Here I Stand

I have borrowed this title from the diet of worm’s speech of Martin Luther.
Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I
can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I
stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen."
I Tim: 1: 13 “Even though I was once a blasphemer (speaking against God, blasphemous;
insulting, slanderous) and a persecutor and a violent man (insolent person, person of insulting
behavior), I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.”

In this day of presidential elections and elections in general, there is zeitgeist, the “politics of
proclamations or showcasing”. It is a age where everybody standing for office will struggle to
tell you why they are fit, why they are the best and what their strengths are, what their talents are
any why they should be chosen or elected. Indeed we ignore someone who does not do this, this
is the day/ age of the maverick, or strong man… a day when perception value rules supreme.
There is no space for the weak, regular or meek. It almost puts to shame and even mocks the
principle that the meek shall inherit the earth.
But I have always been amazed the way the Holy Spirit chooses to treat this predicament. His
treatment is always contrary, contrasting and opposite to the world. It makes me stop and forces
me to look closer at the perspective, so different from the world and that around me.
Man is incurably religious. We worship something. If we are not worshipping the authentic god,
then it is almost certain we have a substitute deity. The bible does not rue against atheism. It is a
small and a puny adversary to idolatry. It is natural for our mind to have strong and passionate
affections, and the will to love, so that for the want of true objects of worship, we attach
ourselves to false one.
These substitutes deities need not be supernatural; money power, expertise, belief in progress,
scientific advancement of the age etc. another chief idolatry is that of the self, where the self is a
powerful as an organizing center strong, no stronger! Than anything else that vies for your
affection.
But is it natural for us to break the mould. Can we replace it or should it be replaced by for us?
 I would say it is a journey with the Holy Spirit. It begins with the basics correct, the vision of
who God centered worship and who he really is.
Isaiah 6: 1- 5
1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the
train of his robe filled the temple.
2. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with
two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
3. And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."
4. At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with
smoke.
5. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people
of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
It is important to get the basics right. It basics is grasp the distinctiveness between the creator and
creature. If this is embedded thus and it will not leave us for an eternity
Isaiah 6 positions this journey with the vision of heaven where his see the worship session.
A couple of insights
· There is a throne in heaven, and the LORD God sits upon it as the sovereign ruler of the
universe! This is central fact of heaven; that there is an occupied throne in heaven. God does not
sit on a chair in heaven. Anyone might sit on a chair. But sovereign kings sit on thrones. Judges
sit on thrones. Those with proper authority and sovereignty sit on thrones.
The Almightiness of God
· Isaiah was not alone in seeing God’s throne. Almost everyone in the Bible who had a vision of
heaven, was taken to heaven, or wrote about heaven spoke of God’s throne. The prophet
Michaiah saw God’s throne (1 Kings 22:19), Job saw God’s throne (Job 26:9), David saw God’s
throne (Psalm 9:4 and 7, 11:4), the Sons of Korah saw God’s throne (Psalm 45:6, 47:8), Ethan
the Ezrahite saw God’s throne (Psalm 89:14), Jeremiah saw God’s throne (Lamentations 5:19),
Ezekiel saw God’s throne (Ezekiel 1:26, 10:1), Daniel saw God’s throne (Daniel 7:9), and the
Apostle John saw God’s throne (Revelation 4:1-11). In fact, the book of Revelation may as well
be called “the book of God’s throne,” because God’s throne is specifically mentioned more than
35 times in that book!
· The superlative of Kadosh – The otherness of God
· The fear in the seraphim ( The burning ones) they cover they feet
· The presence throws open the” falleness of man”, highlights sin and our “creatureliness “
· It burns and pushes to repentance, forces us to surrender and establishes God sovereignty and
there is aloud confession.
My personal experience also testifies to the same…. When I was initially baptized with the Holy
spirit, I carried in me a revelation of How great my God is and how gracious he is by being
mindful of me. And almost always when in worship, the common reaction is confession and
coming right with God.
The greatness need today is a true vision of god in his incomparable holiness, his eternal majesty,
his burning otherness, purity, and his utterly undeserving grace towards us.
The journey of growth continues when the vision when the self is denied & discipleship is
initiated
Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and
children, his brothers and sisters-- yes, even his own life-- he cannot be my disciple.”
There is an altercation between reality and desire to serve. There is an altercation between flesh
and spirit.
The word hate “miseo” describes an emotional response or attitude towards person or things. The
hated thing is decisively rejected and it is detested and the individual wants no contact or
relationship with it. There is awareness in the despising.
Faith as said by Najma in Derek prince book “appointment with Jerusalem”, faith is a thing of
the will and not of feelings.
But Paul in this declaration is actually I believe beyond that. Many years of ministering and he
has done much for Christ, suffered much, quickened the church and edified it with his life and
lifestyle.
To a person drenched by the dew of grace every day, the person who is brimming with the
streams of living water because he has believed Christ as the scriptures says is captivated by the
suffering savior, then he becomes Christ centered, his desire is Christ alone, everything else is
periphery. His desire is God and additionally there is a contrast in the self, he is dominated by his
unworthiness. This is not a delusion, it is a living testimony. He will be like the Luke 17:10 “So
you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy
(worthless) servants (slaves); we have only done our duty.” This is the attitude of the “they were
aliens and strangers (sojourning in a strange place) on earth” (Heb 11.13).
Let me close with the story of Richard Carmen, a leader of the covenanters, in the history of the
Scotland where the supremacy/ Head of the Church would swing between the Christ and the
Crown. He led a covenanticals (the Sunday worship held in caves). Persecutions were plenty
and many were executed, burned at the stake or drowned. The Crown was so adamant that only
the re-canters survived.
One day he received a packet. He opened it and it was pair of hands, freshly cut. He said… it is
my… my ..my son’s; soon followed his son’s head.
But beloved take heart, great is your reward in heaven for theirs is the kingdom of god. May the
lord bless us with this word.