City Central Church Podcast
When God Acts, Moves, and Manifest His Glory
Adam Narciso
I feel an urgency to share this word of the Lord that's been in my spirit for some time now, probably about a year and a half, actually more like a year, 12 months I'd say. This theme has been kind of, it's been something like boiling inside of me and I feel like it's something of a new a lens or a paradigm that God wants us to put on. How we view reality around us, something that's going to help us interpret the signs of the times. How many of you know that the church of Jesus Christ is called to be able to interpret the signs of the times to a lost and dying world? Jesus came to the Pharisees and he says, "You foolish religious leaders. You can look at the sky and say, 'Oh, it's going to rain or it's going to be sunny tomorrow.' You can discern the clouds and the weather, but you can't you miss the signs of the times. We do not want to be a people who are rebuked for not being able to understand and discern and be the God's voice on earth for interpreting what's going on around us." Are you following me? And so this is what I want to do. I want to do a little teaching on this biblical theme and I want to give a short exhortation at the end of the meeting and I feel like this evening's message is going to set a platform for in future weeks whenever I get to come and share that God would release me to speak on and press forward some of these themes and some of these subjects that I feel are critical in this hour for being equipped to understand the circumstances of the earth, what God is orchestrating on the earth, what he's preparing his bride to lead and to endure. Let's pray. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus and we ask that your Holy Spirit would right now take the written, the spoken word of God and make it like a hammer in a fire and a sword in our hearts in Jesus' name, amen. Open your Bible to Malachi chapter four verses one through three, Malachi chapter four. I've titled my sermon "When God acts, when he moves and when he manifests his glory." To be honest, there's only three things because I didn't know which one to choose. When he acts, when he moves, he manifests his glory. What if I just do the whole thing? That sounds like a really strategic and like elaborate sermon title. Malachi chapter four verses one through three. The Lord said, "For behold, a day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evil doers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze," says the Lord of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like haves from the stall. You shall tread down the wicked, for there will be ashes under your souls of your feet on the day when I act," says the Lord. I want to talk to you about the day or the season and the hour in which God acts, when he moves, when he manifests his glory on the earth. In this passage, of course, it's a passage referring to the day of the Lord, the hour in which the son of man will return to the earth rightfully his and will establish his kingdom on the earth. But we also must understand that when we see passages like this, we gain insight into the character and the ways of God and how he deals with his people and the lost in dying world in the present hour in all throughout history. What I want to present to you this evening is that in this passage, like many passages throughout the scriptures, you can see a pattern that indicates a clue to a way of God. And that's this, when God acts or moves or manifests his glory on the earth, there are oftentimes two key dimensions to the manifestation of his glory. There are two key dimensions to the manifestation of glory that you and I need to get in our spirit, need to get in our minds so that we can properly interpret the events on the earth. And the first dimension of God's glory being manifested is it's manifested in blessing or in revival. In that act of God where he comes for the broken, the humble, the contrite, to raise the sinner from the ash dump, to put the lonely in families, to put to care for widows and orphans, to give the recovery of sight to the blind. Are you with me? He comes for the broken in revival because he's after their hearts. Likewise, the second dimension of God's manifestation of glory in this text that we see as well as throughout the scriptures is that the second dimension is this. It's a dimension of judgment or discipline. And we and I have to understand that there's two key aspects to the manifestation of a move of God or the manifestation of his glory on the earth. And that's this one dimension revival and blessing and the other dimension judgment or discipline. And you and I need to be prepared not just for the one that sounds cool or the one that fills stadiums or the one that will heal a bunch of people and save lives, but the one the also the other dynamic that is equally as important in the sovereign purposes of God on the earth. And I want to give you some scriptural examples today. If you're taking notes, I want to give you some scriptural examples in the Old Testament. Roman numeral number one could just be titled the Exodus. And you could just look really through all the book of Exodus, but you and I know that in the story of the Exodus of the children of Israel from the land of Egypt after 400 years of slavery, slavery under Egypt is that God moved with significant power and glory to release the children of Israel from the hands of a man who hardened his own