This is a collection of some of the best writings on the topic of the Holy Spirit and beauty. Not many have written on this issue and so these few are special.

1. HOLY SPIRIT AND BEAUTY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
The Holy Spirit's Role in Creation
The following quote by Michael Reeves is on the role of the Holy Spirit in creation. I never
thought about the connection between the Holy Spirit's ministry and beauty before.
So, some Scriptures speak of creation as the work of the Father (it is conceived in his love);
others speak of creation as the work of the Son (he brings about his Father’s will); but still
others speak of it as the work of the Spirit. “By the word of the LORD were the heavens
made, their starry host by the breath [or Spirit] of his mouth” (Ps 33:6). How? What is the
Spirit’s role? We have already seenthat the Spirit empowers the Word, but he does even
more: while the Son establishes and upholds all things (Heb 1:3), the Spirit perfects or
completes the work of creation. Job 26:13 puts it delightfully: "By his breath [or Spirit] the
skies became fair. In other words, the Spirit garnishes and beautifies the heavens and the
earth. Our first vision of the Spirit, hovering dovelike in Genesis 1, captures something
essential. It is that, like a mothering dove settling on her eggs, the Spirit vivifies, bringing
what has been created to life. And so, while the Nicene Creed speaks of the Father as
"Makerof heaven and earth," it speaks of the Spirit as the Lord and giver of life.
Life is something that God has always had, and in creation is it something he now shares
with us. By his Spirit he breathes out life on us. And not just in the beginning: that is
always the Spirit's work, to bring life. In the book of Job, Elihu says, "The Spirit of God
has made me; the breath of the Almighty gave me life" (Job 33:4). Ongoingly in his
creation, the Spirit vitalizes and refreshes. He delights to make his creation--and his
creatures--fruitful. Isaiah writes of the time when "the Spirit is poured upon us from on
high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest" (Is
32:15). The psalmist sings: "When you send your Spirit, they [the creatures] are created,
and you renew the face of the earth" (Ps 104:30). Small wonder, then, that creativity, the
ability to craft, adorn and make beautiful, is a gift of the Spirit:
Then the Lord said to Moses, "See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the
tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and
knowledge in all kinds of crafts--to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and
bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of
craftsmanship." ((Ex 31:1-5).

2. The Spirit makes his creation alive with beauty. (Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction
to the Christian Faith by Michael Reeves)
Posted on October 29, 2011 by Bummyla
THE HOLY
SPIRIT ADDS BEAUTY AND COLOUR TO OUR LIVES
His Spirit made the heavens
beautiful….(Job 36:13 TNLT)
Have you
evermet someone whose life was “Colourless”? By it I mean things were just
dull and stale and there was nothing inspiring about the person. Such people
are always seeking fulfilment in all the wrong places, but it eludes them.
That’s a sign that such folks have not yielded to the ministry of the Holy
Spirit.
When the
Holy Spirit comes to live in you, He brings colour and beauty into your life!
There will be freshness about your life every single day that can’t be ignored.
If He can only find a way to express Himself in you, your life will be full of
beauty, glory and grace.
When you
study the account of creation in the Bible, you’ll discover that the earth was
a chaotic mass, covered in darkness. But the Bible says that the Spirit of God hovered
over the dark vapour (Genesis 1:1-3). When God spoke and commanded things to
change, guess who went into action? It was the Holy Spirit! He specializes in
beautifying even the worst of situations! When He comes on the scene, the chaos
and disorder vanishes and He brings in colour, order and beauty! All the beauty
that you see in all of God’s creation was produced by the Holy Spirit.
The
Holy Spirit has brought so much beauty and colour into my life and He can do
the same for you. I don’t have any “Blue days” because He makes each day a new
and exciting experience. As you yield to Him, your life will become so full of
beauty and colour that those around you will wonder what you’re doing that
makes you so special. He’ll give you beauty for ashes, such that when people
look at you, they’ll see the beauty and favour of God upon your life."
Article by Tony Reinke
Senior writer, desiringGod.org

3. The following quotes are taken from Steve DeWitt's outstanding book, Eyes Wide Open:
Enjoying God in Everything (Credo House, 2012).
“What if we were to realize that every sunset viewed, every sexual intimacy enjoyed, every
favorite food savored, every song sung or listened to, every home decorated, and every rich
moment enjoyed in this life isn’t ultimately about itself but is an expression and reflection
of God’s essential character? Wouldn’t such beautiful and desirable reflections mean that
their Source must be evenmore beautiful — and, ultimately, most desirable?” (8)
“The greatest wonder is not the music itself but the Musician, not the creation but the
Creator. He is beautiful.” (9)
“Try to conceive of this. God is absolute perfection: perfect power, perfect love, perfect
justice, and perfect faithfulness. He is perfect everything. All He is matches every good
desire we possess. God’s beauty is the bouquet of His perfections in His person, unveiled in
His purposes, and displayed in His glory. Wow.” (31)
“We enjoy holidays (the coming together of family), weddings and anniversaries
(celebrations of the union of marriage), and Fourth of July parades (the unity of
community and nation). Coming together feels great! Relational unity is humanity at its
supreme and highest ideal. Have you everwondered why the greatest memories of our lives
are not things we bought or sites we saw or foods we ate? Think about your greatest
memories. They probably have something to do with times of closeness with a parent, a
child, a spouse, or a friend. Relational unity is beautiful because all the experiential
harmonies of this world whisper of the wondrous beauty of the Godhead’s relational
threeness and oneness.” (35)
“Glory is the light of divine delight. Specifically, it is the brilliant, emanating overflow
expression of God’s infinite delight in being God. Glory light expresses God’s glorious
worth. God chooses to express His invisible, infinite worth in a visible, created way. A
created thing can reflect or express a spiritual reality. Glory to us looks like light. It is
bright. It is radiant
“Christianity’s answer to the question of why creation is so beautiful is that it flows from
the character of a beautiful creator. Nature is God’s self-portrait. It is not God, since God
transcends what He has created, but it reveals in physical form what He is like spiritually.
God creates beauty so we can know what He is like. Since He is and always has been
glorious and beautiful, creation reflects this with seeable, tastable, touchable, hearable, and

