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Isaiah 58 Ministries Easter 2016 Edition
Pastor "Faith"
Scriptures: Isaiah 35:8, John 10:10, Isaiah 55:8-9
Isaiah 35:8 (NKJV)
8 A highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean shall not pass over it,
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray.
Highway to Heaven vs the Highway/ Low Way to Hell
On our bicycle trip we were this thirsty sometimes and all you wanted was a cold glass of ice water to quench your thirst.
If I were to ask an audience who has heard the song Highway to Hell by ACDC, probably everyone in the entire world would raise their hand. I just heard the song the other day and was meditating on what it means. Hell is a horrible eternity of suffering. It's been described in many ways. The simplest explanation is being hot, your throat parched and dry. A never ending thirst, all the time. There is absolutely no way to quench the thirst, causing enveloping despair and regret.
We hear voices when we are "observers" of life and not "participants."
We were invited to stay the night at a person's home in Missouri while bicycling. The whole family was fantastically musically talented, but in a secular avenue. We had a music minister who is a genius with any music! We have friends, family members and acquaintances who are music ministers. They studied, trained, practiced, and spent hours working hard to develop their skills so they would be musically pleasing to the ear.
Beyond school or church choirs, and short lived piano lessons, we have never had a real lesson in music and do not seek this kind of perfection. Why? We would rather sound awful and be anointed by God than be perfectly in tune with the world.
We want to be participants, not disciples of the teachers of this world but disciples of Jesus Christ.Sing a new song of praise to him; play skillfully on the harp, and sing with joy. Pslams 33:3
The question is, is God more pleased with our skills, or with a pure, humble, broken spirit?
Psalm 51:17Amplified Bible (AMP)
17
My [only] sacrifice [acceptable] to God is a broken spirit;
A broken and contrite heart [broken with sorrow for sin, thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.
We personally have been healed and have seen others soothed and healed by our music because it isn't our music, we don't receive any "worldly" glory or provision from it. We won't be going to the Grand ole Opry or make it on the top ten music hit list any time soon.
Those touched by our music do not say "man, you were great." They say God healed me, God spoke to me, God touched me. In fact, if someone does not say that, it makes me wonder if my heart was in the right place at the time...
When ACDC plays you just want to get up and dance! We get excited, start screaming with the music, etc. We are following. We are followers being lead by someone else. When God does something, each person becomes a participant. Giving and receiving God's love and purity, health and peace- inwardly. God calms the mind. The World excites the mind; your adrenaline rushes throughout your body.
Matthew 7:13-14Amplified Bible (AMP)
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss, and there are many who enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow and difficult to travel is the path that leads the way to [everlasting] life, and there are few who find it.
What we are not aware of is what is happening in our sub-conscience. Our minds are making a recording and we will meditate on what we heard and listen to it over and over again in our minds. Worldly music actually has a destructive force and pressure on our minds. We become a, or enter into a "lower state of being". The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. A person singing directly from God, anointed by God will bring our minds to a "higher State of being".
John 10:10 (ESV)
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV)
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
God's ways are "Higher" than our ways. Clean, Right, Mature, Responsible, respectful, restores, heals, protects, provides, keeps people: Happy, Healthy, Free and at peace. With God, no one suffers, but people are refreshed.
So when doing things the world's way, everyone suffers, everyone has to have the "low" standards", everyone has to be filthy minded, perverse, naughty, wrong, lying, immature, childish, selfish, irresponsible, unsafe- void of peace.
All of this happens deep within the minds, the souls of men. You'll find worldly people to be "superficial" having no depth within them. ACDC made a lot of money and became very famous. Some people respect this and look up to these people, it just "feels" that way. You "have to" "not" respect them or yourself and you have to "look" down beneath yourself to think this way.
God's ways are "Higher". We look up to God. God looks down upon us. The only way to meet God's higher standards is to have God as your teacher.
Sitting before God daily for "Hours" like a master pianist practices 8 hours a day to be a concert pianist. We have to sit hours before God, waiting listening, until he speaks!
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| Wait for It! |
The Gospel is God "looking" down on mankind. Saying "repent turn upward, join God, let God raise you up to a 'higher standard'." God will give you power to "overcome" the "voices" which are evil, sinful, and powerful forces on our souls trying to force us to succumb to their pressures, powers. God is All Powerful and when you turn to him he gives you "gifts" and "power" to do the "right thing".
God empowers you to hear him, see him, talk to him. God gives you gifts for yourself as well as gifts to share with others. God helps you in everything. God helps you be like him; respectful, "righteous", mature, responsible, kind, caring, full of His power and Love so you love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
When you are free from the dark, violent, evil "voices", "forces", at "work"...
You will then know you are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus! Walking is his "higher ways."
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