Lampstand Review, November 2017

I am so thankful for these time to get together for the purpose of beholding and worshipping the Lord and pressing out oil to fill the reservoir that our flame draws from.

It is so valued and valuable to spend time in praise and worship, thanksgiving and adoration of the Living God. Not only does He greatly value it, we join with the worship that is happening around His throne day and night. It is not a superfluous activity to fill time or simply a means to make ourselves feel better. Worship is something He is worthy of and time spent doing it honors Him. Yes, it does change our hearts and encourage us as we do it, but ultimately worship is about Him. Oh, that our worship would get bigger!

This Lampstand, Ian Wilson led us in worship, it was a time of engaging with the Lord and He manifested His presence.

The Message
I (Matthew) shared briefly from Zechariah 4, continuing to remind us that it is the supernatural supply of oil that we need. We do our part to press out that oil and God supplies it supernaturally. What an encouragement Zechariah 4 is! Zechariah was a prophetic encouragement to those God chose to lead the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem in that day when the Jewish exiles had returned to the land. God was going to help! He promised He would be the supply. He does that for us in the assignments He gives us.   We depend on His supply and we are “wow”ed when He comes through.

Julie shared more from Revelation 4, specifically about the ministry of the living creatures around the throne. They sing, the great song of heaven, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, “
The beauty of the heavenly throne room is truly our reality and it is so valuable to stand before this powerful picture and ask questions.  Why these details?  Why living creatures?  Why 4?  Why wings and eyes?  Why these 4 faces?

One possible connection is that the Spirit is linking the 4 faces of the living creatures with the 4 aspects of Jesus revealed in the 4 Gospels.  Each Gospel have things in common yet each has a unique purpose and message and they correspond to the faces of the Living Creatures around the throne.
These creatures never cease beholding the Lord and declaring what they are seeing.  We have a similar calling as worshippers to BEHOLD Him and to DECLARE! 

This kind of beholding and declaring produces a response; it brings forth the response of the elders falling down before the thrown and casting down their crowns and singing a new song!
The elders sing of the worth of Jesus.  We can’t even imagine what it cost Him to be slain UNTIL we know the Beauty He lived in BEFORE He was slain!!  We look at what He descended from and where He is exalted to and everything shifts for us!

Response:
We prayed for impartation for each individual!  I love these times where everyone participates in encouraging one another through prayer.  It was an especially sweet time for us (Matthew and I) as parents to see Issachar stepping out to pray for individuals and share encouragement. 
 
Stay tuned for the December Lampstand as we are going to be doing something different and talking about Hanukkah and the miracle of oil!