II Chron. 7:14

“If” is a word upon which all of eternity turns.  The reality that this little seemingly insignificant word

exposes has a great declaration yet is mostly denied.  “Of course I’m going to heaven.”  “Of course God will give

me His best.”  “Ultimately nothing bad will happen to me.”  “I’ll never go to heaven.  There is no ‘if’ in my destiny.”

But God’s will is not inevitable for anyone.  However, in another sense, the word, if, reveals that His will

is going to be accomplished in everyone.  If you trust and obey Him you will go to heaven.  If you rebel and doubt

Him you will go to hell according to His will.  It all turns on the word, if.

If the radar officers at Pearl Harbor had believed what was told them, the disaster in Hawaii could have been

largely avoided.  If the government had been properly prepared the world trade center disaster would have remained

a terrorists dream.  If Adam and Eve hadn’t eaten the fruit there would have emerged a perfect race.  If Brett Favre

hadn’t thrown that last interception.  If the woman hadn’t blown the red light.  If is filled with tragedy.  Or it can

be filled with triumph.

If says there are no guarantees in life.  The human soul has an element that turns ‘if’ into a terrible verdict. 

“If you hadn’t taken that drug, if you hadn’t hit your wife, if you hadn’t insulted that person, if you hadn’t cheated...” 

But you did.  If you had trusted God, believed His word, obeyed His Spirit you would have been blessed in your life. 

You wouldn’t have had such misery.  If you had confessed and humbled yourself you would have found God turning

the mess you had made around for His glory.

If you had humbled yourself your family would have found God.  If you had prayed your church would have

survived its time of testing.  If you had sought the face of God the promised miracle of deliverance would have

changed your city.  If you had turned from your wicked ways then revival would have come.  God would have

forgiven your city and healed your land.  If only...

Judas didn’t have to die in sin.  Israel didn’t have to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, that generation

never seeing the promised land.  But also, Jericho’s walls didn’t have to fall, and David didn’t have to be a King. 

Judah didn’t have to come back from Babylon.  Saul’s name didn’t have to be changed to the Apostle, Paul.  But

all of these things happened because ‘if’ has two sides to it.  God’s best will is available if.

“My” is the guarantee of the word “if.”  Without there being a “My” there could be no “if.”  But we are His. 

He not only owns us, but He has graciously kept us as His possession.  The possibilities of “if” are sure and solid

to those who know that they belong to God.  We are His property, His beloved children.  We are not the children

of another.  We are His own created, destined younger brothers of the Son of the only true God.  We can ask

anything in His Name because we are His.  “I have called you by name.  You are mine.  When you pass through the

fire I will be with you.  He who touches you touches the apple of My eye.”

“People” We’re just people.  We’re not angles or demons or special because we are white, or Americans,

or educated, or rich, or talented, or Protestants.  We’re people.

“Called by My Name.”  But though we’re just people like 5 billion others alive at this moment, we’re called

by the Name of God!!  What an incredible identity!  When asked what our name is, we have to now stop and think

just what name we will give.  Does that mean if someone says, “Jesus,” that we turn to look and see who called us? 

No.  But it does mean that if the devil gets in our face that we can say, “Do you know who I am?”  We can use the

Name given to us, so that when the devil sees us he sees Jesus!  When sickness sees us it sees Jesus.  When

temptation see us it sees Jesus. And when the Father sees us He sees Jesus!

Yet wonder of wonders - there is still an “if” attached to someone who is God’s property, His possession,

and is called by His Name.  There is no “if” with Jesus.  He is absolutely faithful.  There is no if with God’s Word

and promises.  There is no “if” about holiness, heaven and hell.  But there is an “if” when it comes to His people

called by His Name.

It seems shocking that there should be an “if” with us.  Sometimes we doubt that the question exists.  We

think it’s guaranteed because we are who we are.  But the “if” carries with it a guarantee.  Something will surely

and eternally come from which side of “if” we stand on, believe on, and obey on.  If we follow the rest of the verse,

there stands revival waiting for us to arrive there.  If we do not follow then what we hope concerning revival will

always be ahead of us - never with us.  Never.  When others do embrace the promise, revival will pass us by.

Revival starts with knowing who we are - God’s people called by God’s Name.  It progresses only after we

have wrestled with and gotten past the word “if.”  Most people never get past “if.”  They may not know whose they

are or what Name they are called by.  It doesn’t seem possible to get past the word “if” until we know these things. 

Without knowing we have no faith to rightly decide if we will obey the vision.  Mark it down well - until we know

whose we are and what Name we have upon us, we will never decide on the right side of “if.”  So get to know the

great importance, the awesome dignity, and the great privilege of being called by His Name as His own possession.

