To Whom Do We Liken God?

To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.  (Isa 40:25)

The fallen nature of humanity is one that desires to govern our own destiny (Jug 21:25) and to decide between good and evil (Gen 2:17). This has resulted in us displacing the sovereignty of the God. The Covenant (Jer 31:32) forbids idolatry (Exo 20:3, 4) hence denying the supremacy of God, the not so obvious is what we perceive when we say ‘my judgment is passed over from my God’ (Isa 40:27) as though we have been neglected or unnoticed by Him. This kind of idolatry exalts the issue or problem over God.

When we are overwhelmed, there is always the tendency to be inward looking. We are encourage to ‘lift up your eyes on high’ (Isa 45:26) and behold the ‘greatness of His might’. In other words, believe Him to the point of thankfulness (Php 4:6) that He has delivered our soul (Psa 42:5) in hope; this is faith. Without faith it will not please Him to deliver us (Heb 11:6). When we rise up in faith, there is the grace and the surging heavenly power to overcome (Isa 40:29). God is ready, are we willing to destroy the idolatry of self pity and yield to His greatness.

Those Who Wait on the Lord (Isaiah 40:25-31, NKJV)
Music by Esther Mui
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Doing the Greater Works

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.  (John 14:12)

How can we outdo what Christ has done on earth, when He has divinely declared from eternity’s beginning to eternity’s end that ‘It is finished’? The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8) is the testimony that Christ has already accomplished all in the spiritual realm of Heaven, a realm without bounds. Hence if we ‘work’ from the basis of our definition of meeting needs or completing that which we perceive as incomplete, we are heading for burn out. What greater works is Jesus telling us?

The subsequent verse Jesus beckons us to ask with all of Heaven’s backing and authority, in His Name, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Hence the greater work is the work of prayer. Not work as in a burden, but work as in a delight because we ask from the vantage point of being more than conquerors (Rom 8:37). We ask in order that we may be included in the eternal purposes of the Almighty. What should we ask for but for His Kingdom that have already been establish in Heaven’s realm to manifest itself as an earthly reality (Matt 6:10). Prayer exercises our faith to substantiate God’s promises (Heb 11:1) that are already in existence in Heaven on earth.

Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.  (Luke 10:2)

Christ coming is determined by the extend of the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom in all the earth (Matt 24:14). How could Jesus leave mere men to complete a seemingly impossible task? He left the destiny of His Kingdom on earth, as it were, into the hands of men. Can we fathom that? How to accomplish such a gargantuan task? Jesus said pray we therefore and He will work out the rest. God answers mightily to the prayer of the saints (Rev 8:3-5). The saints can be unassuming individuals who hide in their prayer closet, unheard by men but reach the golden altar before the Throne. Men, women and children who may not be lauded by men, but their very existence is a proclamation ‘unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places’ (Eph 3:10).

Desperation for Deliverance

From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.  (Psa 61:2)

How desperate are we to be delivered? It is at the end of self, knowing that all the strength we summon from the constituency of our heart have depleted that the deepest and most sincere cry for deliverance ejaculates from our mouth. The desperate God-ward cry knowing that unless the Lord had been my help, I would have gone down to the grave (Psa 94:17).

He will deliver us out of the despondency (state of low spirits caused by loss of hope or courage) of our soul, to be placed on the lofty vantage point of faith, the platform of abiding and hidden in Christ. It is an unshakable realm where there is deep sense of His Holy Presence and consciousness of our total being yielded to the His good, acceptable and perfect will.

But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.  (Psa 109:21)

We should not conclude that God is cruel; it is truly His mercy that He even thinks about delivering us who are like dust on a scale (Isa 40:15). Watchman Nee related an incident of a man drowning and the life guard did not move a finger as long as the man was still screaming and kicking. The rescuer swiftly saved the drowning man when all the latter’s trying have exhausted lest the mission would fail endangering the life of the lifeguard and his. In desperation cry out to God and He will surely rescue our soul (though not the flesh) for His glorious Name’s sake.

