ISAIAH 55:9 - "Higher Worship -Part 2"

"He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him." (John 14:21) I have to be perfectly honest with you: I have no clue what I am doing, which is what I tried to tell you yesterday; but, really I mean it. In fact, I will even go as far to say, that I have no control over what I am doing; yes, that's it. This is a day to day journey for me, and I mean that with all sincerity. I am not looking at commentary, or other teachings, or sermons; but rather I am just writing what the Lord shows me to write; talk about driving blind. I do however look up the meaning of words, because words mean things, and they have a purpose. Enough said about that! Now, let's go back to the illustration of Peter's attempt to walk on water. Did he take his eyes off the Lord, which then caused him to sink? This requires a YES and a NO answer. How is that? Because our faith is based on what we do not see; otherwise it is not faith that we are walking by, but rather it is by what we know from what we have seen with our physical eyes. But we have another set of eyes, which are the eyes of the heart. So, what actually happened to Peter, was that he began to walk out to Jesus based on his faith, which was generated by the eyes of the heart; but then began to look through his physical eyes of his mind, which then caused him to sink. Whether or not he took his physical eyes off of Jesus or not, is not really relevant; but I would suspect, based on personal experience in drowning, that his physical eyes were fixed on Jesus, and when I say fixed, I mean "Help me I'm sinking" kind of fixed. In other words; what I am trying to illustrate with Peter's sinking is this: When we worship God, we must come to Him through the eyes of our hearts, because in reality our minds will always draw us towards the things that we know, based upon our life experiences and on the things which we have seen with our physical eyes; but our heart, well, it allows us to see God, who is Spirit, which of course we can not see with our physical eyes. But like I said, I really don't know what I am doing! Because how can I paint a picture for you to see with your eyes, what I can not see with mine. I can only show you what the Lord shows me; but in order for you to see what I am seeing, you too must use the eyes of your heart. You there? Now, with regards to our minds; this is where things can get really interesting; because the word 'know', which remember is a verb, it also has an attribute, which is a noun, and that word is 'Knowledge'. Before we get into this word, let's go back to the opening verse for some help, (and I mean help me Lord). What is Jesus saying here; what are His commandments? There are only two: "Love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, mind, soul and strength; and Love thy neighbor as thyself". That's it; pretty simple, isn't it? I have heard somewhere that when John was very old, he would be carried in before a crowd on a chair, and he would then deliver a message to the saints: "Love one another"; and then he would be carried out again. I have a song stuck in my heart right now, and it goes like this: "I'm going back to the heart of worship, and it's all about you, all about you, Jesus." I really hope you can see what I am trying to say, because I really want to move on; but before we do, we must know who we are to be worshipping. Why is that important? Did you ask that? Well, if you must know; because His Word is alive, and because it is alive, we must be able to have Him speak to us through His Word; but first we must know Him. You know, I could put some kind of a message together using commentary, teachings and other people's sermons, and it would probably be better than what I am doing; but it would not be fresh, and it would not be showing me the things which God is showing me; at least not to me. And so it is with you, because, what He shows you personally, will be worth more to you than what you are shown by someone else. Why is that? (I think that was rhetorical) But in case you asked: We must not worship God with our minds; but rather we must renew our minds with His Word. I can try to show you why, but I do not think I can; but I can tell you why, and then you must see it for yourself. Okay, here it goes: That attribute of Know; which is the word Knowledge; which is a noun; which is a person, place or thing. Are you with me so far? Good, because this could get weird. What God is saying within His Word, through the prophet Isaiah, is that we can not know His thoughts or His ways by using our minds. We might think that we are, but really where we are going to within our minds is what we know, based upon our life experiences through our physical eyes. Are you still there? I hope so, because this might get freaky. In reality, our minds get in the way of our worship to God, because instead of actually worshipping God, we are occupied by those things that are within our minds. Now, what God has shown me this morning, was far more than I wanted to see: The things which I have stored up in my mind; can anyone say freaky? Talk about being vial!!! But really, what He showed me, was that there are demons in there that I have made, and they are gathered at the altars within my mind; weird isn't it? What I am talking about are things which have been established within my mind that I have raised up against God. A really good example of this would be pornography, and what takes place in me, when it becomes part of my life. Because I know in my heart that it is wrong, but yet chose in my mind to partake of it, I have raised up an idol within my mind that is against God. So then, when I go to worship God within my mind, (which is where I should not go to worship Him), I go to my altars, which I have established, and low and behold, I find Knowledge!!! Smack dab in the middle of my mind; just like that tree in the middle of the garden; the Knowledge of Good and of Evil. And the really freaky thing is that those idols that I have made for myself within my mind are alive; why and how? Because I gave life to them by allowing them into my mind to take up residence there. We must renew our minds by the washing of His Word, but before we can do that, we must know who we are worshipping; because we must worship God, and Him alone. "All other gods are idols, but our God, He made the heavens". To worship the God of heaven we must do so with our hearts; and then He will manifest Himself to us within our minds, and then guess what happens: Light!!! And you know what happens when the Light goes on, Don't you? Darkness flees!!! "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed, by the renewing of our minds." Now we can begin to love the Lord with our minds, as well as our hearts. Why is that? Because we will Know Him! I hope you got that; and that if you did, you are still with me; because I have one more thing to share today. What happens when we alter our minds with drugs? Well it involves light; but it is not the Light of God. We really need to see what is going on in our churches, and in us individually. Between pornography and drugs, is it any wonder that the majority of kids growing up in the church today, have no respect for the church, or for the things of God. Where are the men that will take back our churches??? " I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1 & 2)