Then get to know the great responsibility that comes with the revelation.  The word is “will.”  It is a word

that goes with “if.”  The will of God and the will of man describes the battle ground for sovereignty.  All of spiritual

warfare is about “will.”  It describes who is sovereign, who rules, who says what goes and what doesn’t.  It is

characterized by who is in control as master.  Every war ever fought is about who is going to exercise their will.  

Our will is like the trigger for the power of God.  We will to believe and obey Him, and He wills to deliver

a nation!  Faith is a tool that gives us the necessary eyesight to pull the trigger of our will.  Our will has little power. 

It’s force is no greater than our carnal man of itself.  But with faith we pull the trigger of a power that makes nuclear

war look like a soft, summer breeze.

Faith is of little force until it touches our will.  Some look at their faith and think it’s great, yet little is

happening.  That is because faith must move our will to action.  Faith without action is deception.  Will we humble

ourselves?  Will we pray?  Will we seek His face?  Will we turn from our wicked ways?  Will we humble ourselves

sufficiently to see that we have wicked ways?  Will we humble ourselves that we may see that a nation in need of

healing has exposed the Church as being in rebellion?  If we have the power, and it is not in operation, then we can

not blame the world for its condition!

Here it seems a progression begins.  We have a serious choice to make where God’s best is not inevitable. 

Then there is the described revelation.  We are His people called by His Name. We then come face to face with our

responsibility.  Our will must be exercised.  Now it begins.  There is the humbling.  You do it.  You humble

yourself.  God uses humble people.  They are not those born of humble circumstance who have no choice but to live

humbly.  Don’t confuse humble with broken, destitute, and empty.

People who are the possession of divinity and called by the very Name of the Almighty, majestic God can

easily let their carnal pride feed upon their position.  Christ must be the example as One who emptied himself and

became as a servant.  It is the child-like who will possess the Kingdom.  Their identity is firmly found in God, not

them, and they know it.  They carry their view of themselves with grace and gratitude.  When they begin to feel that

the power is in their ‘trigger finger’ and not in God, then they begin to lose their power.  Only the humble can

proceed down this road.

Humble people do not criticize, mis-judge, argue, flea, or exercise their own will over others.  They are not

the convincers.  They do not gossip, divide, defend, or destroy.  But neither are they wimps who fall at the hands

of their assailants, for they are dead to self and alive in Christ.  Truly humble people are the strongest people on the

face of the earth.  Their humility is their choice, not Satan’s or men’s.  They have willingly given up their self life

for a greater life.  Humility is not defeat.  It is the frightening ground of stunning victory over every foe. 

Frightening?  “No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life.  As I was with Moses, so will I be

with you.  I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

The truly humble know where their strength lies.  They do not live in fear though the world sees their

meekness as weakness.  It is the attitude and actions of the humble that pull the trigger of God’s power on sin,

sickness and Satan.  Those who have understood the power of humility have gladly embraced the right side of “if.” 

That word is no longer in their vocabulary.  The battle to walk humbly with their God in the sight of man was the

big thing that made “if” such a struggle until they saw that power is perfected in human weakness.

Until we get past the “humbling ourselves” part of the progression towards revival, the prayer, seeking God’s

face, and turning from our wicked ways will be in our future.  This great battle with the flesh can be overcome when

we step back and look at the bigger picture.  In sight of who and whose we are in Christ, and in sight of the destiny

and responsibility we have, and with the way clearly marked in the Bible and witnessed by countless numbers of

saints gone before us, we can press on.  There is no reason to believe the lie that we can not walk in the humility

that God is asking for!  Believe God for the answer and stop trying to humble yourself with your own will power. 

Keep your eyes on Jesus and the storm of your self life will abate.

I believe this verse describes a progression.  It is not possible to consistently seek the Lord from a proud

position.  Zephaniah says, “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth.”  Pride doesn’t seek Him.  Until we’ve

humbled ourselves in His sight, we won’t seek Him.  I Corinthians says that God chooses the humble, the least, to

reduce to nothing those who are wise.  It is those who this world says are nothing of significance that are truly the

significant ones.  Don’t buy the lie that you are nothing.  Your self humbling does not mean you are giving up your

dignity, power and honor.  You are rather displaying it, establishing it, and releasing its power!

To humble means to bend the knee, hence to be vanquished, to surrender, to be subdued.  In II Chron. 12:1-

12 we see King Rehoboam rebelled against the law of the Lord, and it was pointed out to him.  “This is why your

enemy has successfully attacked you.”  God makes it plain why things go difficult for people.  God gives grace to

the humble, but He resists the proud.

