Friday night at the prayer meeting, as we worshipped the Lord with a simple song, 'we worship your majesty,' as I lay prostrate on the ground, I saw only one thing: the immense purity of God; the clarity, the light in Him, the separation from all that is impure. And I began to sob and ask Him to cleanse us and make us holy, like Him. I heard myself saying, 'holy, holy, holy,' overwhelmed by the awareness of what is called His holiness and which is so little understood.
Grace gives us access to a holy God, but it does not erase the need for holiness. It is an open door given to us so that we can begin to allow ourselves to be transformed. We can certainly stop there; many do so at their own expense; many receive salvation by grace and continue to live without the fear of God. A greater awareness of God, of His nature, will cause us to hate, to see the seriousness, and to renounce what for the moment seems acceptable; it will allow us to see the separation thus engendered between us and God. We need to see.
There is a place in prayer Or you may be so imbued with God that fear takes hold of you, and you cry out for mercy. I have always been told that we no longer have to be afraid of God, and I agree with that perfectly, but it is also true that from time to time we may have such a strong vision of Him that it frightens us. And perhaps that is what we need because for the most part our conscience is darkened. We sometimes need to be shaken, as Isaiah was.
When Isaiah saw a vision of God, His majesty, glory, and holiness, his reaction was, "Woe is me! I am undone! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." He was so impressed by it that he realized his own inadequacies. As for us, we are not afraid; we claim the glory of God on our unclean hands. Isaiah knew that these two things were incompatible.
Job experienced the same thing, saying to God Job 42:5-6 Mine ear hath heard of thee, now mine eye hath seen thee: (6) Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. And the end for Job, restoration, healing, renewal, beyond all he had known. If we have never abhorred ourselves and our actions, it is because we have never 'seen' God. Oh that God would give us to see that which will cause us to repent.
Shalom!
