Holy Smoke

One of the blessings of the Holy Spirit is to provide insight into our
present season. Apart from His providing new perspectives to us all
directly or perhaps through prophets, we tend to move blindly, glibly,
mostly unaware of the significance of events around us. Time marches
on, but we are unaware of the importance of signs or ignorant of
opportunities being quickly lost.

Isaiah said, “In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord
sitting on a throne…” (Is. 6:1) This scripture was opened to me last
week, the same week Terry Schiavo died, the same week Jerry Falwell
nearly died, the same week in which the Pope died. Deaths of major
figures often portend a change of seasons, a new opening for either
good or evil to expand its sway. The Lord had given me this same
scripture when Ronald Reagan passed away.

I remember years ago hearing evangelist Terry Law from Oral Roberts
University tell how the Pope (before he was elected to that office)
helped open the door for Terry’s evangelistic Spirit-filled singing
group to come into Poland with the gospel. That was before Solidarity
had taken root. Terry had a sense that this late Pope truly knew the
Lord Jesus. Now, a billion people on earth are mourning the passing of
this head of the Catholic Church.

Those of us who are Protestant also pay our respects to a great world
leader who withstood tyranny and testified to the gospel. A new friend
recently asked me about the church I attend: “What time is Mass on
Sunday?” he said. That let me know he was raised on Catholic tradition.
I told him, “We’re Protestants. We don’t call it Mass. We have other
rituals.” What kind of believer in Jesus are you? Third-Wave? Reformed?
Five-Fold? Charismatic? Evangelical? Aren’t labels silly? In hell, all
labels burn off. In heaven, they all fall off. Only knowing Jesus is
what counts.

Why was Isaiah impacted by King Uzziah’s death? Because Uzziah had been
a reformer, a great king, and most likely a benefactor and friend to
the prophet. Isaiah must have felt it deeply when his friend died. He
sought consolation for his soul by seeking God. I imagine in his heart
he wondered, “What about the revival? What about the standards of
righteousness? What happens to our nation now?” In that context, when
he was feeling low, he was given a great revelation of the exalted
Lord.

In his vision, Isaiah saw an occupied throne in heaven. Prophets
frequently see into the Spirit realm. They are also called in the
Bible, “seers.” Some of them also say what they see. I’m glad Isaiah
wrote down what the Spirit showed him. It helps us all to realize that
at the center of the universe there exists today a throne. Seated upon
it is our Redeemer. God is in charge! His kingdom rules over all. The
One who is seated on the throne is no stranger to us. He
compassionately invites us to draw near to Him and ask for mercy and
grace. He has invited those of us who are saved to participate in
expanding His government on earth, both by praying in faith, and by
living under His Lordship. So we pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be
done on earth…”

This is why church life is so important, why isolation is unfruitful.
We must live out in a practical way what we’ve seen by faith whether it
is done in small house groups, or in formal church auditoriums, or in
city-wide gatherings. Fellowship in Christ (koinonia) expresses the
King’s vision for corporate life in His body. Christian community
models the kingdom, displaying little colonies of heaven, little
lighthouses on dark shores, expanding Christ’s rule and paving the way
for His triumphant return.

When Isaiah saw the Lord, He was seated on a throne with His robe’s
trailing cloak (called a train) filling the temple (or, the house).
When God is in a house, His presence is manifested through the
anointing. The anointing is nothing less than the invisible God making
His presence known by the Holy Spirit’s power. The invisible becomes
tangible when the Lord shows up in power. When His presence is
welcomed, the whole house is affected. Two other indicators that God
was present in power were revealed in Isaiah’s vision: His voice shook
the foundations, and the house was filled with smoke (a cloud of
glory). This image of a cloud became very important to me as you will
see in a moment.

Let me ask you a question: Are you immoveable? Are you firmly fixed on
your present foundation? Or, are you able to be shaken by God’s voice?
I think it is wise to have such a fear of the Lord and such a heart to
hear His voice that we are yet able to be rattled by His penetrating
voice, His now word. No one should be stoic when the Lord speaks.
Otherwise, we may be too settled, too stuck, too slow of heart to
believe, and thus we are unable to move ahead in God’s purposes.
Perhaps we are convinced we have heard it all, or we know it all, or we
can do it all, that surely tomorrow will be just like yesterday, only
more so.

