The Amazing Disappearing Act
1 Amens
The Disappearing Act!
Israel throughout the Old Testament were God’s people. They were instructed to build a place where God would meet with them and their priests would offer up the sacrifices to God for salvation and worship.
temple of
God .
temple of
God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the
temple of
God , God will destroy him. For the
temple of
God is holy, which temple you are.
land of
Palestine and
Israel . Pompi wasted no time getting to know the people he intended to rule. He sought to know their culture and religion. When he approached the Jewish people he asked them what God they followed and they replied: “We follow the only One true God, Who made heaven and earth.” Well he was impressed and asked where this God can be found and worshipped. They told him that they had a temple where they offered up sacrifices to Him and that His presence dwelt in the Holy of Holies.
Israel were so offended they tried to resist him but they were no match against a well drilled roman force and Pompi reached the temple practically unhindered.
Read MoreThere is only one place that really matters. There’s only one validation that has any constant and eternal significance. That’s the secret place of prayer and the sweet communion between you and your God!
If you don’t have it then you don’t have Him!
Psalm 42:7
Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your Waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
The people of
The New Testament teaches us that we are the new
1 Cor 3:16-17
Do you not know that you are the
Our bodies reflect the ancient temple in such a direct way. The old had an outer court which is a reflection of our flesh and our body. Than there is the holy place which reflects our soul and finally there is the Holy of Holies where God dwells permanently; our spirit.
This was the intention of the original temple. God would dwell in the Holy of Holies and no man could enter that place without the sacrificial blood or they would be struck dead. Such was the terror of God’s presence that many of the priests were fearful to even enter at all just to perform their duty unto God. History tells us that each priest only had to enter that most intimate place with God once in his life and they would dread that like nothing else.
Our Holy of Holies is our spirit. It’s the place deepest in our hearts, where God Himself desires to dwell.
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The amazing disappearing act
An interesting incident occurred during the reign of Julius Caesar. Julius had a son named Pompi who was a strong willed man. As he grew in stature he also grew in popularity and the emperor began to feel threatened by him so he sent him to become a governor in the distant
He replied “Well that’s settled than; tomorrow afternoon I'm going to go over to that temple and meet this God.”
“Oh no, they replied you can’t meet Him. If anyone enters into that place and they are not a priest carrying the blood of the sacrifice they will be struck dead.”
He only laughed and retorted that he has never feared any God and he wasn’t about to start.
The next day arrived and he set out with his army. The citizens of
They cried out, “You can’t go in there because God is in there.”
He walked straight in and looked at its beauty, but he wasn’t there just to marvel at pretty furniture he could have done that in Rome. He quickly moved through the outer courts into the Holy place and looked around and was again unimpressed with the ‘spirit of excellence’ shown because he was there for only one thing.
He says to the people standing watching helplessly “I don’t see anything different here? “ They replied “No this is just the places of duty for the priests it’s behind that curtain that God dwells.” The priests tried to offer up some resistance but failed and Pompi reached the veil/curtain that separated the Holy of Holies form the rest of the world. He stood boldly staring at it and took a moment to reflect on what he might find behind it.
One priest screamed, “He is a God of light and glory and you will be painfully blinded by His radiance.” Pompi took no notice of it and took a sword from his side and thrust it as hard and as fast as he could, through the 6 inch curtain and shoved his way through it.
I can imagine the priests all hitting the floor and blocking their eyes because of the glory. He had done the most illegal, blasphemous thing a human could do and entered the Holy of Holies where God Himself promised to dwell.
After a moment of silence they heard a loud scream from behind the curtain: “You lied to me. You told me that there was a God of light in there and its pitch black, you said the Living God dwells in here and there is no body in here. You liars! Your Gods have no more power than our gods back in Rome!”
And he stormed out completely unimpressed.
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This had to be among the most devastating days in Jewish history. They have been enslaved and killed, tortured and exiled in just about every era of their existence. The stories of the Babylonian invasion and exile are horrific. There are accounts of the Babylonian army killing thousands of the men than castrating the rest of them and shackling them to walk all the way to Babylon with the blood still running down their legs. We could raise the whole holocaust tragedy. Even saying it as a tragedy seems like such an understatement.
