Looking to God in His Glory

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:1-5)

When people see God’s glory, they realise just how unclean they are. If one thinks highly of himself, his condition is dire. When someone thinks he is adequate, he loses the opportunity to become holy. When a person is in the midst of God's glory, he knows how low he is. One must know their shortcomings to know that they need to improve. When one knows their inadequacy, the only recourse is to look to God. Do not think you are capable of anything. Man must realise his failings to be in God’s glory and to be cleansed by Him. This is God's amazing work. As we establish the church, when I read the New Testament, I am deeply impressed: The glory of God revealed by Jesus Christ far exceeds our imagination.

Those who are sick and need healing, are healed with a touch. The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead rise. (See Matthew 11:5) Especially at the height of His miracles, Lazarus, who had died for four days, buried in a tomb, his body stinking and decaying, Jesus said, “Lazarus, come out!” And Lazarus came out. When we see the glory of God, there are two possible reactions: One reaction is, “That is Jesus, and I am me. Jesus is Jesus, and I can never do what Jesus does.” The other reaction is, “What Jesus can do, I must also do.” I yearn to do what Jesus does.

We now live in an era where medical expenses are skyrocketing, where the money earned through a lifetime of effort may not be enough to cure one ailment. Not to mention having three or five illnesses; just one could wipe out all of one’s life savings. When I read about the things Jesus did, my deepest emotion is: “Lord! I want to be like you; what you do, I must also do.” I truly yearn to do what you do, but I am an unclean person; I am truly inadequate. And then you know what happened?

I read in the Bible: Apostle Paul spoke in tongues more than all of you. (See 1 Corinthians 14:18) This sentence deeply touched me. I knelt there and prayed in tongues for a long time, enjoying that state of praying in tongues. You ask me what I prayed for? I do not know, only that in the spirit, I speak mysteries. (See 1 Corinthians 14:2) One hour, two hours, three hours passed in that prayer in tongues, and nothing happened. But a year later, miracles and wonders sprung up among us like bamboo shoots after a rain.

It turns out that God’s glory emerges with miracles and wonders. Each time Jesus Christ performs a miracle, it is said to be for the glory of God. A man born blind, people easily wonder, why was he blind? Was it his sin? Or the sin of his ancestors? (See John 9:2) Jesus did not tell them whose sin it was; Jesus said it was for the glory of God. Is it related to sin? Of course, it is related to sin. But should our focus be on the problem of sin, or on seeing the glory of God? Through this matter, let us learn how to release those who are captive and oppressed.

Mouth Purified by the Fire of the Holy Spirit

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:6-7)

When the fire of the Holy Spirit is poured out, it makes one holy. It is the fire of the Holy Spirit descending upon you that makes you holy, not your deeds. Our Christian faith: It is not by works, but by faith. When the fire of God is poured out, what happens? The fire of life begins to be ignited within a person. That is extraordinary. I see that in this era, many people live without any joy, and do things without any passion. I find it very sad. People without passion cannot enjoy life. I wash the toilet with passion, humming tunes.

A person’s passion is very important. You will find that people possessed by demons will say: Pastor! I want to die; there's no point in living. What you need is the fire of the Holy Spirit, let the fire of the Holy Spirit descend upon you, and then you will be ignited. Not to be ignited by the fire of hell, but by the fire of God’s altar in heaven. Do you know where this fire starts to ignite? It starts from the mouth. You must know that your mouth has great power. When your mouth begins to declare, the entire person’s life is mobilised.

Among us, there was a man who was very lazy and had no passion. After getting into a master's program, he said: Pastor, pray for me; I feel weak all over. I said: Weakness is easy to deal with. Let's start with your arms. Like this, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command the strength of my arm to recover. He said: Hey! It seems a little better. Again, the right arm, then the left arm, squat down and get up, move a few times, and he recovered.

