A Glimpse of God

Dannah Gresh: King Uzziah let his pride get the better of him. Pastor Chris Brooks says we need to watch out for that kind of self-sufficient attitude.

Pastor Chris Brooks: If you will remember that God is your source, you will never be without supply. But don’t ever get to the place where you say, “It was my hands that got me here.” How many in here know you’re not strong enough, you’re not smart enough, but if God be for you, He is greater than anything the world can throw against you?

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Heaven Rules, for November 7, 2022. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: In the course of our everyday lives down here on earth, as believers, it's easy to lose sight of what an awesome, majestic, glorious God we have. That's why I'm so thankful that there are places in the Scripture where we are given glimpses of the greatness of God—how huge He is and how small we are in comparison when we see how great He is.

I think of that passage in Isaiah chapter 6 where the prophet Isaiah was given a glimpse into the throne room of heaven. It was an amazing scene. 

Today and tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts, Pastor Chris Brooks is going to take us into that scene in Isaiah chapter 6. My hope is that you’ll get a sense of God’s holiness and power as you listen.

Chris Brooks is the pastor of Woodside Bible Church in the Detroit area. He’s also the host of a daily call-in radio program called Equipped, with Chris Brooks. It's heard on many Christian radio stations around the country.

Chris gave this message on Friday evening at our recent True Woman conference. I can remember as I sat in the audience that night and listened that my heart was just gripped. I texted our producer and said, "Is there any way we can get this on the air the week of our national election?" As you listen to it, I think you’ll understand why I said that because right now politics and tomorrow’s general election here in the United States are pretty much all we’re hearing about. And in days like these, how we need to be reminded that Heaven rules. Here's Pastor Chris Brooks to help us see that with fresh eyes.

Pastor Brooks: Tonight, I want to help us to understand why we can be confident in God, why we can be confident in this statement that Heaven rules—a statement that reflects not only His greatness, His power, but His goodness, His love and kindness towards us. I want to do it with the backdrop of a recent trip that we took.

My wife and I, along with the missions directors at our local church, recently took a trip to the Middle East to meet with pastors from twenty persecuted countries. These are pastors many of whom have been imprisoned for their faith; pastors who have been beaten for their faith; pastors who have been excommunicated from their families because of their proclamation that Jesus is Lord.

I got a chance to meet one older gentleman. He was soft spoken; he was humble. Over the life of his ministry, God had used him to plant over five hundred churches. The host of our meeting asked him if he could remember how many times he had been imprisoned in his country, where it is illegal to evangelize.

He simply said, “I’ve stopped counting after forty-five times in jail.” 

I got a chance to walk along a mountainside down what can roughly be called a trail as we went to go visit an underground house church. As we got to this house church that seemed to pop up out of nowhere in the middle of the bush, to my surprise and joy, about twenty believers came walking out.

They didn’t have air conditioned rooms to sit in. There were no cushioned seats. We sat on the ground, we prayed, we worshiped the Lord with great joy. I asked these believers, these brothers and sisters in Christ, “How can we pray for you?”

“When I go back to America and I tell my brothers and sisters there who love you, who hold you in their hearts, how to pray for you, what do you want us to pray?” And again, to my surprise, they did not ask for us to pray that the persecution would stop. They simply asked us to pray that they would be fearless, that they would not fear the persecution to come.

They also asked us to pray that the joy of Jesus would be so evident and radiant in their lives that their neighbors, family, friends, and loved ones would be drawn to Jesus as they see the love of Jesus in their lives.

I’ve got to be honest with you, I was humbled by this. I was overwhelmed by this, and it sparked my curiosity.

I asked them, “How is it in a nation in which . . .” At that time, you could be in prison for four years for sharing your faith if you were caught. “How is it that you are able to bear up under that?” And one pastor said to me, “It’s because we never lose sight of who our God is!” 

Heaven rules is contingent upon us having a high view of God. Heaven rules is contingent upon us understanding that God is bigger! 

