Stojan Gajicki
With this sermon, I want to begin a series on a topic that the Lord has been telling me about lately. I must admit that it was not easy for me this time while I was reading God’s word and being punished. It all started a few weeks ago when I asked the Lord to reveal to me what it means to be a prophetic people and what in the lives of the prophets in their behavior was incomprehensible to this religious world and what it did not accept and what the prophets had to live because God called to such service.
And then one day God instructed me to read the book of the prophet Ezekiel. I took the book and began to study it, wanting to find out what an individual or an entire nation must pay as a price to be a prophet, that is, a prophetic nation.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A PROPHETIC NATION?
When the Lord took from the Spirit who was over Moses and gave the anointing to the seventy elders, Joshua was envious. Anointing was received by those who were outside the camp. Moses then cried out, “Oh, that all God’s people may be prophets!” And that prayer of Moses was fulfilled in the New Testament. Jesus says, “You are a city on a mountain, you are with the world and you are the light of the world!” In other words, Jesus says – you are a prophet to this world. – Who is the prophet?
A prophet is a person who points out to this world something that is beyond the standards of that world, the coming world order. And we, as God’s people, have the role of prophets, God has given us the task of pointing out to the world the coming kingdom of God. “In you is the kingdom of God!” Jesus says. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and that is what we need to point out. A prophet is not just one who points to future events; he also, to this world at a given moment by his conduct and the word of God illuminates his deeds and shows him that they are evil. The world we live in can learn that its moral standards are low only by facing a nation that is imbued with God’s standards. How does a person experience the call to be a prophet? What happens in his life before he says to God – Yes.
Let’s turn to Ezekiel’s book, the first chapter, in verse twenty-eight, he says after describing the supernatural beings he saw: “As a rainbow in a cloud when it rained, so was the light around. and I heard the voice of one speaking. The first event that encourages a person’s heart to draw closer to God is the revelation of God’s glory in his life. The glory of God is revealed in various ways. Ezekiel saw the glory of God, and then three things happened: he saw, fell on his face, and heard the voice of God. What does it mean to see the glory of God? The Pharisees came to Jesus and asked him, “What sign do you give us to believe you?” Jesus answered them, “Ye shall not be given a sign, but a sign of the prophet Jonah, to you corrupt generation.” This does not mean that God does not give a sign to anyone. Then why didn’t he give them a sign? It was because they had the wrong motive in their hearts; they wanted to see the glory of God only for the sake of attraction. Ezekiel was the one who saw the glory of God. People who see the glory of God are above all people who are willing to do God’s will. John 2:25 says that no one needed to tell Jesus what kind of man he was because he saw his insides.
God saw Ezekiel’s heart and Ezekiel saw the glory of God. When else does Scripture say he saw the glory of God? Acts 9: 4-7. Who is this about? About Paul. “And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” In that whole group of people, only one saw the glory of God. Why? Because God saw that He would be willing to follow His path. Then, when Jesus came to him, he was a persecutor of the Church. However, knowing his his, Jesus knew that Paul did all this in ignorance. We read similarly in Daniel 10: 7-9. “Only I, Danilo, watched this vision, the people who were with me did not see it, but they were terrified and fled to hide … I became disabled … my strength left me … I heard the voice of his words …” Why did only Daniel see the glory of God? – because his heart was willing to follow God and his spirit was sensitive. Besides, it was in those days that Danilo fasted for three weeks to find out God’s will and God revealed it to him. No one else saw it. That is why prophets are often ridiculed and condemned to have apparitions because they see what others do not understand.
NO ONE CAN BEAR THE GLORY OF GOD
Let’s read the prophet Isaiah, the sixth chapter, from the first to the eighth verse. Isaiah says, “… I saw the Lord sitting on the throne … I said, ‘Woe is me, I have perished …’ … Then I heard the voice of the Lord …” Isaiah first saw, then he realized his sinfulness, his nothingness before God, and then he heard the voice of God. It happened, therefore, the same as with Ezekiel, Paul and Daniel. Jeremiah also speaks about that contrast: about God who is holy and man who is sinful. It is impossible without repentance, without acknowledging your smallness, approaching God in any way. The first reaction of a man who sees the glory of God is not pride, but the opposite: the feeling of sinfulness. After that, Isaiah says: “One of the seraphim came to me: in his hand was a crane which he took from the altar with tongs; he touched my mouth with it and said, ‘… your sin is forgiven.'” The next step, then, is sanctification. And that must be done by God, and now follows the most important part of that experience, described in the eighth verse: ‘Then I heard the voice of the Lord … “It is the way, so one becomes a prophet. mortals?
