God did not have mercy we could not even live. God’s just judgment upon our sin is certain and undeniable, with no possibility of parole or acquittal. We are declared guilty and the sentence of death is passed.

But there is Mercy. In mercy God saves; in mercy God forgives; in mercy God blesses; in mercy God gives life. Judgment is upon the sin; mercy is upon the sinner. Come to God, ask for mercy, and go to your house justified. God is merciful, but He does not just have mercy without cause. He has mercy on us only because of Jesus Christ. Mercy does not overlook or forget our sins; mercy forgives sins because Jesus suffered and died for them and paid the full penalty. God’s mercy put Jesus on the cross.

God’s mercy does not remove His jealousy. The Lord will still be jealous; He can tolerate no other rivals, husbands or gods. Thank God for jealousy, for the Lord zealously and jealousy guards His holy name. Thank God that He jealousy guards and protects us, His Bride. Thank God that no one can use His name frivolously or negatively. Thank God that no other sources of good will ever provide lasting good, but the best the other gods of the world can give is temporary thrills that only end and disappoint and crash. No other god can keep promises; only the Lord does that. And He is jealous to keep it that way.

The amazing love of God shows undeserved (though Jesus deserved it for us) kindness and mercy. The amazing love of God is so jealous of us that He will not let anything else that wants to be our god ever be able to do for us what only God can do. In any contest, the other god will always lose.

334. Know the Lord

Ezekiel 39:22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward.

The Church will know that the Lord is the Lord their God. The Church knows the Lord because they have heard the Gospel mixed with faith, as the Holy Spirit caused the heart to believe the Word when it is proclaimed or read. But in this context the Church knows the Lord from the Day of Judgment. The enemies of God’s people are judged, and when judgment happens the believers know that the Lord is the Lord God from that day forward.

Judgment happened and will happen at least four times in our history and in our life:

First, our sin was judged on the Cross of Christ when He took the judgment of our sin upon Himself. The sins of all were judged in Christ’s death, for He died for all. This is a historical and spiritual fact, but it still needs to be received personally by each person.

Second, our own personal sins are judged when in our lifetime we individually have been baptized and believed in Christ. For some, this is a one time born again experience. For others, it is dawning process that has no pinpointed moment in memorable time. But at some time, every believer has been converted by the work of the Spirit upon the receiving of the Gospel. At that moment, the Spirit has moved the person to accept the judgment of the Cross as his or her own sin’s judgment. From that time onward he knows the Lord.

Third, our sins are personally and permanently judged when we die. “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment [Hebrews 9:27].” Now the judgment is non-reversible, set in stone, and cannot be changed. In this sense it is a judgment. There are no last rites after death or purgatory judgments for sin. What’s done is done, and the Lord will not reverse the judgment of the Cross.

Fourth, our sins are eternally judged at the Final Judgment Day at the Great White Throne Judgment. Then all sin and the evil enemies will be cast out, removed from our presence, and thrown into the lake of fire forever, never to return and tempt people again.

Each of these several judgment times are all one and the same Judgment. The judgment causes us to know the Lord, and love Him. Judgment is crucial to the Salvation of God. Many “little judgments” happen during a lifetime, each one designed to bring us to God by repentance of Self and faith in His Love. And from that day forward we are not the same as we were before.

333. Make God’s Name Known

Ezekiel 39:7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

God promises to make His holy name known among His people. He answers our prayer, “Hallowed be Thy name.”God’s name is holy in our midst when we hear God’s Word and live according to it, that is, when we believe the gospel. In the midst of a sinful, evil, wicked, godless and corrupt generation (the world in which we presently live) another world exists, a holy world in which the presence of God lives. The Christian lives in both worlds. Both the physical and spiritual worlds impact our lives every day.

God’s Name is indeed holy, but we need that holiness to be made known among us. We need to overcome: Jesus says, “I have overcome the world.”He overcomes for us who believe in Him. This is the promise: God will break into the world and make His Presence known in answer to our prayers. The temptations that come to us through the world and our flesh come from sin, death and the devil. And when God shows up in the midst of temptation He overcomes. And thereby a little holiness affects our life and produces blessings according to God’s good and gracious will. We pray for and we expect God’s Name, God’s Will and God’s Kingdom to break into our lives and make a difference. It is a struggle, but Jesus always wins.

