Waiting on God – His Characteristics
June 2018 • Volume XVII Number 01
”But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. “ (2 Corinthians 3:18)
THOUGHTS FOR CONSIDERATION:
Greetings again my Brethren. Wow we start our 17th year of Beholding His Glory (BHG). It only seems like yesterday we were in Germany and God said, “put a name to my travels” and BHG was birthed in me and the world. I am ever amazed to see what God has done and encouraged to know what God will do in our remaining years ahead. I look at in retrospect (how we see God best) all of the people (most important), places, and events and wonder how God made things happen over all these years. All I can say is this is the doing of the LORD and it is marvellous in our sight.
Now let us continue to look at what we may observe while waiting on God. You know the concept of waiting is not inactivity oh no we are to be busy doing things as we wait in the presence of God. Did you get that? We have covered two observations and I think we have three more. The third observation is found in Isaiah 49:23. “And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.” (Isaiah 49:23) Here we see those who wait for God shall not be put to shame because of God’s failure to respond. What a statement. Are we ashamed to wait on God? Or do we jump ahead of God and do things to make God seem more powerful and in charge? What do we do when God does not respond when we want Him to? God does not have to respond at all. He is God and we are not. We are created for His good pleasure. Paul tells us, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13) Many Christians have a problem with the “to do of his good pleasure” part they are selfish and think it is all about them, but God is God and we are not. What a real revelation for some Christians. The fourth observation is found in Proverbs and is that His response to our waiting may come through different means and circumstances in our lives. In Proverbs we read, “Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.” (Proverbs 8:33-34) Here it is at the “gates” and “at the posts of my doors.” Now do not think Solomon was talking about literal gates and doors, he could be, but I think he was talking more spiritually. All throughout the Bible “gates” have symbolized a place of decision, where commerce was transacted, a place where life was discussed. So too with “doors.” John writes to the Church at Laodicea, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20) John was not talking about some door with hinges and a handle, but our heart. Our heart is “the” door and whatsoever we open our heart up to by way of decisions we become that. Also in Proverbs we read, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” (Proverbs 23:7) “For as he thinketh in his heart,” is translated in the Greek “as a gate opens.” Whatever we open our heart to we will become that. Make no mistake my friend God will use His means beyond our thinking to bring His will and plan into our lives. The stronger the means the greater the reward. And the last and fifth observation is found in Exodus. “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.” (Exodus 32:1) Here we learn the failure of the people to understand the need of spending time with God. How can we love someone we do not know? How can I say I love my wife if I never talk with her? If I never spend time with her?
Here Moses was with God on the mountain getting to know Him. For 80 days (40 days twice) Moses stood before God and talked with Him faced to face. Here they exchanged gifts, God gave Moses the 10 Commandments (twice) and Moses gave God his heart. Any time we wait on God there is always an exchange of gifts from God to man and man to God if we have the understanding. But most Christians have no desire to understanding the importance of waiting on God. They see no need to hear from God, no need to be silent, no need to be still for some time in our very busy day. If they do spend some time with the LORD they do all of the talking asking Him for things never letting God get in a word, and never allowing God to get the last word. Why do we think we should get the last word? Would it not be great to let God get the last word? He may give us the answer.
Next month we will begin to look at the results of waiting on God. Walter Beuttler said if you build God a temple He will inhabit it. Have you built God a temple? If you do He will abide and wait for you.
Written by David Stahl
ARTICLE REVIEW:
The Knowledge of God
When we see man and woman in the garden eastward from Eden (Genesis 2:8) it was the best of times and it was the worst of times. It was the best of times when God would talk with man and even walk with him in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8). After God created man He was constantly communicating and communing with man. God has always had a longing in His heart to be with man. God is ever building an eternal habitation for Himself in man (Ephesians 2:22). So God created man, planted a garden, and put man in it so that man could come to know his creator in a personal and intimate way. Many Christians like to believe the garden was about a perfect place a real paradise for man to frolic in; well it had nothing to do with a life of pleasure and ease Adam for in the garden, but everything to do with man coming to know a holy God, his creator. In Genesis Moses writes, “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Genesis 2:15) The word “dress” (Strong’s #5647) means to labor and work and the word “keep” (Strong’s # 8104) means to guard, observe, and to take heed. I believe Adam had no easy life in the garden he was working from sun up to sun down. Only the lazy and shiftless would want to believe Adam just played around all day. What would be better than coming to know God? After all God gave Adam and Eve all that they needed to survive, but they wanted more knowledge. Now that leads us to the worse of times for all of mankind. Sadly when Adam went after “knowledge” it was knowledge they lost. In Genesis we read, “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” (Genesis 3:7) The word “knew” (Strong’s #3045) means to gain knowledge and learn to know. Adam and Eve went after the knowledge to know and learn the things God had already given them and they lost the knowledge of God. Man did not lose salvation nor did man lose the love of God for them, but what man lost was the knowledge of God and his way. Man lost his way back to the heart of the Father because of sin. We will read this truth in Romans. “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” (Romans 