Preparing for God’s Glory
Isa 40:3-5 A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD ; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken." NIV
Intro: The Glory of the lord is first mentioned in the remarkable and dynamic stories of Exodus. Isaiah mentions the Glory of the Lord to be revealed to all mankind. We need to prepare for the Glory of the Lord by beginning to understand the aspects and concepts of the Glory of the Lord.
The bible speaks of Glory in many different forms. For the purpose of this one sermon I only want to deal with one.
Isaiah is referring to a specific form of God’s Glory. He is not dealing with any of these aspects:
• Glory as defined as honor, reputation, dignity or praise
• Glory as an endowment of blessing, power and life
• Glory as the heavenly dimension where the magnitude of God’s dwells called heaven.
Isaiah is speaking about the concept of Glory as the invasion of God’s reality into a human life.
We can read about this glory in Numbers 14:
Setting: The 12 spies had just returned from exploring the Promised Land. Ten spies gave a negative report that the people believed and only two spies, Joshua and Caleb, gave a positive report of conquering the land.
Num 14:10-12 But the whole community began to talk about stoning Joshua and Caleb. Then the glorious presence of the LORD appeared to all the Israelites from above the Tabernacle. 11 And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people reject me? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them? 12 I will disown them and destroy them with a plague. Then I will make you into a nation far greater and mightier than they are!" NLT
At this point Moses began to intercede for the people asking God to change his mind and forgive the people for their rebellion against divinely appointed authority and their unbelief in God!
Num 14:19-22 please pardon the sins of this people because of your magnificent, unfailing love, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt."
20 Then the LORD said, "I will pardon them as you have requested. 21 But as surely as I live, and as surely as the earth is filled with the LORD’s glory, 22 not one of these people will ever enter that land. They have seen my glorious presence and the miraculous signs I performed both in Egypt and in the wilderness, but again and again they tested me by refusing to listen. NLT
Num 14:25 Now turn around and don’t go on toward the land where the Amalekites and Canaanites live. Tomorrow you must set out for the wilderness… NLT
Notice that God sent the entire Hebrew nation in to the wilderness.
Isa 40:3-4 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the LORD
Def Wilderness:
• Place were few people dwell
• A place of aloneness
• Of imposed confinement
• Of personal inconvenience
• Of social ostracization
• Of unfriendly surroundings
• A place where God meets with you
• This is where God gives you a message that is formed from your life happenings and living rather than your church attendance, bible reading or your library.
Aspects of the Wilderness:
• No one can mentor you through a wilderness event. God wants to give you a strong voice to proclaim His Glory, so you are on you own. People around you may pray with you, they may even encourage you a little. However at some point you will be on your own to believe, accept, change, renew, or establish the Glory of God in your wilderness. None of the following stand outs for God had a mentor while in their wilderness event: John the Baptist, Elijah, Job, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Naomi, David or Paul
• To give you a voice God must snuff out all the other voices you listen to. There is a time to read and listen to other voices but in the wilderness you will need to hear directly from God. Then your voice will be anointed so others will hear your cry from the wilderness on God’s behalf.
• The wilderness is a long hard Journey, never a quick trip across town. You may have many hard experiences while you are in the wilderness. We stay in the wilderness until we are prepared in our spirit to hear the voice of God. At that point we will experience revelation knowledge for our life challenge event.
• God uses the wilderness to awaken us to the beauty and wonder of God’s ways.
Once a person receives their voice on anointing with the message from the Lord they will begin to cry out for others to prepare a way for the Lord!
Isa 40:3 make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
The wilderness is a hard dry place. Because of the harsh spiritual environment all the human hindrances to God’s Glory are starved out. Devices, methods, and thoughts that are adequate in easier spiritual times are found to be powerless in the wilderness. Thus all of our comfort zones and easy ways are blocked and no longer are useful to mature spiritually or even maintain our present maturity.
This makes the wilderness the greatest conduit or highway for God’s visitation.
Def = Hebrew = Make Straight = yashar = “to be straight, right, upright, pleasing good” This is often translated to the English word “direct”
Prov 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. KJV
Prov 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. NIV
ILL Steel - Beaten Into Higher Value
A bar of steel is worth five dollars. When it is wrought into horseshoes, it is worth ten dollars. If made into needles, it is worth three hundred and fifty dollars. If wrought into penknife blades, it is worth thirty-two thousand dollars. And if it is wrought into springs for watches, it is worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
What a drilling the poor bar must undergo to be worth a higher value. But the more it is manipulated, the more it is hammered, and passed through the fire, and beaten and pounded and polished, the greater the value.
