Mt. Zion Church of the Holy Spirit - Sermons
Dig Now In The Wall
Ezekiel 8:8-12, "Then said he unto me, 'Son of man, dig now in the wall': and when I digged in the wall, behold a door. And he said unto me, 'Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here'. So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. Then said he unto me, 'Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, “The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth.”'”
God has been speaking so intently to my heart that He really desires to pour His Spirit out upon His church in a proportion that we have not yet experienced. God desires to manifest His glory to His church in a much greater way. When I say His glory, I am talking about the purity of His presence; God longs to draw closer to His people. God so loves His people; the whole purpose of God sending His Son to die for our sins is so He can have a deep and abiding intimacy with His people. There is a hunger in the Lord’s heart to draw nearer to His people.
GOD HAS BEEN SPEAKING TO MY HEART OUT OF HIS WORD THAT WE, AS HIS PEOPLE, HAVE TO PREPARE OUR HEARTS FOR THIS COMING GLORY.
In Ezekiel 8, the prophet Ezekiel is in exile in Babylon. Because of Israel’s rebellious heart and idolatry, God raised up the Babylonian empire as His instrument of judgment. They conquered Israel, and many Jews were taken into exile. Yet, not all the Jews were taken to Babylon; many were allowed to remain, but in Ezekiel 8, God is about to judge Jerusalem and remove His presence. Jerusalem and the temple are going to be leveled and reduced to ashes and ruin.
In Ezekiel 8, God is showing Ezekiel why He is removing His glory from His sanctuary and bringing judgment upon His people. Ezekiel is in Babylon, and He sees the glory of God. God gives him a vision of what is going on in Jerusalem and shows him why He is going to remove His glory from the temple.
Ezekiel 8:2-6, "Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the color of amber. And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain. Then said he unto me, 'Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north.' So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. He said furthermore unto me, 'Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.'”
Here the Lord reveals to His prophet the grief of His heart. The Lord takes His prophet into the temple and shows him an idol set in the entranceway to the inner courts where the altar was located to make sacrifices to the Lord. God refers to it as “the image of jealousy”. Because God loved His people deeply, He married Himself to them; they were His beloved bride. Yet the people had turned from God and were pouring their hearts out to this vain idol. In His grief, God is saying to His prophet, “This is one of the reasons why My presence cannot abide here. I will not have second place. I will either have all of their heart or I will have nothing. What man would share his wife with another? I will not share My people with vain idols.”
After Ezekiel sees this image of jealousy, God shows His righteous prophet a wall with a small hole in it. God tells Ezekiel to dig and make the hole bigger. Verse 8 then says, “And when I had digged in the wall, behold, a door.” Reading on, we find out that this door led to a secret chamber where no one knew what was going on except for those who were secretly involved. The prophet saw creatures painted on the wall and a number of the elders of Israel worshipping these creatures. These elders were going into a secret place where no one could see, and there they were worshipping idols.
AS I WAS MEDITATING ON THIS, GOD SPOKE TO MY HEART AND SAID, “DO NOT FOCUS SO MUCH ON WHAT EZEKIEL SAW - THE CREATURES AND IDOLS AND THE ELDERS WORSHIPPING THESE THINGS - BUT FOCUS ON MY INSTRUCTIONS TO EZEKIEL, BECAUSE THERE IS SOMETHING THAT I WANT MY CHURCH TO SEE.”
I want to really break these scriptures down so we can understand what God is speaking intently to our hearts. First of all, in Ezekiel 8:7-12 where God is dealing with the “secret chamber”, that is, places not seen with the human eye, God is speaking about the heart. Looking at this scripture we need to understand that it is sin and darkness in the heart that drives God’s presence away. It is things that get into the heart and continue to sit there that grieve the Spirit of God and cause God’s presence to draw back.
This is what we have to understand: the enemy is always trying to fill the believer’s heart with darkness. The enemy is always trying to slip something in the heart, and if it is not dealt with, it will cause darkness to increase more and more and grieve the presence of the Lord. Many, many people are sitting in churches all over America, and their hearts are full of darkness but they do not realize it. The enemy was able to plant something in their heart, and the believer does not even realize it is there. The reason why they do not realize it is because of something we are going to talk about in a moment, but again, what I want us to realize is that the enemy is always trying to slip something into our hearts to bring an increasing darkness and cause God’s presence to draw back.
THERE IS SOMETHING THAT WE CAN DO TO PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING!
There is something that we can do to protect the presence of God in our lives and the glory of God in our church! God wants so much to pour out His Spirit and glory upon His church in a way we have not yet seen; God wants to manifest His presence in a way that we have not yet experienced. However, there is something that He is calling us to, if He is going to draw near to us in the way that He desires.
WHAT IS IT THAT HE IS CALLING HIS CHURCH TO?
Ezekiel 8:8, “Son of man, dig now in the wall.” God told His prophet that He was going to have to dig in order to see what was going on in the secret place. Beloved, this speaks volumes to me!
What God is saying is, “You cannot have a shallow life in the Word and prayer and expect to be able to discern the things the enemy is trying to slip into your heart to bring darkness.”
What is God calling His church to? What is God calling each one of His people to? God is calling us to consecrate ourselves to His Word like we never have before! He is calling us to dig into His Word so His Word can dig into our hearts! We have to give God concentrated time in His Word so His Word can search our hearts. He is calling us to put away the excuses of being too busy, being too tired or being consumed with other things, and lay a hold of the grace of God and press in, spending concentrated time in His Word. We have to cut off the television, put down the telephone, crucify our flesh and spend time in God’s Word. We have to realize that we have allowed things into our hearts, and we do not even realize that they are there. By His Word, God wants to expose the darkness and take it out of the way.
