More of Him, less of me

Ezekiel 47The River From the Temple 1 The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side.3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits (1500ft) [a] and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. 4 He measured off another thousand cubits (1500 ft) and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand (1500 ft) and led me through water that was up to the waist. 5 He measured off another thousand(1500 ft){6000ftbut now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. 6 He asked me, "Son of man, do you see this?" Then he led me back to the bank of the river.

I promise this will be the last post on Ezekiel 47, at least for the forseeable future. What I want to look at in this, is the “distance thing” or the significance of the distance from the temple. I have been thinking about this for a good amount of time now. And I finnally had a realization about the passage. Its not about me or you in any way. Lets unpack the idea of “more of him” and what that means along with”less of me”1. This is going to seem a bit elementary what I am about to do, but that’s ok because the ramifacations are powerful. We have all heard the phrase “more of Him, less of me” haven’t we? It’s a funny phrase to just say, but it’s a loaded phrase. When you look at the word more what does that make you think? It makes you think that you have extra of something that you previousely didn’t have. I think that word is loaded with tons (and for lack of a better word) more in the context of the phrase. The word more can have diferent uses but for this I want to look at it as and adjective. As an adjective the word more means Greater in size, amount, extent, or degree. So it does not necessarily mean what we perceive when we here the word. Now let’s look at the word “of”. The word of establishes a relationship between an object and some other part of the sentence, often expressing a location in place or time. Now that is interesting to me “often expressing a location in place or time” but in the context of the phrase we are talking about God. God is timeless and he has existed by himself and as who he is for ever, we just recently came into being as his creation. So here we have a relationship being established, which we will come back to. Now let’s look at HIM. The word Him is an abbreviation for Her (or His) Imperial Majesty.2 So now we have a more appropriate phrase, Greater in size, amount, extent, or degree of His Imperial Majesty. That is a powerful statement in itself and we haven’t even got to the “less of me” part. I bet you didn’t think that when you stated reading this there was going to be an embedded English lesson huh?

Now let‘s look at the second part of the phrase “less of me”. The word less has a couple of different definitions, but the one I want to focus on is the definition Lower in importance. That’s a tough cookie for people including myself to swallow because we all want to be thought of as important. We want people to know our names and be thought of as the end all be all of coolness. Ya its there you don’t have to admit it to anyone because everybody has it, but here is a news flash “the story already has a star, and the star is not you or me”3. The star of this amazing story is HIM. Let that sink in for a second… go ahead it’s a painfully big pill to swallow.

Now let’s take a look at the word me, since we have covered of. Me is derived from the word I and an appropriate definition of I is The self; the ego. Did you catch that the ego; the self. There are 2 definitions for ego and they say it all 1.) An exaggerated sense of self-importance; conceit and 2.) an inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others. So now we have a completed phrase “Greater in size, amount, extent, or degree of His Imperial Majesty. Lower in importance is my exaggerated sense of self-importance; conceit. This is a huge statement that I will bet no one likes, but everyone knows is true. Now you may say “ok I get it but what in the world does this have to do with Ezekiel 47 and the “distance thing? Well I am so glad you ask.

The whole time I was reading Ezekiel one common theme aroze. The people of Isreal were profaining the name of God among the nations and God wasn’t to happy about this. God makes statements about the things that he is doing and going to do to restore His name and so that they will know he is God. The people had lifted themselves and other things up instead of God. The scripture says “he measured off a thousand cubits (1500ft) [a] and then led me” the distance from the temple isn’t about the distance from God, instead its about the journey with God as he leads. If you notice the further the God leads Ezekiel the less Ezekiel you have and the more God you have. The people of Isreal were starting on a similar journey. The lives that they lead no longer had room for the Almighty, their priorites had become themselves and their lesser gods. The story they were meerly a part of, had become about “them” not “HIM”. The distance is important in the fact that, all of us start out as I described with regaurds to the word ME. As God leads us closer to him the distance turns ME into me. By the end of Ezekiels Journey with God He was no longer visible. God led him to a place were it was no longer about him. It was about “H I M”.

1 John 3:30 (New American Standard Bible)
30"He must increase, but I must decrease

2 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

3 Giglio, L. 2005 I am not but I know I AM, Multnomah, Sisters Or., pp.13

He makes the steps, we follow


The more that I read Ezekiel 47 the more it speaks to me. Or I guess I should say the more things jump out at me. I am still thinking about the significance of the distance from the temple, but while I was reading it again and again something else stood out to me. So here we go again with this scripture (I promise I’ll give it a rest when it stops speaking to me)

Ezekiel 47The River From the Temple 1 The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side.3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits (1500ft) [a] and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. 4 He measured off another thousand cubits (1500 ft) and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand (1500 ft) and led me through water that was up to the waist. 5 He measured off another thousand(1500 ft){6000ftbut now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. 6 He asked me, "Son of man, do you see this?" Then he led me back to the bank of the river.

