The Balance of Power!! 2006/18 08/13/06

Last week and now again we are in Isaiah 11:2, and before we begin this week, I felt like telling you the time frame that this was written in. It was, according to the Chronological bible, in the year 713BC. But if we go back just 19 years, you find Isaiah being led to write the prophetic chapter 9 in 732BC. Now it is interesting that beginning in 712BC he prophesied from chapter 40 on through 66 to complete God’s message of the Messiah. I suppose the reason that I bring this up is that Isaiah began his ministry at Chapter 1 in 745BC. Does that intrigue you? It does me, since that is exactly 33 years from start to finish, and that is the time of Jesus walk on the earth. Just something to think about when you are in study of the word.

Lets go back a few years in the book to Isaiah 9 and read the prelude to chapter 11 and then see the prophecy come to life. Turn to Isaiah 9:6-7;

“For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His

Shoulder.

And His name will be called

Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government

and peace

There will be no end,

Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,

To order it and establish it with

judgement and justice

From that time forward, even forever.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”

I want you to recognize just Who the Spirit of the Lord was resting upon, so lets go back to C11 once more and again read verse 2 and continue from last week.

“The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,

The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding,

The Spirit of counsel and might,

The Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”

We spent a bit of time in the first of three couplets last week and now on to the rest of the story, as Mr. Harvey puts it, this is no story, this is the power packed truth from the throne room.

The Spirit of counseland might…

When we walk in the counsel of the Holy Spirit, we gain a new and fresh insight into every encounter we meet in any day. We will find that we lessen in negative thinking and our perspective is clear and fresh, and in fact it turns optimistic, because the One Who knows the end from the beginning is now leading and guiding our way. By the way, He is the One Who blesses us with redemptive revelation. Without this in our life, we can find ourselves walking in seasons of darkness, with Light just to the rear of us. One thing that will never happen when we walk in the counsel of the Holy Spirit, is that we will not be ahead of the Lord, for that is not ‘wise’ counsel. The Holy Spirit floods us with Light, as He points us to Jesus, the Light of the world. He gives us meaning and He fulfills us in ways we could never achieve. Many men seek to do for themselves what they can never do and then blame God when their schemes don’t pan out.

We just read, in Isa. 9, that Jesus, with the Spirit of the Lord upon Him, is called Wonderful, Counselor and also Mighty God, a description that we will get to in just a moment. The Holy Spirit was sent by God to be our Counselor, among many other attributes, so that we would not have to figure out, what we could never could anyway. We need to let His counsel work in our lives and understand even better from Romans 8:14; “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.” One thing that the Counselor will lead us into, is the putting to death of the fallen nature of Adam that we came with in the original package, and seeks to cause us to make the wrong choices. This counsel is an ongoing process, since the word ‘led’ is the greek word ‘ago’ and it is a present participle and should be translated ‘as many as are continually led by the Spirit of God…’ We are daily encountering many different situations and most require a different counsel and a different leading and the Holy Spirit is always there to keep us on track and thereby prospering us in all our ways.

I truly believe that it is of great importance that we grow in the understanding, that we have marvelous resources available to us by the Holy Spirit, and these resources are at our disposal, and there is no need, that we live with any kind of need nor frustration. We have riches for spirit, soul and body at our immediate beck and call. We are the property of the Almighty God Who takes wonderful care of those that release themselves into His hands. The hebrew word for ‘might’ is g’burah and carries the meaning of a power that is dominant, not to be challenged by anyone. It is the energy of God, that is a given when needed to carry His plans and purposes in each of us. It is imparted to us by the Holy Spirit, exactly when needed. Remember that in Acts 1:8, this is what Jesus was referring to when He told His disciples and us that we would receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon us, and that power is to carry out the role of witness to Him. This ‘might’ is the energy to carry out the ‘counsel’s direction.

Note: ‘g’burah’ is the root of the name of God, “El Gibbor”, Who is the God Who does battle for us.

I think, in light of what I said in the beginning concerning the book of Isaiah being aligned with the entire bible, that it is interesting that Isaiah speaks of the Holy Spirit more than all the other prophets, major or minor. And just in this case the attributes of the Child born and the Son given are all mentioned in verse 2 of chapter 11..

