The Pleasure of God

What do you get for the person who has everything? That has always been a stumper. Now take it up to the nth degree — How do you please God?

It’s not hard. The Bible speaks of a number of things that please Him.

1. The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him.

He does not delight in the strength of the horse;
He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His mercy. (Psalm 147:10-11)

To fear the Lord means to love, honor and stand in awe of Him, to love what He loves and hate what He hates, to seek His favor above all else, and to avoid His displeasure at all cost. In the parallelism of Hebrew poetry, we see in this passage that those who fear the LORD are the ones who hope in His mercy — that is, they put their trust in Him.

The Hebrew word for “pleasure” is ratsah. To take pleasure in someone means to be satisfied with, to set one’s affection on, to delight in, enjoy, and show favor to them. The LORD is fully satisfied with those who love and trust Him. They are the object of His affection. He delights fully in them and shows them the abundance of His favor.

2. The LORD takes pleasure in His people.

For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the humble with salvation. (Psalm 149:4)

God has chosen a people — all those who love and trust in Him—and He beautifies them with salvation. To beautify means to adorn, to glorify. The Hebrew word for “salvation” here is Yeshua, which the name of Jesus. Jesus is the salvation of all who come humbly in faith before God. They are adorned with the Lord Jesus Christ, to share in His glory.

3. The LORD takes pleasure in the prosperity of His people.

Let the LORD be magnified,
Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant. (Psalm 35:27)

The word for “pleasure” here is chaphets, which means to desire, delight in, have pleasure in. God delights in, and greatly desires, the prosperity of His people. “Prosperity” is the word shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. It refers to complete wholeness and well-being. God desires this fullness for all His people. The apostle John expressed God’s will when he said, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2).

Let the name of the LORD be magnified, exalted and full of glory because of His great goodness toward His people.

4. The LORD is pleased to deliver His people.

Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me;
O LORD, make haste to help me! (Psalm 40:13)

The LORD delights to deliver all those who belong to Him, all who call on His name. He does not leave them in their predicament, but comes to snatch them away.

5. Faith pleases God.
All these things please the LORD, but not without faith.

Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. But with faith, it is impossible not to please Him, for faith is taking God at His Word, and God rewards that greatly. He is entirely pleased and satisfied when we believe Him, and delighted when we seek after Him.

It is very simple to please God. Just love, honor and trust Him. Take Him at His Word. He will pour out His favor and cause you to prosper. He will deliver you in time of trouble and show you His salvation — Jesus.

The Straight Glory

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in Truth. (John 4:24)

The word “orthodoxy” is from a Greek compound: orthos and doxa. Orthos means “straight” or “upright.” We go to the orthodontist to have our teeth straightened. Orthopedic surgeons straighten out structural deformities of the bone. Doxa means “glory.” It is a word of praise and worship. When we sing or speak a “doxology,” we are speaking a word of praise to God, a word the glorifies Him.

We were made to glorify God. The first principle of the Westminster Catechism says, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

There is an old Latin saying in the Church: Lex orendi, lex credendi, the way we pray is the way we believe. How do you glory in God? How do you pray? What is the content of your worship? These reveal what you truly believe.

The way you glory in God, is it straight, is it upright? Does it correctly portray God? Does it stand up next to what He has established? Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in Truth” (John 4:24). Do you worship in Spirit and in Truth?

Our worship must be in Spirit and in Truth. Truth is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, “I am the Truth” (John 14:6). So our worship must be according to who Jesus is, the Son of God, the Word made flesh (John 1:14).

Worship is a spiritual activity. That is, it is an activity of the Holy Spirit at work in our spirit. The Bible says, “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). So our worship must directed by the Holy Spirit.

The Word and the Spirit will always be in perfect agreement with what God has revealed in the Scriptures.

God is Spirit, so the worship that properly glorifies God is that which is directed by the Holy Spirit and exalts the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Glory Comes

Above it stood seraphim…And one cried to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”

And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6:2-6).

Isaiah saw the LORD on His throne, high and lifted up. The seraphim exalted God in His holiness with wave after wave of praise and worship. With each new wave, the doorposts of the temple shook and the whole place was filled with smoke, and the glory of God manifested before Isaiah’s eyes.

Today, the temple of God is not a building of stone, but is found in the hearts of His people, in whom He dwells. This is certainly true of the Church as a corporate unity, for the Apostle Peter said, “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).

It is also true of each individual believer in Jesus Christ. Paul said, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

We are the temple of the LORD, and He is in residence. As we learn to see Him high and lifted up in our hearts and exalt His name in our lives, there will be a shaking and cloud of glory.