I was thinking about the words that we find in Daniel chapter 7. In Daniel chapter 7 we see the story of the Ancient of Days, the Son of Man presenting Himself before the Ancient of Days. The passage says in Daniel chapter 7, verse 9, “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat.”

So often when I’m reading the Word of God, my imagination is sparked. As I read Daniel and I think about what it must have been like for him to get a glimpse of the throne room of Heaven, I ask myself, “What must that have been like?”

One of the questions that has been at the forefront of my mind in the months leading up to this very moment is the question of, has there ever been a time in your life where you saw something for the first time, and you said in your heart, “I will never be the same after seeing this!” That’s happened to me a number of times in my life, three I can think of readily.

One was the first time I saw an ocean, the Pacific ocean. It was me going to California with my wife. I was a Michigan boy, Detroit born. A missions trip was going over the border to Canada to Windsor was a long-term missions trip. We didn’t travel much, but I married this woman who spent a lot of her life in California.

So we went out and I stood there. For the first time this Great Lakes boy saw an ocean. And that is massive! How many have ever seen an ocean before? It is massive! You stand on the shore and you can’t help but to feel small. But there is something special about seeing an ocean if you allow yourself to simply close your eyes and listen to the waves.

You’ll get this dual sense that while it is massive and big and “I am so small,” there is something peaceful about it. I remember seeing that ocean for the first time and saying, “I need to get back here again!” And for twenty-two years, just about every time we get a chance to go and visit that ocean, we do. We’ve taken our family again and again and again.

The second time this happened to me was when I first saw my wife. We were at a youth ministry meeting when we met; it was at our church as a teenager. A friend had invited her. He had told me a little bit about her, but his stories about her did not do her justice.

I was at a youth ministry that used to close in prayer, and we were in prayer circles at the end of the night. We’d be in groups of about five or six, and there’d be about five or six groups. We spread out around the room.

She was in one group and I was another when prayer started, but when it was over . . . the Spirit of God had led me to a different group! (laughter) She opened her eyes looking for Jesus, and she saw me. For me it was love at first sight! Now, it took her a little time to obey the leading of the Spirit in her life. (laughter)

But I knew when I saw her, “I want this woman in my life for the rest of my life!” And praise God, this year we celebrated twenty-five years of marriage. (applause) 

And then, the third time this happened to me is the first time I held my baby girl Zoe in my arms.

Now, parents have been taught to lie and say that all their children are the same. And let me just tell you the truth: that’s a lie. I love my boys, but I absolutely love my girls. The first time I held my little Zoe in my arms—she was a small little peanut, 5 pounds, 5 ounces—I looked into her eyes, and there was a lion that rose up on the inside of me!

I knew that I had to protect her. I knew that I had to demonstrate to her that she was deeply loved. I had to demonstrate the Father’s heart to her. I have pledged my life to doing that, and for sixteen years I’ve been trying my best to communicate to my baby girl how much she is loved by her dad. 

All of these moments are moments that, after I saw what I saw, I knew I would never be the same again! Back to the text. Daniel tells us that he got a glimpse of the Ancient of Days. Imagine that! Imagine getting a glimpse of God!

I’ve been searching the Scriptures to see examples of that, and I just want to show you one of them. I just want to step out of Daniel for just a moment and into Isaiah. While Daniel describes the throne room that he saw, I love that in Isaiah chapter 6, he gives us a detailed vision, a record, of what God looks like in that throne room.

I love that Isaiah uses such poetic words, but I’m astounded at his efficiency, the economy of words. Had I seen what Isaiah saw, I could not have filled enough notebooks! But as the Spirit led him, he recorded these words. (You might be familiar with this passage.) Isaiah chapter 6, verse number 1.

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

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

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. . . .

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people . . .” [And he gives him these instructions.] (Isa. 6: 1–4, 8–9)

Now, I want to just pause and go back for a moment because there is so much here to unpack. In each verse there is activity and movement, but before us is a portrait of God! And ladies, there are so many things in this culture for you to fix your eyes on, to fix your gaze on. Today, I want you to see the glory of God!