The last of the three couplets is not the least, because there is no least in the Holy Spirit, all is power and life, but the last of these, listed in Isaiah 11:2 is;

“The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord..”

The hebrew word used here for knowledge is ‘da’ath’ and its root is in another word that is very long and drawn out, but I like the way Benny Hinn put it one time, when he said that in his understanding, this knowledge is gained through the senses, and experience. We have an understanding how the world works in its systems, and that is something that even the world doesn’t know, and we also know the depth of God’s moral laws that are violated by the world’s ways. The world recognizes the chaos, but does not know the origin of it. The Holy Spirit imparts to us the ability to look at the world and perceive His handiwork and purposes in it and exactly how to pray. For instance look at Romans 1:20;

“For since the creation of the world His invisible atttibutes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse”

The words ‘clearly seen’ indicates that everyone looking at the created world can, if they will see clearly, the massive evidence of God’s existence and power, and His eternal sovereignty. When we have that intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit, that wonderful sensitivity that He imparts, we have a greater understanding of the world around us and we, and I, with that, stand in awe of His magnificence and His greatness. I think it is wonderful that God had Isaiah pen the words, ‘knowledge’ and ‘fear of the Lord’ in this couplet together. I want to put this on solid ground by quoting Solomon in Proverbs 1:7;

“The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning and the principal and choice part of knowledge [it’s starting point and its essence]: but fools despise skillful and godly Wisdom, instruction, and discipline.”

We all know the spiritual struggles that we are encountering daily, with decisions and choices to be made. As time marches on, the crunch in the spiritual world gets more pressing, and there is much going on. We really need to remember that the greater One that lives in us, is beyond any comparison to the one in the world, that sometimes seems to be feared more than the Lord. There is great difference in the fear of the Lord and just being afraid. God did not give us a spirit of fear [afraid], but of a love, power and sound mind [knowledge]. Lets go to one place that speaks to this directly. This incident occurs near Mt. Sanai, and a covenant relationship with Yahweh is being formed and they are receiving the Ten Commandments from God. Mt. Sinai is shaking and there is great rumbling, with thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud was on the mountain; the sound of the trumpet broke the silence of their fear, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

They said to Moses: “You speak with us and we will listen, but let not God speak to us, lest we die.” (Ex 20:19)

Then Moses responds to them saying, “And Moses said to the people, Fear not; for God has come to prove [test] you, so that the [reverential] fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin."

Moses was saying to them, ‘Don’t be afraid, but fear’ (stand in awe). There is a great difference. The wonder of an almighty God is there before you, but He is there for your good and not for evil. He wants your love and your respect for His power that is there for you anyway. It is His power that delivered you from the clutches of Egypt and slavery, through the wilderness and into the promised land. Even we, who have known Him for some time need to be freshened in our awe of Him. It is easy, when we are in any level of ministry, to nearly take God for granted at times, and that is not the best attitude for us to have. We really want to live a life, here in the earth of loving obedience and that is the sense of direction that the Holy Spirit always brings to us.

I think as far as fear of the Lord is concerned, I will use for just a moment the word ‘awe’, and that is basically what the word fear is referring to. We serve an awesome God and I think that I, for one, usually think of the word ‘awesome’ as a noun instead of an adjective. God is Love, God is Spirit, God is Awesome. Love is Awesome; it is unconditional. Joy is Awesome; it is beyond theft of the enemy, His peace is Awesome, it passes understanding. There is so much to say about our God, Who is an awesome God, that the fear of the Lord is but an awe of Him Whom we serve. Lets just go over a few verses that give a little more description of this virtue, beginning with Proverbs 10:27 + a few others;

“The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord prolongs one’s days, but the years of the wicked shall be made short.”

“Reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.” [Prov. 14:27]

“The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord brings instruction in Wisdom, and humility before honor.” [Prov. 15:33]

“The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord lead to life, and he who has it rests satisfied; he cannot be visited with [actual] evil.” Prov. 19:23]

“The reward of humility and reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.” [Prov. 22:4]

“He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant to be forever; holy is His name, inspiring awe, reverence, and godly fear.

