[SUB12] EXPERIMENTANDO MAIS DE DEUS - LUCIANO SUBIRÁ

Guys, I’m here at Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon, in Rio de Janeiro to bring another word to your heart. I speak specifically to those who have hunger for more of God. I want to help you understand how to overcome what has stopped you maybe your growth and breakthrough with that place of mediocrity to enter in a deeper experience with God.

If you desire that follow me though the next minutes on this reflection. The word of God says, in the book of the prophet Isaiah, in chapter 6, I want to read from verse 1 to 8, the passage says: “in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne. The flab of his garments fills the temple.

Above Him were seraphim, each of them had six wings. With two they covered their face, with two their feet and with two they flew. And proclaimed to one another: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of the armies and the earth is full of your glory.

To the sound of their voices the doorstops trembled and the temple was filled with smoke. So I shouted: Alias! I am lost for I’m a man of impure lips and live in the midst of a people of impure lips.

And my eyes saw the King, The Lord of the Armies. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he touched my mouth with it, and said Lo, this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin forgiven And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I; send me.

” On this experience, Isaiah the prophet in fact lives something extraordinary before God. Not only the vision itself, the mystical aspect of the experience. We could highlight that this experience of Isaiah takes the prophet to a deeper place in God than what he had experienced before.

We can highlight some things that happened in this experience. In first place he has a perception of God he didn’t have before. From His holiness and from God as a King.

We can, besides that, add the word of God that says that the treshold bases, speaking of the temple, were shaking with the voice of the one who claimed. He was in the temple, The biggest symbol of religiosity in Israel, I believe there is an experience where God will shake all of the religiosity foundations in our lives, because the relationship with him is much is more than the formality if a temple or a liturgic system of adoration. The passage says the temple was filled with smoke.

It is interesting because many times when the Bible speaks of the manifestation of the “shekiinah" glory of God, we are going to see the emphasis of a cloud or smoke. It is like God, before revealing something new had to first dim the old vision, by the way, through Jeremiah the prophet he says: “I have established you to break and build. " Before building the new building you have to break the old.

God says: “I established you to rip and plant. " Before planting the new crop you have to rip the old. And the experience Isaiah has reflects the remotion of some negative things that must leave our lives before the new can be added.

We see that he can also see more of himself, of his failures, of what has to be changed and transformed in his life. We see that, beyond seeing his failure he receives a sanctifying touch, a clear revelation that God has provision of transformation to take us beyond the place of maturity we have arrived. And, if that wasn't enough, and he still finishes with a better perception of service, of his calling for ministry.

I don’t believe that is the calling of God to Isaiah’s ministry, he was already in ministry, he was already prophesying, he was already serving God and giving Him an answer in this area but on this day he has a perception that is even deeper and he offers to God a deeper response as well. When we look to the whole package, it is indisputable that Isaiah was entering a deeper place in God or that he was experiencing more of God. Years ago, in a moment where, in my heart, I was intensely seeking the Lord and a deeper experience with Him, this massage in the Bible call my attention, God brought me some practical lessons.

What took Isaiah to live this experience, if we are talking of a principle here, can also take us to live a deeper experience with God. the passage begins saying: “in the year that died King Uzziah. " I don’t believe that was only a chronological reference of when that experience happened.

Also because normally the way you gave a chronological reference was saying: in that year in the reign of that king. In the year that King Uzziah, actually his son was already reigning in his place, so maybe that was not even the best chronological reference. I believe that the word of God, in a symbolic message, figurative, is already presenting to us a concept that speaks of substitution.

Isaiah says: “in the year that King Uzziah died, the natural king, the king of flesh", he says “my eyes have seen the king, The Lord of the Armies. " He's is speaking of, actually, of an exchange of Kings. The substitution of a natural king for a heavenly king.

By the way, the vision he has of God is about royalty. He sees God sitting on the throne. When he says “the edges of his garment filled the temple", he was speaking or the royal garments, he was talking about a king that came to a public audience and he presents an unending picture, that teaches me and you.

