Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

I AM Pt.1

Amen! I guess we're going to have our three weeks of ghost town now; so I hope you enjoy your vacations as they come as a time of refreshing and get back about kingdom work here in a few weeks.

Lets turn to the book of Exodus. We're going to start a new series. I don't know how long we're going to be talking about this. We're basically going to take a look at the attributes of God, but from a practical perspective, really. Just coming to an understanding in communion and fellowship with Father. Understanding who He is and what His purposes are as they pertain to our every day life-- our steps being ordered of Him. Our lives being preserved by Him. The very providence of God, because everything we have we've received of the Lord. Amen? We really want to get an idea of who the Lord is. Who is the Lord of Hosts that we serve and this great God, Creator of heaven and earth, who we call Father, Abba. How His majesty, then, relates to our everyday relationship. So it's important. We're going to look at, of course, not all of the attributes, but those that are practical for us.

We're going to deal with the sovereignty of God, slightly. We have the new move in the faith movement and in some of those different areas where God is not sovereign, He is a God that is obligated to perform according to their faith and according to their understanding of Scripture, which is the wrong concept of God. We're going to see that God is also not sovereign in the way that the Calvinists portray Him. A God that for His own pleasure predestined the majority of humanity to hell and torment, and just arbitrarily on His will and whim choosing whoever He will to be saved--irresistibly saving them. The wrong concepts of God. If you don't understand who He is, you will never be able to fellowship with Him. So is He the big Santa Claus, Daddy God, who lets us do anything we want and rewards us with heaven in the end? Wrong concept! The consequences of that is going to be beyond comprehension, when we stand before Him and are introduced to the absolute justice of God, and the holiness of God. Who is the God that we serve? How do we come to know Him? Well, through the revelation of His Word. Through the understanding of the historicity of the person of Jesus Christ. He said, "If you've seen me you've seen the Father" (John 14:7). So we come to know Him through the revelation of the Word. We come to know Him through the revelation of the person of the living Word, Jesus Christ. Answering the questions then, is God bigger than His word? Some people limit God to the Bible that we hold in our hands this morning. God is bigger than the Bible. He is bigger than what He chose to reveal to us. God is bigger than what your mind can comprehend. So we need to understand the majesty and the eternal essence of our God.

A God who is eternal, a God who is immutable. He doesn't change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. "...I am the Lord, I change not" (Malachi 3:6). We don't serve a God who works upon whims. God doesn't have bad days. Every day is the same. God being infinite means that all that He is, He is to infinity. He is beyond our natural capacity to understand. Your greatest understanding of love, God is far beyond that. He is infinite love. His love never changes, it's unfathomable. This is who we call Daddy. This is who we call Father. He is a God of mercy. He is a God of love. He is a God of kindness. He is gentle beyond comprehension. It unceasingly flows forth from God, His gentleness, towards us. So when we get to know Him, we want to spend more time with Him because the Scripture says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Amen? So as you come to know Him in His greatness there is more of a desire to be with Him and commune with Him, and enter into His presence. We run to Him and are safe in all that He is.

So, we want to take a look at what the Scripture says, and I think that Exodus, of course, gives us a great understanding of who He is and His desire to reveal Himself to us as the great I AM. God, when He begins to reveal Himself, He shares His name in the book of Exodus.

Let's turn there and take a look at Moses' confrontation with God. We know the story to this point as the people of God are in bondage. The Lord desiring to liberate His people, and so often many of us think that natural circumstances, then, are sufficient and yet God will always sovereignly and supernaturally, make His presence known. Don't for a moment ever think that God is going to stand back in obscurity and leave you and I wondering whether what took place was just some type of a natural occurrence or a happening of chance. Somewhere in the scenario God will always show His hand, and you will know that it is He that is working in us to will and do His good pleasure.

