Haughty Faces, Ichabod, And God’s Glow! Kelly Durant 11-1-15
Psalm 19:8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
2. How many of you have travelled on an airplane lately? Let me tell you about my most recent experience. Each time I sat in the seat in the middle and the people on each side of me did not speak a word to me the whole time! As a matter of fact, the whole plane both times was eerily silent; people were just not talking to one another at all!
Before when I would travel I would get to talk non-stop to the person beside me about what they do and what I do, and then I’d bring up the subject of Jesus! But do you know what I see is killing our socialness? Our cell phones! The very thing that is supposed to connect us to others! Almost everyone on the plane were on the cell phone non-stop.
Contemplate on the unintended consequence of our current technology; what was presumptuously intended to be a positive for connection has become also a negative (and can be a tool of Satan). Individual devices are dividing us into ultra-platonic realms isolating us to the point that people in general are cognitively floating somewhere in an artificial world. People are regressing in communication skills snubbing strangers sitting right beside them! The love of many is cold!
3. And here is another thing we can observe in society, many people more than ever, have lifeless dead faces incapable of flinching or acknowledging that you are even in front of them! What indifference, arrogance and pride! I am not use to this because I grew up in the friendly mid-west. And also living in friendly South American countries one is greeted dozens of times daily as well. And now I am also accustomed to being surrounded by friendly full-of-life warm Christians faces! But these indifferent looks and proud attitudes of people in public causes me to feel distress and anger. In Miami and everywhere there is a new crop off rude people!
Did you know arrogant lifeless faces and proud attitudes makes the Lord angry as well? One day the haughty indifferent-to-others people will suffer and be judged. Isaiah 24:4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
The faces of people reflect the spirit and I see haughtiness. They are Godless fools proud of their wealth, position, and power. And sadly all that will be all gone one day and they will be in anguish because God “resists the proud but gives grace to the humble” James 4:6. Many people do not want to talk to anyone anymore because they are afraid a controversial subject will come up and they do not want their evil ways challenged. The godless want to be left alone comfortable in their sins! But then they will attack and demonize good people and Godly things when you or they are not present by doing it online and in the news outlets!
Haughtiness is observed when people are full of sins. Here is what the online dictionary says about the meaning of haughty: ‘1. disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; supercilious: Scornfully and condescendingly proud. (Synonym- arrogant).’ I know the humble people from other countries get shocked by the arrogance seen on the faces of the rich in the wealthy nations.
4. The face reveals much about a person; in particular the eyes as they reflect the life or deadness in the soul. There was a song when I was young by a band named Steppenwolf that had a line it that said, “You know, I've seen a lot of people walkin' 'round with tombstones in their eyes, But the pusher don't care Ah, if you live or if you die”
The inference here is that drugs were causing the death of the soul and you could see it in the eyes (back in the 70s), and this remains a reality today still! Drugs, including many prescription drugs, appear to deaden a person to the point of making some of them a zombie. Haven’t you see people walking around in a comatose state with an imprisoned soul? I attribute the presence of so many dead souls out there due to a lack of the knowledge of God. If the God of life is not in the human soul, then it is dead, cold, and dark inside!
Matthew 6: 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
5. So what can I tell about you by looking at your face and eyes? Psalm 19:8 ‘The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.’ People that do not have the light of the life of the Lord in their eyes provoke alarm! I have never met a true Christian yet that had a lifeless dead face with eyes with no light in them!
How conscientious are you of your face? Better yet, how aware are you of how much of the spirit of the Lord is inside you? If you have been sick, with a cold, or tired, then you are excused; no one can expect to have smiling glowing face all the time. The health of the body is always an influence in how we shine or not.
But in general a person’s face should shine after connecting with God in worship, in praise, or by hearing God’s Word in a Bible class or sermon. Psalm 34:5 ‘They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.’ Jesus himself after being with God on Mt, Carmel was literally glowing He is described in Revelation as glowing as bright as the sun.