The reverent fear and worship of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and skill [the preceding and the first essential, the prerequisite and the alphabet]; a good understanding, wisdom and meaning have all those who do [the will of the Lord]. Their praise of Him endures forever”. [Psalm 111:9-10]

Does some of that install a Wow in your heart? That is just a bit of what the Holy Spirit brings and imparts to all Who have Him and all in this room are baptized, filled, and the Anointed One abides in each one of us forever. Alleluia!!!

I am always so touched by John 10:10b, and I read this from the Amplified bible because it is so full and still I love to add more to it, for that is how I feel, listen;

“…I have come that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). [And I add, Lord I want the fullness of a absolute flood of life that I cannot even swim in, even as revealed in Ezekial, so rapid and deep that it cannot be passed over or through, just engulfing all that entered into it.]

This is what the Spirit of Life brings and Jesus said that He came to bring it. Jesus said that it is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life and that He spoke to those of His disciples that were complaining and protesting among themselves, and the bible says that many of them drew back and returned to their old associations. Some of the offerings we receive in the spirit, can only be interpreted by the Holy Spirit of Life. What God promises for eternity, is totally sure, but He begins the process here in this lifetime on earth.

This is where we are designed to be. I got hold of this when we first heard Myles Munroe and since then I have looked at life much differently. I am being trained here to reign here. All that we are doing here is totally unnecessary in heaven, for there are no needs there. We won’t even have to be taught to worship or praise or fear the Lord there, because that literally becomes the very heart of us there. Nothing can stand and do anything in the Presence of the Lord but worship Him, and stand in Awe of an Awesome God and with the elders, laying whatever crowns we have at His feet, and Praising Him with all the angels and saints, and no one has ever heard a choir like that. He is coming soon and we are being readied so that we will not have to be in school there, and sit at His marriage supping with Him in glory.

This is the Holy Spirit of the Living God that is with us and we need that intimate relationship that truly knows Him and the fullness of all He is about in our lives. One thing we are being taught is to do what the eagle does in the approaching storms of life. He goes to the highest place, establishes himself there, spreads his wings and waits for the wind to get under his wings and him skyward without him moving a muscle. He rides on the wings of the wind and the wind here is ‘ruwach’ and it means that we are riding on the breath of God. God is waiting on those who will learn how to be still and know that He is God and that is a revelation that will come by the Holy Spirit that gives us an Holy Understanding, which we call redemptive revelation. How does that sit with you? Are you ready to rise up on the wings of the wind? He is ready to lift us. I think I am hearing that, our hope and love of His coming and our diligent occupying until He comes is our waiting on the high place with our wings spread out, waiting for His breath whispering, “Come up hither”!;

“The [Holy] Spirit and the bride (the church, the true Christians) say, Come! And let him who is listening say, Come! And let everyone come who is thirsty [who is painfully conscious of his need of those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, and sttengthened]: and whoever [earnestly] desires to do it, let him come, take, appropriate, and drink the water of L Life without cost.

He Who gives this warning and affirms and testifies to these things says, Yes (it is true). [Surely] I am coming quickly (swiftly, speedily). Amen (so let it be)! Yes, come, Lord Jesus!”

[Revelation 22:17 & 20]

What else can we say, but Praise the Lord for His promises and;

I need to add just a few additional notes to the end of this that add a bit of interest. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Him”, is voiced in several other places; [Isa 42:1-3, where the some of the character of Jesus is revealed by the prophet “God said, “You are a covenant to the people and a Light to the gentiles.”

Isaiah 61:1-3, the words that Jesus read from the scrolls in Luke 4:18+ when He was fresh out of the wilderness experience testing;

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. To preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind and set free the oppressed. Isa. 61:2 said, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God.

Now Jesus added to this; “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Also, in your quiet time, read 1 Peter 3:8-12, and this is the fruit of the Spirit of the Lord as it permeates your life with intimacy.

I am not sure of the exact week that I will be up here again, probably in the next three weeks, but I believe it will concern the word of the Lord, “FAITHFULNESS”!

Class! Be Abundantly Blessed!!

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