heart in deep resistance in rebellion to the Almighty. That it was a glorious aspect of what God did parting the Red Sea, releasing, doing all these amazing, amazing exploits. And a lot of times you and I like to emphasize the glorious deliverance of the children of Israel, but equally as significant from heaven's perspective, we're the terrifying plagues and judgments that God released against a rebellious kingdom, a stiff-necked leader. And so in the story of the Exodus, we see the glorious release of blessing and salvation. We also see the terrifying release of plagues and judgment in a single historical moment for accomplishing his sovereign purposes. You and I need to understand that when God moves on the earth in this hour, we will see the same two dynamics. If we don't understand that He operates in these two dimensions, we'll always, we'll conclude that we did not do our job in prayer. We'll conclude that we did not shift things in the heavenlies. We'll conclude false things about God when He's saying, actually, I wrought that. This was me. We'll carry deep disappointment in our heart unless we understand the ways of God in manifesting His glory on the earth, the Exodus. So in the dynamic manifestation of God's glory and deliverance, God moved in two dimensions, revival or salvation, deliverance and in judgment. And in fact, God used the acts of judgment to bring about the blessing of salvation. He was filled God with jealousy over seeing His sovereign purposes fulfilled. He wanted a wholehearted people to worship Him in the wilderness. And that jealousy and that desire for wholehearted lovers drove Him to extreme measures. Think about how extreme every plague was against Egypt. Lives were taken. The economic structure of an entire nation was crumbled to the ground when three million slaves, the workforce left the kingdom. So when God came to bring deliverance and salvation, He came to wreck a nation's marketplace, to render them helpless. And then He brought about His sovereign purposes. When I keep going, your Roman numeral number two is real in the wilderness. I've got to preach on this a few times, this, this area of scripture, a few times in the last year. But we remember that Israel for 40 years in the wilderness followed the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire above them. I'd say that's a pretty sweet manifestation of glory, okay? A pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And all the nations knew that they belonged to Yahweh. They also saw Moses brought the amazing plagues against Egypt. They saw the Red Sea parted. They saw manna from heaven, water from a rock that fed three million people, manna every day on the hour. They're closed and not wrinkle or tatter for 40 years. They saw amazing dimensions of God's glorious power in action. They saw God descend on a mountain top, Mount Sinai for 80 days in fire, in thunderings, in lightnings, the sound of a heavenly trumpet, in trembleings and earthquakes for 80 days. And they saw their leader walk into that mountain of fire and live with God for two 40 day periods. Only to find him coming down from the mountain with his face radiant and illuminated by the powerful, glorious presence of God. This was the hour in which God gave them the revelation of heaven, the Ten Commandments. He gave them the blueprints for society. It was an hour, a season of glory. It was a season of an unprecedented manifestation of God on the earth. And I dare say that we've not seen very much like that since. It was an hour of glory, but in that same hour of glory, in that same hour of blessing, in that same hour of power, we see God releasing judgment and discipline. In Numbers chapter 11, verse 33, God sent a mighty plague against a complaining people. Numbers chapter 12, God made Miriam's skin leperous for her and Aaron's opposition to Moses. In Numbers chapter 16, God judged the tents of Korah, Nathan and Abiram. He sent fire from heaven and consumed 250 of their chief leaders. He released a plague against those tribes. And he caused the earth to open up and swallow the rebellious until they were no more. All together, over 15,000 people were struck with judgment. In the same season, in the same nation, the same people group, the same camp meeting that the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire resided over. The same meeting, the same season, an hour of history that God came down on the mountain in all of his glorious splendor and gave them the revelation of having the Ten Commandments. In the same hour that he shepherded them through the wilderness for 40 years and gave them manna from heaven, water from a rock in the wilderness. In the same hour of blessing, he released terrifying acts of discipline and judgments. Why is this? We'll get there in a moment. Roman numeral, number three, we see it also in the consecration of Aaron and his sons. In Leviticus, chapter nine, why don't you turn there? Leviticus, chapter nine. This is a strategic moment in the history of the nation of Israel because God was establishing the priesthood and commissioning them Aaron and his sons to minister before him in the tabernacle day and night. And Aaron and his sons followed God's prescription to them by the word of the Lord to consecrate themselves. And at the end of that consecration period, they offered a burnt offering before the Lord, and this is where we pick up. The Bible says in verse 22, "Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offerings