Seeing the Lord in His Temple — Phil Beach Jr.

The Need for God's Holy Presence

The Word of God, because it keeps things in order, it keeps things in order. The question has often been asked, what happens when saints begin to see God? What happens when the holy presence of God begins to fill the sanctuary?

What happens when you, as an individual Christian, begin to get under the influence of the divine presence of Almighty God? Beloved, God knows, God knows that we have need of His presence more than anything else in this world, particularly in this late hour.

God knows that we have need of His presence, and I believe that God, as our Father in heaven, is committed to causing a people to once again recognize their need for His holy presence, and then do whatever is necessary in their life to prepare them, and then, by golly, just begin to pour out His presence in a marvelous way, in a marvelous way.

Isaiah's Vision of the Lord High and Lifted Up

So we want to look in Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah chapter six, and may I just say that the time that this occurred was a great time of testing, a great time of trial, and the people of God were just being weighed in the balance, and there was a great need, there was a great need.

There was politics going on, there was, King Uzziah was, well, just around when King Uzziah died, and there was all kinds of things going on. There was a sense of, there was a sense of economic prosperity under the children of God at this time.

Some things were good, some things were bad, but the overall need for the people of God was to see their Lord and God high and lifted up, to see their Lord and God high and lifted up, and this is where we begin reading in Isaiah chapter six, in the year that King Uzziah died, I also saw the Lord, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne.

Beloved, we can stop there and just begin to pray and ask God to cause us to see such a vision. How have we strayed? How we have strayed. Tell me, beloved, what more should Christianity be than blood-washed saints beholding their God upon His throne?

And it has become everything but that. I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings. With twain, He covered His face, and with twain, He covered His feet, and with twain, He did fly.

And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.

And he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us?

Then said I, here am I. Send me. In the year that King Uzziah died, I also saw the Lord. Beloved, we need to see the Lord. We need to see the Lord. We need to ask that God will once again rekindle within us a flame of fire to see Him high and lifted up.

Seeing the Lord Transforms the Believer

When we see the Lord, our lives are changed. When we see the Lord, we're filled with the Holy Ghost. When we see the Lord, our souls are taken captive, not by sin, not by Satan, and not by the flesh, but by a holy love for God, a flame on fire for God when we see the Lord.

When we see the Lord, His glory and His image is reflected in us and through us. When we see the Lord, God grant us the grace, grant us the privilege of seeing you. Now may I just say that when we see the Lord high and lifted up, we recognize His glory.

We recognize who He is. We recognize His awesomeness. We recognize His majesty. We recognize His beauty. We recognize that He alone fills the temple. He is most marvelous. Now walk with me through this as we just read here and let the Word of God confirm to us what the Spirit of God is saying to us.

Heavenly Worship and the Holiness of God

Let's just notice some activity going on in heaven. By the way, though we're not literally in heaven, yet we are in heaven because Christ has redeemed our souls and has translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into His glorious kingdom.

And God wants us to become more aware of the life that we have, the life that is indeed in heaven. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With Twain, he covered his face. With Twain, he covered his feet.

And with Twain, he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. First of all, we see the Lord Jesus high and lifted up. And then secondly, beloved, we see holy, holy, holy is the Lord.

A sense of His holiness, a sense of His awesomeness begins to fill your heart and your mind. Oh, it is my prayer that God will stir us this morning and that He will plant His word within us and use it to begin to burn a desire within us to see Him.

I believe He's going to. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. Heaven is filled with praises about the holiness of God. And may I say that true revival, true stirring among the body of Christ starts when people start having a vision of God.

They start having a vision of Christ. They start seeing Him in His holiness and in His majesty. And then the result is a genuine, a genuine worship and praise of holy, holy, holy is the Lord just to recognize His beauty and His awesomeness.

And then after we recognize His holiness, we recognize the whole earth is full of His glory. In other words, we recognize that God is reigning in the earth and He's fulfilling His holy purposes. Though He allows evil kings and evil empires to triumph many times in many different ways, yet God is still upon the throne.

He's fulfilling His will. He's fulfilling the purposes of His own heart. Oh God, how we need revival. How we need the move of God's Spirit once again in our midst to just cause us to see Him. And I believe that God wants to do this.

I believe that this is what the Spirit of God is saying. I believe that God is searching out at people. He is shaking all things, but from the midst of it is a rising of people whose hearts are beginning to cry out, oh God, oh God, show us Your glory.

Show us Your majesty. Show us Your absolute awesomeness, Lord, at any cost, at any loss, Lord. Show me Your glory. Show me Your glory. God is doing it. Verse 4, And the posts of the door moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

God's Glory Fills His Temple

What does all this mean? The house was filled with smoke. What it means is that when God causes our eyes, our spiritual eyes to see His glory, we are aware of three main things. Number one, we're aware that God is holy.