4. smellable reflections of His glory and beauty. This is what Isaiah heard the angels exulting.
The whole earth is filled with His glory, and it is a ‘song about God.’” (62)
“Creation speaks to us — every day, all the time, constantly shouting truths about spiritual
reality. Did you hear it this morning as you got up? Did you feel any truth about God this
morning as you took a hot shower? Did you taste any truth as you delighted in your
morning coffee? Did you hear any divine reality as you heard a bird singing? Did you see
any truth as you saw the blue of the sky? What have you actually felt, tasted, touched, seen,
and heard today? The whole earth is filled with His glory. Every day creation shouts to us,
God is glorious! God is creator! God is provider! God is love! God is there! . . . Everywhere
I look, everything I feel, hear, smell, and taste transmits the beauty of God through the
beauty of creation. He is the beauty behind all beauty.” (63–64)
“As Romans 11:36 states, all things are from God and to God. Beauty boomerangs from
God into created beauty, then through the senses andsoul of the image-bearer, and finally
back to God with praise and glory.” (69)
“The beauties of this world whisper to our souls that there is someone ultimate. But the
ultimate is never found in the wonderland of creation. We keeplooking and longing for the
beauty behind the beauty, the One who will satisfy the cravings of our soul.
“It all comes back to Genesis 1:26: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’ We
were made for God’s beauty, and all beauty is God’s beauty. When we see or hear or taste
or smell one of the created reflections of God’s beauty, we love it; and it creates wonder
within us.
“Beauty was created by God for a purpose: to give us the experience of wonder. And
wonder, in turn, is intended to lead us to the ultimate human expression and privilege:
worship. Beauty is both a gift and a map. It is a gift to be enjoyed and a map to be followed
back to the source of the beauty with praise and thanksgiving.” (91)
“Jesus is the Beautiful One. His beauty is a tapestry of divine and human perfections
harmonized in subtlety and majesty. This is one reason His beauty is missed; it is so
different from anything we evercome across. Jesus’ beauty wasn’t His physical
appearance. By human standards, He didn’t look like a Messiah. Isaiah 53:2 tells us that
‘he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should
desire him.’ Significantly, the New Testament includes no description at all of Jesus’
physical appearance. . . . Scripture doesn’t put a face on the Lord so that His real beauty
can shine through.” (102)

5. “Wonder can save us when it convinces us that nothing is more desirable or beautiful than
Christ. Once we are spiritually awakened, we apprehend the beauty of Christ and wonder
grips our soul. As we have seen, wonder leads to worship. Wonder at His beauty leads to
worship of His glory. This is the death of the lie that something other than Christ can
satisfy us — and the birth of new life in Christ. It is the restoration to what we were made
for: wonder at and worship of the living Christ.” (106)
“Physical beauty is a shadow. Food is a shadow. The security of money is a shadow. Health
is a shadow. Family is a shadow. We long for a relationship with someone greater than us,
and we settle for cheap substitutes — race-car drivers and football players and movie stars
admired from afar. But the real desirability is found in Christ. God made every created
beauty in this world as an expression of Christ’s beauty and the beauty of the Father’s love
for the Son. All beauty is a breadcrumb path that leads us to Christ.” (107)
“To give God honor is to agree with what the experience of beauty is intended for.” (117)
“Wonder-producing beauty is an opportunity for us as Christians to consider the glory of
the one who created it in the first place. All beauty whispers to us in this way. This is a call
to worship, to go from what I can see orhear or smell or taste or touch to what I cannot.
My thoughts go from the visible to the invisible, from the created thing to the Creator.
When my wonder gets me there, I esteemHim as glorious by giving Him honor for both the
beauty and my enjoyment of it.” (118)
“When we experience a moment of beauty, we should turn wonder into worship by giving
thanks to God for His goodness in providing it, for His creativity in making it, or simply for
our pleasure in experiencing it.” (119)
“God gleams from every molecule and atom of this universe. He is the beauty within and
beyond every wonder-creating sensory experience. As we delight in God, our senses search
for opportunities to enjoy Him in the pleasurable sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures
all around us.” (122)
“A Christian’s God-focused enjoyment of creation makes it taste better, look better, feel
better, smell better, and sound better.” (129)
“Truth is beautiful, falsehood is ugly. If there was nothing beautiful there would be nothing
ugly. The ultimate example of this is hell itself. Hell tells us what God is like, even as it
breaks our hearts to consider it. Hell speaks the truth of God’s love and beauty by
displaying how ugly its absence is. In this way, hell tells us what God is like. When art is
anti-God, the Christian worldview stretches to see it for what it is — a lie — and to view
the lie as an opportunity to glory in the beauty of truth. Ugliness helps make the good and
beautiful more desirable.” (142)