To humble one’s self here doesn’t seem to mean to humiliate one’s self before men in some display of public

degradation.  It means to surrender to the will of God, and acknowledge the sovereign will of God over one’s life. 

It says, “I will let Him be in charge.”  It’s one thing to sincerely but foolishly act humbly before men.  But God is

after the bending of the knee to His will and Word.  It is to no longer act independently of His Spirit’s leading,

thinking, “I am a free man.”  We are never free of the proper call to obey God!

Of course, true humility will not act in arrogance and pride toward men.  It will not assert its self will, desire,

or indignation upon others.  Humility trusts God in the face of injustice done to us.  “Thus saith the High and lofty

One that inhabits eternity.  I dwell in a high and holy place with him that is of a humble and contrite spirit, to revive

the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”  Is. 57:15

A contrite heart is one that is stricken, smitten, or lame.  It has been wounded and brought low.  It is often

thought of spiritually in the sense of being contrite concerning one’s sinful state in the presence of God’s holiness,

as one who is painfully aware he has offended God.

Isa 66:1-2 Thus says the Lord: "Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool.  Where is the house that

you will build Me?  And where is the place of My rest?  2 For all those thing My hand has made, And all those

things exist," Says the Lord.  "But on this one will I look:  On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who

trembles at My word.

These verses do not teach us to become doormats before men.  But they do call us to walk with bended knee

before the Lord.  It’s too easy to look humble before men all the while rebelling against the commands of God.  But

look here.  God brings revival to the humble of heart.

Many today have the inner deception that God is a gracious, loving God who will poor out mercy on their

intentional neglect of their salvation.  But grace is not afforded a proud heart.  God resists such!  Grace is only

released upon those who know they need such, and upon those who do not presume to be in good standing by the

claims of grace while they openly rebel in their hearts.  Such can not claim their spiritual youth, their being young

in the Lord, all the while knowing they rebel against Him.  They do not comprehend grace because it has not been

given to such a heart.  God is resisting them!

“And pray.”  The humble heart has come to the end of self.  It knows that it’s earthly owner can do nothing but bow

low because of his sin induced powerless life.  All attempts at self righteousness have failed.  All pursuits of self

glory have resulted in more pain, more bondage, and deeper affliction.  While the hopeless one with no faith

wallows in despair over not being able to find any drug, any friend, any career, any inner strength to restore the well

being of life again, the humble heart towards God prays.  Without true humility, prayer doesn’t happen to any

profitable degree.  Prayer without humility is just another form of the religion of men without the power to produce

results.

A prayerless life is one the is clearly on the road to defeat.  It is inevitable that a person who does not

surrender to God in prayer as the only hope for happiness, holiness, and fruitfulness, is a person who will have a

miserable and defeated future.  Prayerlessness is a sure road sign on the path to failure.  Further, it is an inner

declaration, that without Him I can do good enough.  

Revival awaits the Church because she does not pray from the posture of the humble.  Bending the knee has

been a part of the picture of the prayerful soul because it symbolizes and reminds us that prayer is an act of surrender

and humility towards God.  There are those who will not pray without bending their knee because they know that

they need the constant reminder that their heart must be constantly surrendered to the risen Savior.  They know that

they are only one proud thought away from missing God’s grace.

Deut 30:1-6 "Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse

which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you,

2 and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your

children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and

have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4

If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and

from there He will bring you. 5 Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed,

and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will

circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all

your soul, that you may live. 

What is repeated here and in many places is the phrase, “With all your heart, and with all your soul.”  And

we can look at these principles and say, “Well, I’m not there yet.”  Or we may think that revival is just too much

of a call for us.  I awoke in the middle of the night, and someone who used to attend here immediately came to mind. 

As I got out of bed the words, as if from this person came to me, “I can’t live up to this.”  But I’ll just leave the

question lay out there, “If revival an option?”  Can it be an option if it’s call is merely a call to be what God has

saved us to be?

2 Chron 33:12-13 Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself

greatly before the God of his fathers, 13 and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication,

and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. 

James 4:7-10 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and

He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament

and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the

sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. 

From Old Testament and New Testament we see that God responds to the prayer of the humble heart, and

that is what we are after - answered prayer!  It is the manifested power of God!  I think of the story of the man in

a coma - Jesus came to him and said, “You don’t have any trouble, just have faith in God.

But faith is a position of humility.  By it’s nature it says, “I can do nothing.  It must be all of God and none

of me.”

Heb 6:13-15 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He

swore by Himself, 14 saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you." 