Yet the day that they learned, God had deserted them, must have been the worst of all. Their duties of worship had become nothing more than mechanical ministry. This once powerful nation of God’s right Hand smiting empires against the most impossible odds have now been humbled to their lowest point.
But remember this isn’t a history lesson about the nation of Israel tonight it’s the sounding of an alarm to the hearts of believers to ask this question:
“Is God really in there???”
Many of you have been in this game long enough and you know exactly what to do and when to do it and you haven’t even realised that God could be missing.
He might have been for sometime and you never even noticed.
This happens when our faith life is no longer about Him it’s about us. Just a seasoning of spirituality added to the plate of our life to make all things taste better and we’ll be right.
It’s not about God it’s about getting the most out of life and if that means going to church than so be it.
Some of us just do our regular once a month thing to appease our consciences and make sure we feel ok about it all. We say to ourselves: “As long as we get to heaven it’s all good!”
Nothing could be further from the truth. There are going to be many surprises that frightful Day, as you realise you aren’t even going to heaven because God is nowhere to be found in your Holy of Holies!
You have a 168 hour week. Most of us are going to sleep at least 55 hours of this that leaves us with 113 hours left to spend on our petty lusts and you think that 2 hours in God’s house every week will be sufficient.
Here’s a news flash for you:
‘God’s been missing for a long time now! And the fact that you never noticed shows how little you know of Him at all!’
The paradox is enough to make one feel ill just looking at it. We can be so spiritual when we’re around Christians. Like a priest performing a duty even without God there to receive the sacrifice. We can talk the talk and walk the walk. We sing, stand up, sit down, stand up again and amen what's being said than have the audacity to walk right out and live for our true god called SELF.
Many Christians cuss like the best of them, walk just like the rest of them and they don’t recognise a thing different about you. BEWARE when they say of you: “Oh, are you a Christian? I never knew.”
Watch out friend! Your holy of holies has a big vacant sign posted over it and God has cleared out.
(If He was ever welcome there in the first place)
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But there is another breed here tonight…
This other breed of person is filled with the Holy Ghost. Not just a drop, not a trickle, not even a river but rivers of living water. They have fallen for God hook line and sinker and they have nothing left but to live for Him.
There is a burning fire deep down inside them that can’t be explained or hidden. They never seem to fit anywhere almost like they’re unacceptable and an offence to many (Even at church).
They have sought the God of the ages and as the book of James tells us that because they drew near Him He has returned the favour and drawn near to them.
Pull back the curtain of their inner-life, but shield your eyes because existing in them is the Living, Breathing, and All Consuming Fire called the Most High God!
- They never concede ground to the enemy, not even an inch. Enticing as it may seem they never bow to sin.
- They never back down from an opportunity to witness to the lost.
- The movies that entertain the numb masses do nothing for them.
- The music spewing into the lives of a generation isn’t considered entertainment to them, but the highest offence.
- They can never loose sight of the One whom loved them first and they could never let the flame die out. For them this is no longer about opinion it’s about conviction. And there’s a world of difference we hold opinions but convictions hold us!!!
A true story about one such youngster is as follows. There was a young girl and she had just been in a meeting where God had moved powerfully and touched her heart in an incredible way. When she got home she felt helpless, she had all this enthusiasm and godly zeal but no real outlet. She wanted to preach to the lost but she was closed up in her house and was forbidden by her parents to go out because it was quite late. She started to get frustrated and without thinking she picked up the white pages turned to a random page and began to dial the first number she had laid her eyes on. The phone started to ring and she had no idea what she was going to do, all of a sudden there was an answer at the other end of the line. A gruff voice spoke quite harshly and said “what.”
Well she couldn’t think of what. She was so nervous and realised she hadn’t had any idea what to say so she just conjured up the courage and sang ‘Amazing Grace’. She finished the 1st verse and didn’t know what to say so she just sang the 2nd verse; again she was nearing the end of it and still didn’t know what to do so she ended up singing the whole thing right through. When she had finally finished, she was stunned silent still having no idea what to do and the gruff harsh voice shot back at her: “Sing it again!”
So she obeyed and sang it right through again after she had finished it for the second time he admitted that he was holding a pistol and was just moments form pointing it at his head and shooting himself until the phone rang and there was this sweet small voice singing:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; 'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.
When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun.
That broken man received Jesus as His Lord and Saviour that night and was rescued from a lost eternity.
