TEXT: Exodus
3:13-15: [Portrays Jesus Christ as our Passover Lamb]!
I bet everyone reading this right now has some idea what
your name means or where it comes from.
Some thought was put into the thing that would identify you for your whole life.
In the Bible, names were very important and often God
would change people’s names. “Jacob” the Deceiver became “Israel”
which means “God Rules.” (Pretty good trade, huh?).
Jesus would look at Cephas (Greek) - (Simon Peter) and said your name shall not be “Petra” (pebble/feminine) but Petros (rock/masculine). Jesus was letting us know right then the character of man must therefore be masculine and feminine in one unit.
So now with this you can see another revelation in Genesis 1:27:
·
So God created man in his own image, in
the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Within each individual is the masculine and feminine
aspect. Masculine because whether you are male or female you have within you the ability to “give
out the seed” which is the
Word
of God. Feminine because whether you are male or female you
have within you the ability to “receive the seed” (God’s Word) and reproduce
and bring forth other sons of God in His
image, after His likeness.
Galatians
3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Then He/Jesus of
Nazareth turned right around and demonstrated this in His spiritualized
body.
We know that Peter was the faith-thinker. But we as sons have to come to the
realization that we are not the faith-thinker, Peter, but we are Jesus [His
flesh and bones in the earth (Ephesians 5:30)]. Peter
is one of your twelve powers which is "faith". Before this truth dawns on you, you are/were
a carpenter,
a builder in the realm of matter (or material) [that relates to natural and
spiritual]. Peter is a fisherman,
one who draws his thoughts from the changeable, unstable sea of carnal thinking
or the natural mind.
When you realize that you are Mind, and that all things
are originally generated in the laboratory of Mind, you leave your carpenter’s
bench and go forth proclaiming the Truth that is revealed to you.
You find that your tools in this new field of labor are your untrained faculties
or powers that dwell within you that must be disciplined. One of the first of these faculties to be
brought under your dominion is Peter,
the thinking
power of faith.
See the religious system wants to get to heaven to meet Peter at the gate. But according
to Revelation 21 in relation to the Holy
City, New Jerusalem, the city John saw coming
down from God out of heaven, Peter
is not at the “gate”, he is one of the twelve
foundation stones of the wall of the city!
·
Vs
10: And he carried me away in the spirit
to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God:
·
Vs
11: Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most
precious even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
·
Vs
12:
And had a wall great and high, and had twelve
gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written
thereon, which are the names of
the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
·
Vs
14:
And the wall of the city had twelve
foundations, and in them the
names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
So
with the mind set and teaching of religion, when they get to the heaven they
believe they have to sail off too and don’t find “Peter at the gate”, they are going to be very disappointed!
In Matthew
chapter 10:
·
Vs 1: And
when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power
against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness
and all manner of disease.
·
Vs 2:
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; the first, Simon,
who is called Peter and Andrew his brother; James, the son of
Zebedee, and John his brother: vs 3: Philip,
and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James
the son of Alpheus, and Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus: vs
4:
Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
·
Vs 14: And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them
the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
So
Peter was not and is not “at the gate”, he is a part
of “the
foundation”. Foundation
coming from the root word themel’ios, meaning something put down, as a substructure which is a part or
structure that is a support or base of something, denoting to be placed
or appointed for special service.
·
1 Corinthians 3:11:
For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
And He said to His disciples as well as to us now: You have not chosen me, but I have chosen
you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your
fruit should remain: that whatsoever you
shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you (John 15:16).
In
relation to the Holy City, New Jerusalem, it contained the “gates” (twelve sons of Israel) (entrance or
portal) into
the city and also the “foundations” (twelve
apostles of Jesus Christ) (base or support) of the city that are all one in Christ which gives the
“city” its structure: 12 +12 = 24 (the number of “eldership”) that
has nothing to do with age, but “eldership” denotes “maturity”
(full grown; ripe; fully developed;
perfected in Christ Jesus).
·
Ephesians
2:19-20: Now therefore you are no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief corner stone.
·
Ephesians
4:13: Till we all come in the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
When you multiply 12
x 12 = 144, which is “sons of God” multiplied by the
thousands. Thousand is God’s number of “uncertain
affinity”, equivalent to the “hundred and forty four thousand”
mentioned in Revelation 14:
·
Vs 1: And I
looked and lo a Lamb (Jesus
Christ) stood on the mount Sion (the
Church triumphant), and with him an
hundred forty and four thousand (sons of God multiplied by the thousands) having his Father’s name (His Word) written in their foreheads (mind).
Hebrews
12:22-24: But you are come (not going up to) unto mount Sion and unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general
assembly, and church of the firstborn, which are written in
heaven (the higher realms of spiritual elevation – not out beyond the
blue), and to God the Judge of
all, and to the spirit of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the
mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks
better things than that of Abel.
