Reaching Canada – Touching Lives
In our evening gatherings we are seeking God’s grace and strength to say Y.E.S. to God.
Totally Yielded
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Romans 6:13
Fully Engaged
10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. Ecclesiastes 9:10
A Living Sacrifice
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Hebrews 12:1
Pilot Spatial Disorientation
- Thrives in a moment of distraction.
- Spatial disorientation is an eye problem.
- Spatial disorientation is a feeling problem.
- Spatial disorientation is an ear problem.
An aircraft in flight is free to rotate in three dimensions:
- Pitch nose up or down about an axis running from wing to wing,
- yaw nose left or right about an axis running up and down;
- roll rotation about an axis running from nose to tail.
These rotations are produced by torques (or moments) about the principal axes.
In spiritual disorientation:
- We have a moment of distraction.
- Torque hits our lives.
- We lose visual cues.
- Our eyes can no longer tell what our lives are doing around the three axes.
Yesterday we considered that possibly our most blatant wrong spiritual orientation is regarding our self.
Today we take up the spiritual disorientation caused by losing vision – our vision of God.
In a moment of distraction we may have taken our eyes off of Jehovah Jireh, our provider, and begun to look at ourselves as provider.
In a moment of distraction we may have taken our eyes off of Jehovah Shalom, our peace, and begun to look at ourselves with anxiety and fear.
In a moment of distraction we may have taken our eyes off of Jehovah Rapha, our healer, and begun to look at medicine, science, and doctors for our physical wellbeing.
In a moment of distraction we may have taken our eyes off of Jehovah Rohi, our shepherd, and begun to look at life with depression and despair.
In a moment of distraction we may have taken our eyes off of Jehovah Elyon, the Most High God, and begun to look at heroes, pastors, evangelists, and other leaders.
I wonder if in the Church we may have, in a moment of distraction, taken our eyes off of God and placed them on public relations?
I wonder if in the Church we may have, in a moment of distraction, taken our eyes off of God and placed them on growth strategies?
I wonder if in the Church we may have, in a moment of distraction, taken our eyes off of God and placed them on quality facilities.
I wonder if, as pastors, we may have, in a moment of distraction, taken our eyes off of God and placed them upon “What do people want to hear?” rather than on “What does God want us to say?”
I wonder if, as pastors, we may have, in a moment of distraction, taken our eyes off of God and placed them upon, “Did we end on time?” rather than “Has God done what He intended today and is He now done in this service?”
I wonder if, as pastors, we may have, in a moment of distraction, taken our eyes off of God and placed them upon, “What job pays the most?” rather than on “Where is God sending me?”
I wonder if, as pastors, we may have, in a moment of distraction, taken our eyes off of God and placed them upon, “How many people are in the seats?” rather than “Is God’s presence and glory among us?”
In my understanding there is a difference between the presence of God and the Glory of God. For example, the presence of God was with Israel and some of the Glory of God was in the Holy of Holies.
In the midst of our spiritual disorientation we ask God, along with Moses in Exodus 33:18, “Show me your glory.”
Into our lives of wrong spiritual orientation Jesus steps to disorient us. Isaiah 40:3
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
What are?
- Full valleys
- Flat mountains
- Straight curves
- Level bumps
I don’t know, but I know that when we have a wrong spiritual orientation, Jesus will disorient us and THEN reorient us!
The correct spiritual orientation isn’t flat mountains and straight curves- the correct spiritual orientation is in verse five!
5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Pastor Ken mentioned today that the number one name of local congregations in the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada is Bethel – which means the house of God or the place of God’s glory.
We are not in the Braeside Camp Auditorium, the Braeside Camp Worship Facility, nor the Braeside Camp Arena. We are in the Braeside Camp Tabernacle. The place at Braeside where we encounter the Glory of God!
20 He took the testimony and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark and set the mercy seat above on the ark. 21 And he brought the ark into the tabernacle and set up the veil of the screen, and screened the ark of the testimony, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 22 He put the table in the tent of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil, 23 and arranged the bread on it before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 24 He put the lampstand in the tent of meeting, opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle, 25 and set up the lamps before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 26 He put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the veil, 27 and burned fragrant incense on it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 28 He put in place the screen for the door of the tabernacle. 29 And he set the altar of burnt offering at the entrance of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the grain offering, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 30 He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing, 31 with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet. 32 When they went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed, as the Lord commanded Moses.33 And he erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.
This passage clearly shows that there is some work to do, prior to seeing the glory of the Lord.
We must embrace Jesus’ disorienting our lives. We must allow Him to reorient us so that the glory of God is our center of gravity on all three axes.
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Pastor Lorrie, who are the people who will be Reaching Canada and Touching Lives? Women and men who have encountered the glory of the Lord and who carry God’s glory in their lives.