6. “The unbeliever has nowhere to go with his experience and is left to crave it again. Go to
another concert. Have another sexual encounter. Watch the same movie over and over. The
Christian takes the wonder and uses it to animate praise to God. This consummates our joy
in the beauty and glorifies God as the giver of beauty’s blessings. In this way we enjoy
man-made artistic beauty for what God intended it to be — a wonder-producing, praise-
inducing experience of His glory.” (145)
“Even in a fallen world, with fallen artists, man-made beauty creates powerful moments of
wonder. Jammed concerts, packed theaters, and ultraexpensive paintings all speak to art’s
power and appeal. Turning these experiences into 'God moments' is why God gave them —
and the artist’s ability — to us.” (147–148)
“Art can be a powerful blessing to us as long as we interact with it from the Christian
worldview. Unfortunately, too many Christians just listen to songs and read novels and
watch movies without thinking critically about what they are seeing or hearing. We must
think like theologians as we go to art studios, read books, watch TV, and surf the Web.
How do we do that? By interacting with what we are seeing or hearing through the grid of
God’s Big Story. Otherwise, reality as it’s not supposed to be will shape our values and our
perspectives on life. Man-made beauty is that powerful, wonderful, and dangerous. Similar
to God-made beauty, man-made beauty requires us to bring God into the enjoyable
sensory experience by relating it to what we know about Him.” (153–154)
“Critique without enjoyment misses out on what God has made us for. Enjoyment without
critical worldview thinking makes us susceptible to the negative value system often
portrayed in a fallen world by fallen artists describing their perspective on reality. The
former misses out on the fun, while the latter risks folly. God wants better for us.” (155)
“I should specifically ask myself, Am I able to turn this man-made expression into
worship? If the answer is no, why would I endanger myself spiritually? There is no man-
made beauty that is worth damaging my spiritual walk.” (164)
“The more we see, taste, hear, touch, or feel something, the less joy we derive from it. Buy
that favorite song, and after hearing it a hundred times, it’s not our favorite anymore. Buy
a giant chocolate chip cookie at the mall, and the last bite isn’t as good as the first. . . . We
need a new world where beauty never fades and the wonder of it never goes away.” (171–
172)
“This book’s purpose is to walk with you toward what you really want. Ultimately, that is
not the experience of beautiful music or beautiful food or beautiful fragrances or beautiful
stories or beautiful homes or beautiful bodies or perfect friendship or blissful marriage or
any love or pleasure this world has to offer. We were made for a better place and for a

7. better person, and all the beauties of this world whisper that to our soul. We crave Christ.
He has made this restoration possible and offers Himself to mankind as Savior, Redeemer,
and Restorer.” (180)
I’ve named my Blog Holy Spirit Beauty, because the Holy Spirit is one of the last things
God gave us before going up to Heaven. He said that He was not leaving us alone, but that
He was giving us a Helper, who would live in us, who would be our Spirit of Truth, teach us
everything, and remind us of everything God has ever told us (John 14). He said that this
Helper would be with us forever. Wow, how beautiful to know that the God who created
us wanted us to never feel alone. God cared so much about our inner self, He knew how
important it was to keepour inner self fulfilled. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, it will
produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-
control in your life(Galatians 5:22). This fruit is nothing BUT beautiful, and whatever is
inside, will always come out. I truly believe that beauty on the inside is just as important as
the outside, but when coupled together, you will reach your full potential. My hope is that
you know your worth, believe you’re beautiful, love yourself, have confidence, and achieve
all of the dreams God has put in your heart.
– Holy Spirit Beauty
Friday, October 14, 2016
Everyday Queen
You are Royalty, you were made in God’s image, and He fashioned you! He didn’t form
you, He fashioned you. Wow, what a thought that is, God is the designer, and we are the
end product! Your Heavenly Father is King! 1 Peter 2:9-10 says “But you are a chosen
race, a royal priesthood..”. Think about Cleopatra. She was regarded as a great beauty,
and still talked about today. It is written, "her beauty was in itself neither altogether
incomparable, what ultimately made Cleopatra attractive were her wit, charm and
"sweetness in the tones of her voice." She was a woman of surpassing beauty; she also
possessedknowledge of how to make herself agreeable to everyone. Being brilliant to look
upon and to listen to, with the power to subjugate everyone, she reposed in her beauty all
her claims to the throne." My friends, we are all Cleopatra’s, and sometimes, we forget
who we are and more importantly whose we are. Do you think Cleopatra walked around
thinking, “Oh, I’ll never find someone who likes me, I’ll never get married, I’ll never pay

8. off my debt, I’ll never be able to afford those shoes, my nose and hips are too big…ect.”.
No! Because she was too busy being who God made her to be! Stunning, unique, bold,
beautiful, confident, charming. Her one asset that is clearly shown-she did not worry about
what people thought, she was CONFIDENT, which in turn made her beautiful. God
desires all of his daughters to feel beautiful and confident. When we complain or do not
like something about ourselves, we are insulting The Creator, and He does not make
mistakes or accidents. You were created on purpose for a purpose. Now Go Be You Until
You Are Fill!
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Check that luggage!
In my last post, I mentioned confidence is beauty. Before we accept our outer self, we
MUST accept our inner self first. Some of us let the past mistakes, fears, or failures hold us
back and get us down. But the good news is, that God doesn’t remember ANY of that, and
He’s the only opinion that matters (Hebrews 8:12 and Isaiah 43:18). He has already wiped
the slate clean for you! God does not care what ex boyfriends you’ve had in the past, your
divorce, if you never had a boyfriend, if you messedup in any way-HE DOES NOT CARE.
He wants you to have a fulfilled future, which is why you must forget the past. Don’t walk
around all loaded up with 20 suitcases of baggage, like you’re headed to Paris for 4 months.
NO! That will weigh you down mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. And that
is definitely NOT attractive. When you decide to let go of the baggage and check that
luggage permanently, your load will be lighter. You can then be light and airy, fun and
free, and take hold of the future with both hands now, because that’s what God has laid out
for you!
PIPER, " Beauty is what God is. His wisdom is beautiful wisdom, his power is beautiful
power, his justice is beautiful justice, and his love is beautiful love.
Jesus Is Precious Because We Yearn for Beauty
March 28, 1982

