Good morning, all!
Father, we know that You never change and by Your grace we are changed into the image of Your son. Open our eyes Lord and show us Your truth, show us Your glory and teach us to hear the sound of Your voice. Your wisdom is infinite and beyond measure, teach us to trust in Your love, Amen.
Ezekiel 8
2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness,
The Lord appeared in my house, and He looked like fire from the waist down and up, His appearance was undeniable,
8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.
The Lord said to the one I’ve anointed to serve mankind, we are going to dig and see what’s behind this wall, and when He dug a hole, I noticed a door…something that has entrance to my life.
9 And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.
And the Lord said to me, Go and take a look at the hot mess in here.
10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.
So, I checked it out and I saw all kinds of things from a lower realm, it was an ugly beast, and the house was full of idols and the walls had graven images all around.
16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, [were] about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
And then the Lord showed me the outer court of the temple and there were 25 guys standing with their back to the temple between the entrance and the altar, they were looking intently into the east because that was what they worshipped.
Bottom line
Before John wrote the book of Revelation we had Ezekiel’s visions, and they are wild. In Fact, John actually uses Ezekiel’s vision of the four faces (the complete God man) in Chapter 4. By the way all the visions from both men of God describe the change inside of us that lead us to the complete God man, which of course is Christ in us. So, with that said I believe these visions are NOT external, they are internal…hence you have to DIG. When God shows Himself in our life it’s usually in the appearance of fire or lightning, extreme heat which is a sign of His extreme love for us. Hebrews says God is a consuming fire, He doesn’t consume people, He consumes the lies in our life that create the problems. Now where are these lies? The same place we find these idols, they are buried deep within that walls of our heart.
[Eze 14:4 KJV] Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols. What exactly are these idols in our heart? They’re the voices in our head that contradict God’s word, like unbelief, selfishness, pride, anger, worry, fear, condemnation. You see, we can either listen to God or listen to these voices…that’s the idol. And the more we listen to these voices in our head we’re just like the 25 men mentioned here in verse 16. We say we love God but we’re actually turning our back on Him, we don’t listen to Him and worship the sun in the east…the world. Doesn’t God say that we are NOT to be conformed to this world but be transformed by the RENEWING of your mind…translation…don’t listen to those voices. When we listen to those voices we create a stumbling-block in our lives that leads to sin, what’s the sin? We live a lie and we become deceived, let me give you an example.
[1Ti 2:14 KJV] And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Adam was NOT deceived and was NOT in transgression…sin…Eve was, why? Because she listened to the snake…the lie…that’s the sin. The 25 men look for redemption in the world, to be satisfied but they will NOT find it because they exchange the truth for a lie in the search for life’s answer. The answer is right in front of them, it’s the altar NOT the world. Remember, Jesus said through Him we overcome the world NOT worship it. How do we overcome the world? The altar. God’s looking for His gift on the altar and it ain’t in the world, the gift is our heart when we choose faith over our circumstances, choose forgiveness over holding a grudge, choose love over being offended. We should overcome the world and NOT listen to it, choose the voice of God over the voice of the world and let the change begin.
Point to Ponder
What did God find when He showed up?BSo I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. He saw the IMAGE of jealousy instead of the gift, it’s the image of selfishness and when we’re selfish we don’t offer the gifts of love, peace, forgiveness, kindness…get rid of your idols, they’re greedy.
Let’s all be transformed in our thinking, In Him Phil
Faith – Family – Friends