Those who suffer most are capable of yielding most; and it is through pain that God can get the most out of us.
God will straighten out the path of his devoted servants.
The enemy is constantly seeking to twist the straight ways of the Lord in the attempt to hinder the Glory of God in your life.
ILL Elymas a sorcerer tried to interfere with the preaching of the gospel = Acts 13:10-11 Paul said to him"You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11 Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time..." NIV
Isa 40:4 Every valley shall be raised up…
To prepare us for the arrival of His Glory God will fill all the low places of our lives with confidence in Him.
1. The Holy Spirit will rush into our life and fill in our inadequacies, insecurities, and weaknesses.
Every valley of unbelief, fear of failure, and doubting must submit to the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Every thought of “I Can’t” turns into…
Phil 4:13 For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need. NLT
2. Also this refers to those things despised by men. God has often brought His Glory through means that are distained by the man’s religious system.
Before God’s Glory comes, the church will have to elevate those things that are despised by the world.
• Modesty
• Chastity
• Inner Beauty
• Willingness to Serve
• Humbleness
• Giving and sacrificing
These are the kind of values the Holy Spirit exalts so Every valley shall be raised up!
Isa 40:4… every mountain and hill made low; NIV
Nothing is more exciting that when God fill the valleys and nothing is more painful than when God levels the mountains.
Def = Every High Mountain = the high things in our agendas = pride, personal ambitions, self-reliance, rebellion, hype competitiveness, and personality driver leadership styles.
Joke: “One less than you think, Dear.” We’re often reluctant to go about tooting our own horn; we’re discouraged from doing so. When we do, it often has a way of coming back to haunt us. A man was honored by receiving an honorary doctorate at a major university. When he was introduced to the audience, the announcer said, “A very great man, no, a very, very great man indeed is with us tonight.” During the ride home, the man was still riding high on the crest of his wave of glory. He asked his wife, “Honey, how many very, very great men do you suppose there are in the world?” She said, “One less than you think, Dear.”
Def = Every High Mountain = can refer to demonic strongholds, social mind sets, and natural hindrances which stand against the preaching of the gospel.
Every high thing that exalts itself against the Holy Spirit and the knowledge of Christ must be brought down for God’s Glory to find your heart.
Isa 40:4 the rough ground shall become level NIV
KJV = the crooked shall be made straight,
NLT = Straighten out the curves
Def = the places in our understanding and ways of operating that we think are straight but before God they are crooked.
Def = sinful secrets we are harboring that no one else but God sees. Hidden moral unethical or slightly dishonest areas
For the glory of the lord to come into our life we must deal with these areas privately in our hearts or God will deal with them publicly in our relationships.
Isa 40:4 = smooth off the rough spots. NLT
KJV = the rough places plain
NIV = rugged places a plain.
We all have rough areas the need to be smooth out. Are you a little too harsh, demanding or judgmental.
Def = Refers to personality and character attributes that are abrasive and counter productive to the Kingdom. Such as anger, ego, self-justification, argumentativeness.
We can not repent of these personality problems until the Lord shows them to us. We can not fix them with out His help.
This is one reason God strongly insists we relate closely to each other through the body of Christ. When you come into contact with others in the church:
• Our lives are thrown against theirs.
• Friction takes place.
• Sparks fly.
• The tongues of believers become swollen and sore because we have to bit our tongue to keep our cool.
Prov 27:17 as iron sharpens iron, a friend sharpens a friend. NLT
KJV= Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Please understand that a smooth place for us is usually bumpy for God and what is a bumpy place for us is often a smooth place for God.
ILL Many times when a church has a smooth service,
• where all is done in perfect order
• singers sang good
• band played well
• no interruptions so all the stuff was finished on time
• even the pastor did his job with smoothness
And the entire church just coasted right past the Holy Spirit, the altar, the presence of God, the glory of God.
However when the gathering gets out of the man made order of worship and we are not quite sure what God is doing or going to do. When it seem a little chaotic.
The real nerve breaker is when everything gets real quiet.
It seems a little bumpy to us but God is saying now this is real smooth!
So why does God: Isa 40:3-5
• Send you into the wilderness to prepare your voice
• prepare the way for the LORD
• make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God
• Every valley shall be raised up
• every mountain and hill made low;
• the rough ground shall become level,
• the rugged places a plain
So… the glory of the LORD will be revealed, as the invasion of God’s reality into your life.
Altar:
Are you in the spiritual wilderness right now?
Is God reaching out to build you up and encourage you for ministry?
Are you now being leveled off because God is taking down the high places?
Is God working on your personality so not to be so harsh with others?
God really loves you and wants to assist you right now!
Why not give God some time in the altar today?