I told him to do this every day, and he began to regain his passion. Where to start? Start with the declaration of the mouth! Some people declare negative things all day long. A man’s mouth is a spiritual organ. Even if I am living very depressed, with immense pressure, and have many problems to deal with in life, with endless work to do, and a lot of work to clear up, a mountain of work piled up, and a mental patient admitted to a mental hospital that I have to visit, what will I say? I say, No problem, the work can always be finished, I like a life full of pressure!

Isn't that great? Pressure can make people grow. But if your mouth always says, I'm going to die, I'm finished, you're really finished. I often say, No problem, nothing is a problem. I inexplicably found a secret recipe, which is: Your mouth must often declare positive words, you must eat the fruit of what your mouth speaks. If your mouth often makes negative declarations, you will eat negative fruits. Conversely, if you often make positive declarations, you will eat positive fruits, so you must be filled with enthusiasm. When God's Spirit fills your mouth, fills your heart, fills your everything, the fire of your life will burn inside, and everything you do will be filled with enthusiasm.

Later, I discovered: Loving God can ignite the passion of life. Just love God, love hard, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and when you serve, you will find that the entire person’s life is mobilised. On Wednesday, LL testified among us. I was deeply moved. A person who was originally selfish, only caring for himself, has now been changed and has begun to serve. Under her service, DLJ's schizophrenia has been healed, and then she found a job. I also hope that this fire of God, the fire of life, will ignite within DLJ, making her passionate about what she does.

Once when I was leading prayer, there was a very strong feeling: I want to share with everyone about the scriptures on laziness. Laziness is deadly. I typed the word laziness in the electronic version of the Bible and found a lot of scriptures on laziness. Are you a lazy person? If you are a lazy person, you need the fire from the altar of heaven to descend and ignite your entire life, letting the fire of loving God burn within you. Loving God is extremely enjoyable. Do you want to enjoy life? If you want to, then in the deepest part of your life, start letting the fire of God burn, and live for God.

Isaiah's Willingness to be Sent by God

Isaiah saw the glory of God. Do you know what his first reaction was? My life has not been in vain; I have seen the glory of God. The seraph said, “The whole earth is full of His glory!” Do you want to be someone who fills the whole earth with God's glory? Before God even asked him, he made a decision: I want to be someone who is sent to fill the whole earth with God's glory. The most enjoyable thing in a person's life is to be a vessel that releases God's glory. When you become a vessel that releases God's glory, your life will be very exciting and full of God's glory.

I met a pastor who lived by the sea. His wife caused him a lot of trouble, and he said, I don't want to divorce, and I don't want to kill my wife, but I want to kill myself. So he walked into the sea. Thank God, he changed his mind later. But I want to say, I want to live out God's glory! What if there are problems in this world? What if there aren't? In any case, I want to live out God's glory. I don't want to kill myself, and I don't want to kill anyone, but I want to kill the devil. Brothers and sisters, can we be people whom God can use? That is a very glorious Mingding Destiny.

Someone came to me for ministry. He had throat cancer. After chemotherapy and radiation, every time he ate, the food went into his lungs. What I saw was a human tragedy. A person who is full of passion, ignited by the fire of God, and loves the Lord with all his heart, mind, and strength will surely live out God's glory. Not only can he live out God's glory, but he can also release God's glory. Some people say, Can believing in the Lord fill your stomach? It can not only fill your stomach, but it can also be used as medicine; it can be used for anything. Some people asked Jesus, Have you eaten? Jesus replied, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me. (cf. John 4:34) If you can become someone sent by God, will you still worry about not having money or time? God will prepare money and time for you. What a wonderful life, what a wonderful choice!

God Has Long Prepared Opportunities for Repentance

And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10)

God is really speaking in anger. Have these Israelites not seen the glory of God? Has God not done enough among the Israelites? He has never done less. Because God is clearly known among the people of Israel, but people do not take it seriously when they see it, and they do not take it seriously when they hear it. I am very surprised that there are such foolish people. When I first believed in the Lord, I knew that what I had received was a treasure. I am not foolish at all. The Lord Jesus was crucified, shed His blood, and sacrificed Himself to release me from sin. This is the treasure of my life! From the day I was baptized, when I came up from the water, I had already dedicated my life to the Lord.