Today, I want you to see:

• That your God is bigger, that your God is greater, that He loves you! 
• That He is greater than anything the enemy will send against you. 
• That He is greater than the pain and the brokenness that you are experiencing.
• That He is the lover of your soul. 
• That He’s the fixer of what is broken.
•  That He is forever faithful. 

What Isaiah gives us is a portrait of God and a portrait of us. Notice first, in verse number 1, when God appears to Isaiah: “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord . . .” There’s so much that can be said about this, this year that King Uzziah died.

A little bit about this King Uzziah: King Uzziah was one of the longest reigning kings of Israel. History and Scripture record that he reigned for fifty-two years. He was more than just a passing politician; he was an institution. Over much of his reign, Israel prospered. They knew social peace; they knew military power. 

They knew what it was to have an expanding economy. Things were going well. And as you would expect, people put their trust in him. As long as King Uzziah was on the throne, they had confidence. 

If you’ve ever had a politician that you thought of favorably, you get a sense of how the people of Israel felt about King Uzziah. If you’ve ever had a politician of whom you’ve said, “As long as he or she is in office, I know they’re fighting for us. As long as he is elected, I know that things are going to be okay.” You can imagine for just a moment how Israel felt.

But as I said earlier, his reign was mostly prosperous, but it wasn’t all roses and rainbows. The fact of the matter is, sadly, Uzziah did not finish well. Verse number 1 tells us the story. It’s a powerful story about finishing well.

I would, for a moment, want you to keep your finger there and journey with me back to 2 Chronicles chapter 26. In verse number 16 what we read is about the end of Uzziah’s life. The end of his life reads this way:

But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.

You see, God is a keeper of His Word. When Israel’s kings would honor Him, God promised that He would prosper the people. But sadly, most of Israel’s kings did not finish well. There’s a sad reality that has unfolded before our eyes in recent years of so many men and women who have lived the sad tale of living life to be admired, amassing respect, living the life that most of us would applaud, only to get to the end of it and to see it all unfold. 

Ladies, I want to encourage you today, if you find yourself in the last lap of your life, if you find yourself in the fourth quarter season, double down on your faithfulness to the Lord. Commit tonight that you’re going to finish well. Leave a legacy and a testimony of faithfulness to His Word and worship of Jesus.

May the generations declare of you that “she finished well.” The sad reality is that we are seeing men and women not finish well, in every sector—in sports and entertainment and government and, sadly, even in ministry.

What happened to Uzziah? He simply grew proud. He forgot that Heaven ruled. He thought that he ruled. He forgot that it is God who gives us power. All power, as we learned earlier from Mary, is derived power. It is given to us. All grace, “every good and perfect gift, comes from above” (James 1:17). If you remember that God is the source, you will never be without supply. 

Don’t ever get to the place where you say, “It was my hands that got me here! It was my strength, my wisdom, my wit!” How many in here know you’re not strong enough, you’re not smart enough? But if God be for you, He is greater than anything the world can throw against you. How many know today that it is God who is faithful!? (applause)

I’ve got an announcement to make, that some of you are here because you want Jesus. Well, I’ve graduated beyond that point. I’m not here because I want Jesus. I’m here because I need Jesus!“I need Thee, O I need Thee; [every day] and every hour I need Thee!” We need to grow in greater dependence upon God!

The difference between growth and natural age in the world and growth spiritually is that as you grow in natural age in the world, you grow more independent. But as you grow spiritually, you grow more dependent—the desire for God, that God was the one that was in control.

The nation began to fragment. It began to break and unravel. Imagine the devastation they all must have felt when Uzziah died. “Our king is dead! He is no longer alive!” That gives me a second truth, and that is this: kings come and go, politicians come and go, but there is a king who lives and reigns forever.

Let me remind you that the Bible calls us not to be either apolitical or to make politics an idol, and that is a delicate walk that we must walk. We can only do it in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. 

On the one hand we should not be indifferent to civic life. On the other hand, we would be wise to heed the words of the late Chuck Colson that salvation doesn't fly in on the wings of Air Force One. What we know is that political victories are short-lived at best. 