6. I have been around a lot of glowing Christians in my life and do you know when people are glowing and shining the most? When they are in God’s will staying busy doing something to help others such as praying with them, giving out food, or witnessing to them teaching them the Word of God.
The Holy Spirit giving a glow to our appearance was God’s idea because on the day of Pentecost the Spirit the obedient followers had a fire on them as described in Acts 2:3 ‘And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.’
When there is the fire of God all over you, you feel full of joy and powerful, you radiate with the glow of the Spirit of God! In the Salvation Army the fire of the spirit is deemed as necessary and essential! On the flag we have the blood and the fire, so we are saved by Jesus blood, but then after that we are purged and filled with the fire to glow and be purified so others witness our love and light!
7. But what about the people of the world who never experience this glow, this light in the eyes and this shine on the face? For the people of the world to appear to be as a lifeless dead arrogant brat as on a Tommy Hilfiger poster is to be normal! People today are alienated from the life of God! Many people out there have never even been in a church to experience happy people with shining eyes!
Today I used a word in the sermon title, “Ichabod”. It is a Hebrew word in the Bible that declares the departure of God’s spirit. 1 Samuel 4:21 And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband. (This refers to Israel recognizing God’s punishments on them for their sins, and we will explore this deeper in the future) But apply this in this context: some people have let the fire of God go out in their lives! This is tragic as the “joy of the Lord is our strength!” Without renewing the Holy Spirit daily we become cold and dead!
When the spirit of the Lord is not present in a group of people or nation, you may clam up observing their cold lifeless souls latching onto any dark stimulation to break the monotony. People with addictions or those seeking the rush of doing evil reveals that these poor lost souls just want to “feel something”. What the human soul really wants is “to feel” the elation of the love of God! But people do not know that! And that opportunity will only happen if they humble their selves and admit that Jesus is salvation and has an eternity to offer them if they will only let Him take control their souls with His Holy Spirit. But how will these empty eyed people ever know about what they are missing? We have to tell them!
8. So how do the dead spirits react when they meet a live shining spirit like yours or mine? Most of them think we are crazy and must have some mental problem to be so smiley and radiant, right? What did the people think of the disciples on the Day of Pentecost? They thought they were drunk! Acts 2: 13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
When you and I meet people, people who see our glow they usually either love us or hate us! They immediately react to us. Those that are seeking, those that are of the Lord, or the lost sheep, will want to know us and discover what it is we have that they do not have. They are attracted to us!
However, there are those out there who are evil and they recognize God’s spirit in us right away and they want us as far away from them as possible. It is like when Jesus arrived in certain towns. Matthew 8:29 ‘And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?’
9. If a Christian is living in purity having God’s spirit inside, it will be impossible to hide! Everyone will see on your face and in your eyes the light, the peace, the humility, the glow! It pains me to when I see a Christian that is lifeless with their fire gone out behind their eyes. This indicates to me that this person has left God’s will or that they may have never experienced His Holy Spirit! And there is the possibility that they are secretly committing some sin and the Spirit of the Lord has departed. Either way if there is no fire either by ignorance or disobedience it is damaging the person and those around them. And you?
From the very beginning in Genesis God warned that He would not always share His Spirit with man. The amount of years we have to experience God’s light, joy, and Holy Spirit power in us is numbered. God is not pleased that a vast majority of people who will not invite His Spirit and His Son Jesus into their souls (or those that let the fire go out not feeding the fire with His Word). God’s gentle Spirit is like a dove and it departs when it is not wanted. Don’t let yourself be seen with a face of flint and eyes that are lifeless, cold, dark like the people of the world!
Do you have the Spirit of the Lord? Do you feel his warm glow inside you radiating out to others? How does God and others see you? If you want His glow, all you have to do is ask Him for it! Don’t commit the sin of bringing others down with your own spirit as the people of the world. Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Let’s ask The Holy Spirit to enlighten our souls and eyes right now! Prayer…
