A Body You Have Prepared for Me: Part 2

Isaiah 6:5-7

5 … “Woe is me! For I am lost…in the midst of a people of unclean lips…my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” [John 12:41]

6 …one of the seraphim flew…a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

7 …he touched my mouth and said: “your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

God’s plan of purging man and giving man forgiveness is prophetically illustrated in this vision:

  1. Man must recognize God’s holiness, His majesty, His supreme authority

  2. Man must recognize his own sinfulness, the fact that he is lost, he is unworthy

  3. Man must know God has made a way. The coal from the altar taken with tongs in the hand of the Seraphim was a foreshadowing of the cross.

The tone of Isaiah’s voice cries repentance. The content may not include the word sorry, but He is overwhelmed with the glory and splendor of the Lord, he sees his own desperate condition, and he wants to be right with God. This is Jesus by the way. Isaiah is seeing the Lord after His incarnation, after His sacrificial death, after His resurrection and ascension. He says, “I saw the King and the Lord of hosts”, and the angels cry you are holy, holy, holy. Heaven understands His holiness. The angels understand understand the great price the Father paid to redeem the human race. But the human race doesn’t understand. We so often think that we’re okay. No, brothers and sisters, we need to get a glimpse of glory and we need to understand what is going on here:

Revelation 19:10

Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy >>>>>>Sweet smelling savor… ages

Repentance- a simple definition is someone changes their mind. When we repent towards God we admit to Him that we were wrong and He was right. We thought we knew, but now we see. Help me Lord, I’m undone! I’m lost without you!

Psalms 7:12-17

12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; 13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. 14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. 15 He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. 16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends. 17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.

Isaiah 6:8-9

8 …Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”… “Here I am! Send me.” 9 The message ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.10 Make the heart of this people dull, ears heavy, blind their eyes; 11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,

Isaiah 6:13

And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.”

The holy seed is its stump.

Isaiah 11:1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse

Isaiah was commissioned to go and tell, to prophesy God’s truth! God’s truth always surrounded the coming King. Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this

And this was what Isaiah saw exalted in heaven. He saw the ascended King of Kings the Lord of Lords. He saw the eternal word who created the heavens and the earth, who willingly lowered Himself and was fashioned into a man so that He could serve the Father’s will and die and not just any death but the death of the cross. He suffered torture and shame. he was offended for our sakes because we had offended God, and…

Isaiah 53:10–if you want to know how much God loves you…

…it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin…

Isaiah said, “send me…” and Paul said, How beautiful are the feet of those who are sent…

Romans 10:14-17 who is they? All those who have not heard, all those who need to hear again…

14 How then shall THEY call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of  them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

And that’s where it all starts, to those who do believe, they receive a seed. It’s the whole plan of the harvest. A seed is sown (when an obedient mouth speaks) and a son is born:

And that is the beginning of the new life, and now we see the purposes of God in preparing a body for the Lord:

  • Genesis 1:11

  • Genesis 8:22

  • Leviticus 23

  • Ruth Gentile bride

  • Parable of the sower

  • Wheat in the store house

  • It starts with a preacher

John 12:24

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

John 1:12

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

God sowed a Son seed into the earth and He will reap a harvest of sons.

Now, He prepares a body for us. I mean did we think that He would leave us the way that we were before? He has a plan for us, and it’s not just to bless you with more money, bigger houses and nicer cars. His plan and purpose for our lives is that we would be a body created in the image of Jesus and that we would be a light in a darkened world. Some of us He will use in various types of ministry and for some our ministries will be to our families, our children, our parents, our brothers and our sisters, but in order to use us, He has to form us, and yes, receive ye the promise of my Father, which is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so that you will be endued or clothed upon with power from the Holy Spirit, so that you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the outer most parts of the earth.

But I have seen a lot of people who have said they were filled with the Spirit and not looking like Jesus. I have been filled with the Spirit and at times not looking like Jesus. No! That’s not acceptable. God is in the business of creating us into the image of Jesus, so that we will have a valid witness, and that is how He is preparing a body for us.