When things get discouraging, get old, get tiring, we need a sure promise, some kind of hope that there's

going to be a better time, a better day coming. It's not always going to be like this. To swear by another greater is

the only way to swear, because this means that the greater has the authority to punish you if you don't abide by what

you have promised. But God could find none greater than himself to swear by, so He swore by himself. The veracity

of His own existense is put into the promise. It's as if He said, "If I don't honor My promise to you then who I am

may be rightly called into question by anyone! If I fail to keep My promise then men have the right to call Me an

unholy, unloving, unjust God. I will punish myself with no complaint if any in this universe accuses Me."

Heb 6:15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 

Here is our difficulty - patiently enduring. Patience is the lynchpin. It is a legitimate reason why we believe

and don't receive immediately. It is the honest and sure rationale for embracing God's promises and not immediately

getting them. Otherwise we may do nothing but yield to the deceptions and beatings of our own selves for our failure

to receive - "I don't have enough faith. I'm not good enough. I have some hidden fault. Or God is not faithful, and

His ways are miserable." Truly patience is accompanied by the process of purification. There is the refining of our

faith - getting rid of the impurities like such thoughts. But stand firm in faith, for it is accomplishing a great work

in you. It's about preparing your heart.

Gen 15:5-6 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are

able to number them." And He said to him,"So shall your descendants be."

6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

    Note that his faith was put down on Abraham's account as righteousness. Right standing with God comes from

believing Him. What kind of faith? The faith that has action associated with it. It is faith in God's Word...God's

Word is true. May it say, "I believe that if I obey what it says here in the Bible that I will be a happy, prosperous,

fulfilled man with a good sense of self respect, honor, and esteem. If I put His Word in my heart I will truly be a free

man. I will not be bound up by other people, temptation, sin, Satan, poverty, fear, past abuse, or worry. I will truly

be a man set free from the manipulations of this world." This I must come to believe, or else my delight, my heart's

treasure and what I see as valuable to me will not be in God. I will slip away into lukewarm lip service. Believing

God truly does become my righteousness, for without a faith that frees me from all attacks, my delight and life will

not be in God. If I look religious and even fool myself that I am, it will all still be the religion of man's performance.

Gen 17:16-20 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a

mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her."

17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born to a man who is one

hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "Oh, that

Ishmael might live before You!"

19 Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My

covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.

    This is impossible! Well, if it is possible, then it's not God. If there's any way that man can do it then it's not faith,

it's not of God, and it's not accounted for righteousness. You see, his righteousness was established by believing God

- not for righteousness, but for a son. Any miracle that you believe for can go to the establishing of your

righteousness. That's one reason James said that if you come for healing your sins will be forgiven you! So how can

you say you have faith in God for eternal life when you can't even believe Him for the temporal miracles of this life?

How do you know you believe Him for what is off in the distance when you aren't believing Him for what is right

in front of you? That's a tough question, isn't it? But remember, Abraham laughed, and his prior faith, though

untested as yet, was at work. Faith is at work with the force of patience. Don't dig the seed up before it's ready to

come forth. Your on a faith journey.

Gen 21:2 For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had

spoken to him.

Hab 2:2-4 Then the Lord answered me and said:

"Write the vision

And make it plain on tablets,

That he may run who reads it.

3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;

But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.

Though it tarries, wait for it;

Because it will surely come,

It will not tarry.

4 "Behold the proud,

His soul is not upright in him;

But the just shall live by his faith.

Rom 4:17-22 (as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations") in the presence of Him whom he

believed — God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 18 who,

contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So

shall your descendants be." 19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since

he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. 20 He did not waver at the promise of God

through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had

promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness."

Heb 6:16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.

When two men have a disagreement or are in doubt about what the other is to perform, than an oath is made.

If they are going to put in jeopardy some part of their life or goods based upon the faithfulness of the other party,

then an oath may be made.   This oath sworn upon is then held by a greater authority that has the right and power

to punish either one who breaks their oath. All of government of men is bound by oaths of office, oaths of law, and

oaths of constitution. When a man takes the stand in a court of law he is said to be put under oath. In other words,

if what he says is found to be false, the oath he swears to the court will be used to punish him. What is established

under oath is to be taken as irrefutable fact. That is why opinions and heresay is never to be allowed under oath. This

then is the end of all dispute. There is to be no longer any dispute of the facts of the promises of God. It will never

change.

Yet in our day people seem to live as if since times have changed, God has changed His ways regarding us.