The shaking comes to remove everything in us that does not come from God, and therefore does not belong in our lives. God shakes out all the things that cannot be established in us, because they do no come from Him, in order to establish in us things that can never be shaken.

The cloud of glory is the presence of the LORD. “And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD” (1 Kings 8:10-11).

The glory of the LORD is the manifestation of His greatness and goodness. When His glory is with us, we cease from our own efforts, our own strength, our own glory, to rest in His. He abides in us; we abide in Him.

Lift the name of the LORD up high over everything in your life. Let Him abide in your heart, and let your heart abide in Him. Let Him shake out the things in your life that do not belong, and establish wonderful new things in you which can never be shaken. Let Him be your strength and your glory, and your life will be marked with His power and goodness.

Prepared to Declare God's Glory

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
  The whole earth is full of His glory!”

And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
(Isaiah 6:1-4)

The seraphim are the fiery beings who minister before the LORD. Their name comes from the Hebrew seraph, which signifies fire. God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24). He makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire (Psalm 104:4). Jesus came to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16). Fire is a purgative, a cleansing agent. Fire purifies.

The seraphim are six-winged creatures. With two wings they cover their face, and with two wings they veil their bodies, because of God’s awesome presence. With two wings they hover round about God’s throne to serve at His pleasure.

They cry out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts.” This is no static demonstration. They cry out continually to one another with the holiness of Yahweh, each time with fresh wonder and revelation. Their song is always new.

“The whole earth is full of His glory.” The Hebrew word for “glory” is kabod. It speaks of the weight, the abundance, of God’s goodness.

The glory of the LORD fills the earth. This is not a reference to some future event, or when Christ returns. It is a now revelation: Right now, at this very moment, the earth is full of God’s glory. It always has been. There was never a moment when this was not so.

The reason we have not experienced the fullness of God’s glory and goodness in the earth is because of sin. Sin renders us incapable of receiving it. For our sakes, God shields us from the bright fire of His glory, lest we be destroyed by it because of our iniquity.

Each time a seraphim proclaimed the holiness of God, the door posts were shaken, and the temple was filled with smoke. Isaiah felt the weight of God’s glory and became keenly aware of his own unworthiness, his incapacity to bear it. He cried out.

Woe is me, for I am undone!
  Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
  For my eyes have seen the King,
  The LORD of hosts.

(Isaiah 6:5)

To be undone means to utterly perish, be cut off and destroyed. Isaiah had witnessed this in King Uzziah, who had been cut off and destroyed because of his arrogance before God. The uncleanness of pride in his heart showed forth as the uncleanness of leprosy in his flesh. But now Isaiah was seeing the true King, the LORD of all the hosts of heaven. And now he realized the uncleanness of his own heart, and recognized how that had filled his lips. For just as Jesus said, it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

Isaiah was now in full repentance mode, not only for himself, but for his people, as well. He identified himself with their leprous hearts and corrupt lips, painfully acknowledging that he was just like them. He held back nothing before the LORD, but exposed himself completely. No justifications, no explanations, only repentance.

God, in His goodness, brought forth a solution.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it and said:

“Behold, this has touched your lips;
  Your iniquity is taken away,
  And your sin is purged.”

(Isaiah 6:6-7)

The seraph, fiery servant of the LORD, took a live coal from the altar of God, the altar which was kindled by God and burns perpetually before Him (Leviticus 9:24; Leviticus 6:12-13). He touched the coal to Isaiah’s unclean lips and burned away all the iniquity. Now Isaiah was prepared to declare the glory of God.

God has a solution for you and me, as well, so that we might know His glory. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). It is the ultimate cleansing, preparing us not only to experience the goodness of God for ourselves, but also to reflect His glory to others.

Who is High and Lifted Up?

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. (Isaiah 6:1)

This was Isaiah’s life-changing vision of the Lord. It not only transformed him forever but called forth things of God which have forever changed the world.

Now, Isaiah’s opening sentence is not a mere chronological reference. For it does not just tell us about the calendar, it tells us about the times in which Isaiah lived and the people to whom he was called to prophesy.

You can find out about King Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26, where we see God’s assessment of his life and reign. “He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper” (2 Chronicles 26:4-5).

King Uzziah did well for fifty years (quite a long reign for those times). “His fame spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped till he became strong” (2 Chronicles 26:15). Uzziah sought after the LORD and the LORD helped him marvelously. Divine favor was upon him and he prospered and became strong.