So we find the story, we know Moses is trying to deliver Israel in his own strength. He is exiled and as he is on the backside of the desert where many times we find ourselves. We've given our best effort for God and we fail. We we're sure that God was with us and the effort that we're making we're doing with all of our might, so we think that somehow God is going to--because we're trying hard, We're trying to do what is right and somehow God will come and endorse that. The Lord will allow you to fail so He can be glorified in our lives. Amen? We just boast so many times as we're out and about Father's business. We're out "doing something for God," and we really begin to analyze it's about us. It's our own will. It's our own appetites that we're trying to appease. Whatever it is, we attach kingdom to it, and those things will always fail. God will never allow them to be done in our strength. He will not be robbed of His glory.

Moses is now coming to a place of reconciling with the fact that he can't do it. It is impossible that he accomplish this in his own strength, and he has resigned himself to the fact that he did all he could do and it wasn't sufficient, so God, then, has put him out to pasture.

In Chapter 3 we pick the story up of Exodus. Verse 2 says, "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." It would be great if we could have a burning bush experience, but not all of us are going to have that type of an encounter with God. Not all of us is going to be able to encounter the burning bush. Not all of us is going to have the Lord appear and speak to us on the road to Damascus and His presence outshines the noon-day sun; and the voice of the Lord comes. Others think it thunders, but the Lord speaks directly to us and we have the assurance of that call upon our lives and the understanding of the direction of our lives. We're not all going to be able to experience that, but we need to understand that the same God that called Moses, the same God that called Paul, called you. Amen? He's working in you right now. You may not have had the spectacular visitation, but the same supernatural power is at work in each one of us right now. The same assurance that we are about Father's business, that our steps are being ordered of the Lord, that we are kingdom representatives, ambassadors of Christ, is assured in our heart because of the promises of God's Word. We can learn from these spectacular visitations what God is doing in our not so spectacular lives. Because the purpose of God hasn't changed. The work of God continues. His promises are still being fulfilled. They're yea and amen to the glory of God.

So it's working in each one of our lives. Moses encounters this great phenomenon. The Bible says in verse 4, that God called to him out of the midst of the bush. He said, "Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I." What do you want to say to me Lord? "Here I am. I've been emptied. I tried it in my own strength, here I am. What do you have to say?" Have you been worn down yet? Have you been brought to that place of emptying of all of your own natural abilities, but now you have ears to hear what the Lord would say to us? Moses begins to approach, and the Lord speaks to him in verse 5. This is an important aspect of us coming to know the Lord. He says, "...Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." The one thing we need to understand about our God this morning is this: He is not common. He's not common. There is nothing in the natural that can relate to Him. Everything that would approach Him in the natural will be consumed by His majesty, by His glory, if it is recognized as common. The God that we serve is a holy God. That is the first thing we need to understand about our Lord. As we come to understand Him in all of His attributes, the first thing we need to understand is the holiness of God. Holiness doesn't speak toward His moral make-up. It doesn't mean that God is not a sinner. The word "holiness" literally means to be separate. God is separate from all other beings, from all that exists. God is separate from matter, God is separate from every creature of which He is the Creator. Nothing can be compared to Him. He is beyond natural comprehension. Our God is absolutely, totally, separate to Himself. Think about that! The uncaused cause of all that is. By Him all things consist, the prophets says. All things were created by Him, for Him. By Him and for Him. Everything that exists, exists for the purpose of God. God had a reason for all that is. Everything that was created, was created uniquely for a specific purpose.

Sin has distorted much of that. We still try to find out today why there are misquotes? I've not yet found a good reason for gnats. But somewhere in the infinite mind of God, all that is was created by Him, and created for Him. By Him, Colossians (1:17) says, everything consists, or it's all held together. The pieces are held together by the very presence of God. His ways are not our ways, but far above our ways. The natural mind cannot comprehend the things of this eternal, infinite, holy God that we call Father.

So as we begin to approach Him is, the one thing we need to understand is this: He is not common. You just can't roll into God's presence on your terms. God is not interested in our crumbs of worship. He's not interested in a segment, or a part of your life. God will not fit into your schedule. It's holy ground. So, when we come to understand the holiness of God and how totally separate He is, and that when we approach Him, we approach a God of this magnitude, of this majesty, there ought to be fear and trembling in our hearts. Even as we approach boldly through the blood of Jesus, beloved, there can't be a commonness; there must be an overwhelming knowledge of the presence, the majesty of our God, for He is holy. In all of the Scriptures as we see the creatures that were made specifically for the purpose of worship using that terminology, as they come before the throne of God and into the presence of God.

