My Pastor, Cynthia Brazelton, ministered a powerful Word today. This is part of a series on: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory. I felt led to share my notes from the message with you. Enjoy.
The Kingdom, Power, and Glory
Pastor Cynthia Brazelton
VCMI-VA (2/4/13)
Introduction:
– We’ve been learning about worship
– We’ve been learning about the Glory
– We were created to give God worship
– We were created to praise Him
– Just like fish need water, birds need sky, we need Him!
– When we worship in spite of our negative circumstances we show God that no matter what is happening in our lives, He is worthy!
– When we truly start worshipping, then whatever we are going through seems small and insignificant because our focus is on Him!
– No matter what is happening, I can still give Him worship and praise.
– Even when you get bad news, start worshipping.
– Worship may not change the problem, but it will change you!
Setting an atmosphere for the Glory of God:
1. We set an atmosphere for God’s presence with our worship.
Romans 12:1 AMP
I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.
– Human reasoning, when you hear bad news, might lead you to get depressed.
– But in the place of worship your first response is to cast the care of the thing over to God.
– When we worship we maintain an expectation of God’s power and goodness.
2. We set an atmosphere by seeking the Lord.
Psalm 63:1-5 AMP
O GOD, You are my God, earnestly will I seek You; my inner self thirsts for You, my flesh longs and is faint for You, in a dry and weary land where no water is. So I have looked upon You in the sanctuary to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. So will I bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My whole being shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips
– When you begin to acknowledge God as YOUR God, your problems seem so small.
– When you chase after God — desiring to see His power and glory manifested in your life — you will find Him and you will be satisfied.
Jeremiah 29:12-14 AMP
Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you. Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will release you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and all the places to which I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive.
– When you seek God with your whole heart, you WILL find Him!
– Just like you desire for people to pay attention to you when you are speaking to them, the Lord wants your attention.
– When you give God your UNdivided attention you will experience Him in intimacy.
– When you come back to God He welcomes you with open arms and He holds no grudges for what you did in the past.
Psalm 105:1-4 AMP
O GIVE thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His doings among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; meditate on and talk of all His marvelous deeds and devoutly praise them. Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those rejoice who seek and require the Lord [as their indispensable necessity]. Seek, inquire of and for the Lord, and crave Him and His strength (His might and inflexibility to temptation); seek and require His face and His presence [continually] evermore.
– We can’t do without God. Just like fish need water, we need God.
– We ought to CRAVE God. We should have a CRAVING for God and His presence.
– No one can satisfy us like our God!
– Sometimes God will use circumstances in your life to wake you up to the cravings inside of you.
– You can only give out what you have received. If you want to pour out you must ensure you have been poured into.
Psalm 24:6 AMP
This is the generation [description] of those who seek Him [who inquire of and for Him and of necessity require Him], who seek Your face, [O God of] Jacob. Selah [pause, and think of that]!
– As a necessity we NEED God.
– It is the goodness of God that will cause men to repent.
* Be quick to repent and don’t make excuses for your sin.
Song of Solomon 3:1-4 AMP
IN THE night I dreamed that I sought the one whom I love. [She said] I looked for him but could not find him. So I decided to go out into the city, into the streets and broad ways [which are so confusing to a country girl], and seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I could not find him. The watchmen who go about the city found me, to whom I said, Have you seen him whom my soul loves? I had gone but a little way past them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.
Psalm 27:4 AMP
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and [insistently] require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty [the sweet attractiveness and the delightful loveliness] of the Lord and to meditate, consider, and inquire in His temple.
– David wanted the presence of the Lord and He sought for Him until He found Him. Once He did, he would not let the Lord go. Have you sought for Him?
3. Spend time in His presence.
– Just like a marriage needs time — for couples to spend time together — in order to grow, our relationship with God requires our time.
– When you go to work, take God with you… He will help you get your work dones in excellence.
– When God’s presence gets on you — so heavy — you’ve got to give it away! When God changes you, you want that power to flow through you!
Psalm 42:2 AMP
My inner self thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
– When you desire Him you will find Him.
– God always has time for you. If you desire to be in His presence He does not have to check His calendar. He is always open for you.
4. Waiting on the Lord sets an atmosphere for His presence.
– When people come see us, we prepare for them to come. We host them. God does the same for us!
– When we wait on the Lord and host God, God actually hosts us and waits on us.
– When you decide to spend time with God distractions will come, but you must be determined NOT to be distracted!
Psalm 5:1-3 AMP
LISTEN TO my words, O Lord, give heed to my sighing and groaning. Hear the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to You do I pray. In the morning You hear my voice, O Lord; in the morning I prepare [a prayer, a sacrifice] for You and watch and wait [for You to speak to my heart].
– When you are in the presence of the Lord, WATCH and WAIT for Him to speak to your heart.
Psalm 130:5-6 AMP
I wait for the Lord, I expectantly wait, and in His word do I hope. I am looking and waiting for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, I say, more than watchmen for the morning.
– More than a night watchman waits for the morning, we must wait and watch for God. When we truly seek Him, He shows up!
5. Faith and believing creates and atmosphere for the presence of the Lord.
Hebrews 11:1 AMP
NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].
– For us to operate in Faith in God, we must get past our natural senses.
– When we are in faith, and in the presence of the Lord, we sometimes hear so clearly that we think someone else is in the room with us.
– Sometimes, as a carrier of the glory, you carry the aroma of heaven on your life.
– Your believing sets an atmosphere where the impossible becomes possible.
6. Your prayers and fasting creates an atmosphere for the glory.
– When you fast sometimes it seems like the physical is being heightened, but it is actually your spirit.
Isaiah 58:5-9 AMP
Is such a fast as yours what I have chosen, a day for a man to humble himself with sorrow in his soul? [Is true fasting merely mechanical?] Is it only to bow down his head like a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him [to indicate a condition of heart that he does not have]? Will you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? [Rather] is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every [enslaving] yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house–when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you hide not yourself from [the needs of] your own flesh and blood? Then shall your light break forth like the morning, and your healing (your restoration and the power of a new life) shall spring forth speedily; your righteousness (your rightness, your justice, and your right relationship with God) shall go before you [conducting you to peace and prosperity], and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you take away from your midst yokes of oppression [wherever you find them], the finger pointed in scorn [toward the oppressed or the godly], and every form of false, harsh, unjust, and wicked speaking,