It's a new day, a new morality, a new age of enlightenment. We've discovered that sin is not necessarily sin. Human

depravities are not necessarily from the heart of rebellion against God. Homosexuality is now seen as a condition

of the human make up that one is born with. Some are born alcoholics. Some have a greater propensity to

misbehave. Adultery is now OK. Times have changed. We should have gays in the military and in marriage and in

the ministry. We should be tolerant of their behavior in school, at work and in society. Nothing should be said or

done to in any way diminish their sense of well being in the community. Because you see, we now know that it is

not a sin! It does not harm society. But according to the Word of God, they are to be treated as any other sinful

human being. They are to be loved and afforded every opportunity to know the grace of God. They, as any sinful

person, are to be treated with compassion and with wisdom. They are to be given a fair trial with respect and dignity.

If they admit their high crimes against the nation of heaven, ie they have admitted that they are in the process of

actively committing the perverse deeds of active homosexuality they are to be treated as anyone else who has a

lifestyle of perversion such as a liar, a cheat, a thief, a gossip, an adulterer, a prostitute, a murderer, or a drunk. Do

you want your family to knowingly associate with such people, your children for example? When will we legalize

prostitution, drunkeness, recreational drug use, or murder? Of we already have done two of the four! We can be as

drunk as we want as long as we don't drive. We can already murder unborn children, both of which are high crimes

against the oaths of heaven.

So God has now sworn upon the blood of His Son in the new covenant oath that His Word shall not be

changed in one single stroke. If we think that now His ethics are not what they were, then where do we also start

tearing out the promises of salvation, healing and deliverance? Oh, we already have in our society. For years men,

even churchmen have tried to rob from men the promises of healing, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, the sure hope

of salvation by faith alone, as well as God's promise to take care of you and I. But truly, neither have His standards

changed towards sin or towards His promises.

Heb 6:17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His

counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 

God's counsel is unchangable! He doesn't change when the times change. He is not bound by time. He lives

outside of it. There's coming an age when time will be no more. Figure that out if you can. His promise to you is

unchangeable. What He said through Jeremiah and Jesus hundreds of years later is still true, "Nothing is impossible

with God." You don't live with impossibility. There is no such a thing to you, because God has promised His total

possibilities to you. If He said He is a healer, He is a healer still. If He said He will forgive you of your sins, He is

still a forgiving God. If He promised to take care of us in Genesis, then He will take care of us still. He does not

change His Word! It is still as sure today as it was when He told Israel 3 days after the Red Sea at the waters of

bitterness, "If you will diligently hearken to My Word, I will put none of the diseases upon thee...I am the Lord that

healeth thee." The call to diligence has not changed, and the promise to heal those who diligently live in His Word

has not changed. You see, those who believe He is a healer with Bible faith have learned how to live by His Word.

And if they have learned to live by His Word for healing, don't you think they have learned to live by His Word,

period!

Heb 6:18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong

consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. 

So you have sinned and are under the imminent threat of death, sickness, cursing, heartache and failure. You

can't believe because your heart is condemning you. You have failed again. But consider this. God made a promise

and an oath that could only end if He ceased to be. He further made that promise and oath - the two unchangeable

things - to sinners. He did not make the promise to saints only. He made the promise to a failing sinful man,

Abraham. God would go about showing that when He makes a promise, that promise is more sure than the heavens

and the earth. He did not make a promise with regard to man's moral condition. His promise was made upon the

grounds of His own character. It would not and could not fail except for one possibility - that God ceased to be God.

There is nothing else that could change it.

We have a strong consolation, a very powerful and supernaturally effective consolation in the hope that is

set before us. Who is the us? That is the only thing within the counsel of God's perfect promise whereby someone

might not receive the blessing given under oath. There is the need to flee for refuge to take hold of the promise. Here

is the picture of the 6 cities of refuge in ancient times where a murderer could escape to and avoid retaliation by an

offended family. Picture how this man would flee there. He would not make plans to go at some future convenient

date. He would not broadcast his departure, nor take his time. He would not stroll there. He would flea as a fox

trying to elude the hounds. So are those who would avail themselves of the promise. They flea for refuge to the only

place of safety.

Heb 6:19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence

behind the veil, 

“And seek My face” “May the Lord cause His face to shine upon you...”  Being in sight of the face of God

is certainly a position of blessing and high honor.  It’s phrase is lost in our culture, but needs but a little thought to

imagine its great import.  

Gen 32:30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."

So it appears that the presence of the face of God is a place of judgement and of such holiness that only those

in great favor may see His face and live.  It is a place to be seriously reckoned with. 

Gen 33:10 And Jacob said, "No, please, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my

hand, inasmuch as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me. 

The face of God is a place again where man is exposed and imminent consequences happen.  It is the place

from which all of life is determined.

Ex 3:6 Moreover He said,"I am the God of your father — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of

Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

The place of the face of God is something to be feared in the utmost respect of any position in all of the

universe. 