But something happened when Uzziah became strong. It did not have to happen. There was nothing about his strength and prosperity which made what happened next inevitable. But it happened anyway. Here is what we read about Uzziah in the very next verse:

But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the LORD his God by entering the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. (2 Chronicles 26:16)

His heart was lifted up. It was lifted up, not because he was strong and prosperous, but because he did not keep his heart well. He let pride come in. He presumed upon God and unjustly assumed that he could go wherever he wanted to go and do whatever he wanted to do. He thought that the rules no longer applied to him, that the kingly anointing which was upon him also fitted him for priestly duty.

Azariah, the chief priest, went in with eighty priests of the LORD and called Uzziah down because of his arrogant behavior. “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed! You shall have no honor from the LORD God” (2 Chronicles 26:18).

Uzziah became furious, still standing with the censer in his hand, ready to burn incense. And as he foamed and fumed at the priests, right at that moment and in that very place in which he had no business being, leprosy broke out on his forehead. The uncleanness of his heart suddenly became manifest in his body. This sign of leprosy made it apparent to all, especially to Uzziah, that he had no right to minister in the Temple.

“King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house, because he was a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD. Then Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land” (2 Chronicles 26:21). Uzziah not only lost his health, he also lost his reign.

Jotham reigned only sixteen years. He did what was right in the sight of the, the Scripture says, “but the people acted corruptly” (2 Chronicles 27:2). Pride, the uncleanness of Uzziah’s heart, had infected the nation.

So these were the conditions in which Isaiah had his vision: the tragic end of a prosperous and healthy reign, and the uncleanness of an entire people.

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up,” Isaiah says.

Uzziah saw Uzziah high and lifted up. Isaiah saw the LORD high and lifted up. Who is high and lifted up in your life?

Its not about us, its always about God. When we lift ourselves up, we will always meet with failure and loss. But let us learn to see the LORD high and lifted up, and we will be properly oriented for a life of prosperity, strength and joy. For God will marvelously help us.

The Solution: More Revelation of Jesus

Considering the Church at Galatia and Corinth today. Paul wrote them letters in which he dealt with some pretty serious difficulties, including some very pernicious problems.

The Galatians were becoming deceived by a group of Jewish Christians who believed that one had to become Jewish before becoming Christian. This was actually a justification-by-works mentality, a performance-based religiosity, the spirit of religion. In a word — legalism.

The Corinthians had a bagful of their own problems: factionalism and strife between brothers, believers hauling each other to court to be judged by worldly standards, sexual promiscuity, gross negligence of poorer brothers, pride and abuse regarding spiritual gifts.

But what they all really needed was more revelation of Jesus — who He is, why He came, what He came to do, and who we are in Him. And in various ways, that is the need Paul addressed.

For example, in the book of Galatians, Paul presented the Lord Jesus Christ as the “seed” (not “seeds,” plural) of Abraham, and declared that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law. Powerful stuff.

For another example, in 1 Corinthians 13, sometimes called the “Love Chapter” of the Bible, when Paul was giving a revelation of love, was he not really offering us a revelation of Jesus Christ. I mean, we can replace every occurrence of the word “love” in that chapter with the name of Jesus, and it will always make perfect sense.

The more I think about it, the more I become convinced that all we really need is more revelation of Jesus.

Think on Jesus in everything you do. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Him to you more and more, that He may be glorified in you more and more—in your spirit, soul and body.

Getting a Revelation of Jesus

All you and I really need is simply more revelation of Jesus. If there is any problem in our lives, it is that we do not know Him well enough. We just need to know Him more.

Fortunately, God has gifted us with many ways to know Jesus more. The only problem is that we have learned to not avail ourselves of them and press on into the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Baptism. Baptism is often called a sacrament — an outer visible sign of an inner invisible reality. In other words, baptism is a sign, a sign from God. When you were baptized (if you were baptized), you may have thought you were giving God some kind of sign. But actually God was giving you a sign that you were being received into His family. To put it simply, in baptism we are buried with Christ and raised with Him to walk in newness of life. Take time to reflect on your baptism in Christ — it is a revelation of Jesus.

The Lord’s Table. This is also called a sacrament. Paul said that as often as we partake of it, we proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. The Lord’s Table is a communion, a fellowship we have with the Lord Jesus, and each other as the body of Christ. We receive the sign of His body given for us and His blood shed for us. It is a revelation of Jesus that goes beyond words.

Gathering in His Name. Jesus said that wherever two or more are gathered in His name, He is present in their midst. He was not talking about merely His omnipresence as the Second Person of the Trinity. No, He was talking about a presence that is a self-revelation of Himself. The key is not simply to gather, but to gather in His name. That is, when we come together and recognize that it is all about Him. We gather to act and think and speak and do as He would act and think and speak and do. According to His promise, gathering in His name becomes something sacramental, a sign of His revelatory presence.