and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people." Verse 24, "And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering, the pieces of the fat on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces, worshiping God." It was a moment in history where they laid this wild slain beast before the Lord said, "God, we give you ourselves wholeheartedly to serve you day and night in your tabernacle. And fire came from heaven." Up there somewhere, a flame, a lightning strike who knows but it consumed the offering that was given to the Lord. It was his sign of holy pleasure. It was a sign of, "I'm receiving this offering." And that's why I sent fire on it. By the way, that's why God sent fire on the day of Pentecost, because he was receiving the people that were waiting for the blessing that he promised them. I think it's the same reason that God sent fire to Elijah on Mount Carmel when he stood before the 450 prophets of Baal and he said, "Choose you." Or that was Joshua. He said something like, "How long will you waver between two opinions if the Lord is God then serve him, but if Baal is God then serve him?" And remember who's offering got the fire from heaven? Elijah. So fire is kind of like the trademark of Yahweh. It shows up when good things happen. And this is what was going on in that scene. But in the very next scene, chapter 10, verse 1 through 3, now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, these ones who had just been consecrated as priests, each took his censor and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire. In other words, they were worshiping God in a way he did not prescribe them to. They saw fit to follow their own carnal instincts in worshiping God. The Bible says this, "Fire came down from before the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord." It's the same scene that we see fire from heaven, blessing the offering of the people. We see fire from heaven judging the same people for their carnal hearts. I want you to know that this is a reality of God and how he manifests his glory. He does it in two dimensions in blessing and revival as well as judgment and discipline. I'm making a case here, okay? The ark of the covenant, Roman numeral chapter 4. Are we okay with this? Roman numeral chapter 4. Now, throughout the course of this year, we've been talking a lot about this whole Davidic community thing and the ark of the covenant and we want, because it signified the presence of God among his holy people in the center of the camp on which the cherubim, the angels of God, were resting around which the glory of God, the shekinah presence of God, rested over the ark of the covenant. So the ark of the covenant is a pretty big deal. And there was a season in history, 1 Samuel 4, where it was taken from Israel and the glory had departed. It was a sad season in the nation of Israel's history. Then in chapter 5 of 1 Samuel, we read this, we're not going to turn there, but the Philistines came. They captured the ark and they brought it to the house of Dagon, their God. So the ark of the covenant is now in a foreign worship center and it's before this nasty idol called Dagon. And what they found is every night, after every night they'd come in and they'd find Dagon in his arms had been fallen off, the statue of this false god of his arms had fallen off. Another day they came in and he was fully down, laid prostrate before the ark of the covenant. Like in worship before him they thought, "What's going on?" And then tumors broke out in that city. Awful things happened. They said, "We've got to get rid of this thing. This is crazy. It's jinxed. It's like a Ouija board. You don't want to play with it. You know? Give you all kinds of nightmares." And so they got rid of it. They took it away and they sent it and then we find in 1 Samuel chapter 6, they give it back to the man of Beth Schimich, then God struck 70 of those men down dead because they looked upon it in an inappropriate way. Up to this point this year we've talked a lot of great things about how the ark of the covenant is this great presence of God deals, the glory of God, David worship before it until he was in his underwear and it was amazing and all the people. We talked about all those scenes in scriptures. But we can't oversee or overlook what happened when the ark of the covenant was interacted with in an inappropriate unauthorized way. God judged it. It was glorious in his joint, his delight in his people but it was also terrifying in his ways of disciplining and judging mankind. And then in 2 Samuel chapter 6, David's bring it in. You know the story, the oxen move and the ark is starting to fall and ooze and one of the servants of the Lord puts his hand on the ark. Wrong move. They were carrying it the wrong way. It wasn't prescribed that way. They didn't read Leviticus apparently. And God strikes him down dead. The seriousness of the presence of God. You and I ask, oh God, how we want you to come. Oh God, how we want you to come. But do we really want him to come? Do we really want the glory of God to be made manifest? Because I tell you when it is, he'll deal with his people who profess to love him in a far more intense manner than we're used to when the glory is not there. You and I can live in all kinds of carnality, all kinds of lukewarmness, all kinds of compromise when the presence of God in the glory of God is not resting on your life. But the moment the glory of God touches a man or woman