This is what God spoke so plainly to my heart: “As we consecrate our time to the Word of God, God is going to show many of us things lying dormant in our hearts that we do not even know are there, things that hinder Him from moving in our lives and in His church the way that He desires. When we sincerely repent of these things, He will take the darkness out of the way.” As I have heeded this word from the Lord, God has shown me some things I had to repent of, but I have also experienced the wonderful refreshing of God’s presence that comes with repentance (Acts 3:19).
I want to look at a parable of Christ in Luke 15. Luke 15 is the “lost and found chapter”-3 things are lost and 3 things are found. Luke 15:8-10, "Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, 'Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.' Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”
In Luke 15, a woman loses a coin. Here, the word woman in the Greek literally means, “a bride, a wife”. Who is the bride and the wife of Jesus Christ? The church. This woman represents the church.
In Luke 15:8, this woman loses something, and she had to light a candle. What does the fact that she had to light a candle tell us about her house? Darkness had come into her house. There is no light shining through the windows.
This is what I want us to see: this woman did not realize darkness had come into her house until she lost something. As a pastor, I do not want our church (Mt. Zion Church of the Holy Spirit) to wait until we are missing something to realize that we have allowed darkness to come in somewhere. I do not want to wait until the presence of God, the glory of God and the power of God are gone until we realize that darkness has come in.
This woman realized she was missing something. Do you know how you realize that you are missing something? There are only two ways. First, you can take inventory - take time to look at what you have. Or secondly, a time comes when you need it, and then you realize that it is not there. Beloved, I do not want to wait until a day we need God’s power to realize it is not there! I do not want to wait until hardened sinners, captivated by the devil, come into our church crying to be free, only to realize we do not have the presence and power of the Lord to set them free! My cry as a pastor is, “God, right now, take inventory of our hearts! Shine the light of Your Word into our hearts, and remove all darkness, so when we need Your glory and power, it is there!”
This woman realized that she had lost one of her coins. If she was at a store and needed all ten coins to purchase something but realized one was missing, what was she to do? There are only two things she can do. She can either go home, light a candle and find her lost coin, or she can buy something cheaper.
Beloved, as God’s church, we do not want to settle for something that is cheap! We do not want to settle for anything less than the pure moving of the Holy Spirit. As a pastor, I do not want to consent to bringing in entertainment and thrills into the church God has put into my care, because God’s presence and glory does not reside there any more. Mainstream Christianity can have it, but for those who truly hunger for the genuine move of the Holy Spirit, we need to bear our hearts before the Lord and say, “God, shine the light of your Word upon my heart. Expose any and all darkness, because I do not want anything less than the pure presence and glory of Christ!”
In Exodus 30:32, God tells Moses to make a holy anointing oil and to pour it upon the priests. The Lord speaks regarding this oil: “Upon man’s flesh shall it not be poured; neither shall ye make another like it.” Yet today the ministry is filled with flesh; we have resorted to entertainment and thrills to pull in crowds and we call it “the anointing”. Beloved, let us hunger for the genuine. Let us not settle for anything but genuine salvation - genuine deliverance from the power of sin, and genuine filling of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of people!
Going back to our story of the woman and her coins, the Bible says that after she lit a candle to find what she had lost, she then took a broom and began to sweep her house. As I began to think about the Lord sweeping His house, I thought about the time Jesus went into His temple with a scourge and drove out the darkness. As I was thinking about this the Lord spoke to me and said, “There is a big difference between sweeping and scourging. I scourge when there is out-right rebellion and defiance, but there are many people who sincerely love Me, however they have allowed something to slip into their hearts and bring a degree of darkness. By My Word I want to turn the searchlight upon their hearts and remove the darkness by sweeping their houses clean. If they will consecrate themselves to My Word, let Me reveal these things that have slipped into their hearts, and repent before Me, I will sweep out the darkness and draw them closer to Me and pour My Spirit out upon them in a greater measure.”
When the woman swept her house and found her coin, there was such joy abounding in her heart. Beloved, when the Lord begins to draw closer to His people because we have allowed Him to sweep our hearts, the evidence of His nearing presence will be that we have a greater joy in our hearts with the things that bring His heart joy. We will have a greater joy when a soul is saved. We will have a greater joy when lives are changed. We will have a greater joy when someone surrenders their life to serve the Lord. This is the ultimate evidence that the presence of the Lord is filling our hearts.
Going back to Ezekiel 8, the prophet says when he digged in the wall he saw a door.
Ezekiel 8:8, “Then he said unto me, 'Son of man, dig now in the wall': and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.” Meditating upon this, a question came to my heart: “Why did God not put this prophet in the inner-chamber? Why did he have to dig and find the door before he could go in and see what was happening on the inside?” As I kept looking at this, I realized that it is as if God is saying in this scripture, “You won’t see the door unless you dig!”
What does this door represent? The door represents the way darkness finds access into our hearts. Darkness just does not invade our lives; it must first be given an open door. The Lord is revealing to us that the only way to discern where the enemy is trying to come in is by having a depth in His Word. We cannot read our Bible only “now and then”, or “when I can make the time” and expect to be able to discern the subtle ways the enemy is trying to get into our hearts. We have to realize that if the only time we read our Bibles is when “I feel like it”, or “when I have the time”, our hearts undoubtedly possess a degree of darkness that grieves the heart of God and we do not even realize it!
Beloved, God desires to manifest His presence and glory in His church in such a greater way; He desires to draw much nearer to His people in such an intimate way that we have not yet experienced. He is calling His people to prepare their hearts by giving Him concentrated time in His Word so His Word can probe and sweep our hearts. My prayer is that when you read this message, you will not soon forget what God is speaking, but you will let the Spirit of God stir your heart and bring you to a consecrated time of prayer, letting the Lord probe your heart with His Word. The blessing that will follow is absolutely priceless.
God be praised!