The “he led me” in this scripture blew my mind the other night while I was reading it. Over and over again we see “He led me”. He led Ezekiel through the ankle deep water, through the knee-deep water, through the waist deep water and finally into the “deep end” with him. The whole time God was leading him. When the glory was only ankle-deep God was leading. He is leading Ezekiel into his presence. I always heard people say “you can step boldly into his presence” but I have never been able to in myself to do this. I want so much during my prayer time to step oh so boldly into His presence but I don’t know how and I never feel worthy enough to try. What I have come to realize is that “He goes before me” He leads me there, into His presence. It’s written all through out His word. In Exodus 13:21

Exodus 13:21
By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.

He went before the children of Israel as a pillar of fire by night; he led them through the darkness of the desert wilderness. During the day he led them in a pillar of cloud. He was there preparing their steps before they made them. He went before them. He went before his servant David when he faced Goliath. All of King Saul’s army stood in terror of the 9ft tall giant, but David did not.


1 Samuel 17:32-37
32 David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."
33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."
34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."


David wasn’t afraid because he knew that his Lord Jehovah (the I AM) went before him and the victory was already his. David didn’t know how to fight a Giant and neither do we for that matter but David did know something that was more important. He knew God did. I think there are a great many of us that become discouraged when God says to do something. We become discouraged because we try with all OUR might to accomplish it and we exhaust ourselves in the process and just when we have given up the Lord says “now that you are done I can work through you” We try to make our own steps instead of following the steps already laid out for us.
Jesus does the ultimate leading. He offered himself up because he would rather take our punishment then to be with out us. The pastor at my church made a powerful statement this Sunday he said “there was room enough under the cross for all” and I would like to add “to follow”.
“Lead me” is a prayer that I hunger to pray, whether it is ankle-deep in you or swimming in your glory. What ever glorifies you, just lead me...

Down with the Bigness?


The Bigness of God, that’s a thought to focus on. I really do not think that any of us have even an idea of just how big He is. I was talking with some guys that meet for coffee regularly on Thursday morning (you know who you are) and the question was raised about a part of Ezekiel 47 or not really a question just more or less a thought about this part of the scripture.

47 The River From the Temple 1 The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side.3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits (1500ft) [a] and then led me through water that was ankle-deep.

Why is the water ankle-deep the closer you are to the temple? You would think that the closer to the temple you are, the further “caught up in God” you might be (deep end). Or the”water” would be at its deepest the closer to the temple you are. The scripture tells a different story though. 1500 ft from the temple it’s only ankle-deep. If you follow the progression back to the temple it’s just a trickle coming out from under the threshold. I think this points to the immenseness of God. God’s bigness, I think that his bigness eludes a lot of us. We have a cookie cuter idea of good that’s all nice and simple and we try to make that idea fit us. We try and make the idea and Gods grandeur fit into nice little molds of how we think he should be and how he should operate. We do this because that’s how we think. We are finite and our ways are limited (even though we like to think of them as limitless), but God is not. All it takes is just a touch of his glory to change things.

Mathew 9:18-22 (NIV

18While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, "My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live." 19Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
20Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed."
22Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment.

This scripture says a lot about faith, the faith the woman had in the fact that Jesus was who he said he was , but I believe it speaks a great deal more about the bigness of God. The woman merely touched the edge of his Garment, only the edge. Now most of us picture this as her grabbing the very end of his garment with her hand and this amazing thing taking place with maybe some music in the back ground (movie version), but I think it was more like a graze of the finger across his garment. A touch that you or I would never know happened. And that’s all it took. Just that touch, everything for her from that point on was different for her because of the bigness of God.
The Titanic was said to be unsinkable according to those who designed it. It was a marvel of modern technological achievement. The ship was 882.6 feet long and 175 feet high. The ship displaced 46,329 tons of water. The Ice berg that it struck was “according to early newspaper reports the height and length of the iceberg was approximated at 50 to 100 feet high and 200 to 400 feet long.” So the Titanic dwarfed the iceberg in comparison. What they saw was “just the tip of the iceberg” 90% of the mass of an iceberg is below the surface. That 10% was powerful enough to sink the unsinkable. Only 10%, can you imagine a total out pouring of Gods glory? Would we be able to handle it? Moses ask god to show him his glory his very face, but God would only show Moses where he had been (while Moses was living). Moses caught a glimpse of where he had been just a small glimpse of where his glory had passed and from that left changed. So just a trickle from the temple turns into a massive river that no one could cross, just a drop of his glory creates an ocean

The point is that it takes only a small amount of his glory, say a touch of his garment or a trickle of water from his temple and people and things are changed forever. Some people are moved to tears by it while others are ready to taken on the wild sea. Irregardless of the reaction the source is the same. A small portion of him is enough to set a soul ablaze.