If we want a deeper experience with the King, the Lord of the Armies, the king of natural flesh must die. Uzziah might nor mean much to me and you today, because we did not live in the same cultural context that they did, but when we study the scriptures, Uzziah was maybe the greatest conquest general the nation of Judah had seen, at the time of the divided Kingdom. Maybe, after David, no other king has stood out as a conquerer like Uzziah actually did.

In 2º Chronicles, on chapter 26, the word of God teaches us something interesting about Uzziah. In the first place, he built a big army for himself. He brought reformation to all socioeconomic of his nation.

He heirs the reign of a nation that is practically broken, bankrupted transforms it into maybe the biggest potency of his days. The word of God says his renown spread until the gates of Egypt. That is a way of saying that Egypt, a great potency at the time, was kept inside the gates, it couldn’t leave with advances and military conquests.

The bible says that every enemy around Uzziah was subdued, payed tribute to him, he establishes a great reign. And, the word of God says also in 2º Chronicles 26, that he was taught to seek to Lord. In a very clear way the word of God says: “In the time he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

" I believe that Uzziah shows a specific picture for us to understand the meaning of his remotion, when Isaiah is saying “in the year that King Uzziah has died", we need to understand this figure. Uzziah, I believe, can be defined as a figure of that wary search. The Bible says that when he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

Although on verse 16, of 2º Chronicles 26, bible says: "But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. " Uzziah is that type of people that turns God into a trampoline. That turns God into a mean to an end.

That sought God to reach what he wanted, that didn’t show deep interest for the person of God to the point he would keep fearing, loving, obeying, being faithful to the lord even after reaching what he wanted. And, actually, this wary search is not a exclusivity of King Uzziah. It is, actually, connected to the essence of the human being, that by carnal nature, is selfish, wary.

The gospel of Luke speaks of an interesting episode, where ten lepers come to Jesus and are healed. But the Bible says that from the 10, only one returned to thank him. To this one that came back, Jesus goes to him and asks: “where are the other 10?

" Jesus was not trying to name him some sort of chief in the ex-leper sindicante, now healed. But Jesus exposes the indignation of his soul. If all were blessed, why didn’t they continue to seek me after receiving the blessing?

Why did they discard me after receiving what they wanted? Truth is we need to recognize that this element of a wary search, of seeking the Lord because of what He does, specially because of what we want Him to do in our lives and not necessarily because of who He is, has been one of the great problems in mankind’s relationship with God. And there are lessons in the word of God that must teach me and you.

Because it is when the Uzziah of this wary search dies, that our eyes will see the King The Lord of Armies. And if we want to enter a deeper experience in God this type of wary search has to die. The word of God, in the book of Exodus, on chapter 33, where Moses cries out for God to show him his glory.

He was in love with the presence of God. On this moment God says: "Moses, I'm not going in the midst anymore the nation of Israel. " The Lord says: “I am going to send an Angel to solve your problems but I am not going.

" On this moment, Moses says: “If the Lord is not coming with us, don’t make us leave this place. " What was he saying? “Our interest is not only in what you have to offer, our interest is not that you may solve our problems, our interest is to have your presence.

" Now, different than Moses, we look to a Jacob, that when the angel of the Lord mannifests, comes to him, he fights him and when the angels signalizes he wishes to go, Jacob says: “I won't let you go until you bless me. " Basically what is he saying Why I want is not you, it is your blessing. After you bless me, you can leave.

Because I will already have won what I wanted. " This is the behavior of many believers. But it is when Uzziah, this wary search dies, that our eyes will see the King Now here goes the question: how can Uzziah die?

The passage says and later you can meditate, that the priests resisted the king when he entered to offer incense. Incense is a figure of prayer and this is the place where usually this wary search is installed, but, when we take a stand of saying: “we are not going to accept or tolerate this", God is going to hurt Uzziah, because that’s how he hurt him when the priests resisted. Only after we resist it.

If me and you resist the wary search and cultivate a heart that seeks God for who He is, and not only because of what He does, Uzziah will be hurt, not in a instantaneous way, the bible says he died of leper, it was a slow death, parted. But from the moment he is hurt, he goes losing his strength until he is out of scene. And the story finishes saying: “in the year he died, my eyes have seen the king.

" If the wary search ceases in our lives, we are also going to enter a deeper place. May God helps us, give us grace to live on this place, in the name of Jesus.