When Jesus chose His disciples this connotes characteristics that Jesus had to train
and discipline in His own life to fulfill the purpose the Father had
sent Him for. So in relation to “Peter being at the gate”, that can
only be seen as the “gate of faith”
as the “portal or entrance by faith” to get to God through Jesus Christ and to please Him.
So Peter was Jesus’ first
choice of His disciples as the “first step” in relation to
one’s approach to God not as religion speaks of him being at “the gate of heaven beyond the blue”,
no!
Simon (hearing): Peter (faith):
·
2
Corinthians 5:17: For faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God.
·
Hebrews
11:6: Without “faith” it is impossible to
please him: for he that comes to God
must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him.
When you have acknowledged Jesus the Christ this establishes our relationship with Him. Romans
10:9: If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be
saved. Vs 10: For with the heart man believes unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
What religion doesn’t know is that “Peter standing at the gate
(not the pearly gates) of heaven”, is no mere figure of
speech, but it’s the “foundation of your faith”, which is
the “gate”
(portal or entrance) where “Peter”
(Faith)
(the first in position) always
must stand having the “keys of the kingdom of heaven.” The keys
(badge of authority) are the thoughts that he forms and the words that he speaks by
faith. He then stands porter at the door of
thought and freely exercises that power which the Christ
declares in relation to “binding and loosing”:
·
Matthew16:19: And
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall
be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven. (Matt 18:18)
·
Matthew
12:37: By thy words thou shalt be
justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
[Whenever
you use “I AM” make sure the words you’re attaching to it are positive
and not negative]!
This is all done in relation to Peter that typifies “faith” which is the power source of our relationship
with God” and the first one Jesus chose.
Look people; Names become more than just words…they
become associated with who we really are, our personality, our character. Think about it…you don’t meet a lot of people
named “Adolf” or “Jezebel,” or “Saddam.”
So as Moses stands in the presence of God, shoeless
before His Holiness, He asks God His name.
“God you’re sending me to the Israelites to tell them
you’re going to deliver them from slavery…but suppose they ask me “Who
sent you…What’s God’s name? What do I tell them”? (Exodus 3:13)
And God says “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). This is what you are to tell them, “I
AM sent me to you”!
Hebrew
word for “I AM” is ehyeh’, the first person form of “hayah”, meaning to exist, be or
become, come to pass. Then
it goes to the word hava’, meaning to breathe, to be, “to be thou” – “I am,
I was, and I will be”. We are
Him (God) in the earth: (1
John 4:17) “As he is, so are we, in this world”! We know to keep it on the level of "elohim", because God is "Elyown' (el-yone'), "the Most High" (Psalm 82:6).
·
Isaiah
42:8 says, “I AM the Lord (Yahweh)
that is my name. I will not give my glory to another, neither my praises to
graven images.”
This name became so sacred to the Hebrews they refused to
say it out of fear of mispronouncing it.
When they spelled it they would leave out the vowels spelling it Y.H.W.H just in case they misspelled
it! It’s used 6,800 times in scripture three times more than “Elohim.”
Yahweh
literally means “To Be” “To Live.” He
is the self-Existent One, always present and engaged. The only time
the Hebrews would pronounce His name out loud was on the Day of Atonement which
was once a year.
God is telling Moses… “There
was nothing before me. There will be nothing after me. There is nothing beyond
me. There is no greater power, I AM (Omnipotent). There is nowhere I can’t be,
I AM (Omnipresent). There is nothing I can’t see, I AM (El-Roi).
THE I AM, IS ALL KNOWING (Omniscient).”
I was everything to your forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob…And I will be everything to you no matter what because “I AM
THAT I AM.”
God hasn’t changed. No matter whom you are or where He
might find you today, He is the all-knowing, all powerful, all present one
who wants to deliver us from any situation.
I AM
is here!!! And since I AM is here - we are…..
I. STANDING
ON HOLY GROUND
It’s Holy because of God’s presence. “Where two or three are gathered together
in my name, I will be in your midst” (Matthew 18:20).
Have you ever been in the presence of someone famous,
powerful and important? Someone you really thought was amazing?
Let me ask…“When
was the last time your knees buckled, you had goose bumps, or your heart
pounded in the presence of God?”
God tells Moses in Exodus 3:5: “Don’t come any
closer until you take off your sandals…for the place where you are standing is
Holy Ground.”
Holiness belongs to God alone! It is His
presence that makes it Holy and a place of worship.
I wonder do we take off our spiritual sandals
when we come to worship God?
Taking one’s sandals off is a sign of reverence and respect. Taking
off your sandals was like the old custom of a man taking off his hat when
entering a building or greeting a lady.
It was a token of respect. The ground was holy because of God’s
presence. People were to approach God with solemnity and humility. Taking off
their sandals expressed an inward reverence through an outward
behavior in their worship.
