“COME UP HIGHER”
BY
RANDALL J. BREWER
Many years ago a world renowned newscaster would always end his program with these words, “And that’s the way it is.” When hard times come many believers say the same thing. “That’s the way it is. Whatever will be will be.” They then go off and have a lousy day and wonder where God is while all this calamity is going on. These same people are a walking testimony of what the Bible says in Hosea 4:6, “My people and destroyed for a lack of knowledge.”
Surprisingly, the number of people who don’t know all the glorious things that’s been made available to them is phenomenal. For some reason they’ve always seen less than what God intended to show them. They put God in a box and continually struggle when it comes to believing a big God for big things. They can’t grasp with their mind what John said in 3 John 2, “I pray that you will prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.”
Your mind and the way you think is part of your soul and “soul prosperity” is achieved when you study the Word and fill your mind with the knowledge of God and all that He desires to give you, foremost which is a good life. Most people would be shocked were they to find out that, more times than not, their hardship came as a result of a lack of knowledge more than the trial itself.
How will this prophetic word come into manifestation?
The answer is found in Is. 60:1-3, “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”
The “glory of God” can be described as the radiant, visible, manifestation of the presence of God. Ezekiel saw the glory of God coming in waves rolling in like a tide (Ezek. 47:1-9). The glory is rolling in like a flood, and a flood can’t be stopped. As the world gets darker, the church will get brighter and brighter. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound (Rom. 5:20).
The glory of God will be seen in our lives when the world is at it’s darkest hour. It will be in such manifestation in your life that the unsaved will see it. They will look at you and see that you’re the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. In other words, they’ll see you living the good life.
We read in 1 Cor. 2:14, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." How can the heathen of the world see the glory of God if only true believers can understand and discern things in the spiritual realm? Simple. They will see God doing good things to those who are His.
The natural world can tell when God has been good to somebody. Daily our lives should be a testimony to the goodness of God. Moses asked God in Ex. 33:18, “Please, show me your glory.” God replied in vs. 19, “I will make My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
Moses asked to see the glory of God and God showed him His goodness. Therefore, the glory of God equals the goodness of God. So when Isaiah says the glory of God will be seen upon you he is actually saying that the heathen will see with their natural eyes God being good to you! That’s the glory! That’s the good life!
The good life is the route that takes you to the top of your mountain. Jesus is coming back for a glorious church, a church that is walking in the fullness of the glory of God. We are that generation that will see great manifestations of the glory and goodness of God. God is calling each of us to come up higher and to go further than we’ve ever gone before.
God wants us to experience the good life while living in the fullness of all the blessings that have already been made available to us. And, praise Jesus, He wants the world to see it, a world that is forever ready and willing to mock and criticize the church of the living God.
The psalmist asks, “Why should the Gentiles say, ‘Where now is their God?’” (Ps. 115:2). It is our responsibility and privilege to let the world see the physical manifestations of God’s goodness as we enjoy every day of our lives.
Living the good life is not a series of exciting events and emotions where we feel like our bodies are being penetrated by millions of needles. Neither should we only be happy on weekends and vacations.
More times than not normal every day life means you get up, go to work, come home, play with the kids, eat, do the dishes, mow the lawn, watch a little television, go to bed. You then get up the next day and repeat the same process all over again. But when you’re addicted to Jesus, when you are living the good life, you will be anointed by God to live ordinary lives while at the same time being extraordinarily joyful.
You’ll wake up each morning and boldly declare, “This is the day which the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps. 118:24). You can rejoice because your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life and you can be happy because Jesus is alive in your heart. That alone is reason to celebrate.
David prayed in Ps. 51:12, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with Your generous Spirit.” With God’s generosity comes a joy unspeakable that is overflowing and Neh. 8:10 tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength. What an awesome scripture! You can enjoy God so much that you’ll have the strength to resist whatever it is the devil brings against you.
Yes, we are to take life seriously but in Jesus we can have fun doing it. After all, He’s the glory and the lifter of our head. Paul says in Rom. 14:17 that “the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
There is a well of joy inside of you so tap into it. Train yourself to enjoy the normal activities of the day, things like doing the dishes and mowing the lawn. Life is to be enjoyed and not just endured. A bad day is a wasted day so be determined to enjoy every single day you’re alive.
Don’t look at what you don’t have but rejoice in what you do have. Yes, the other man’s grass may be greener but he’s also got a bigger water bill than you have. Think about that the next time you’re tempted to get envious of what others have and lose your sense of joy. Be happy and content with what you have and believe that God is working behind the scenes changing things in your favor. You’ve only got one life to live but you can only live it once. So enjoy the journey. Live the good life.
God’s definition of the good life is found in Deut. 28:1-14. Vs. 2 says, “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.” The word “overtake” means ‘surprise’ and this verse is saying that when you live the good life the blessings of God will come on you and He will continually surprise you with things you have not even asked Him for.
Vs. 11 says, “And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.” In the mind of God, if you are not in the over and above, then you have not yet entered into the good life.
The fullness of the good life is overflow, more than enough, above and beyond what you could ask or think (Eph. 3:20). The Message Bible translation of John 10:10 says this, “A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I come so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” That’s exciting! That’s the good life!
The Message Bible also says in 2 Cor. 9:8,9, “God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it, ‘He throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out.’”
Like Abraham, you’ll be blessed beyond measure with reckless abandon so that you can turn around and be a blessing to somebody else.. Vs. 10,11 says, “This most generous God Who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can give away, which grows into full formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.”
Our God is extravagant, so much so that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Success is the result of steady, forward movement and real success involves helping others. This is the path on which God wants you to travel and once you get on that path, and stay on it, there is no way anybody can stop you from living the good life.
Successful people never quit. Paul tells the church in 1 Cor. 15:58 to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Thomas Edison once said, “I start where other men quit.” People are afraid to expect good things in their lives because they’ve experienced so many disappointments and failures in the past. Thomas Edison failed thousands of times but he did not quit. The same thing happened to Abraham Lincoln. The list goes on and on.
In order to live the good life we have to forget about the failures of the past and raise the level of our expectations. Jesus once asked the blind men, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (Matt. 9:28). When they said “Yes, Lord” Jesus touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be to you” (vs. 28).
Our faith limits and determines the amount of God’s power that is manifested in our lives. This is why we must think big thoughts because God is able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20).
We cannot be moved by what’s happening around us, but instead will only be moved by the Word of God and the image of the good life that we have on the inside of us. What you see down in your spirit will eventually become so real to you that no matter what the circumstances look like on the outside you will be fully persuaded that the good life is your destiny.
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