The Word of God. God has given us His Word in the Scriptures, and it speaks to us about Jesus. The Old Testament foretells Him to us; the New Testament reveals Him to us. The Scriptures are a mode of revelation, but Jesus is the Word made flesh. Truth is a Person, and every revelation of truth is a revelation of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that the Father would give us the Holy Spirit: “When the Helper comes, who I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” (John 15:26). “He will glorify Me, for He shall take of what is Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14).

Worship. Worship is a revelation of Jesus. Paul said, “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). Worship is a spiritual activity. That is, when we worship, we are engaging with the Holy Spirit. When we worship, we are proclaiming that Jesus is Lord, and we cannot do that without a revelation of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

Praying in the Spirit. A.k.a. “praying in tongues.” This again is an activity of the Holy Spirit engaging with our spirit. Paul said that if someone prays in tongues, he is speaking mysteries in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:2). In the Bible, a mystery is a secret—not one that God is keeping from us, but one God is revealing to us. So whenever we pray in the Spirit we are receiving a revelation of Jesus, because it is the role of the Holy Spirit to take of what belongs to Jesus and declare it to us.

If you need more revelation of Jesus — and you and I both do — here are seven powerful ways to receive it.

Don’t Try Harder. Love God More.

Consider the following statements. Which one sounds like religion, and which one sounds like relationship:

1. God blesses you for good behavior and punishes you for bad.
2. God blesses you, period, and brings forth righteousness in your life.

Which one sounds like Christ?
Which one sounds like Christianity?
Which one sounds like the Church?

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Have you ever noticed that fruit is not something you find clipped on to a tree? Fruit comes forth from within the tree. It is not a lifeless add-on. It is the manifestation of the life that is within the tree itself. The fruit of the Spirit is not behavior we affix to our lives, it is the life of the Spirit manifesting in within us.

What we really need is not an imitation of Jesus, but a revelation of Jesus. We do not need to mimic His life, clipping on His behaviors on to our branches. That is the way of barrenness. What we really need is for Him to live His life in us. He is the vine, we are the branches. Our life comes from Him; His life flows through us.

The Christian life is not a matter of trying, it is a matter of yielding. Mike Bickle says, “Don’t try harder. Love God more.”

Seeing in the Spirit

Did you know that it is possible to look in the spirit and see? Consider Joshua and the children of Israel, as they stood before the mighty walled city of Jericho. The LORD appeared to Joshua and said, “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valor” (Joshua 6:2).

In the natural, the city of Jericho did not yet belong to Joshua and the army of Israel. Yet God was telling Joshua to see that this actually was so. The Lord was not directing Joshua to look in the natural, but to see in the spirit.

Anybody with eyeballs can see things in the natural. But to see in the spiritual realm, we need to draw upon the resources of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

When we are born again, we have the right to see in the spirit, because we have the Holy Spirit inside us. We also have the right to hear in the spirit, because Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice.” God has also given us His Word, so we have the right to see everything He says to us in the Word. We should expect to see it in the spirit.

To see with our spiritual eyes, we must look past what our natural eyes reveal to us, because they to not show us the whole truth. Often, what we see with our natural eyes may not even reveal the truth to us at all. Our eyes can show us things that are facts, but not necessarily the truth.

There are facts and there are truths. Facts are of the natural realm, but the truth belongs to the spiritual. There may be a divergence between them for a time, but the facts must eventually line up with truth. (The realm of the spirit is greater than the natural realm, for the natural comes forth from the spiritual — God, who is spirit, is the creator of the natural, physical realm.)

The fact for Joshua was that Israel did not yet possess or defeat the city of Jericho. The truth, however, was that God had already given the city into Joshua’s hands. Joshua’s job was simply to see this and do what God showed him to do.

Learn how to see in the spirit: When God shows you something in His Word, immediately begin to agree with it. Speak it out with your mouth. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). In other words, faith comes by a continual receptivity to the Word. As you speak in agreement with the Word, let it fill your heart and your thoughts. Expect pictures of it form in your mind, bubbling forth from your spirit into your imagination — you may even receive visions and dreams. The more you learn to see that thing which God has spoken, the more your expectation will grow that it will come to pass.

Remember, your job is not to try and figure out how to make it come to pass. Your job is to see it in the spirit and believe. Then let God show you what you need to do about it — He already has it all figured out. As you do, you will eventually see it come to pass in the natural, because the facts must eventually line up with the truth, and the natural must eventually line up with the spiritual.