When man approaches God in worship he must take off or remove
from his understanding all limited thoughts of the Absolute…..”Put
off thy shoes from thy feet.”
So, my challenge and your challenge is to prepare
ourselves for real worship daily as we walk in His presence or whenever we
assemble as His people.
But let me also mention about the “I AM”:
II.
SOME ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD WILL HAPPEN WHEN WE LEAST EXPECT THEM.
·
Exodus 3:1 tells us “Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his
father in law, the priest of Median, and he led the flock to the far side of
the desert.”
Moses is at work when he encounters the
presence of God and he’s not just at work, but on the far side of the desert
called Horeb.
Horeb,
means solitude. That is, we must go
into the solitude (private; secluded; isolated
areas) from within ourselves and lead our flock of thoughts to the back of the wilderness, where dwells the Exalted One, the
divine I AM, whose kingdom is good or righteous in judgment.
There we are in training forty years, or until
we arrive at a four-sided or balanced
state of mind. It is in this recognition of the power and presence of God that all our strength and ability
lie.
God
does not live in houses made by human hands (Acts 7:48). His presence in our lives isn’t limited to
Sundays but its daily!
Church is awesome because we’re coming
together to worship, remember, and celebrate our God which is so essential.
God’s Word says, “Don’t forsake the assembling of the saints as some are in the habit of
doing…but encourage one another; and all the more as you see the day
approaching.” (Hebrew10:25)
Church is the huddle that prepares us for the
game. It’s where we love and encourage others for the week to come. God is certainly
present as we meet at His table and hear His Word and sing His praise. He’s the
audience for our action.
But God is “I AM.” He’s present in our lives every day, even when we are in the
far side of the desert.
Let’s
look at some close encounters with God!!!
[David met God on the battlefield before
Goliath (1 Samuel 17); Jacob
wrestled with God on a campout (Genesis
32:22-32); Abraham, encountered God’s presence during a sacrifice (Genesis 22); Elijah met God in fire on
a mountaintop (1 Kings 18) and in a
still small voice when he was depressed (1
Kings 19)].
I’m sure some of you can go back down memory
lane and just think of some situations that you have been in and felt the
presence of God and you knew He was with you.
I’m glad God is Omnipresent. If you don’t
believe God is with you even on the far side of the desert, or aware
daily of your struggles, then don’t be surprised if you don’t experience His
powerful presence.
But
I believe!!!
You see, no matter where we are or what we’re
going through we can ask, “God are you near?” And His answer is “I
AM!”
God are you with me at work or school? “I AM!”
God are you with me in the greatest times of
joy? “I AM!”
God are you with me when I walk through the
valley filled with shadows and death? “I
AM!”
I like this reminder from Romans 8:
37 Nay,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Let
me share one final truth today with you about The Great
I AM.
III.
GOD EXPECTS US TO SPEAK UP FOR HIM…
Moses was afraid people would not listen to
him or believe him. Standing before the
Holy burning presence of God…Moses says, “Please send someone else.”
Here’s what God says, EXODUS 4:10-13:
·
12 Now
therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.
· 13 And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.
God was
angry for Moses making excuses.
We all feel like that at times, don’t we? I’m scared, I’m not that eloquent, I’ll say
something wrong or they don’t want to hear what I have to say. “God
send someone else.”
God
doesn’t call the eloquent, He calls the willing! God doesn’t call the able but He enables
the one He calls!
If God can use an ass in the Old Testament (Numbers 22) to deliver His message to
Balaam, He can certainly use you and me.
Moses walked back into his past life so he
could rescue those in slavery. He brought a message of freedom from the Most
High God. Moses brought the message and God
provided the power!
Romans
10:14 tells us, “Everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but how can they call on the
One they have not believed in? How can they believe in the One of whom they’ve
not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” Vs
15: “And how shall they preach, except they be sent?” “How beautiful
are the feet of those who bring good tidings.”
So people of God, let go of the little self
and take hold of the big Self: “Not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42).
The
I AM of each individual, is the will in its highest aspect.
I AM is God’s name in man!
·
Exodus 3:15: And God said moreover unto Moses, “Thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel (we today are God’s Israel [those that rule and have power with God] –
not the one in the Middle East), The
LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is
my name forever, and this is my memorial (covenant name) unto all generations”! [Now
and forever]!
I AM is
Jehovah, the indwelling
Christ, the true spiritual man whom God made in His image and likeness.
The outer, manifested man is the offspring of I AM, or inner spiritual
man. By use of I AM we link ourselves with the outer—or we make conscious
union with the Father, with Spirit, with abiding life, wisdom, love, peace,
substance, strength, power, Truth, the kingdom of the heavens within US!
Let Us Give God The Praise!!!
Evangelist Jackie Burton
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