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I'm talking about the kind of person who always gets nervous at the thought of sharing their faith yet pushes through anyway and sees God do incredible things.
They’re the kind of people who know Him the best. Don’t look behind pulpits to see these kinds of people, nor look for a red cape and external underwear because they won’t be wearing them. They will be sitting with the throne dwellers and bringing healing to a broken world. They are kept awake at night by the screams of the ones we have missed in our ignorance and self indulgence.
The Holy Ghost is not a switch that they can flick on and off when it’s convenient. Their the ones walking through shopping malls and bus stops weeping at the state of a lost humanity
They can’t just attend church and watch from the sideline they are the ones who put their shoulder to the plough and carry the load. They are the ones who will decline the offer to socialise to be in His presence a little longer.
They live and breathe God and I challenge you to approach them and cut through that curtain and see what's behind and you’ll find Him in all His glory and splendour dwelling within.
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Perception means nothing.
We are so good at picking the ones who are the Holy chosen. But just because people can demonstrate what you define as spirituality doesn’t mean a thing.
Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
We also know how to look and see that the worst among us are obviously the foul mouthed, sin riddled, satan worshipping, rapists and murderers. Oh how we celebrate when one of these kinds of people gets saved. It would even seem that the more and the greater the sin the further the distance from God, so it must be by great efforts that God is able to draw such a one into relationship with Him. YET This is so wrong.
We are guilty of getting such people up in front of our churches and having them testify (Tell us how bad you were) and praise them for coming so far. But God is shouting at us to wake up and recognise that they were in fact the easy ones.
The hardest ones for Him to draw into relationship with Him are us. The ‘been there’ ‘done that’ people. Who think they have seen it all and there is nothing new to them. These people make God sick to His stomach and He even says He would prefer you to worship the devil himself than to pretend you know Him.
Rev 3:14-17 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write: ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”
We should have people in our churches get up and say something like this: “I used to sit up the back, pretend to be a Christian but my life was full of corruption. I used to spiritualise everything yet I lived in sin. I could just sit there and hear the Word of God and even see it hit people around me but I made sure I kept my heart closed lest I be pierced by that two edged sword. I would than pretend like it was all old and I heard it all before and I was just fine but I was empty, absolutely empty. Void of the One who could save me. So here I am and I confess I'm a sinner and I repent!”
Than we can all stand up and applaud even louder because the ones who were the most distant have come home.
The worst of sinners are not the ones out there in dark alleys terrorizing our city, they are certainly sinners, but the hardest ones are the ones who have played the game for so long that it’s become second nature to them. They don’t need another sermon because they’ve disregarded the last 100 they need to recognize their helplessness, beg Him forgiveness, than draw near and don’t let go until He blesses you!
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Conviction Vs Opinion
Many so-called Christians aren't saved!!! The reason is because we have our entire faith and Christian walk based upon an opinion. It sounded good and pleasing so you decided to give it a shot.
I detest and loathe it when people say to me out in the world “Oh all that religion stuff, I tried all that, it doesn’t work!” What is this some kind of new diet plan you’re giving a go? There are the same people sitting in here tonight that are treating all this as a ‘fix me club’.
GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED!!!
He is not a formula to escape sin, sickness and sadness. He’s the living Judge of all the earth and if He doesn’t dwell in you than you are eternally lost, rushing like a speeding train over the brink of a volcano to be plunged into a never-ending pit of despair and torment.
They have the form but not the power. 2 Tim 3:5
Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’”
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There’s only ONE WAY!
Jesus said it so clearly “I am the Way, Truth and the Light. No man comes to the Father but through me.”
That’s it! He’s not looking for how many miracles you do, how much bible you can memorise or how much you are tithing. He is looking to see if you know Him. They’re the ones He’s letting into His heaven. These poor people mentioned before who had done it all: Cast out devils, prophesied, and did MANY wonders in His name yet will be disallowed entry because they know Him not!
There are many Christians today attending church following all the rituals and performing all the procedures yet they are as far from God as the worst of sinners. This was the state of Israel when the prideful, arrogant Pompi tore through a veil that was supposed to carry His presence and yet they were found wanting.
DO YOU KNOW HIM????
There is no greater question you need to answer than this.
-Have them stand up and only the ones who are absolutely certain they’re saved sit down.-
Comments:
Craig C. Ireland
Blessings
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