HIS HOLINESS CALLS YOU
HIS HOLINESS CALLS YOU
GOD IS CALLING YOU INTO A PLACE OF SPIRITUAL INTIMACY WITH HIM
BY EVANGELIST JULIA MATTS FLEMING
And I, brethren, when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching [were] not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
I Corinthians 2:1-5
As I stood in the pulpit that Sunday morning, for the first time I was trembling; not from fear, but because of the almost tangible presence of God on that altar. I had trouble talking, I opened my mouth and I began to stammer. I felt like there were cotton balls in my throat, my hands shook and my knees knocked. I stood in awe of the Almighty King of kings and Lord of lords. I think I knew at that moment how the Apostle Paul felt. The message that morning was about showing reverence to God. He was calling to His people. I knew how important the message was and my spirit bore witness to what he had told me. I had a talk with God earlier in the week; I had told Him I would like to bring a nice flowery message instead of correction. But He explained that he loved His people and the Lord corrects who He loves. What better message could I ask to bring to God’s chosen? It was a message of love from the Father Himself.
For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives." If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? Hebrews 12:6,7
God desires us to reverence Him. The word reverence means to have an attitude of deep respect bordering on awe. He has created us for His pleasure. He loves us and only wants the best for us. However, most of us have at one time or another; have totally taken for granted that just because there is church scheduled that He will just show up. We become disrespectful children and come to church late. We are more interested in making sure we are physically presentable than in being sure we show God the proper respect. We skip Sunday school because we just can’t get out of the door in time so we opt for “just” worship service, and even then show up late. In an effort to get to our favorite seat, we interrupt the service that has already started by trying to climb over the person that is already there and in the middle of worship. We want to greet others as we come in and make sure they see how wonderful we look.
And the whole time the angels of the living God; the very same angels who hold court in the very throne room of God and worship Him in His holiness, wait patiently for us to assemble ourselves to worship. Brothers and sisters we need to take hold of this truth.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead [men's] bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23: 25-28
We spend more time on our outward appearance when what really matters is how we look on the inside. God does not look at our clothes, He looks at our hearts.
When I brought this message to the pulpit God did a very special thing that I did not know the full significance of until afterwards when the pastor’s wife began to get feedback from the members. He dressed me that day. Yes, He dressed me. He gave me specific instructions as to what I was to wear and how I was to dress. I balked when He gave me the instructions. It should be stated here that the church I attend dresses formally on Sunday mornings. So, when I received the instructions to wear jeans and an oversized tee shirt to minister the Word, well, you may be able to well understand why I tried to resist. I finally relented to His Will. As I dressed I asked if I could wear a sweatshirt because I get cold; He said no, wear the tee shirt. I asked if I could wear my nice sneakers; He said no, wear the old worn ones. I was told to take off my earrings, wear no makeup, no jewelry and no perfume and to wear my hair back in a plain ponytail. Boy, I looked a mess! I have to say that there are few times when I would even wear that kind of attire just around the house, but that may be why it made such an impact on the members. They knew me to always dress very well. But, the way God instructed me to dress that day illustrated that it did not matter if we came to the Lord beautifully dressed or not. If we did not come with reverence to His Holy Name then how well we were dressed did not make one bit of difference! I was still Evangelist Julia whether I wore jeans or a dress. And it did not matter how well the outside was presented, if the inside was still full of vile then it would continue to look vile to the Lord.
A young woman once gave me a testimony of when she was painting the basement walls in her home. She was trying to beautify the room, but there were rust stains on the wall that she could not get out. So, she began to paint the walls with this rust still present. Unfortunately, each time she applied a fresh coat of paint, the rust would still show through. It is the same with our lives, we can dress it up to look beautiful, but the only one we are fooling is ourself.
The spirit of man [is] the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly. Proverbs 20:27
We cannot hide our true selves from the Lord.
How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. Blessed [are] You, O LORD! Teach me Your statutes. With my lips I have declared all the judgments of Your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As [much as] in all riches. I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word. Psalm 119:9-16
God does not expect you to clean yourself up!! He knows you are unable to do that yourself. If this was possible then we would not have needed Jesus to be sacrificed on the cross. What He does require, though, is that you seek after Him with your whole heart. Anyone who truly desires to see God will have it granted to them, but it comes at a cost; taking time to know Him intimately.
Give to the LORD the glory [due] His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of Holiness! I Chronicles 16:29
That day as I stood before the church in jeans and a tee shirt, no makeup or jewelry or perfume; God told me to tell everyone that I was adorned with His Holiness. The only beauty I possessed was the beauty of Holiness in Christ Jesus. My Father himself had stripped me of anything I might have done to beautify myself on the outside. The only beauty was the beauty that God saw, which was on the inside.
So the LORD said to Moses, "I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name." And he said, "Please, show me Your glory." Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." And the LORD said, "Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. "So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen." Exodus 33:17-23
We sing in church that we want to see the face of God. We call out to Him that we want to know Him more, and God Himself desires that for us. It pleases Him to spend time with us and to reveal Himself to us. But God, in His Holiness, is impossible for us to physically behold and continue to be able live. He is too awesome; too magnificent. Even here He tells Moses that He must first set him in a safe place and then cover him with His hand. Now, our safe place and our covering are under the blood of Jesus. He provided this place for us and this covering that we may be able to come to Him and be in His presence without fear of death and destruction.
Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony [were] in Moses' hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. Exodus 34:29-33
Moses had just spent 40 days on Mount Sinai with God in His presence. But, Moses face had taken on a quality that he did not even realize, but totally amazed and scared the people in the camp. He had just spent 40 days with God and the Glory of His Holiness began to be reflected in the face of Moses so much that people could not bear to look at him. They had to cover his face with a veil until he returned again to the mountain to speak with the Lord. The glory of God actually permeated the very physical body of Moses. How wonderful would it be to live in that state? No sickness would be able to dwell in us, no pain could stay in His presence and no demonic power would try to come close to us! What we do not realize is that today the very same thing that Moses experienced can happen to us. God has made a more excellent way for us to enter into His presence.
Even Jesus, when He was on the mount of transfiguration was able to reveal Himself in His full Glory.
Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Mark9:2-4
When Jesus stepped away from the disciples and was in the presence of Moses and Elijah, He no longer needed to cover His Holiness and Glory. The very vision of His true Holiness would have been too much for Peter, James and John to behold in their earthly physical bodies. But, He gave us a glimpse from afar of His true Holiness before His resurrection. What a wonderful gift He gave to them at that time! To see Jesus, even from afar in His radiant Holiness and Glory! In His presence is only light. Darkness cannot abide where light is because the light will chase all the darkness away. Think about when you turn on a lamp in a room. The farther away from the lamp, the less light there will be. But, there will never be total darkness in the room because of the light! Jesus is the source of the light in our lives. The farther away from His presence we are then the less he will shine in us and in our situations and circumstances.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:8A
God desires to spend time with us. Intimate moments that only we can share with Him. We cannot know God unless we share time with Him. Unless a husband and wife consummate a marriage, they will remain just friends. But, when true intimacy is shared then they have something that can never be shared or understood by anyone else. When we come to a place where we are intimately involved with the Lord then our lives will never be the same.
W cannot miss something we have never experienced. How can you ever “miss” God is you have never experienced the intimacy of being in His presence? Just the two of you; It is a wondrous thing to sit in His presence and listen to Him speak to your heart in such a secret place that you would never want to share that with anyone.
With the blood of Jesus Christ covering us, just as the hand of God covered Moses as He passed by, we may boldly enter into the throne room of God and spend time with Him. This is a place where we can lay our head on His lap and just rest.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16
This is a great honor and privilege that came with a great price and should not be entered into without much reverence. We know what Christ did for us at Calvary, and yet so many of us take it for granted that He will always be there instead of being truly thankful and full of thanksgiving to God the Father for His great sacrifice of His only Son.
If we think of a man whose son may have given his life in the call of duty, we well imagine that if we were to speak to that father about his son that we would speak the son’s name with reverence and show respect.
And yet we do not always do that when we speak of Jesus Christ.
The time of irreverence to God must come to an end now.
If our church bulletin says that church starts at 10AM, believe me in this, the angels are there, assembled and waiting AT 10AM. They are not still trying to get themselves together.
I saw a vision of the angel of the church (every church has one) directing traffic to the ministering angels. I saw him sending out troops to gather in and protect the saints that were on their way to the church. The Lord so cares about us getting to a place of worship that He dispenses His angels to guard us and protect us as we gather ourselves together to meet Him. So, why are we grieving the Holy Spirit so much with our lack of reverence to God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the men and women of God who are there to conduct and lead the worship?
I use the analogy that if the president of the United States told us that he was going to visit our church on Tuesday at 12:00 sharp we would not show up at the church doors at 12:30!! We would most likely be vying for the first seat in the first row that is directly in front of the altar so we would make sure we had a clear view.
Why do we not show God the same respect?
But you [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once [were] not a people but [are] now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. I Peter 2:9,10
We are not the same as we used to be. We are not a “worldly” people, but a generation of priests and princes and princesses. We are children of the Most High King, yet we sometimes act like people who are being dragged off the street to a place that we don’t want to be. Instead of realizing and appreciating the very presence of our Father we see church and bible study as something that is expected of us instead of something we look forward to doing. Yet, even in our bad attitude Christ still meets us at the door with a smile on His face, happy to see us. He meets us with His healing hands and His loving heart; embracing us as we are ushered into His presence..
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18
The choice is ours. We can draw close to Christ and allow the ultimate transformation to happen or we can continue in our disobedience and only allow God just so far into our lives. Do you have the courage to open your heart and allow Him closer to you? He wants to adorn us with the beauty of His Holiness. But, He can only dress us when we allow ourselves to be drawn into His intimate presence.
[The] four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!" Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: "You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created." Revelation 4:8-11
Let us allow Him into our lives in a more intimate way so we will know when we are “missing” Him. For surely, He misses us.
Evangelist Julia Matts Fleming
www.warriorwomenoftheword.yolasite.com
evangelistjulia@hotmail.com
Evangelist Julia was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and raised in Seekonk, Massachusetts. She first heard about the saving grace of Jesus Christ at a revival meeting in Pineville, Louisiana, where she gave her life to Him. She was filled with the Holy Spirit that same week when she confessed to the pastor that she was indeed saved!
She was ordained in Christ Miracle Vineyard Church, Providence Rhode Island in June 2002 as an Evangelist.
She has served as a Pastor for the Boston Branch of CMVC and also has served as an Evangelist throughout the United States, but mostly in the New England states.
She has since been mandated by God to serve as an ambassador for the women, believing that women are an untapped resource in the body of Christ. She endeavors to strengthen, and encourage the people of God wherever the Lord sees fit to use her.
OTHER BOOKS BY EVANGELIST JULIA:
DON’T LOSE HEART
THE FAVOR OF GOD
Books may be ordered on her website
To Hear the message as it was presented that day 3/25/2012 please log onto the following url:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOl3bLEQ5c4&feature=g-upl&context=G2e3669bAUAAAAAAAAAA