9. Jesus Is Precious Because We Yearn for Beauty
Resource by John Piper
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 3:7–11 Topic: The Person of Christ
I am going to assume this morning that there is a God who is personal and who created all
things. There are not many atheists who come to church, and so the only evidence for this
assumption that I lay before you is this: if there is no personal God, then the concept of
beauty dissolves into personal idiosyncrasy. That is, unless beauty is rooted in God's mind
rather than your mind, every time you say, "That is beautiful," all you really mean is, "I
like that." Unless there is a God, your praise of beauty can be no more than expressions of
your own personal preferences. But I think there is in every one of you a dissatisfaction
with the notion that your judgments about beauty have no more validity than your
preference for coffee over tea. And I think your dissatisfaction with pure subjectivism and
relativism is a remnant of God's image in your soul and evidence of his reality. It is an
echo, however faint, of a voice that once called you into being.
Suppose that you were standing by the Grand Canyon at sunset with two other people. You
become deeply moved and utter the words, "This is beautiful; this is glorious." The person
beside you says, "Beautiful? It's just a big, ugly ditch." And the third person says, "I guess
I hear what both of you are saying. And I think those are equally valid statements." And it
is true that unless there is a higher aesthetic court of appeal than man, those two judgments
are equally valid. But evenpeople who say they believe in such humanistic relativism don't
like it when their own judgments about truth and beauty are treated as mere personal
idiosyncrasies. The reason for this, I think, is that there is in every person a God-given
sense that beauty must have meaning that is larger and more permanent than personal
quirks. This urge for ultimate meaning is evidence of our creation in the image of God.
What Is the Beauty of God?
Therefore, I will assume that there is a personal Creator as we try to understand beauty
and our hunger for it this morning. If there is a personal God who has created all things
and has given everything its form and its purpose, then beauty must be defined in relation
to God. Try to picture the impossible: what it was like before the creation of anything.
Once there was only God and nothing else. He never had a beginning, and therefore what

10. he is was not shaped or determined by anything outside himself. He simply has always been
what he is (Exodus 3:14; Hebrews 13:8).
Therefore, if the beauty we behold on earth has its root and origin in God, there must have
been beauty in God from all eternity. What, then, is the beauty of God? In one sense this is
a hard question, and in another sense it is very easy. It is hard because there is no pattern
of beauty of which we can say, "God is like that, and so God is beautiful." If there were a
pattern by which we could measure God, it would be God. No, God himself is the
absolutely original pattern of all other beauty. Therefore, the answer is simple: Beauty is
what God is. His wisdom is beautiful wisdom, his power is beautiful power, his justice is
beautiful justice, and his love is beautiful love.
But what makes each of these attributes beautiful is not merely that they are infinite,
unchanging, and eternal. Power, for example, could be infinitely and eternally evil and thus
ugly. The attributes of God derive their infinite beauty from their relationship to each
other. Just as in paintings it is not the isolated color or shape or texture that is beautiful but
rather their relationship with each other, their proportion and interplay; so it is with
persons and ultimately with the person of God. It is the peculiar proportionality and
interplay and harmony of all God's attributes (together with their infiniteness and
eternality) that constitutes God's beauty, and makes him the foundation of all the beauty in
the world.
Why Do We All Crave Beauty?
Now how does this infinite divine beauty relate to our longing for beauty? I do believe that
deeply rooted in every human heart is a longing for beauty. Why do we go to the Grand
Canyon, the Boundary Waters, art exhibits, gardens? Why do we plant trees and flower
beds? Why do we paint our inside walls? Why is it man and not the monkeys who
decorated cave walls with pictures? Why is it that in every tribe of humans everknown
there has always been some form of art and craftsmanship that goes beyond mere utility?
Is it not because we long to behold and be a part of beauty? We crave to be moved by some
rare glimpse of greatness. We yearn for a vision of glory. The poetry that endures from
generation to generation generally does so because it gives expression to our deepest
desires. And more than anything else in poetry, "'Tis beauty calls and glory shows the
way" (Nathaniel Lee). Emerson speaks for every great poet when he writes ("Beauty"),
He thought it happier to be dead,
To die for Beauty, than live for bread.
Emily Dickinson, too, is fond of connecting death and beauty (No. 1654):
Beauty crowds me 'til I die

11. Beauty mercy have on me
But if I expire today
Let it be in sight of thee.
And William Butler Yeats expresses his longing for a
Land of Hearts' Desire
Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood,
But joy is wisdom, time an endless song.
There is in the human heart an unquenchable longing for beauty. And I am persuaded that
the reason it is there is because God is the ultimately Beautiful One and he made us to long
for himself. Even the most perverted desire for beauty—say the desire to watch the
excellence of strength and speed and skill as gladiators hack each other to death—even this
desire is a distorted remnant of a good yearning which God put within us to lure us to
himself. And we can know that our desires are remnants of this urge for God because
everything less than God leaves us unsatisfied. He alone is the All-Satisfying Object of
Beauty. Only one vision will be sufficient for our insatiable hearts—the glory of God. For
that we have been made. And it is for this we long, whether we know it or not.
How Do We Attain Beauty?
But how shall we attain it? Who is worthy to behold the all-holy Makerof the universe? Or
as the psalmist asks, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his
holy place?"(Psalm 24:3). We have all sinned and fallen short of his glory (Romans 3:23).
We have not prized his beauty with anything like the fervor it deserves. And that is evil.
But God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wrong (Habakkuk 1:13).
Therefore, the wages of sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). And unless someone intervenes,
we will perish under God's righteous judgment and be cut off forever from every vestige of
beauty. The apostle Paul put it like this in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, "They shall suffer the
punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the face of the Lord and from the
glory (or the beauty) of his might." The punishment of those who have not seenand loved
the beauty of God's holiness in this age will be utter exclusion from his all-satisfying beauty
in the age to come.
What then can we do? For not only have we sinned, but in our sin we have become so blind
and hard that the reflections of God's beauty in the world and in the Bible scarcely move
us. It is as though a dark veil lies over our minds.

