In the last blog, I mentioned the following five relevant points drawn from Ezekiel 1.
- Get a vision of God.
- Receive the Word of the Lord.
- Have the hand of the Lord upon oneself.
- Move straight forward (which would indicate moving with purpose).
- Go where the Spirit goes.
We need to have fresh vision and fresh
Word (revelation/rhema) from God. The Word of the Lord will always line
up with the Word of God. The Word of the Lord and the Word of God are
going to be synonymous, in agreement. God is never going to speak
contrary to His Word. If He did, He would be psychotic or possess a dual
personality, and He absolutely doesn’t! We see that Ezekiel receives
the Word of the Lord and that the hand of God is upon him.
In regard to point #4, the creatures are moving in a straight line. They’re not even looking to the left or right. What causes us to get off track is the fact is that we’re looking around, and our feet tend to follow where our eyes linger.
Think of a waitress. Some of you all may have worked in that profession. If they’re carrying a hot cup of coffee on a saucer, he or she is not looking all around. What is the key to not spilling? I was taught a long time ago that you keep your eyes forward and keep moving towards the goal in order to carry the food or drinks without spilling.
We are prone to move in the direction that we’re looking; we tend to do it instinctively . . . it’s automatic! If we look left, we usually move left. So those creatures moved in a straight line because their focus was straight ahead! Keep your focus straight ahead!
It’s good to learn from the past, but don’t constantly be looking back there, or you’ll regress to what you used to be. You’ll start thinking what you used to think! Don’t get caught up “window-shopping” in life. This is not about window-shopping and “which door is the blessing behind.” “Is it Door #3? Oh my, Monty, Monty!!!” It’s not like that; don’t make it so confusing! Keep your eyes fixed straight ahead and move in a forward direction! There is a goal. Even if you don’t see the goal, it’s good to know what it is and stay fixed on it. If it will help you, the ultimate goal is a crown of righteousness that is laid up for all of those who love His appearing. Okay? So keep your eye on that if nothing else!
Vickie and I knew sometime in advance that we would be heading to the mission field, yet we did not know how long we would be there. People would ask, “Well, you’re coming back, aren’t ya?” Well, yeah! Here we are . . . going back and forth on occasion. We didn’t know everything, but we knew we were going on the mission field. We honestly weren’t sure for how long, in fact, we’re still not sure of the length of time!
When I was young I usually set three-month goals, now I measure in years. We’ve already been there two years and probably will be there at least another two. Besides that, I just signed a one-year contract on a House of Prayer. It’s good to bind yourself to the vision.
Now let’s look at the four faces. The most predominant is the face of the man; we’ll get back to discussing that a bit later. First of all, I’d like us to talk about the face of the ox. What does that remind you of? An ox is a worker. In fact, in most areas of the world, an ox is the most honored of that particular class.
It’s much the same in Thailand; they pay great honor to the elephant. Not in a religious way, but in a very esteeming manner. They will tell you that the reason is because they know that the elephant has helped to build their country. The elephant was moving logs and taking men places that they couldn’t go on their own.
The ox is honored in many areas of the world because of its usefulness and productiveness. Three things I can tell you about an ox is that they work hard, they demand little, and they never whine or complain.
We’ll pick up talking about the other faces and how their representations may correlate to us as believers. I believe we’ll identify some characteristics that ought to be present in our own lives.
Grace and peace,
PG
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