What do you see when you look at creation? Creation attracts us all in different ways. It says ‘beauty’ to us all and invites us into intimacy with God because of what we see. There are so many different forms of beauty; something that is beautiful to one person won’t be beautiful to another, and that’s okay! The beauty that God has made is an invitation for us to attract our souls and to step into knowing Him more. He created this beauty so that we would inquire in Him and get to know the creator more intimately. Beauty reveals the Beautiful One. For example, healing is beautiful – both the natural function of the body to self-repair, and supernatural healing. Both are the beginning stages of creative miracles, and He created that!
What attracts you? What is beautiful to you? In His presence things are magnified. Think about the things that you find beautiful. What does their beauty reveal to you about God?
Too often we disqualify ourselves instead of discovering the attraction of our souls to His beauty and allowing that to become an invitation to intimacy for us. The Apostle Peter writes, ‘We become partakers of His divine nature’. This happens as we behold His beauty. Passion is stirred by this. Our desire is for everything we do and say to become a reflection of who He is and a sign towards Him. In the early chapters of the letter to the Romans, Paul is speaking to what is in effect humanism and writes about things like ‘Invisible attributes, creation of the world, eternal power, and divine nature’ and he argues that these are all things that actually point towards the beauty of God. Everything is a sign and a wonder!
What causes us to ask questions? As we ask questions we will find out who we are and what we were created for and to do. We are made in His image! This is hugely significant – being made in His image means we have access to a great many areas. Just begin to think of the things that He has done! Scripture tells us that ‘it’s the glory of God to conceal a matter and it’s the glory of kings to search it out.’ That must mean that He has hidden things inside of us for us to discover! He has hidden giftings inside of men and women to find – just think of surgeons, scientists, artists, architects, engineers or inventors and what has been done!
If we are looking at ‘doom and gloom’ we will see ‘doom and gloom’ everywhere but if we are beholding His beauty and learning to look at His beauty then we will get His beauty and see it everywhere. That is why Plato said “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”. Opening up our souls to be attracted to beauty and beginning to see what it is that we love means we can dare to dream.
Isaiah wrote that ‘the zeal of the Lord will accomplish this..’ What would God invest His zeal in? He has invested His zeal in the beauty of the planet, in us and the church. He invested it in these things to attract us, to get our attention. He offers us an invitation to discover what is beautiful to us so we can gaze upon it and ask questions. It is a godly life to gaze upon what is beautiful and look up, causing us to recognise His beauty and look at Him even more.
This is taken from the message ‘Beauty and Glory’ which can be purchased here: https://shop.ibethel.org/products/beauty-and-glory?ref=12