12. The Word of God in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4 describes for us our plight and how the pathway
to eternal joy and beauty can be opened before us. Follow the thread of Paul's thought with
me. Paul says in verse 6 of chapter 3 that he is a minister of a new covenant. The old
covenant was a covenant of the law given through Moses onMount Sinai. This law was
holy, just, and good, and pointed to the true way of salvation. But as a written code apart
from the gracious enabling work of the Holy Spirit its effect was to make people aware of
sin and pronounce condemnation and death. But a new era has come since the death and
resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. It is the era of the Spirit which is now being
poured out on all flesh (Acts 2:17) as the gospel of Christ spreads through all the nations.
Paul is a servant of this new covenant, and his mission is to announce the good news that
people who trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ will be forgiven all their
transgressions of the law and given the Holy Spirit to enable them to fulfill the just
requirement of the law (Romans 8:1–4).
The New Covenant Has Greater Glory Than the Old
In 2 Corinthians 3:7–11 Paul contrasts the Beauty of God that was manifested in the old
covenant and the beauty manifested in the new covenant. Verse 7: "If the dispensation of
death carved in letters on stone came with such splendor (glory or beauty) that the
Israelites could not look at Moses' face because of its brightness, fading as it was, will not
the dispensation of the Spirit be attended with a greater splendor?" The old covenant
brought death because the letter kills, as verse 6 says, and only the Spirit gives life. And
thus death here in verses 7 and 8 is contrasted with Spirit rather than life because the
Spirit gives life. And Paul infers that if the glorious Beauty of God was awesomely evident
to those in the old covenant, how much more will it be evident to those who have the Spirit
and not just the letter.
This same argument from lesserglory to greater glory is repeated twice, once in verse 9
(the glory of the dispensation of righteousness will surely be greater than the glory of the
dispensation of condemnation), and in verse 11 (the glory of what is permanent will surely
be greater than the glory of what is fading away). Therefore, Paul is sure that those who
become part of the new covenant relationship to God by trusting Christ and receiving the
Spirit will behold a divine manifestation of beauty that vastly surpasses the glory of the old
covenant.
But in verses 12ff. we meet the barrier to this experience. Paul, for his part, is very bold
and forthright in his preaching (verse 12 says); he is not like Moses who veiled his shining
face lest the Israelites see the fading glory. Paul sees inthis veil covering Moses' face a
symbol of the fact that the people of the old covenant by and large could not perceive that
the glory of that covenant was temporary, passing away, preparatory for a new and more

13. glorious covenant. As Moses concealedthe fading glory of his face, so evento this day Paul
says in verse 14, the true significance of the old covenant is veiled. Its true significance was
to point beyond itself to a day when Messiahwould atone for sin and the law would be
written on the heart by the Holy Spirit (Jeremiah 31:31ff.; Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26, 27). But
whenever the old covenant is read, there seems to be a veil over the reading, or, as verse 15
says, a veil over the mind or heart of the listener.
The Spirit Enables Us to See That Glory
This is not only the problem of Israel; it is our problem too. How can the veil be lifted from
our minds so that we can see not only the fading glory of the old covenant but also the
surpassing Beauty of God in the new covenant? Exodus 34:34 tells how Moses would
remove the veil from his face when he turned to enter the tent and meet the Lord. Paul saw
in this a lesson, and he applied it to us in verse 16: "When a man turns to the Lord, the veil
is removed." Our blindness and hardness to the Beauty of God will be overcome if we turn
to the Lord. Then in verse 17 he interprets what he means: "The Lord is the Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Since at the end of verse 14 Paul had said
that only through Christ is the veil done away with, I take it that the Lord to which we turn
in verse 16 is the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore the meaning of verse 17 would be: the Lord
Jesus is the Spirit, and so to turn to the Lord means to turn to the Spirit, to open yourself
to the Spirit, to seek the Spirit and his fullness. For where the Spirit is, there is freedom. If
we want freedom from our blindness to the Beauty of God, we must have the Spirit. We are
slaves to the worldly substitutes for divine Beauty until the Spirit takes the veil from our
minds and grants us to see with joy the Beauty of the Lord.
Verse 18 describes the result if we are freed by the Spirit: "And we all with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of
glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." When a person turns to
Jesus Christ as Lord and opens himself up to the liberating rule of the Spirit of the Lord,
two of his deepest longings begin to be fulfilled. It is granted that the eyes of his heart
(Ephesians 1:18) really see a captivating and satisfying divine Beauty. And he begins to be
changed by it. We always tend to become like the persons we admire. And when the Spirit
grants us to see and admire the Lord of Glory, we inevitably begin to be transformed into
his image. And the more we become like him, the more clearly we can see him, and the
greater our capacity to delight in his beauty.

