Updated 10/13/15

Kingdom Principle: Kingdom Servants are to seek the Holiness of God, not the Glory of God.

Humility & Confidence open the ears of the servant to hear their calling into Service.

An evolutionist and God were arguing about the origins of life. God entertained the evolutionist’s challenge and it was set that they would both attempt to create life to demonstrate their being “right”. As the two stepped up to for the show-down, they both arrived with a lump of clay-dirt…. Just prior to the start – God reached over to the atheist and said, “get your own dirt – I created that”

Our view of God and His power & majesty cannot be too high or lofty. If we can contain all the mystery of God in our minds, then we have foolishly made God – subject to our mind and our creative power. This shall not be so – and for the most part – those who have come to know God, do not assume themselves to be more powerful, more wise or more anything than God. However until this is tested and tried, we are not fully aware of the foolish attitudes and perspectives that reside in our hearts.  While the situation Job found himself in, may seem extreme to many … but how much more should we long for this test rather than assuming that God would not “do” that to us.

Job – was not in sin – but he was in error. While Job sacrificed daily for the covering of sins – yielding him blameless and righteous, it was God that declared him blameless. Job  assumed that his holiness was on par with God’s or at least beyond the comprehension of his friends and such that justice was do him based on his righteousness. Therefore, Job declared his right to question God and demand an account for justice.  This week we see God’s response to Job’s cry for justice. We also see that God is not concerned with Job’s questions or his demand for justice. It is God’s Rule & Reign overall all creation that is the response to Job. Beyond that we are reminded that it is by God’s  mercy & grace is anything possible. It does not solve the answer of evil, why, or what’s next, only that God is sovereign.

It has been said, in life we take three steps with God. 1. Justification – 2.  Sanctification –3.  Glorification.  Justification is the first step and it was taken on our behalf by God the Son to completely wash our sins white as snow and make us right with Him.  Sanctification is the second step taken in the power of the Holy Spirit so that our lives might be transformed completely and fully into His. The final step is glorification, where we come face to face with the Father, and the things of this world have once and for all passed away. Sanctification is the means by which the Holiness of God is transferred unto us.  1 Peter records that we are to be Holy as God is Holy. When we seek the Glory of God without the Holiness of God we are out of step with God.

Holiness is the Otherness or Separation of God from the Creation.

Glory is the expression or revelation of His Holiness to the Creation.

The disciples clearly demonstrate their hard-heartedness and ignorance when it comes to the purpose of Christ and his calling to display strength through weakness. The disciples clearly were patiently waiting for Jesus to arrive in all of God’s Glory and to take the rightful place of victory over the Romans. They awaited a Messiah to savior the Jewish People from the tyrant of the world. What they missed was the Tyrant from which they were being saved was the one whom bears the name of “tempter” and “deceiver”.  Jesus’ very life and death paid the ransom, crushing the enemy of God. The way to follow in the steps of Jesus and to enter the Kingdom is not in the wisdom of the world. Rather in the submission of one’s world (their flesh) unto the only one who can save them from this world – The very Spirit of God.

God is to be glorified in every aspect of our lives, not just in our death – but it is by His work, His way and in His time not ours. Jesus himself cried out that the Father would glorify His Name through Jesus’ life. Jesus did not take on the glory of God by his own; rather he gave it up and over unto the Father – in his life of suffering and sacrifice. This is for us as well.   We each have a calling to receive from the Father. This calling is received when our ears are opened to the calling of the Holy Spirit. It is through the process of humility that we hear the calling and through the process of confidence that we respond. As we saw last week – Testing provides the necessary means for humility and confidence to be produced in us. This is all at the hand of God. If we seek to by-pass suffering and service as a means bring Glory of God – we are confronted with impossibility.  We cannot contain God’s holiness unless we are made perfect through suffering. It is His holiness that separates us from the world. The Glory of God is Holiness revealed. Thus for Holiness to be revealed it must have a means…. As the Psalm and Job point out this week – there is no shortage of means for God’s Holiness to be revealed. Yet God has chosen us – Humanity to be the climax of creation to reveal his Glory and bear His image.

Our path is to be one of Submission and Separation, not that of Stardom and Splendor. This is not a lowly path, or a undesirable place of being – This is a place of purpose and calling guided by humility and confidence. If God chooses to lift you up, and place you in the role of king or ruler in this world – may it be so.  If not, we are not passive victims, rather being more than conquers and confident we pursue a life of submission which results in the death of our own will and aligns us with the Will of the almighty.  May we be servants, even slaves unto the will of God.