There is so much spoken of today about the love of God, and God does love us infinitely. God loves us perfectly. God loves us specifically, and God is love. But the Scripture doesn't say that the creatures fly through the heavens and throughout the throne of God crying, "Love, love, love. All I need is love." But, in fact, the Scriptures tells us that these creatures fly throughout the heavens and cry: "Holy, holy, holy" (Revelation 4:8). For eternity taken up with the majesty of their Creator, and every day realizing He is infinitely beyond their ability to comprehend. In a state, not just of obedience, but in a conditioned heart of awe, these creatures. See, there are not just robots that you wind up and all they can say is: "Holy, holy, holy." "How is your day going?" "Holy." They look on Him and all that can come out of their mouth is, "There is none like you. There is none like you. All that exists is because of You. All that is, is for You." That's the God that we serve. Have we made Him common? Is He the God of seven o'clock prayer? Is He the God that bows to the work schedule? How many idols have we erected in His presence? And we have the specific command, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). I'll not tolerate it.

We realize then, that as God begins to reveal Himself to us and the more we come to know Him, the more we draw into His presence, the more we are overwhelmed by who He really is. Those of us that boldly say, "We know the Lord, and we know what God would do in these circumstances," are like little adolescents that are really just talking about things they don't understand. You see, it's only adolescents that think they know everything. But God wants to lead us into a relationship with Him that as He reveals Himself to us, we come as little children. A spirit of meekness and humility, awe, and innocence.

So Moses, now, is being called into His presence and He says, "...The place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, [I want you to understand who this is that is speaking to you.] I am the God of thy father, Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. [Verse 6 says,] And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God." The Lord begins to reveal Himself to us. As we come to know God, you're going to see that the more He reveals Himself, the more we stand in awe--the more frequently we will put our hand over our mouth as Job did and say, "I'm talking about things I don't understand; but what I do know is this: God is good."

As we come and look at some of these attributes, we're going to look at the goodness of God, the mercy of God, the gentleness of God. All of these things that make Him who He is, and He is these things infinitely. They all have to come into a place of subordinating themselves to who God is in His combined attributes. Because all of the attributes of God, the thing we need to realize what God is in His totally, He is in balance, each attribute being equal to the other. None resisting, working in perfect harmony. Each expressing themselves fully. His mercy never bowing to His justice. His justice never overriding His mercy or His love. As we come to know Him, it's going to bring rest to our hearts and an assurance of the promises that are yea and amen. It will strike a fear in your heart. We've talked so many times about John the Beloved, the one who leaned upon the Lord's bosom. There was a communion there. There was an ability to embrace God in His incarnate state. We're going to talk about coming to know God beyond His incarnate state into His eternal, spiritual state, for the "God that we worship is spirit, and we worship Him in spirit and truth" (John 4:24).

Many of us are confident through the revelation of the Scriptures to be able to come in and lay our heads upon the bosom of the Son of God, the incarnate Saviour. But I want you to know that that same John, when he received Revelation, the Scripture says, was undone and fell at His feet as dead. When was the last time you had an encounter like that? Are you in some kind of slap-Him-on-the-back relationship? Maybe not that common, maybe just the commonness of questioning Him, as Peter did. Having said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God" (Matthew 16:16), and turning right back around and saying "Not so, Lord" and trying to bring counsel. Do you have the relationship that allows you to fall on your face in His presence and understand how undone we are as a people, and how needy we are for Him to even reveal Himself more.