Deut 31:17-18 Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My

face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say

in that day,'Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?'  18 And I will surely hide My

face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.

When the face of God is hidden from men then their protection has left them and anything bad can happen

to them with no intervention from God.  If He hides His face from men then there need be no question of why bad

things have happened to them.  God does hide His face from certain ones.

2 Chron 30:9 For if you return to the Lord, your brethren and your children will be treated with compassion by those

who lead them captive, so that they may come back to this land; for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and

will not turn His face from you if you return to Him." 

The face of God is a place of great favor if a man will be in sight of Him and remain unharmed, unjudged,

and unpunished.  For God to turn His face to us is a place of His intended and purposeful awareness of our lot in

life, and that He is therefore watching over us, and not as a disinterested party just to see whatever would happen.

Ps 27:9 Do not hide Your face from me;

Do not turn Your servant away in anger;

You have been my help;

Do not leave me nor forsake me,

O God of my salvation. 

Ps 67:1 God be merciful to us and bless us,

And cause His face to shine upon us,

Selah 

Ps 80:3 Restore us, O God;

Cause Your face to shine,

And we shall be saved! 

Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God;

And your sins have hidden His face from you,

So that He will not hear. 

Ezek 39:29 And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of

Israel,' says the Lord God."

God does not hide His face from those upon whom He has poured out His Spirit. 

Dan 9:17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake

cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 

The house of the Lord lying desolate, dead, and empty of any life of praise is a thing to be avoided at all

costs.  Dead Church services where people sense the presence of the devil’s choking emptiness happen when God’s

face is not shining upon that church.  It is the face of God that brings back life to His sanctuary.

2 Cor 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the

light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

Without the light of the Lord’s face the present real knowing of the glory of God is missing in men’s hearts. 

It is in the face of Jesus that men comprehend His glory.

So the face of God is the issue, the turning point of the blessing or cursing of life.  Healing, salvation,

deliverance, strength, joy and peace, every place of promise is turned upon whether the face of God is shining upon

a people or not.  How many people have sought the blessing of God to overturn their desolate lives, but they have

not sought His favor? No matter what we may specifically ask, if we have not the face of God upon us, there can

be no hope, no faith for anything coming of our prayers.  Seek the face of God’s favor, blessing, protection and

promise.  He has said that if you return to Him He will cause His face to shine upon you.  It’s really that simple. 

The hard part is trying to figure out how to be blessed without Him.

How does one seek the face and favor of God?  It takes time and faith and obedience.  It takes what has been

described - the waking up to the question before us - ‘if.’  It takes sobering up to the reality of who and whose we

are.  It takes deciding if we will bend our knee or not.  It takes prayer - the acknowledgment instead of the fighting

our weaknesses.

“Turn from you wicked ways” It is still in the progression here that before we can turn from our wicked ways

that we will have sought to answer the ‘if’ in our life.  We will have recognized and remembered that we are His

people.  We also will embrace the reality that we have His Name upon us.  Our lives are forever identified with Him. 

If we fall, we will have dragged His Name through the mud.  We will have given Satan what he was after all along,

and what God called us to reverse - the accusing of God himself.  We will have not regained His glory in the earth.

If we then will humble ourselves, on bended knee surrender to His sovereign right over our lives, and if we

will demonstrate that in prayer as we further acknowledge that we can do nothing of ourselves and that God is at

the ready to hear and help when we turn, it is here that we can dare to seek His face again.  We must know that it

is only in His favor that we can turn from our wicked ways.  We must know that it is only in faith and by His mercy

that we will ever have the power to turn from our sin.

Wickedness may be summarized biblically as thoughts, words, deeds or dispositions and includes values

or ethics all of which are destructive to the causing of injury, hurt, or distress.  It also encompasses various

applications such as an inferior quality, or a fierceness such as the anger of God that creates the opposite of peace

or well being.  As such He is said to create evil, Is. 45:7 That sin is seen as wickedness therefore describes why sin

is so contrary to God’s nature.  Sin is destructive and God is the exact opposite.

We can not turn from the wickedness from which we found temporary delights until we have the hope of

a greater delight in Him.  In our journey to turn we may even find the great promises and blessing of God as He

reveals to us His glory.  We may even see His glory before we have turned.  But we must take great care not to think

that because He has blessed us by His grace in our still present wickedness that we need not turn.  He often shows

His power to deliver before He requires a change of heart.