The Key to the Missionary MessageOswald Chambers (http://www.myutmost.org/10/1015.html)
"And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John 2:2 The key to the missionary message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus. Take any phase of Christ's work - the healing phase, the saving and sanctifying phase; there is nothing limitless about those. "The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world! " - that is limitless. The missionary message is the limitless significance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is one who is soaked in that revelation. The key to the missionary message is the remissionary aspect of Christ's life, not His kindness and His goodness, and His revealing of the Fatherhood of God; the great limitless significance is that He is the propitiation for our sins. The missionary message is not patriotic, it is irrespective of nations and of individuals, it is for the whole world. When the Holy Ghost comes in He does not consider my predilections, He brings me into union with the Lord Jesus. A missionary is one who is wedded to the charter of his Lord and Master, he has not to proclaim his own point of view, but to proclaim the Lamb of God. It is easier to belong to a coterie which tells what Jesus Christ has done for me, easier to become a devotee to Divine healing, or to a special type of sanctification, or to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Paul did not say - "Woe is unto me, if I do not preach what Christ has done for me," but - "Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel." This is the Gospel - "The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!"

"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you. . . " - that is the way to keep going in our personal lives. Where we are placed is a matter of indifference; God engineers the goings. "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself . . ." That is how to keep going till we're gone.

Where is Our God?
….. while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? (Psa 42:3)


The question of the reality of God will never surface in our mountain top experiences or when no troubles loom. Can the reality of Him be known and experienced in the face of hardship or in the dungeon of despair? We can recount of former times when we diligently sought Him (Heb 11:6), but that even seemed to have accounted for nought.


Why art thou cast down, O my soul? ….. (Psa 42:5)


First deal with the despondency of our mind, will and emotions, conclude that there is no other hope save the mercy of Christ that will carry us through unto glory (Jude 1:21). Don’t deal with the situation or with the related parties, do the necessary in crying out (Psa 61:1,2) to Him then the Lord will show His light and graciousness in that dark hour.


And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? (Mat 11:3)


In despair don’t seek deliverance from man, go directly to the Savior and He will reveal that our suffering for righteousness sake is not is vain (1 Pet 4:12, 13). Don’t run to man, run to the One Who authored the finishing of our faith (He 12:2) and we will be able to despise the shame of human contempt and endow us with the second wind toward the goal with a glorious end. He will command His lovingkindness and there will be a song unto God, for He is our life (Psa 42:8).

Does the Old Testament Reveal the Name of the Messiah?

Our Persevering in Preservation

Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?  (Jas 2:22)

There is a danger of living an unregenerate Christian life and hope that we will be caught up and meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess 4:17). This is a poor understanding of salvation by grace. Salvation is the doorway to a pilgrimage of being made faultless for His appearing (Jude 1:24). Action-less faith is dead faith.

…… are changed into the same image from glory to glory…. (2Cor 3:18)

We are called out of the world, leaving the state of the ‘old man’ (Rom 6:6) into higher than good; a respectable and useful life. Don’t be contented with the good but live in the place of God’s direct hand in leading and dealing that constantly escalates us from the human good to God’s best. Abraham’s work was to leave (Heb 11:8), persevering in the mundaneness of life for decades until coming to the most heart breaking action of laying down his son, his only son (Gen 22:2). If we say we have faith, the Lord requires action. The patriarch never knew the leaving will led him to a dying inside, in that dying foreshadowed the work of Christ on the cross. We may content that Jesus ‘did it all’ on the cross. Yes He did. He carried His cross; now following Him has the same exigency. What can better regenerate a life unto God than one that faithfully perseveres in carrying his or her cross daily? Dying of everything, including the best that a man or woman can bring forth and alive to God, not self (John 3:30, Romans 6:11). Usefulness to mankind does not equate usefulness to God.

…. sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ…   (Jude 1:1)

We are not to be kill ourselves on the cross, but just faithfully carry it. Sanctification is a sovereign work of God not to be tampered with by human will. It is only when we are no longer engrossed in ‘self’ that we are hidden in Christ, Who is our only preservation.