The Lord speaks and says, "I want you to know something. [Verse 8.] I've come down to deliver the people,' and Moses said, "I've already tried, it's not possible." Maybe we just need to wait for a new administration. Maybe time will effect. We understand that He that lives in eternity visits us in time and space specifically for His own glory and His own purposes. To everything, beloved, there is season, and God is the one that determines that. We have our own time frame and God has the eternal, sovereign, purposing for His own glory. We don't always understand and the two don't always coincide. So we pray the will of the Lord be done. He said, "I've come down to deliver the people. Now come [verse 10] and I'll send you unto Pharaoh that you'll bring my people," and Moses said [verse 11, and this is the right sequence,] "Who am I?" You have the 'am' in front of the 'I', and God has the 'I' in front of the am. Who am I? I'm nobody! I've tried. There is no strength. There is no ability in me.

Kenneth Copeland and his blasphemous statement. I was reading in one of the articles. He said, "Every time I turn to Exodus and read this passage, "I am," I say to myself, "I am, also." Yeah, you am an idiot! No one who knows God could make a statement like that. No one that understands the attributes of God could ever think that any creature--time and space limited, finite being--could ever make a declaration that could put himself on that level. Beloved, we are the Sons of God, we are heirs and joint heirs, we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. We can do all things through Christ which strengthens us. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. All that God has declared we are capable of doing in His covenant promises, and by His indwelling presence, are yea and amen! But I want you to understand something, beloved, we are not even close, as sons, as creatures, as being able to equate ourselves with the majesty of our God. We can't even know Him in the redeemed mind to the fullest extent of who He is. We can only know Him through the limited revelation of His Word as it pertains to redemption, to the time and space portion of the existence of humanity. So when we realize the majesty of our God, it brings about a humility, and then we begin to see that in relationship with Him there is this time and space segment of which man and the redemption of man is being effected. Within that God has made certain promises. He is going to be the administrator of these, or orchestrator of these. So we seek His face and rest in His ability. We find His means, His motives, and try to coordinate with His will.

"Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" Now, we need to have this kind of approach because you and I are coming into a generation, into a time, when I believe we're going to experience the greatest opposition of principalities and powers that has ever been known, and if the time were not to be shortened even the very elect would not be able to stand. As we come into a time when men's hearts are failing them for fear. When we come into a time when the love of many is going to wax cold. "This time that comes when men will be heaping up to themselves teachers, having itching ears" (2 Titus 4:3). The continuation of a people who have been turned over to a reprobate mind, calling good evil and evil good. Not wanting to retain God in their conscience. Inventors of evil, not only doing these things but taking pleasure or making heroes of those who do them--like our athletes, and movie stars, politicians, and businessmen. We need to be a people who are able to, in all of this commotion, be still and know God. Stand still and see the salvation of our God. The world is going to offer us plenty of weapons and methods by which to succeed. All that we can share with you is: Be still a and know the majesty of our God.

Now we're coming into this generation and I think it would it would behoove each one of us to ask ourselves, "Who am I?" How am I possibly going to be able to stand when a thousand are falling at my side and ten thousand at my right hand? What is it that makes a man stand when everyone else falls? The knowledge of the presence of God. Not the knowledge of God, the knowledge of the presence of God. That He is there in our midst. That we are about His eternal purposes. God has called you, John says. He has chosen you, He has ordained you, that you would go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit would remain. We're the called of God. We're the ordained of God. What does that do to your heart? Does it create a humility? Does it create a response of the awesomeness of the task and the privilege that is before us? Do you understand that you don't have to pray, you get to pray; you don't have to witness--you have the privilege of being called to serve in the kingdom of God? We don't have to abstain from the world--we've been given grace that enables us to resist and to walk separate in the presence of God in the highway of what? Holiness. What is holiness? To be separate. A highway, an avenue, we go down that nobody else in the world can enter. There isn't any other access but the blood of Jesus. There is no other access into the highway of holiness but death to self and a attitude of humility, because when we humble ourselves it is then that God is able to exalt us. Have we come to know Him?