God delivered Israel before He gave them commandments.  First came His glory, then came the required

decision to turn.  Yet in our seeking His face there must be the coordinate turning from wickedness if we have

formerly tasted of His goodness.  We must not presume that He will always deliver before we have turned.  He is

speaking here to His people who have a history of seeing the power of God.  They will have known His hand as they

seek His face.  You see, this is not a salvation verse. It is a revival verse.

Prov 28:13 He who covers his sins will not prosper,

But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. 

Isa 55:6-7 Seek the Lord while He may be found,

Call upon Him while He is near. 

7 Let the wicked forsake his way,

And the unrighteous man his thoughts;

Let him return to the Lord,

And He will have mercy on him;

And to our God,

For He will abundantly pardon. 

Isa 59:20-21 "The Redeemer will come to Zion,

And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,"

Says the Lord. 

21 "As for Me," says the Lord, "this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which

I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the

mouth of your descendants' descendants," says the Lord, "from this time and forevermore." 

Turning from our wicked ways means that we must simply, clearly state our wickedness.  It must be brought

out into the light for what it is.  Then if in the light of whose we are, and what we have done, and why we have done

it, the acknowledgment of our wickedness does not bring us the sorrow of heart, the shocking sting of our true fallen

condition, then we are truly lost.  If a godly sorrow is there, then our turning will bring on what God will do.

“Then I will” We have to this point talked a lot of what we will do.  Now we must turn to what God will do. 

It’s like the effort involved in pulling the trigger on a canon.  It takes comparatively little effort on our part to

produce the effect of a giant bomb on God’s part.  Faith as small as a mustard seed will produce the power to move

a mountain.

“Hear from heaven”   

1 John 5:1-5 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who

begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love

God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His

commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory

that has overcome the world — our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is

the Son of God? 

1 John 5:14-15 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He

hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have

asked of Him.

All of these things written or spoken for you up to this point can be simply to give you the confidence that

you need to begin experiencing miracles in your life.  If you have come to this place of being rightly reconciled to

II Chron. 7:14 then GO AFTER THE MIRACLES!  If not, then GO AFTER THE MIRACLES!  Go after getting

right with God and expect the supernatural.  Let hope rise up in you that there is a delight that is greater than the

delights of wickedness.

How often do people slip back into the worldly pleasures that often are not that bad of themselves.  But these

things begin to master a person’s delights to the place where God is not number one.  He wants to be in first place

because we have discovered the secrets of faith, because we have found the delight of a prayer answering God,

because we have found the power of God on the mountain tops of a holy life!  The world wants a real God that is

exactly what He claims to be in the Bible.  They want to be stunned with power, not religion.  But we’ve been trying

to stun them with information, and we can’t compete with the information age.  Someone will always have a better

web site, a better sermon, a better building, a better program, a better smart phone.  But no one will have a better

God than the Lord God in His promised glory!

“I will forgive” People today want the dignity of being honorable, accepted by someone they deem

significant, and they want to be right.  God promises the righteousness of perfection - that we will be made the

righteousness of Christ.  He said, “I will forgive.”  He will not hold our sin against us.  It will be washed away as

far as the East is from the West.  Our sins like scarlet will be as white as snow.  See the blood stains in the freshly

fallen snow.  I’ve seen it many times in the woods.  It stands out clearly.  It is a shocking contrast to the white snow. 

Now see those blood stains totally removed.  Your sin stands out like red blood on a snow white background, but

God will make your heart look as a field of freshly fallen snow!  No stains whatsoever!

Remember it is a progression.  Forgiveness comes with a prerequisite.  He does not forgive us to keep on

doing what we have been doing.  He does not give us a license to sin.  He delivers us from our sins.  If we continue

on after having tasted the power of the age to come the Bible says, Heb 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were

once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted

the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance,

since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

It seems that God is saying that if we have experienced God’s best and we still want to live in sin then there

is nothing else that He can or will do for us.  This may be the sin that John talks about, the sin unto death that he

says, don’t bother to pray for it.  That’s frightening!

But to everyone who takes God at His word there absolutely is forgiveness.  We will restore you to a place

as though you have never sinned.  King David had no more consciousness of his sins when he was in later life.  God

said, concerning Israel who were destined to die in the wilderness because of their rebellion, “He beheld no iniquity

in Jacob.”  There sin was taken care of and God no longer had it in mind.  He loved and protected and kept them

as those in perfect right standing with Him.  Balaam and all the works of witchcraft could not touch Israel!  They

were living before the face of God!

“I will heal their land.”  Now the land represented the dominion of the Kingdom of Israel.  It spoke of a

nation only in that their nation was the Lord’s.  It was as the Church today.  When God’s people in His Church turn

and serve Him with all of their hearts, then He will bring healing to the land of His Kingdom.  It doesn’t say that

the American nation will be healed, for America is not the Lord’s land.  If America repents and becomes God’s

people, known by His Name then they can surely claim this promise as well.  But the healing is for the Church!  God

will heal the ground of the body of Christ, and what a shame that the very body of Christ would need healing!