I have been hearing the Lord say, “Change your position.” Whenever God
speaks, His word always has power… if we are postured to be listening.
God’s “proceeding word” can shake you to your core! When was the last
time you heard from the Lord so clearly that it shook you and caused
you to repent? Repent is a good word… it means to change your mind,
thus, to change your position or belief or attitude on some issue or
topic or action.

Too often we get rooted in an old truth, an old way, a former
lifestyle, or a prior church tradition that served a previous era, but
we are unable to hear a fresh word or take a new direction because we
are so set in our old ways. Being strong-willed can become a disguise
for being stubborn! Then, when a prophet boldly speaks to us or the
Spirit softly whispers to us, it seems like radical nonsense.
Dismissed! Doesn’t fit! Can’t be God! Indeed, when anyone gives answers
to questions we aren’t yet asking, even when it is the Lord speaking,
it feels like an unwelcome invasion of our space or an invasion of our
security.

God “awakens our ear to hear” by making us uncomfortable in our present
situation. No one changes without pain. Transition means something is
ending and something new is beginning. That never feels good to us; it
feels like loss. A prophet’s ministry is to comfort the afflicted and
afflict the comfortable. If you love your comfort zones, then don’t do
anything to stir up the spirit of prophecy in your life or in your
church. If you want to stay unchanged, be just like the religious
people described later in Isaiah six who could look without seeing,
listen without hearing, whose hearts were so dull they could not
repent, nor could they return and be healed. May God have mercy on us
and open the eyes of our hearts! (See Ephesians 1:17-18)

In Isaiah’s revelation, when the Lord showed up in the house, smoke
filled the room. A cloud is a symbol of the glory of God. God’s glory
can be manifested; become tangible. Inside a cloud, you can become
lost, without direction, unless you hear a voice calling out, “This
way!” You can be adrift in a fog just ten feet from shore, but not know
which way to turn if the ground-hugging vapor is thick enough. Even the
cloud of God’s glory can be dangerous. It requires wise direction for
us to proceed without being hurt or damaging others.

The same day the Lord gave me this text in Isaiah 6:1, He also showed
me in a dream a picture of an automobile. (I won’t go into it here, but
several times the Lord has used visions of automobiles-- from
prototypes of Model-A’s to Mercedes Benz-- to illustrate for me
apostolic teams and how they should operate.) I had fallen asleep that
night praying, saying to the Lord, “I can’t figure out how these
ministry teams are supposed to work.” Issues were unresolved: unequal
yokes, solo ministry models, corporate CEO styles, plurality, headship,
sunergos, etc.

I awoke with a dream from the Lord in which I opened the hood of a car,
expecting to find an engine. Now, I’m a man and I know what an
automobile engine looks like and I know how it works. They are designed
by engineers, manufactured by skilled workers, and they use gasoline to
produce power to move the vehicle in which passengers are safely
carried to a destination, often in style, speed, and comfort. I can
smell the leather and feel the power just imagining it!

When I opened the hood, instead of a motor, much to my surprise, I saw
a cloud floating in the engine compartment! It was blue-white,
hovering, just hanging there, mysterious but throbbing with power. I
awoke saying to myself, “That’s how an apostolic team can work!” It was
totally dependent on God’s presence and power, not on man’s technique,
or clever methodology, or ingenious structure, or dependent on us
figuring it all out. In fact, it can’t be figured out! It is a mystery.
Teams do work, but to work well, they are dependent on the presence of
the One whose glory provides the power to move us toward our
destination.

Back to Isaiah: After he saw the cloud of God’s glory, he heard holy
angels worshipping the One who sits on the throne, saying, “Holy, holy,
holy.” God is not just holy, but He is holy to the third power! The
word holy means “other than.” God is different from His creation, not
of this age or natural realm, higher, beyond human conception,
requiring disclosure of Himself for us to know Him, a revelation
culminating in Christ Jesus the Word made flesh.

“If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father,” Jesus said. We glimpse the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and
Savior. To know Jesus is to have eternal life. That’s enough for now.

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“Holy Smoke” © 2005 by Ronald Wood, Founder and President of Touched by
Grace Inc., P.O. Box 12749, Wilmington, NC 28405 USA. Write to us at
ron@touchedbygrace.org or visit our website for additional materials.