Where God’s Holy Name is in effect Sin, Death and Satan always lose. Sometimes we may feel like we are losing, and we may be afraid we have picked the wrong side, But the truth is that God’s love, grace and forgiveness is more powerful. We can pray with confidence, “Hallowed be Thy name,” because we have this promise. And Jesus never fails.

332. God will Magnify Himself

Ezekiel 38:23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.

The Lord promises that He will magnify Himself and sanctify Himself. The is the prayer the Father answers when we pray, “Hallowed be Thy name.” God’s Name, His Presence, His very nature and character is already holy, but we need God to be holy in us and where we live. This happens when we believe and live God’s Word.

When individuals and communities of believers hear and believe and live according to the Word of God the Lord makes holy things happen among them. Many times “holy things” happen in our lives, but we don’t often recognize it as something God did. Being aware of more “God sightings” is a beneficial exercise. This is the same experience the people had when seeing Jesus on earth. He looked so human and normal (which He is) that most people could not see that He is also God. The Father had to reveal that to those who received Him. So it was revealed to Peter and to Thomas and to the others.

God will magnify Himself among us. God is already bigger than we can imagine, but He magnifies Himself when we praise, worship, and glorify God. God becomes bigger in our hearts and minds, more and more closer to what He actually is. We need to see a big God. We need to see that He is bigger than our present problem, bigger than our cancer, bigger than our broken relationships, bigger than every daily need. God magnifies Himself according to our prayer and our need. He gives us faith to see Him as He opens our eyes. Then we see, and when we see we find out that God is a lot bigger and better than I ever imagined. So, “Come, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name forever.”

331. Sanctuary in our Midst

Ezekiel 37:27, 28 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

A sanctuary is a set-apart holy place designated for the god, whether a false god or the true God. It is the place where one can find access to the God. It is holy because the holy God’s presence is located there. God makes it holy. Adam, Noah, Abraham and Jacob set up altars where God met man, or man could meet God. Then the Lord directed Moses to build a Tabernacle for the residing presence of God among the Israelites. The tabernacle was built according to the pattern from heaven in great detail. It was movable so that the Lord could be with His people wherever they traveled. Then David had Solomon build a permanent Temple that would house the living God and provide a place of access and worship. Finally, Jesus’ body became the Temple, the actual presence of God on the earth. Then the body of Christ, the Church, the gathering of believers or the individual believer himself, is the sanctuary of the Presence of God on the earth. The Christian’s body is the temple, the sanctuary, of the Holy God. The Lord lives literally “in the midst of them forever.”

This Truth is both metaphorical and literal. It is metaphorical in that the “body of Christ” is the invisible group of all the believers. It is literal in that the very presence of the real, living, and true God of the universe is actually inside of us. This is awesome to think about and reflect upon. If we realized it more often we might be more careful and intentional about how we treat one another and ourselves, and it should affect how we conduct our lips and our lives.

It is impossible to separate and distinguish what God is doing in us and what we are doing by ourselves, and how our actions are mixed, but generally we sin on our own but God does the good works. Nevertheless, we take the promise as true that the Lord has made a sanctuary for Himself in us and among us. The Lord sanctifies the Church on earth, and the world of unbelievers can recognize that fact, if the Spirit opens their eyes to it. Would that more heathen would say, “The Lord is here!”

330. Eternal Covenant of Peace

Ezekiel 37:26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them: it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore.

Again, the word “forevermore” makes this a promise for all God’s people, all the believers in Christ who have ever lived on earth, instead of only for the return of the Jews from Exile in Babylon. The Bible contains several covenants, all of which are wrapped up into one covenant in Christ, set and sealed by His Blood on the cross and guaranteed in His resurrection. The one-way covenant is totally dependent on God who does it all and keeps His promises on account of Christ.