One president is elected, then his successor comes after him and undoes his legacy in a mere moment. We win a victory this year, and then next year another ballot might be passed. Don’t put your hope in or hang your hat on the politics of this world. Hang your hat on the politics of Heaven. 

How many thank God that we have a God who is unelectable, unimpeachable? His reign is irrevocable! He is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and worthy of our praise! When you and I wake up on Wednesday, November 9, God will still be in Heaven. Jesus will still be Lord!

He is worthy of our praise, and His plan will still be intact because Heaven rules! (applause) Heaven rules today. Heaven rules tomorrow. Heaven rules before elections, and Heaven rules after elections.

Nancy: What a powerful, timely reminder from pastor Chris Brooks, speaking to a group of nearly 5,000 women at our True Woman conference in Indianapolis last September, with thousands more watching online in English, Spanish, and this time Portuguese as well.

I know here in the United States may of us are sitting on the edge of our seats, waiting to see what will happen in the election tomorrow. There are specific results that we are eager to see in govenor's races, House races, Senate races, local races. We want to know what will happen, who will be in charge once it is all said and done.

This is a time when it is so important for us to counsel our hearts with the truth that no matter what the results of tomorrow’s election are, God is still on His throne. Heaven rules. That's a theme that we not just for tomorrow and the day after or next week, but every day of our lives.

“Heaven Rules” was not only the theme of True Woman '22, it’s not only the title of my most recent book, it’s also the theme of the 2023 Wall Calendar from Revive Our Hearts. On the page for each month for the year ahead, there's a quote that we pray will stir you, remind you, and comfort you and give you courage no matter what happens in the year ahead—to be reminded that Heaven still rules.

In the past, our annual ministry calendar has used art from professional photographers and illustrators. This year, I wanted to share some of my own photographs with you—just a handful of the thousands on my iPhone. A few of the images were captured on trips Robert and I have taken together. Most were taken within a short drive from our home in Michigan. This special 2023 calendar is a gift from my heart to yours through the photographs and through the quotes, it's my way of wanting to bless and encourage you with the assurance of Heaven's rule throughout the year ahead.

Right now, as long as supplies last, we’d love to send you the Heaven Rules Wall Calendar as our way of saying "thank you" for your donation of any amount to support the ministry of Revive Our Hearts. To do that, visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959. 

Tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts, we’ll hear the moving conclusion of Pastor Chris Brooks’s message. It's a perfect message for election day here in the United States. I hope you don’t miss it in light of what's happening not only in this country, but around the world. I think it would be so appropriate for us to take a moment together to cry out to the Lord on behalf of our nation. If you are in a place where you can do this, stop and join us in this prayer. Leading us in this prayer is True Woman speaker, Glenna Marshall. She's a pastor's wife and author and a speaker. Now, let's join her in crying out to the Lord on behalf of our country.

Glenna Marshall: Heavenly Father, it is such an encouragement to know that You who spoke everything into being, have never once stepped off Your throne. You are ruling, and You always will. It's so easy for us to look around at cultural crises, political crises, health crises and to wonder, What are You doing? Where are You? Why haven't You shown up? But You are here, and You are with us. We can trust You with our lives here on this earth.

We trust You with our eternity. We thank You that Your kingdom has come, and it is coming still. Lord, help the women to be reminded that You are immovable and unshakable. When we are moved and shaken by the events in the news around us, You are neither surprised nor out of control. You are still sovereign. You are still good. You are so wise and just and holy and so trustworthy.

I pray that You would help us to look to Your Word for the story of what victory will look like, to not look to our circumstances to decide how the story is going to end. Help us to be reminded that You have written the story from first to last. You will win; You are winning. It is hard for us to see that sometimes, but You see the bigger picture, and we can trust you with that. May hearts that are fearful be calmed. May hearts that are hiding in sin be brought to light. May Jesus be glorified and lifted up in our midst. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth knows that glimpses of God will help you find freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.

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