What is the most difficult thing for me to understand? Those who have experienced God's grace do not know that God is a treasure. Their hearts are covered with fat, hearing they hear, but do not understand; seeing they see, but do not perceive. Some people say, Pastor, aren't you morally kidnapping us? In fact, God is also saying, I am so good to you; you should respond to me in the same way. He sees that His beloved people are indifferent to His love, which is a great pity. He heard the seraphim say, May the glory of God fill the whole earth! Isaiah said, I will be a vessel to fill the whole earth with God's glory!

Among us, are there people who are willing to offer themselves in this way? If you are willing to offer yourself, I tell you, God's glory will surely fill your life, and your life will surely become colorful! The fire from the altar in heaven will be poured out on you, just as it was poured out on the one hundred and twenty disciples on the day of Pentecost! Wherever you go, God will go with you! This is incredible! Those who are lame from birth will stand up and walk, and those who are born blind can see with a touch! What kind of doctor can surpass our God? If you dedicate all the medical expenses you need in your life to God, and all the time you would have spent lying in bed to God, that would be so good!

I tell you, I am not only dedicating the time I spend lying in bed to God, but I am dedicating every hour of the day, every moment of my life until my last breath, to God. My life is to live out God's glory. I am determined to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind throughout my life! It is not that God needs me very much. I am very clear that when God created the universe, I was not there. I did not help Him do anything, and you did not help Him do anything. Rather, I need God.

Foolish people do not know that they need God. People need to understand in their hearts. After understanding, they will know that this is how people live. Not the kind of life where you work all day long, busy and busy. When I see those who work hard all day long, working themselves to death, and then get sick, spend money to see a doctor, and then start working themselves to death again, I am amazed at how foolish this is. They really need to wake up! Isaiah said, When will these people wake up? How long will this last?

Isaiah did not see those people wake up during his lifetime, which is a pity. Some people say that Isaiah preached the gospel for a lifetime, but no one believed in the Lord. What does it matter? He fulfilled God's glory in his life and lived in God's passion. Later, he wrote the Book of Isaiah, which is so meaningful to us today. Nothing can hinder our passion for serving God. Even if no one follows, I will still follow, won't I?

When will they return to God? What does God say? Until the cities are devastated and without inhabitant, the houses are deserted and the land is utterly desolate. (cf. Isaiah 6:11) Do you have to wait for that kind of situation before you return to God? If you wake up in that kind of situation, and your ears hear and your eyes see, then you are not the most foolish, but still considered smart. But there are some people who, even in this situation, continue to stubbornly move forward.

Brothers and sisters, you must know that God is very, very generous and often allows people to experience grace, but people often forget it in the blink of an eye. Isaiah 1 says: The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. (Isaiah 1:3) Among us, how many have experienced God's grace and then forsaken God? I really hope that the desolation of the land will come upon them, because that is God's hope that they will return and wake up. Only the desolation of the land will awaken them.

And the Lord sends mankind far away, and great is the forsaken place in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be consumed again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump. (Isaiah 1:12-13)

God always preserves a root, giving you a chance to live again. It is that root that God will not uproot. As long as you are willing to return and accept it, there is always a chance. Brothers and sisters, should we wake up? If people in the world do not know what life is about, they desperately rush towards death, which is extremely sad. Why don't they feel sad? Because they can't see it. If you stand on the throne of God and look down, seeing a group of people running hard towards the cliff and then falling into the lake of fire and sulfur, wouldn't you feel sad?

God has prepared the way of glorious life for us. We must know how precious the Lord we believe in is. Don't rush towards that path of death. Make a choice between life and death, blessing and curse. Even if we testify to you today with loud voices, whether you listen or not is still your own decision, isn't it? Thank God! I think Isaiah Chapter 6 is particularly well written, starting from the passion you have inside to serve God, from the mission you have inside to live out God's glory.