of God, it's like they're enslaved to a higher calling. It's like they're enslaved to a life that goes beyond the status quo in devotion and wholeheartedness. Do you know what I'm saying? So the biblical pattern we see God manifesting his glory in blessing and in revival and judgment. I'm getting tired of preaching this. I'm like, man, so someone says, you know, well, that's just Old Testament ways. That's the Old Testament dispensation. God doesn't really deal with people. Tell that to Ananias in Sephira who in the middle of a revival in Book of Acts chapter 5 and the Holy Spirit was poured out, everyone's getting saved in Jerusalem. The cities turned upside down. They come and bring an offering before the Lord because they sold their house to give the offering to the church and they kept back some of the offering. They presented it as if they were presenting the whole, by the way, God never asked them to sell their house. But because they were lying, Peter looked at them intently. He looked at Ananias and said, why has Satan so filled your heart that you would lie to the Holy Spirit? And immediately he fell down as a dead man. Three hours later his wife comes in, same thing, same conversation, same result. The Bible says, great fear and awe fell upon every soul and the word of God continued to grow and to multiply. So in the hour of blessing and revival, we see God dealing with his people in severe ways of judgment and discipline. Do we really want the glory? Do we really want the manifest presence of God? Or do we just want to fill a stadium? To say we did it. In Acts chapter 12, Herod, verses 21 through 24, he was sitting on the seat before the people. And without, I don't want to read it here. I don't have that much time, but you can read it another time. The people began to yell out to Herod and they said, the voice of a God and not a man. And they were bent on worshiping this man, this governor of Rome. And Herod received their worship. Bad news, bro. You don't want to do that, especially not in the book of Acts. You know, especially after Ananias and sci-fi read just seven chapters earlier, you don't want to mess. Herod received their worship. The Bible says, an angel of the Lord came and struck him down. Because he did not give glory to the God of the universe. And in the very next verse, in verse 24, the very, I should have read this, I'm sorry, because I didn't turn there. Where was I? Acts chapter 12? Sorry, guys. The very next verse, chapter 24, or verse 24 says, "But the word of God increased and multiplied." So in verse 23, immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give God the glory. And he was eaten by worms, breathed his last breath. Verse 24, "But the word of God increased and multiplied." In the same context we see God releasing revival power, terrifying judgment. What are we asking for when we want the glory? What are we asking for when we want revival? Acts chapter 19, this is my last example here in the scriptures. The apostle Paul comes into the city of Ephesus, the capital for idolatry in the worship of the goddess Diana in the hour. And he finds 12 men who believe. And he says, "Since you believe, have you received the Holy Spirit?" And they said, "We didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit." He said, "Well, let me pray for you." In his apostolic ways, he lays hands on them. They all catch fire and with 12 new disciples, the city is overturned. The Bible says there was such a revival that unusual miracles were wrought by the hands of Paul. So even so that hanker chips that touched him were carried to the sick and they were made well in the streets. It says through this single church that started with 12 men who were disciples who received the Holy Spirit. All who lived in Asia heard the gospel through one church. All who lived in Asia heard the gospel. That, by the way, that happened in three years. And in the city, there was such a massive revival among those who practiced witchcraft, which in that day was everyone. That the silversmiths, those men and women, or men who made the idols sculpted for demonic false worship, realized that they weren't able to feed their families anymore because everyone's becoming Christians and no one's buying idols anymore. So understand something. When God began to invade a city, he overturned the marketplace. How do you interpret the financial crisis of the hour? That God is shaking a nation and a world whose hands are filled with idols. Because he wants the hearts of the people. There's nothing that stirs up the jealousy in God's heart like idolatry. There's nothing that stirs the passion, the flame of love that God has in his heart for his creation, like idolatry. To tell you the reason God manifests his glory in judgment is not to show how powerful and amazing and terrifying he is. Instead, it's because he's motivated by a jealous love for you and me in a dying world. And I've heard it said that God always used the least severe means to accomplish the deepest level of repentance and wholeheartedness in his people. So you can be sure that when God releases judgment, he always does it in the most sensitive way according to his standards to get the highest percentage of hearts in repentance before him. Living in wholeheartedness. I tell you what, God's not after you and I just sit in a pew and attend church every week, drop 10% in the tithe bucket. Do you know what I'm saying? Go on a mission trip once a year down south, cross the