The covenant God makes with us is a covenant of peace. This includes peace with God, peace inside the soul, peace with family, friends, neighbors, hostile nations, and with all people, peace with the animals, and peace with the entire environment. This means it will all be “very good” once again. There can be no more tears, disasters, tragedies, pestilence, war, hunger, heartbreak, sorrow, sadness, pain, sickness, sin, death, or anything that would remove or diminish perfect peace. It is the peace of Lord; it is unshakable. We do not now know such peace, but inwardly we dream of the possibility. And God promises to make it real.

This covenant is everlasting. It will go on long after our own bodies and this present earth pass away. There is a heaven; there is an afterlife; there is a Paradise; there is real hope for what we know must be true. And it is all ours. It is a worthwhile exercise to reflect on the realities of heaven.

God’s Sanctuary will be in our midst forever. The sanctuary is the Presence of God. God temporarily dwelt among His people in Eden, in shrines and altars, in the Tabernacle and the Temple, in Jesus in the flesh, in the Church on earth, and finally, when all evil is removed, in the New Heaven and the New Earth in which the Sanctuary of God’s Visible Presence will be enjoyed forever. Meanwhile, our body is a temple and the heart is the sanctuary of God. Enjoy the Promise.

329. Dwell in the Land

Ezekiel 37:25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and the children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

The promise of Land, and dwelling safely in the land, is vital to our understanding of God and His relationship with humans. God created an inhabitable earth with the Garden of Eden in it. He promised Abraham a land for his descendants (of which he had no hope of either when God promised). He led Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. He led Joshua to conquer the land. He anointed David to secure a kingdom. He prophesied that the Jews would return to The Land from the Exile in Babylon. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is at hand. We have an eternal inheritance in the heavens. The New Jerusalem will come down from heaven to be placed on the new heavens and the new earth. In such a state we will live forever with God in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness for eternity. All of these “land promises” = Eternal Life, which every believers already has by faith in Jesus Christ.

In this land the people of God with their descendants will dwell together in perfect peace and harmony with God, with one another, with the animals, and with the newly created environment created for life. The immediate context of this promise is the return of the Exiles, except the promise includes the word “forever.” The physical, geographical land of Palestine will not last forever, since the physical earth will end.

God’s servant David cannot literally be prince forever, since David is already dead. But the New David, the Son of David, is also the Son of God, and He will live and reign as our prince forever. Only a God-man could make this happen. And He did. This Promised Land (eternal life) is in our hearts now, and we will dwell in the land forever with Jesus graciously ruling for our good, our safety, and our wellbeing. And in the new land there will be no curse, no sin, no devil, no death, no sinful flesh, no tears, no pain, and no problems whatsoever. This is where we live now by faith, but it is continually attacked and corrupted by this temporary world of sin and death. But the promise holds true: the old is gone, the new has come.

328. One Shepherd King

Ezekiel 37:24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.

The Messianic Prophecy is that a Descendant of David will rule on the throne of the people of God forever. This came true. The Promise for us is that this Servant Jesus will be our king; He will rule; He will be our one Shepherd. Because the Kingdom has come with Jesus the King, God’s people will obey and keep and do the Law of God. This is the real surprising result of the coming of the Son of David: believers in Jesus will be sanctified and live holy lives.

This holy living, of course, is impossible and it has never come true in even one individual person since Adam. “There is not a just man on earth that does good and sins not.” But our failure does not nullify the Promise of God. We will become a finished work of perfection and holiness, completely obedient to the Law of God. That will be Paradise when all God’s people are just so.

We are declared holy and righteous, forgiven of all sins. The duration of our earthly lives after coming to faith in Christ is a process of sanctification: the Spirit is molding us more and more into the image of God, walking in His Commands, observing His Laws, and actually doing what God says. The Final Step will occur in our own bodily death and bodily resurrection. Then we shall all willingly and gladly and perfectly do everything the King rules. And we know that Jesus will always rule as king for our good, our benefit and wellbeing. Hang on to this promise and wait for it. Meanwhile, Jesus is presently ruling over the Kingdom in our hearts as the Davidic Shepherd. You can trust Him. And that’s a good thing.