14. What Is This Glory and How Do We See It?
But what is it, more precisely, that we see? And with what organ of sight? 2 Corinthians
4:4 helps us with the answer. At the end it says that what we see when we are not blinded
by Satan but freed by the Spirit is "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the
image of God." When we turn to the Lord and the Holy Spirit removes the veil from our
heart, we see light, without which there can be no beauty, but only darkness and emptiness.
It is not the light which we see with our physical eyes. But that's no disadvantage. For we
all know that the beauty we crave for our physical eyes is only satisfying if we see it as the
outward form of a deeper moral, spiritual, and personal beauty, ultimately God's Beauty.
So the light that we are granted by the Spirit to see is the light of the gospel. And the gospel
is a story about God and his Son and their conspiracy of love to overthrow the dominion of
Satan and save the world. And out of this story shines above all else the glory of the God-
man, Jesus Christ. And that glory, that beauty, is an all-satisfying beauty because it is the
Beauty of God. It is "the glory of Christ who is the image of God." When we see Jesus in
the gospel story, we see God and the very essence of his beauty.
We see the beauty of his power, for what the law could not do, weak as it was through the
flesh, God did; sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned
sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). We see the beauty of his mercy, for God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them (2 Corinthians
5:19). We see the beauty of his justice, for God put Christ forward as a propitiation for our
sins by his blood, that he might demonstrate his righteousness and prove that he is himself
both just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:25, 26). And we see the
beauty of his wisdom, for in the gospel we do impart a wisdom not of this age but of God,
which he decreed before the age for our glory, our beauty (1 Corinthians 2:7).
Whether you know it or not, all the longings of your life for beauty are longings for this:
the light of the gospel of the beauty of Christ who is the image of God. Turn to Jesus as
Lord! Open yourself to the Spirit of Christ. And the veil will be lifted.
O most glorious God,
You are worthy of all trust and obedience and adoration.
Yet I have sinned and see youso dimly.
But I now turn to the living Lord Jesus Christ,

15. And I invite your Spirit to fill my life.
Remove the veil from my heart
And grant me to behold your glory,
And help me be changed from one degree of glory to another.
"Neverlose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's
handwriting — a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in
every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 Peter 3:3-4
3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and
the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the
unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God
prepared in advance for us to do.
How God Defines Beauty
Posted on March 3, 2008 by Matt Dabbs
We studied how God Defines Beauty in our LIFE groups this week. I am going to start
uploading all of our lessons to Kingdom Living rather than just linking to our church
website. Here is the pdf of How God Defines Beauty. I want to add to this the role of
consumerism in forming our definition of beauty. Most of our ideas of what is beautiful
comes from people who want to sell us something. The way to generate sales is to breed
dissatisfaction so that the consumer feels a need for their product. There is no way to
develop a healthy sense of beauty much less a healthy self image by surrounding yourself
with messages that say you aren’t good enough unless you buy this, do that, etc. The good

16. news of scripture is that you are valuable and beautiful no matter what anyone else has to
say
Here is the text of the lesson.
Icebreaker: Where do most people get their definition of beauty?
We live in a “touched up” world. The Dove Campaign is beginning to show how much
touch up work goes into the average photo you see on the newsstand, billboard, or internet.
What you see is no longer what you get. We are surrounded by a made-up and make
believe world that tells us beauty is basically unattainable unless you starve yourself. That
is not how God views us. God sees us as beautiful because that is how he made everyone of
us.
Outward Beauty:
Gen 1:26, 31
With what two qualities did God make mankind?
· He made us in his image
· He said that what he had made was good.
Every culture is different in how they define beauty. Because different cultures say
different things are beautiful we see that the way culture defines beauty is arbitrary. It is
not arbitrary with God. God’s view is, If you exist, you are beautiful to him. Our culture
defines beauty and then tries to sell the product that will help make you the way they
defined it! That is crazy. You can never be happy or satisfied with that kind of standard. In
Genesis God said what he made was good.
Psalm 139:13-16
What does this scripture say about God’s involvement in creating us?
· God is hands on. God is actively engaged in his creation. God loves who and what he
makes.
How does the psalmist respond to the idea that God created him this way?
· He responds with praise.
The world’s message of beauty is designed to create dissatisfaction with self and forms an
ideal that is unattainable. Why would it be hard to praise God for creating you if you are
dissatisfied with yourself?
· Because you wish you were not the person God created you to be.
· God created you with value, worth, and beauty because He chose to make you, you.
Ecclesiastes 3:11-14
How many things has God made beautiful?
· Everything
God says over and over again that he is head over heals for us! Revelation 2 evencalls his
church his bride who is being prepared for the great wedding day with Christ. He thinks
we are beautiful. But not just on the outside. Society dwells on outward beauty because
they do not realize what inward beauty can be. God thinks you are beautiful but not just