Look over at Exodus, chapter 8, since we're here for just a moment. I want you to see a statement here in chapter 8, verse 10. A great phrase, and I want you to see it. It's throughout the Scriptures. We won't look at all of them, but as the contention is taking place between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, as God is revealing Himself as the holy God. Defying all of the gods of the world's system. We look at Egypt and we realize the pantheism that was taking place there. It typifies the world and all the gods the world has ever produced through the different philosophies and different religions. God doesn't ever place Himself in contrast to them. He is always separate and exclusive. You see, that is why to those of us who have strong consciences, we can eat mean offered to idols because we know the idols are nothing. There is only one God. These are not gods, these are demons--created beings. In every way inferior to our Father, who is absolutely unique and exclusive. Not only above all, but author of all--Creator--by Him and for Him.

Moses in speaking to Pharaoh says, I want you to understand something. You're going to see the glory of God, the power of God, tomorrow, verse 10, "And he said, To morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord our God." There is none like unto the Lord our God." Chapter 15, verse 11, same statement. Look at it. "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation." "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? The world is touting all of these gods. It's boasting of its ability. There is none like the Lord. You see, you need to understand that God is not one of the gods who is the greatest of the of the gods. There are no other gods but Him. All of these demonic forces that support the different religious systems are His servants. The prince of the host of darkness immediately responds to His beckoning, as we see in the Book of Job. "Come here, I want to talk to you. What have you been up to?" "I've been walking too and fro." "What do you think about Job?" "I'll tell you what I think about him. You take your hand off of him and I'll get him to curse him to Your face" (Job 1:7 -11). As God shows His sovereignty and infinite wisdom, he allows the enemy to bring the best out of Job. Job was a man who was righteous in God's eyes. He was a man who was righteous in his time and in the system that he operated in; but there was something in Job that needed to be purged out. You see, Job had this tendency to think of himself a little more highly than he ought. He was a little self-righteous in his righteousness. He just didn't think God was quite just in the way he was being treated, so he tried to justify himself instead of the Lord. That is how most false religions are started, where men try to justify themselves. They try to make excuses for their own Adamic natures. "Not wanting to retain God, they create gods in their own image and for their own purposes. So God turns them over, (Romans 1:28) says, to reprobate minds to do all matters of inconvenience, to boast in their own insanity. And God stands separate in the person of Jesus. "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and there is no other way to come to Father but by Me."

As we stand and proclaim that in this hour, the thing we need to understand is that we're going to be hated by all men for His name's sake. We'll become the people of intolerance. We're not intolerant--we're separate. We're a holy people. We're called out from among them. "We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation that are called to bring forth and serve in the praises of our God, who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).

Who is this God that we serve? And can we continue in the world and be in the presence of God? Can we continue the pursuit of that which is natural and know the supernatural to the extent that God wants us to? What limitations do we put on His ability to visit us? Know this: whatever they are, God will bring them down so you can know Him in all of His glory.

So that is what we're going to talk about as we go on in this study and how God is working His way into our lives. The fact of the matter is, beloved, He is pursuing us, we're not pursuing Him. Even in our regenerated state, it's still His grace and His pursuit that is drawing us to Him. The Scripture says draw nigh unto God and He will nigh unto you. But no man can come if Father doesn't bid them, "and it is He that works in us to will and do His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). Everything we do that draws us unto God initiates in Him. So when we're talking about His holiness, we're talking about coming to another understanding of the privilege we have to pursue God.

So Moses is called, and He says, "I'm going to send you," and look at verse 12, "...Certainly I will be with thee...." Isn't that the difference? Certainly I will be with you. I will never leave you, the Scripture says, nor forsake you. Certainly I will be with you. If God is for you, who can be against you? So we realize this promise that comes to Moses and the assurance of the presence of God. And he says, "That's great, but when I come unto them who shall I say you are? Verse 13, "The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name?...And God said unto Moses, [verse 14] I AM THAT I AM...Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me...."

Now, lets stop for a moment and realize what is being said here. We've been sent, now, into all the world to preach the Gospel. The one thing that we have to make assurance of, beloved, is this: that those that we are speaking to know who sent us. We're not just a religious organization looking for contributions. We're not a social organization looking to make a better community. We're not about humanitarian efforts. If we're going to know the presence of God, we're going to have to represent Him accurately, and let it be known specifically who has sent us and that the words that we're speaking are not our words but, in fact, the words of the One who sent us. "It is written....."