Hebrews 1:3

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

I remind you that Adam was created in the image and likeness of God, but the fall caused his offspring to be born into the image and likeness of fallen Adam:

Genesis 5:3 ESV

When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

God prepared a body for the last Adam, so that Adam’s fallen race could become recipient’s of the Father’s grace!

Colossians 3:10 KJV

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Romans 8:29 KJV

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 KJV

17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 4:3-7 KJV

3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. This creation talk right here. God does a creative miracle inside of people’s hearts.

Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV

17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Romans 6:13-14

13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

A Body You Have Prepared for Me

God’s plan of love and restoration reveals Jesus, not a cool smiling Jesus with natural highlights from sun exposure, but the Jesus described by the prophet Isaiah. To the world we live in and the untrained ears of most modern day church attenders, the real Jesus is offensive. His words are offensive! Some of His words would exclude Him from the hospitality teams of most modern day churches.

No! God is the offended party! Humanity, God‘s creation has offended him, rejected His plan and rebelled against Him!

But he does have a plan and he has included man in that plan – – he has privileged us with the opportunity to work for him and work with him.

In a sense, He was offended and asked to leave the premises of his creation. But we as His people can welcome Him back one heart at a time, just stay with me as I work through this.

Genesis 1:26

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Genesis 1:28

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue (subjection)it, and have dominion (rule over it) over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Through deception, the dominion and authority that was given to man, was lost it in Adam:

Luke 4:5-8

Wait- what? How offensive is that? We are either going to walk in the authority that we have received in Jesus and give Him His glory, or we’re not serving Him, the way He intends.

5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”

The whole physical creation is a test: the temporary is a test for eternity:

Matthew 25:14

The Parable of the Talents

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.

Adam’s life was a test, our life is a test I have given you my image. I have given you my dominion and authority. What will you do with the opportunity that I have given you?

—Stewardship—

Now God is on the outside of his creation so to speak. Don’t misunderstand what I am saying… He positioned himself this way, because his purpose and plan includes us. He chose us. He purposefully limits Himself in to partner with us in the creation He has given us authority over (Earth). He could’ve started over completely:

Gen 12:7-8

Genesis 8:20-21 and Noah built an altar and offered every clean beast, and it was sweet smelling savor—What are you doing here God?

1.  Flood – he needed a Noah. In order for his plan to continue.

2. Abraham – I will give you a land, make a nation out of you, I will bless all the nations of the earth.

3. Moses – I will destroy them and make a nation out of you

Exodus 32:8-14

  • 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.

11 But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

A land, a nation— a people for a purpose.

  • God positioned on the outside

  • God choosing to use humanity

  • God sticking to his plan

These truths are elucidated or clarified in this scripture

Leviticus 25:23

Redemption of Property

“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.

  • don’t sell my land – I have a plan.

  • don’t mess up my covenant I made with Noah.

  • don’t mess up my covenant I made with Abraham.

  • don’t mess up my agreement with Moses– I almost destroyed you.

Don’t sell my land—it belongs to me but right now, we are strangers in the land together.

And then right there, in the fullness of time, in that land he told them not to sell God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law (Galatians 4:4)

Hebrews 10:4-10 NASB

4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats  to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,

SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED,

BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; 6 IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO’  PLEASURE. 7 “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’” 8 After saying above, “SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them” (which are offered according to the Law), 9 then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Sacrifices and offerings in a whole burnt offerings for sin you have not desired nor have you taken pleasure in them?

What about the Sweet smelling, what about your food Lord…?

Numbers 29

Annual

Monthly

Weekly

Daily

The bread

The incense

Isaiah 1:18

Can you see his glorious presence? His name is Jesus – he saves his people from their sins. His name is Emmanuel. He is God with us. He is holy and lifted up

Isaiah 6 I see the Lord high and lifted up. He is magnified. He is glorified. Heaven is giving him his glory. The angels are giving him his glory. They are crying to him right now Church. They are saying holy holy holy.