17. because of how he made your outside. Even moreso God sees youas beautiful because of
how he made you inside.
The Value of Inward Beauty
Outward beauty is not all there is to life. When we spend our time and money chasing that
and not tending to our souls we have gotten our priorities out of line.
Proverbs 31:30 & 1 Samuel 16:6-7
The proverbs say there is something more lasting and substantial than outward beauty.
God gave us a clearer picture of what that is when he selectedDavid to be king. When the
people selecteda king they picked Saul because of his physical characteristics (he was head
and shoulders above the rest). When God picked a king what was he looking at?
· The inner person—the heart, soul, and character.
People use all sorts of products to makeup the outward person. What can we do to really
develop the quality of our inner self?
· Through relationship with God, trusting God, faith, Bible study, prayer…all the things
that put us in touch with God and his people.
· Time invested in those things will never go to waste.
1 Peter 3:3-4
Beauty is not skin deep. As we already saw outward beauty fades. What type of beauty
does Peter say never fades?
· Beauty that comes from a gentle and quiet spirit.
· God puts a great value on that.
God sees past all the outward adornment straight into our hearts.
Application:
Where have you gotten your cues of what makes you beautiful?
When you get ready for your day which gets more prep time the outside or the inside?
What does God see when he looks past all the makeup, all the nice clothes, and jewelry
right into your soul?
God thinks you are beautiful through and through. God says we are valuable and that it
more important than what anyone else in the whole world has to say about it."
Truth and Beauty
The Rev. David Sellery
Easter is always a beginning, never an end. Ahead of us lies Christ’s Ascension into heaven and
the Descent of the Holy Spirit. Ahead of the apostles and generations of Christians lie centuries
of working and waiting… faithfully building the kingdom of God, ‘til Christ calls us home. The
wait has been long. It may be much longer. But it will not be lonely. Jesus tells us: I will not
leave you orphaned.

18. Help is here right now. Jesus promises: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
Advocate. Jesus has alluded to the Holy Spirit before. But this time he gives the Holy Spirit a job
description: the Advocate… one who counsels and defends. The Father is the Creator. The Son is
the Redeemer. They are familiar and relatively easy roles to visualize. Think of all the images we
have of Jesus from blessed babe, to miracle worker, from sacred victim to risen Savior. Then
picture the Father. For me the definitive image will always be Michelangelo’s dynamic Creator
giving life to the languid Adam. But spirits are another story. Our only picture of the Holy Spirit
is that of a descending dove or a tongue of fire. It’s sketchy imagery at best. And because we are
such visual learners, we often have difficulty understanding and appreciating the nature and role
of the Holy Spirit.
Despite this relative unfamiliarity, we ignore the Holy Spirit at our peril. This is not some
obscure supporting character in the scriptural narrative. As Christ tells us, even though: the world
neither sees him or knows him; this is the abiding presence of God in our lives. In sending the
Spirit of Truth, Jesus leaves us with a moral compass… perfectly aligned with the will of God
because the Holy Spirit is God, one with the Father and the Son.
From his own personal experience with human nature, Jesus knows that life can seem very long;
memories can be faulty; flesh can be weak. We need a lot of help. That’s why Christ tells us that
the Holy Spirit will not only be with us, he will be in us. And the more we think and act in that
context, the greater the peace, the joy, the love that this life holds for us… and the greater our
faith in the glory of the next.
There are no little lessons in this gospel. It begins and ends on a grand scale with very specific
instructions on exactly how our loving God wants us to live our lives. Jesus tells us: If you love
me, you will keep my commandments. What a surprising, fresh, endearing way for almighty God
to instruct his creation. No pillars of fire. No stone tablets. No ringing “shall” and “shall not.”
The syntax of this one sentence illustrates a new relationship with God. Jesus frames the thought
in a conditional premise: If you love me. Then he pays it off with a concise statement of the
inevitable results of that love: You will keep my commandments. Jesus invites us. He does not
order us. He gives no imperative that we must keep his commandments. He states an obvious
cause and effect: Fill your heart with love and there will be no room for hate. Fill your day with
love and there will be no time for mischief.
In this gospel, form follows function. If your purpose and your practice are the sublime beauty of
Christ’s love, you will reject the ugliness of sin. If you are guided by the Spirit of Truth, you will
not be false. Truth and beauty: these are the gifts of the risen Christ. These are the presence of
the Holy Spirit. Cherish them. Rejoice in them. Share them today with someone you love.
Alleluia! He is risen.
Copyright 2014, David Sellery. Used by permission.
Hold this DearMountain
My heart does long for a mountain to hold
with deep embrace and prayers that unfold
into the sweetened winds, as all things are told.
Do you see the rock, the boulder, the tree?
They are each a friend, they are dear to me.

19. The mountain waits; the ancients see.
They bid my heart, they set me free.
Rocky heights rush towards a heaven rare,
Oh Holy Spirit, I feel Thee there!
My Own is lifted, endowed in this Air.
My soul soars throughout, as on the wings of a dove
In embrace with the Earth, held so rare, high above.
Nature’s shoulders keep vigil, they see; they love.
Oh, hold this dear Mountain, it’s the Lord’s Treasure Trove.
©2012 Linda Willows, © 2018 Linda Willows
BEAUTY OF HOLINESS
BY- E. A. FERGERSON
CHAPTER V. Thk Bejauty of Hoi,ine:ss. In the twenty-ninth Psalm, and the second verse,
we have these words, "Worship the Lord in the beauty of hoHness/^ In this majestic Psalm
is celebrated the mighty strength of Jehovah, and His great power is ex- emplified by an
Oriental storm. His mighty thunder-peals which shake the everlasting hills, shiver the great
cedars of Lebanon and cause them to skip like a calf ; His voice that shakes the wilderness,
yea. His powerful voice "full of maj- esty/' are but His trumpet-calls to the universe,
summoning angels and men to worship the Lord "in the beauty of holiness." While the
services in the ancient temple were beautiful beyond measure, yet they were only typical of
Gospel times and that beauty of inward purity, so precious in the eyes of the Lord. In our
worship of heart holiness there are no flash- ing sunbeams reflecting burnished gold;
cedars 31 32 Gold From God's Mint do not cast their fragrance; no priests in festal attire,
nor clouds of incense filling the air. Not- withstanding, in the fuller sense of the term, we
have a greater revelation of God's glory and more abundant influences of the Spirit — we
be- hold a beauty that far surpasses the beauty of the ancient Church, that is, the beauty of
the Lord; yea, "THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS !" Among all the Scripture modes used by
the Holy Spirit to make holiness attractive to men, there is none more in accord with our
tender- est and noblest feelings (for nothing] so gratifies and fills and hallows the soul of
man) than BEAUTY. Ideas of beauty are the noblest that can be presented to the human
mind ; and it would seemthat our Heavenly Father intended that we should be constantly
under their influence, for beauty is an all-prevailing presence in the universal cos- mos that
surrounds us everywhere. Let us ask the questions: First, "What is beauty?'' Second,
"What is the beauty of holi- ness ?" What is beauty? Who can define it? It may be called
the assemblage of graces or qualities that delights the aesthetic faculty; that which pleases
the mind, eye, or moral sense, etc. Gold From God's Mint 33 Aesthetic is a love of the