Number two, we're aware that God is reigning in the earth. And number three, we're aware that His house and His inhabitants and where He is is full of glory. The smoke is God's glory. We just become incredibly aware of His awesome majesty.

There's revival. Did you know that we are the temple of God and that God wants to fill His temple with His majesty? Now, beloved, verse 5 is the human response to the divine revelation of seeing Christ.

Repentance and the Recognition of Human Unworthiness

May I say that whenever God moves, the genuine move of God, and this is how you can always decipher between a genuine move of God and a false move of God. A genuine move of God is always in the midst of people who, as a result of seeing their Lord, recognize their utter undoneness before Him.

The scripture says, after Isaiah saw the Lord, woe is me, woe is me. Notice when Isaiah saw the Lord here, his eye wasn't on the one next to him. He suddenly began to lose interest in the faults and the shortcomings of other people.

He suddenly became less aware of the undoneness of other people, and he recognized all of a sudden himself. Woe is me. God's spirit never moves or tarries with the people who lose sight of woe is me. God's spirit never continues to tarry with people who lose sight of woe is me.

Let's read on here. For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of glory. Some of the genuine characteristics here of what happens when God begins to show us His glory is we recognize our own sense of utter weakness before Him.

We recognize our own sense of utter frailty before Him, and we act accordingly. We act accordingly. See, this is what the dear brother saw in the German churches when God's flame from heaven was moving in their midst.

Change lives, sense of awesomeness in the presence of God. This is the genuine. Only God can bring this, and all we can do is pray and ask Him to. Pray and ask Him to. Pray and ask Him to. And now here's the hope.

Cleansing Grace and Christ Our Righteousness

Here's Christ, our righteousness. Here's the perspective for we are not competent. We are not sufficient of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. This is what the next few verses are showing us. The gospel right here is being preached.

Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.

There's the marvelous grace of God. There's the marvelous person of Jesus Christ who makes us acceptable in the eyes of God, makes us acceptable in the eyes of God. It's all here. But the burden that was upon my heart this morning was to just read these scriptures here and see that God wants to fill us with His glory.

God wants to fill us with His spirit, but only He can do it. Only He can do it. And He asks us to pray, and He asks us to ask Him to stir us that He might move by His spirit. And we have to be patient, beloved.

Waiting Patiently for God's Revival

We have to be patient. We have to wait for God. We have to let God's work have its perfect way in our life. We can't succumb to substitutes. We must be patient and tarry and wait and let God do it His way.

And if we do wait and let God do it His way, then truly we will reap if we faint not. We will reap if we faint not. We're asking God to just fill us. He's causing this desire to arise. Multitudes and multitudes all over are praying.

We're praying. We're asking God to be merciful. Men's methods will no longer work. We must have God in our midst. God must do it. And we're willing to wait for God to do it. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Father.

A Prayer for God's Glory and the Harvest

Praise the Lord. Father, we're children. We confess that we're children, Lord. And we're waiting on You, Lord, to show us Your glory. We're waiting on You, Lord, to show us Your majesty. Father, we just continue to give You the right away in our lives and in our gatherings.

Oh, Father, we pray You'll restore us, Lord, back to where You're moving in our midst, Lord, that we see the genuine outpouring of Thy Holy Spirit. Lord, all we can do is cry out, have mercy, Lord, have mercy.

Grant it, Lord. Oh, grant it, Lord. Help us, Lord, to confess our sins if that be the thing that You're asking us to do to You. Help us, Lord, to do whatever You are asking us to do. Lord, that we might know the days of Thy great refreshing coming upon us, Lord, as a people where You're being glorified.

Lord God, Lord, we're looking for the day, Lord, where You once again arise in our midst as God and Lord and Your Holy Spirit moves like a great wave and a great glory among Thy people. And people begin to cry out, Lord, from their spirits, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God.

Lord, how we need Thee in Thy temple, Lord, to come forth. Lord, that Thou mayest, oh God, begin to move and stir us, oh God, that You, oh God, would thrust laborers into Your harvest, oh God. Lord, that we would not necessarily need to depend upon men and organizations, but Lord, You could in a moment's time, God, get the attention of a people and call out a people, oh God, and begin to change hearts.

And Lord, You can send them to the harvest fields, oh God, where they've been prepared by a holy visitation by You. Lord, what greater credential can we have? What greater qualification can we have than to know that God has touched my soul and God has put a holy flame in my heart?

Lord, grant it, we pray. We cast ourselves upon Thee, Lord. We are at Thy mercy, Lord. Oh, we're upon Thee, Lord. Hallelujah, thank You, Lord. Have communion, but we're not ready yet. Let's just tarry before the Lord a few more moments.