1:21-23) And because of this (it is all about the choice we make) God rewarded man with, “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” (Romans 1:24-25) Adam disobeyed God, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) The death God was talking about was not a physical death, but the death that comes to us when we disobey God, when we do that which God tells us not to do, then we like Adam and Eve (and all who rebel against God’s word), “neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” Adam had the potential to know God in a way that no other creature created by God could, but because of His disobedience He lost the knowledge of God (who God was intimately acquainted with) and it seems Adam had no desire to gain that back. Adam seemed to be more satisfied with the things God created than God the creator. Adam’s heart seemed to be unworthy and his heart seemed to be filled with a huge emptiness of life’s detractions. This is so true for all of us. Isaiah said, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; . . .’ (Isaiah 53:6) Like Adam when we are disobedient to God (and we know it like Adam and Eve did) we lose God’s way and turn to our way. When this happens (just like with Adam and Eve) our salvation can be lost if we never get back to God and make things right (confession and repentance) with Him and others if need be. At the heart of Adam and Eve’s salvation was the knowledge of God and in the garden they lost this knowledge. Man now needed God to set up an arrangement, some form of ritual worship by way of sacrifice to replace the knowledge they lost and for 1,000s of years man continued in this tradition until Jesus Christ made His appearance on the scene to be the supreme sacrifice for all of mankind and to be the conduit of the lost knowledge of God and a way back to the heart of the Father. For this to happen we must come to know the LORD, this is why I say one cannot be truly be saved unless we come to know God. Oh yes God will forgive us of our sins based on the work of Christ on the cross if we believe, but unless we really come to know God, unless we really posses the knowledge of God (who He is and how much He loves us) we will never ever experience salvation as God intends for us. My friend salvation is far more than just having our sins forgiven. Jesus prayed, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 4I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 5And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” (John 17:3-5) Did you get that? Eternal life is not living forever, but “that they might know thee the only true God.” Eternal life is knowing God. For us “eternal life” is finding what Adam lost in the garden, the knowledge of God.
Many Christians believe God was angry with Adam and Eve and kicked them out of the garden because of their disobedience, but not so. The Bible tells us why Adam and Eve was driven out of the garden, “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:22-24) In love God drove Adam and Eve from the garden so that they would not eat of the “tree of life” and live forever in this state of the loss of knowledge of God. It was not to punish them and most certainly not because He did not love them. It was outside the garden that led our way back to the heart of the Father. It was outside the garden God made a way for man to once again commune and communicate with God. In the next Chapter we read where God established a way to start to get back the knowledge that Adam lost. We read, “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. 2And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.” (Genesis 4:1-3) Sometime between getting driven out of the garden and Cain slaying Abel God established this process. Notice God was not angry with man God even talks with man to resolve some man-made problems, “And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? 10And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:9-10) If God was angry He would not have found time to talk with man nor make a way to restore fellowship, but God loves man very much. No matter what man does or says God still loves man and will make a way to have communion with man. This wrong thinking is as bad as some Christians thinking God (the Father) forsook Jesus on the cross because of the sin He took on Himself. Many Christians believe God could not look at Jesus on the cross in sin so He turned His back on Him, well this does not make much sense because God (all day long) looks at our sin and the sin of the world. God did not forsake His Son Jesus on the cross I believe He was cheering Him on. God has never forsaken man (and He never will) so most certainly God would never forsake His own Son. Yes it is true on the cross Jesus did say, “My God my God why has thou forsaken me,” but these words come out from a place Jesus has never been before, a place of non-dependence on the Father. Jesus has always been dependent on the Father for everything, but now Jesus finds Himself doing completely what the Father has asked Him to do, His purpose to be the sacrifice for all of mankind. No longer is the process God established (way back before the fourth Chapter of Genesis) needed to reconcile man back to Himself. No longer is spilled animal blood good enough as a sacrifice required to restore the knowledge lost by Adam in the garden, because the King of kings and LORD of lords shed His blood once and for all and for all. Jesus became an equal member with the Father in the Trinity. Paul tells us talking of Jesus, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;” (Philippians 2:6-10) God never forsook Jesus He “highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:” I believe God (The Father) was up in heaven saying that is my Son in whom I am well pleased, die my Son so many may live. Die well my Son so I can give them a divine power, a hope, so that many people can come to the knowledge of Me again. Peter tells us, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:3-4) God has given us “all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him.” Did you get that? Through the knowledge of Him! In other words through the knowledge of God we have “all things” so that we “might be partakers of the divine nature” (who’s nature? God’s nature) so we can “escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.” The more of the knowledge we have of God the more of the worldly lust we will be able to escape. If we lack the knowledge of God like Adam then we shall only know things about earthly life and never come to eternal life which is God’s intention for us.