We don't come and share our philosophy, our political positions, our conscience. We bring the Word of God, and "...it is the power of God unto salvation...." (Romans 1:16) says. Then we go with full anticipation of the presence of God to support infinitely, through His power, the message that we've declared. The thing that many of us is going to need in this last days, beloved, is a fresh visitation of the supernatural, the power of God in our lives, that pulls down strongholds, that heals the sick, that raises the dead, that brings forth the shield of faith and quenches every fiery dart that is being hurled at our minds. We need a refreshing of the magnitude, the majesty, the awesomeness, of the One who sent us. We need to despise every natural weapon as David did the armour of Saul. We need to be confident in the ability of that anointing that came upon us as we sang praises in the desert. When everyone else looks, and mocks, and smiles at our little sling and five smooth stones, we boldly say, "Today God is going to deliver you into my hand." You can only make statements like that when you serve a holy God. A God that's separate. A God that is beyond all that the world can comprehend. "Go in this thy strength" was the admonition given to Gideon. "You coward! I mean, you mighty man of valor. Go in this thy strength." What was it? "Have not I sent thee (Judges 6:14)." Do you want to know the power of God? Go! Just go out and begin to do what God told you to do. Begin to go out and lay hands upon the sick. Begin to go and take authority over principalities and powers, and resist the devils that would dare raise their head against the Gospel that we're proclaiming. Put yourself in the position of the destruction of the hand of Pharaoh and know the majesty of your God. You will find that you sill sing the same song of worship that we read just a moment ago, the awesomeness of our God. The majesty of our God. The holiness of our God.

Moses receives this abomination and we know the story, how he enters into the presence of the conflict. So often we seem to think that if we've been sent this thing is going to be a walk in the park. God sent us! Surely He's going to destroy our enemies before us, instantly, and we knew that in the occupying of the Promised Land it was little by little lest the wild beasts and the land overtake them. The fact that God's promised doesn't mean that it's going to happen instantaneously--but little by little, line upon line. God even speaks and lets Moses know, as he's going in, verse 19, He says, "And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go....." So many times God calls us, He ordains us, and we go and make the proclamation and lay hands on somebody and we don't see any results. We think, "I really thought God really sent me." My suggestion is: find somebody else to lay your hands on. The enemy is not going to give up the land the first time you declare his defeat. This is a war that has been going on for thousands of years and will only cease at the sovereign moment of God's making the kingdoms of this world the kingdom of our God and of His Christ.

So He says in verse 19,"And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no not by a mighty hand." Now, why does satanic power seem to be so strong? What is it that causes us to think that somehow there is this dualism of God fighting Satan and in the end, like one of these cheap westerns--you all remember the fights, the guy with the good hat. He is knocked all over the place, through the corral, up the hill, into the horse trough and his hat never comes off. So many of the action movies of today, the hero is down at the last moment, invincible. It's always the culminating fight up to that time with one shot he takes everybody out. Now the guy is beating this guy to a pulp, and finally one last desperate move, the hero comes back. You have to understand, Satan is not to be compared to God. There is no comparison. He is a creature! The only power he has was given to him by God. He didn't somehow enhance that power, multiply that power, and now he is just one tick off omnipotence. If he were one degree off, do you understand that one degree--and I speak only for illustration--that one degree would be beyond comprehension. It would be incalculable. From infinite, from omnipotent, to limited power. It can't be measured. If it's limited, regardless of what degree it is limited to, unlimited can't even be compared. Do you understand what power we're going in? Do you understand who we represent? Do you understand that at any moment that God chooses He applies that power through us, his chosen vessels, to destroy principalities and power, to exalt the name of Jesus, to set the captives free. What are we doing to set ourselves up in a place where we can know that visitation?