It matters because Christ called us to be His prophetic people.
If so, then we must have experienced it all. Have we seen the glory of God? Who among us has seen the glory of God? … We should all have seen the glory of God. John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us: and we beheld his glory.” John 17:22; “I gave them the glory you gave me.” says Christ. So, each of us has seen the glory of God. And who is the glory of God? Jesus Christ! God settled all his glory in Jesus Christ. It was He who, in all His glory, revealed Himself to your and my heart at the moment we received Him. And should we not speak to unconverted people about the glorious experience of conversion, about the experience when sin is removed from our hearts, about the experience when peace has filled us, when joy has filled us? Shouldn’t we talk? That is the glory of God! Every one who is born again has seen the glory of God! This is the first experience: we have seen the glory of God. Second experience: I fell to my knees. In Luke 5: 8, after Jesus had gloriously revealed to him where to fish, Peter fell before Jesus and said, “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinner.”
Let us ask ourselves now, each of us: did I fall prostrate in my heart when I experienced Jesus Christ? What a person experiences when he really sees the glory of God is the need for purification. In 1 Chronicles 29:14, when David consecrated the temple and the Lord revealed his glory, David reacted like the other servants of God, asking, “Who am I, and what is my people?” Have we repented of our sinfulness? If we think that our God blesses, then we pray for each other that our pride does not grab us because of that, because the only thing we can say is: “Who am I, and what are my people?”
“AND I HEARD THE VOICE OF GOD …”
The third experience: “And I heard the voice of God.” This is one of the goals of God when he reveals Your glory. God wants us to be people who have circumcised ears, ears that will hear His voice, ears that “listen in a disciple’s way.” He does not want servants who hear and do not know what they have heard, so they say with their mouths – YES, and with their hearts – NO. What does it mean to listen in a student way? It means to hear and accept. God wants us to be not only listeners but also doers of the Word. He spoke only to those who had a willing heart to do His will. And, if we are not willing to do his will, we will not be able to hear him. John says in his Gospel 7:17, “If any man will do his will, he shall know whether my doctrine is of God, or whether I speak of myself.” Do you notice how powerful this word is? It contains an awful lot. She tells us that our problem with our doubts about Christ lies in nothing but our reluctance to keep God’s word. Revelation 2.7 says, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” What does the Spirit say to the churches today? God often revealed his glory to Israel, to his people who so often turned to idols because they wanted to cleanse them and that is why he had to speak to them.
Therefore, he revealed his glory to him so that the people would see it and so that he would later have respect for the one who spoke to him, God himself. I am convinced, based on what the Spirit is doing in the world today, that what the Spirit is telling the Church today is that He wants to cleanse God’s people from all that is not His. God wants to cleanse the people. Unfortunately, there are people spoken of in the Gospel of Matthew, who have ears and do not hear or see. The Apostles confirmed in Acts that they said what they saw and heard. And, what is the point of everything is the verse in Ezekiel: “I saw, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking to me. And he said to me, ‘Son of man, on your feet.'” It is not the selfish gratification of our “I” when God reveals His glory to us. “On your feet.” That is the purpose. It is time in this country to get on our feet and show ourselves to the world with the one that has been trampled because it has lost its taste. A city that is on a mountain but covered, a candle that is lit but placed under a vessel should also be shown.
However, not on our feet to come to every service, but on our feet to go to the lost sheep, to say what we saw and heard. Not on our feet so that we can be a religious club in which, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, our feelings will be satisfied. Not so, but as the Father sent the Son, so the Son sends us. And he rightly sends us because we have seen the glory of the Firstborn. On our feet to say what we saw and what we heard. That is the prophetic task of the Church. Finally, a verse from Mark 5:18. The besieged from Gerasa was released. The glory of God has entered his life and he begs Jesus to join him. Jesus does not allow him, but says: “Go home, your family, and tell them what the Lord has done for you in his mercy!” After his release, the man wished to live a romantic religious life with Jesus. “Jesus, let me stay with you because it is good for me to be with you.” Jesus says, “No! Go! I have revealed my glory to you, not to satisfy your religious self, but to go and tell others.” And until we as a Church get there, everything remains just a religious game because Jesus’ last words are not: “Praise be to God that we feel good!” His last words are: “Go, because you are with the world, because you are the light of the world.”
Source: IZVORY, 2/1984