Written by David Stahl
THOUGHTS FROM KAREN:
Bless Me, Bless Me, Bless Me
Oh how we all love a good blessing from the LORD! Be it a touch on our health, a financial blessing, you name it we want it. But do we realize that GOD can’t bless what we don’t do. In order for GOD to bless the work of our hands we have to do something or we have to have the faith to believe that GOD will move on our behalf if it’s something else. Recently Dave was on the computer working on an article when he finished he said he was doing the LORD’s work to which I replied, “so was I.” I was cleaning house at the time. Now some people would say oh that’s not the LORD’s work. I beg to differ, any work we do in our lives is the LORD’s work. You don’t think Jesus would wipe a rag over furniture or run the vacuum cleaner before the brethren came to the house? Jesus wasn’t lazy before his ministry and during his ministry and neither were the apostles they were all hard working men and a fine example to us all. Paul says, “Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. 10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:9-10) If you don’t work you don’t eat. In 1 Kings the little widow woman was all set to make a little food for herself, her son, and die. The Prophet Elijah told her to make him a cake (food) first then make food for herself and her son from the barrel of meal and if she did, “The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until that day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.” (1 Kings 17:10-16). She obeyed the prophet. First she fed him as he requested. Second she fed herself and her son. Then third GOD multiplied the meal and oil she had so she and her son could eat for “many days.” The little widow woman was obedient to the prophet she must have had some faith in his words as she did what he bid her. Obedience and faith together are very powerful indeed. When Dave was in India one time he was asked to pray for some students that were taking school exams soon. He only prayed for the ones that had prepared themselves by studying the others went away sad they had not applied the work needed for God to move . They were not obedient and faithful in their schoolwork. God wants to bless us, but we have to do our part. I can go in my backyard and pray for beans and squash, but if I didn’t plant anything how can I expect GOD to just plop vegetables in my yard. Now HE could do that, but GOD doesn’t work that way. HE is not going to honor my request on a whim and honor my lack of planting. If we want the blessings of GOD in our lives we need to 1) Keep our eyes on HIM. 2) Have faith. And 3) be obedient!!!
Written by Karen Stahl
NEEDS NO WANTS:
- In Dobrich, Bulgaria Pastor Niki Marsov and in Silistra Pastor(s) Yanko, Marcho, and Emil. Times are troubled in Bulgaria much prayer and support is needed.
- Constanta, Romania Pastors Luke and Jacob at Bethel Church and George Ritisan at the Romanian Center for Cross-cultural Studies Bible School.
- In Suceava, Romania Pastors Nicu at St. Andrews Church. They are still standing by God’s grace.
- Pastor Joseph Mutua in Nairobi, Kenya needs your prayer and financial support.
- Pastor Mike Olufemi in Aveile, Nigeria. He needs our prayers and support to be a light in great darkness.
- Pastor S. J. Peter, Founder of DAWN Ministries in Hyderabad and Pastor Wilson and his son Pastor Julian in Sankaraguptham, India.
- Pastor Metin Mintaz, Dan, Cathy, and members of Uskudar Son Buyruk Kilisesi in Istanbul, Turkey.
- Pastor Elieti Msangi in Dar Es Salaam and Pastors Isreal Mutaitina and John Balone in Bukoba, Tanzania.
- Monthly financial support for Vivian’s Maternity and Child Care Clinic project in Aviele, Nigeria.
- Pastor Tek Dahl at Gethsemane, Church (his church) and their radio station “Good News 105.1 FM” in Kathmandu, Nepal.
- Bishop John, Samuel Kamanzi (from the Congo), and, Emmanuel Ndolimana in Ruhengeli, Rwanda.
NEXT HOME GROUP MEETING:
11 September 2018 & 25 September 2018 at 7:00 pm
At 232 Everett Drive
Sneads Ferry, NC 28460
7:00 pm please RSVP
Home: (910) 741-0489
FUTURE SCHEDULE:
September: Local Ministry
October: Local Ministry
November: Romania and Bulgaria
I am still available to share what God has given me at churches and/or home groups. If God moves on your heart to support BHG or other ministries we personally know we would be honored to serve as a go between. Remember, if we want a blessing from God the spiritual principle is we must bless others. Remember, God is to you what you are to God.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Address:
David and Karen Stahl
232 Everett Drive
Sneads Ferry, NC 28460
Phone:
Home: (910) 741-0489
Mobile: (910) 382-9287
FAX: (910) 741-0489
Email:
dstahl@beholdinghisglory.com
Website:
www.www.beholdinghisglory.com/
Blog:
http://bhisglory.blogspot.com/
The AuthorHouse link below will lead you to our latest book, “Thoughts for Consideration.” Just copy it into your web browser and return. Also you can purchase two of our other books “Adventures with God.” and “God Still Performs Miracles: A Book of Personal Encouragement.”
http://www.authorhouse.com/AuthorCenter/Protected/BookHome.aspx?bookID=61464
Please take a minute and take a look, they all make for a great encouraging gift, giving hope and sharing God’s love through a deeper teaching that someone can enjoy again and again. All of our books can be purchased at all book stores like Barnes and Nobles, Borders, Book-A-Million, and etc., any Christian Book Store that orders, and all book ordering on-line companies like Amazon.com. Or if you are like me from the old school just contact us, we will let you know the price and then we will mail it out to your home address. Postage and handling is on a case by case basis.
If you know someone you think would enjoy receiving this newsletter or if you receive this newsletter and do not wish to please let me know. Contributions to this ministry is always appreciated and needed the more time continues. Please feel free to contact us with the above information. The cost is great, but the cost for not supporting to others is even greater. And remember, all donations are tax deductible.