If God is for us and God loves us, and God is merciful, and God is just, and God is immutable, and He doesn't change, and His declaration is what we're to be about remains, then why should there be any fear in putting ourselves into that place when He said, "No weapon formed against us can prosper" (Isaiah 54:17)." Is the God that you're serving this morning the holy God of this revelation (holds up Bible)? Then we need to begin to expect His manifestation as He's expressed Himself throughout the Scriptures, because He doesn't change. No he'll not let you go with a strong hand. He will resist you with a mighty hand, Satan will. Verse 20, "And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go."

You see, much of what we understand as opposition and much of what we understand as defeat is nothing more than preparatory action for God to glorified when He has drawn enough attention to the fact that the enemy can do everything he can do, and God says, "That's enough! I've had enough." He will not allow us to be tempted past that we are able to stand and with every temptation He makes the way of escape, praise God.

Job is in your power, but you can't have his life. It's all a refining process so that God can be glorified as He delivers us. And they know by that deliverance that I AM has sent us. So, we go in that power. We've come to the knowledge of God. Not only will he let you go, verse 21, "Ye shall not go away empty,..." because everything the world tries to entice us with, the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just. We don't acquire it the way they acquire it. We get it from God when He chooses to take it from them and give it to us. It's not something we seek; we seek God. As we seek His kingdom then all of the other things are added to us. "Go in this thy power, have not I sent thee?" (Judges 6:14)

Father, I thank you for the Word of God this morning. As we come to rest in you ability, we ask that you would reveal Yourself to us. The Holy One. Holiness belongs to the Lord, and You said, "Without holiness no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). Father, when we compare ourselves with the world system, are we unique? Are we separate? Can we say that we function completely outside all that's in the natural from our hearts desire and perspective? We know that we're in the world. We know that there is the everyday existence. There is even our cooperation in the miraculous as you send us to catch the fish that has the money in its mouth. There is an involvement, there is an expectation; but the glory is Yours. We ask this morning, Father, that we would not be limited in the scope of so many today who have been vexed by the spirit of Sodom and the cares of the world; but that we would be a people who had a fresh encounter with the burning bush, and put no limitations on our God. That all of our past efforts that have appeared to be failures are, in fact, only a process to bring us to humility where you can show your greatness in us. We didn't fail, we were just being prepared. We've finally come to be able to say, "Who am I" that we might say, "I AM has sent me." Make it real to us, Father, and let us go in the understanding of your majesty, and exclusively for your glory, in Jesus' name. Let's stand before the Lord.

As Gary plays for us, we'll take a moment and ask yourself this morning, have you begun to put limitations on God by what you have experienced, or by what you understand? Then you need to understand, again, that your God is holy and there is none like Him. That He is immutable, He doesn't change, and what He has declared is still what is manifesting, and He is encouraging you to become an agent. He is encouraging you to become part of His process.

Have you made God common by limiting Him to your experience, or to your understanding? Isn't it time to let Him become limitless again? There is none that can be likened to Him. His will and purposes are irresistible, and so we choose to serve in obedience. Knowing that there will be opposition. Knowing the hand of the enemy is strong against us, but in Your time You will stretch forth Your hand. We long for that visitation, Lord, the stretching forth of Your hand, the showing of Yourself mighty in our midst to deliver us, to heal us, to preserve us that we might glorify You.

Let's sing this together and glorify the Lord this morning. "Holy, holy, holy are You, Lord...." Hallelujah! Take a moment and worship Him this morning. Thank Him for His revelation of Himself. Lord reveal Yourself to us. Visit us Father. Cause Your Word to become alive in our hearts. Cause us to know the manifest presence of our God. Show Yourself mighty, Lord. Arrest our minds and our hearts, Father. Bring about a boasting of Your people as we seek You to be all-in-all, Lord. All that our God is, He is infinitely. There is no limit to His power. There is no limit to His love, His goodness, His kindness toward us. He is infinite in His immutability, as His attributes work in harmony. He doesn't change, so every time you approach Him He is the same. No bad days. Never short, always long-suffering and gentle, merciful, kind. Always just and righteous, and truth. Run into Him this morning and be safe. Keep His commandments and know His presence. That is our victory. Father, make it real, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Amen!

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "The Lord is holy."

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