Healing is for the Children of God.  I know that there is another national move to claim this verse for

America, but it was not written for America or Russia or Iraq or China.  They are not defined as being God’s people. 

Healing is the children’s bread.  But I also believe that when the Church is healed that she will be in a position as

a New Testament Church to bring healing to the nation.  There is no doubt there.  But let’s get healed here first. 

A sick people can not bring healing to a sick nation.

To heal means to stitch, mend, cure and thoroughly make whole.

In Numbers 12 Miriam spoke against Moses and was struck with leprosy.  Moses pleaded for her healing,

but God said, she shall be shamed 7 days as is appropriate.  Then He healed her.

In Deut 32:20 Moses tells Israel about God before he dies.  He says they became children in whom there

is no faith.  It is preceded by the reality that after He delivered them they became fat and forsook God.  That is

always the problem.  We get sloppy in our prosperity.  Faithlessness is a symptom, consequence and reality of

those who have other god’s take over.  Deut 32:39  'Now see that I, even I, am He, And there is no God besides

Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.

2 Kings 5:3 sees Namaan’s account of healing from leprosy when he humbled himself in obedience.

2 Kings 20:5 sees Hezekiah told by the prophet he would die, yet the king does not take this for the final

answer, even after God pronounced it.  He was healed of what looks like a cancer.

Ps. 6:2 David cries out for healing in his weakness, troubled soul and bodily infirmity.  He admitted to

the chastening of God.  His whole life seems a torment by his enemies.  Yet he claims God’s touch as One who had

heard him!

Ps 41:1-6 Blessed is he who considers the poor;

The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. 

2 The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive,

And he will be blessed on the earth;

You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. 

3 The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness;

You will sustain him on his sickbed. 

4 I said, "Lord, be merciful to me;

Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You." 

5 My enemies speak evil of me:

"When will he die, and his name perish?" 

6 And if he comes to see me, he speaks lies;

His heart gathers iniquity to itself;

When he goes out, he tells it.

Ps 60:1-3 O God, You have cast us off;

You have broken us down;

You have been displeased;

Oh, restore us again! 

2 You have made the earth tremble;

You have broken it;

Heal its breaches, for it is shaking. 

3 You have shown Your people hard things;

You have made us drink the wine of confusion.

Here David had been at war and his earthly foundations were so shaken that confusion was reigning.  God

will also heal the foundations of our lives when it seems all around us is a confusing mess.

Isa 19:22 And the Lord will strike Egypt, He will strike and heal it; they will return to the Lord, and He

will be entreated by them and heal them.

Isa 57:17-18  For the iniquity of his covetousness

I was angry and struck him;

I hid and was angry,

And he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. 

18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him;

Jer 3:22 "Return, you backsliding children,

And I will heal your backslidings."

Is. 61:1 says He will heal the broken hearted.  That is the anointing of Christ for all of the ways our hearts

have been broken.

Jer 17:4-10 

4 And you, even yourself ,Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;And I will cause you to serve your

enemiesIn the land which you do not know; For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever." 

5 Thus says the Lord:

"Cursed is the man who trusts in manAnd makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord. 6 For

he shall be like a shrub in the desert,And shall not see when good comes,But shall inhabit the parched places in the

wilderness,In a salt land which is not inhabited. 

7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,And whose hope is the Lord. 8 For he shall be like a tree planted by

the waters,Which spreads out its roots by the river,And will not fear when heat comes;But its leaf will be green,And

will not be anxious in the year of drought,Nor will cease from yielding fruit. 

9 "The heart is deceitful above all things,And desperately wicked;Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the

heart,I test the mind,Even to give every man according to his ways,According to the fruit of his doings. 

Jer 17:14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;

Save me, and I shall be saved,

For You are my praise.

Jer 30:16-17 'Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured;

And all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity;

Those who plunder you shall become plunder,

And all who prey upon you I will make a prey. 

17 For I will restore health to you

And heal you of your wounds,' says the Lord,

'Because they called you an outcast saying:

"This is Zion;

No one seeks her."' 

These are the scriptures of Jeremiah to claim for deliverance and healing from a life of not living for Jesus. 

There is healing for the heart broken by sin!

Matt 13:15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing,

And their eyes they have closed,

Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,

Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,

So that I should heal them.' 

Here is why healing so often does not come.  It is hardness of heart.  Here is why the message of healing

includes the message of repentance.