THE BEAUTY OF GOD AS OUR OCCUPATION

The beauty of the Lord is more than just a divine exchange program, although that’s one very real facet. God wants to do much more than simply trade our messes for His majesty. The beauty of the Lord has been ordained as the occupation of God’s people. He wants us to be fascinated by His beauty on a daily basis now and for all of eternity. We have earthly promises and mandates to be fulfilled in our lifetimes. Some of us will pastor congregations, some will feed and minister to the poor, others will serve as conduits of funds to further God’s purposes. While these are God-ordained assignments for this life, none of these mandates will last forever. In those roles there is a God-given measure of satisfaction, but at some point those assignments will be complete. As immortal souls operating in a mortal world, we must look for something eternal to fascinate hearts that are de- signed to live forever. And we must begin to cultivate it now.

I’ve said a lot about both entertainment and earthly assign- ments. I truly don’t want to dismiss the validity of some of these things. It is not that they all are invalid or evil; they are simply inferior to the superior pleasures of God. God’s strategy is to liberate people from believing the lie that their temporal assign- ments are all there is in life. We’re called to something bigger than less than.

Anyone who’s ever watched a five-year-old fight sleep knows why they’re fighting. They don’t hate sleep, they’re just afraid they’re going to miss something. They’ll run in circles, sing songs, throw a temper tantrum or pick a fight with a sibling to avoid falling asleep. They are convinced that the moment they do, the real party will start without them: mom and dad will roll back the rug, a band will appear from nowhere, and party guests

will arrive. Of course, mom and dad have no intention of doing this, but to the child, the fear is real. Most people never outgrow this. They live with the fear of missing something. They can’t imagine coming to the office and hearing talk of a movie they have not seen or a song they have not heard. They hunger for experience and expend a huge amount of energy staying current on the temporal, inferior pleasures of life, while missing out on the superior pleasures of God in the process. They never have time to be captivated by the beauty of God because they are consumed with the potential of what they might become on their own.

What is true in the realm of entertainment is also true in the realm of ministry or secular employment. People lie awake at night and dedicate themselves to wondering, “What if I miss my big chance? Will I be there to take the phone call that puts me on the map?” It may very well be that God does want you to be on the map, that He does have thoughts of promoting you in people’s eyes. But I can promise you this: all those promotions are very much like entertainment; at the end of the day, they are still inferior pleasures. They are still less than, and without the fascination of God, they are ultimately nothing.

People who chase entertainment or positions do not have the energy to persevere in their pursuit of the beauty of God. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. If they really want to fulfill the longing of their heart for fascination, they must make the same determination David did, “to pursue this one thing…to behold the beauty of God.” Fortunately for all of us, this is ex- actly the opportunity God is looking for. He has the answer for inferior pleasures. Throughout history, God has woven an elegant story of redemption to cause us to marvel, to gaze upon Him and His ways in fascination, awe and wonder. More im- portantly, this story is moving rapidly toward a crescendo at the end of the age—the unveiling of the beauty of His Son. It will be His ultimate expression of giving beauty for ashes.

God did not intend for us to grit our teeth in order to prevail against a lifetime of inferior pleasures. He knew that willpower

alone couldn’t pull us through, so He created superior pleasures. Pleasure is what motivates us to abandon the lesser things and give ourselves to Jesus. God revealing God to the human spirit is the most exhilarating experience in the universe. This “Divine entertainment” causes earthly entertainment and human accom- plishment to melt away in obvious inferiority. As we progres- sively see Him in all His glory and splendor, boredom ceases to be an issue.

The Bible says it is possible to satiate our desire for fascination in Jesus’ beauty. When we make a commitment to holiness and set our hearts to pursue the greater pleasures of knowing Him, God makes us a promise—that our eyes will see the King in His beauty (Isaiah 33:17). Making a commitment to the Lord always has ben- efits. Making a commitment to pursue His beauty pays off in both the short and long term, as He fulfills our longings for fascination and increases our capacity for it at the same time. As beautiful as Jesus can be to us now (and, yes, Jesus really is enough to exceed all our expectations) we will receive more and more of His beauty in the days to come. He gives us a glimpse of this increasing rev- elation of beauty as a down payment of sorts, to say, “Pursue Me. I have superior pleasures that you will never find on Earth, and even greater things in store for you in the coming age” (Matthew 6:31-34; Mark 10:29-30; Luke 18:29-30).

A satisfied, fascinated believer is a spiritually strong believ- er who lives with a special measure of protection from Satan’s schemes. Many of the opportunities for sin that come their way are rejected, not because of some moral superiority over those who may fall for the same trick, but simply because the believer is preoccupied with the beauty of God and has no attention to give to lesser pleasures. The deceptions of the enemy are more quickly exposed for what they are: unsatisfying distractions from that which is truly fulfilling.

The beauty of God reaches its high point in the revelation of Jesus as our Bridegroom King. The overwhelming beauty of the Bridegroom King will ravish the end-time Church, enabling her to suffer every kind of persecution and tribulation, and

remain fervent in love (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12). Even in death, believers will fix their eyes solely upon the One who will soon split the sky with His appearing and destroy the enemy with His brightness (2 Thessalonians 2:8). The splendor-filled per- son of Jesus will be the focus of the saints at this time, and they will burn with a holy fascination as they gaze upon His unsur- passed beauty. This is one of the chief themes in the Kingdom of God—the Lord’s promise to unveil the beauty of Jesus in a unique way to the generation that will see His return.

Though most of the Church in the Western world has lost its wonder in God, the Lord will redress this great tragedy. The passive, stagnant, spiritually dull Western Church will be awak- ened as God reveals Himself once again. He is even now releas- ing a new anointing on the Church, an enabling to perceive Jesus’ beauty in order to answer the craving for awe and wonder. Within the Bridal Paradigm of the Kingdom, God is revealing the beauty of Jesus as the Bridegroom God, making the inferior pleasures obsolete and communicating His own transcendent beauty in order to fascinate His end-time Church.

Pornography, riches or self-promotion do not appeal to a person fascinated with Christ Jesus. There is more to serving God than simply gritting your teeth and trying to avoid evil. Perceiving Jesus’ beauty results in the supernatural strengthen- ing of the inner man. Likewise, the political spirit that has been so prominent throughout Church history will be conquered by only one thing: a holy preoccupation, a fascination with the beauty of Christ Jesus. Those with powerful ministries or open doors to government will see their auspicious position as sec- ondary and proclaim, “I am captured by Jesus!”

Jesus Himself will rock the Church as the Holy Spirit un- locks the treasure trove of His glory and splendor. The Church will fall hopelessly in love with the Man Jesus, considering it their glory to give up everything to and for Him. The Father has chosen to enthrall the human heart through the most powerful weapon He has: unveiling the knowledge of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

People often say, “I don’t have time for a devotional life in prayer and the Word of God.” The reason they don’t have time is that they don’t know what God has in store for them as they wait before Him. A “devotional life” is not a bargaining chip to get God to pay attention. It is the way into pleasure, into His power and into having an enthralled heart! In revealing His Son, God fascinates His people beyond anything they have ever known. This fascination serves as a holy protection mechanism from all the deceptions of the enemy, and it strengthens believ- ers with a godly motivation to always reach toward the beauty that will remain when all else fades away.

CHAPTER THREE

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