border, build a couple of houses and feel bad about being a rich American. He's after our whole hearts. And when he doesn't have it and when our hands are filled with other lovers, he takes extreme measures if the glory of God rests upon you and I to get our heart. Man, I wish I'm going to be able to develop some of this more. I feel like I'm just getting started. I really do. Honestly, this is like introduction for what I believe God wants to teach us and begin to show us. But I have to say this is we've been petitioning now for almost 10 years for an unprecedented historic revival breakthrough and manifestation of the glory of God that the lost souls would be saved and the prodigals would come home. We've been contending for this in prayer, preaching it for almost 10 years now here in this community. But I must say biblically if we are praying for that kind of move of God, we also must anticipate the other dimension of God's glory being manifested in judgment and discipline so that he can have the whole heart of his people. I'll just say these last couple of things here. God manifests his glory in judgment because of his jealous love for mankind. God's heart burns with the fiery and jealous love for the world. And in the same way that he releases revival to awaken hearts to love him. So he also releases judgment to remove everything that hinders hearts from loving him. God's judgments are released to remove that which hinders love. He is jealous for the devotion of his people and his jealousy drives him to take drastic measures to have our whole hearts. For you and I who believe an unprecedented historic revival, move of God's spirit and breakthrough manifestation of his glory is scheduled for this nation, the state and the city. We also have to prepare and equally believe that God will release discipline and judgment in the earth in order to bring about his sovereign purposes of blessing and revival in deliverance throughout the nations. I'll show this one last thing. Can I show one last thing? All right, this is sobering, but you know something. I did all that to say this. It's actually two things. The only safe place to live with God is in whole hearted devotion to him. And if you're not convinced, there's a coming move of God scheduled for this nation and the world. If you're not convinced that we sit at the beginning of this end time season before the Son of Man returns to you, if you're not convinced of that, those two truths right there, whole-heartedness will always sound too radical because the status quo, in Christianity, only makes sense outside of an eternal perspective. The status quo in Christianity, attending church, going through the motions, write a tithe check, do your thing, only makes sense outside of a paradigm that God is coming and his reward is with him. Likewise, if we carry truly the paradigm that God's intent on manifesting is glory, both in revival and blessing and in judgment and discipline, we will freely offer our hearts wholly to him all the days of our life. We're in the middle of a 40-day fast right now. I hate to break the news here, but this won't be the last 40-day fast that we do as a community. This won't be the last intense hour of consecration that we engage in as a community before the Lord returns because we're convinced he's coming. We're convinced he's assigned a move of God for this nation and as a result, we will freely give him our whole life because that's the only thing that makes sense. That's the only thing that makes sense. There's a little communication there between Pete and I. So this just tonight set the stage for some future revelation that I want to begin communicating when the Lord gives me opportunity that's going to continue to equip us with a paradigm for living in radical devotion, whole-hearted devotion to Christ in the context of an end times move of God. Even if you could throw out, if you're like, "Hey, I don't think you're wearing the end times," you can throw out the word end times if you want. Then you can say it like this, this will help you get a paradigm or a lens through which to view your circumstances around you and prepare you to live in radical Christianity for a crazy move of God on the earth. How many of you know we need to be equipped in this hour, not just with know how be better Christians sermons? We need the word of heaven. We need the Rama word to come and speak to us and tell us what heaven is saying in this hour, in this hour, to prepare for what he wants to bring on the earth tomorrow. This is what we need. This is our great need. Why don't you rise to your feet right now? Is everyone doing okay? Okay. It's a little bit of a weighty word, but I tell you, I can get excited about judgment only because I know that in God's purposes, he uses it to bring about whole-heartedness in his people. Wow. Wow. There's this voice in America in pulpits across, particularly in America, that wants to say, it wants to paint preachers who say Katrina was God, a hurricane Katrina, wants to say 9/11, God allowed that and all these disasters, a lot of pulpits want to paint those preachers in a corner and say those are the weird ones. Don't listen to them. But I'm telling you, we need to be able to interpret the signs of the times. We need to understand the ways of God. We need to pray and partner with him in releasing his sovereign purposes on the earth. Whole-heartedness is the only thing that makes sense. God, we want to give you it all. [BLANK_AUDIO]