20. beautiful in nature, art, literature and life, etc. But when we turn from the beautiful in
nature and the fanciful and some- times false, we find in the spiritual realm the true
sestheticism that belongs to the noblest attributes of the soul. God has made the beautiful
world around us and has given us a taste for it, and He has endowed us with the faculty of
that sensi- bility of beauty, by the exercise of which we par- take of the most refined
delights. To the person of true culture, beauty is as essential to the soul as sunshine is to the
flower. The:re: is a Mate^riai. Be:auty. The visible creation that surrounds us minis- ters
to our sense of beauty. All men are im- pressedwith the beauty of the world. "The heavens
declare the glory of God, and the firma- ment showeth His handiwork.'' The heavens above
and the earth beneath, with their gorgeous array of pomp and purple and gold; the sunset,
the twilight behind the purple hills, the sombre beauty of the jeweled night, the blazing
galaxy of myriad stars, the scarlet arch of dawn, the dew of the grass, the flash and glint of
the stream, the tints of the flowers, the commingled sunlight on summer foliage and
graceful field, the shin- 34 Gold From God's Mint ing sea, and the gigantic mountains —
all over- flow with beauty. The divine Artist has spread out on the earth and sea and sky
the grandest display of colors and grace of motion, with fair folding of beautiful lines, that
divine imagery could invent. How the landscape overflows with beauty EVERYWHERE!
What lines of grace are seenin the delicate folds of the clouds! Break a pebble and .you
find a sparkling crystal in it. Sad, indeed, that persons having eyes yet see not. We once
read somewhere that in one of the galleries of Florence is a little octagonal room, which is
the inner sanctuary, ''the holy of holies'* of art, filled with the masterpieces of sculpture,
and pictures which haunt the memory with their loveliness. Suppose one were to live in a
room like that and never cast an eye on those miracles of art. Yet how many live in this
beautiful world with its oriel windows, its spacious walls lined with the most exquisite
pictures, its air thrilling with the most dehcious music, and every nook and corner filled
with shining forms, and yet see not and feel not the beauty around them. There: is an
Intei,i,ectuai. Beauty. The idea of Plato was that the mind only is GoiyD From God's Mint
35 beautiful. The eye, the most kindly endowment among the senses, conveys only
impressions. The sense simply stares at nature. It is the mind that discerns the beauty. It
feels itself surrounded with beauty, and seeks to embody it in all kinds of new forms. In
fact, the creation of beauty is art. We see the operation of mind upon the body in the fine
cutting and chiselling of the features. The fairest face is utterly spoiled by the absence of
mind, in the vacant lips, and the deadened stare, and the insipid brow; while culture gives a
-sparkle to the eye, and a fine moulding to the brow, and impresses a new fairness upon the
features, until the forehead outshines the coronet that may be placed on the head above it.
The:r^ is a Moral and Spiritual Be:auty. Forged into these words are the noblest, the
ripest, and the ultimate conceptions of beauty, for while it begins in the physical, it ends in
the spiritual. Matter becomes more beautiful, as it loses its material aspect, and by ethereal
lightness of its forms and motions, seems to approach spirit. The sensation of beauty is not
merely sensual or in- tellectual, but is dependent on a pure, right state of the heart. To

21. apprehend it most delightfully. 36 Gold From God's Mint v/e must cultivate the moral and
the spiritual nature. The beautiful is ever related to the true and the good. And this is the
charge we bring against what is called "Modern Aestheticism.'' It is of the earth, earthy,
and degrades the sense of beauty into the servant of lust. Strip these pretentious reformers,
these apostles of beauty, of their disguises, and they simply offer sensual- ism instead of
purity, and unbelief instead of faith in God and immortality. Life is robbed of its spiritual
meaning. The presence of the higher — the spiritual — element is essential to the perfec-
tion of beauty; and if we would be arrayed in loveliness, we must put off sin, and put on
that grace which is inward, spiritual and eternal. Question number two. This brings us to
Thk BKAUTY OF HOLINESS. This is the queen among queens, upon whose brow the
crown of crowns rests in regal fitness. All beauty centers in God. What is the beauty of
holiness ? I. It is the beauty of moral health. Holi- ness, in its etymological signification,
means a state of wholeness, completeness, as when the body is in perfect health. The Greek
conception of manhood was that of a handsome, strong, per- fectly healthy body. The
beauty of holiness is the beauty of fully restored soul health. Sin entered humanity, and
disease by sin ; and unless Gold From God's Mint 37 there be the quickening of a new life,
a change going down to the deep center of our personal being, the end thereof is death. The
believer is quickened together with Christ, lie is born of God, regenerated by the Holy
Ghost, created anew in righteousness and true holiness. He is, in a sense, holy. But there
are the remains of sin — "roots of bitterness'* — that tempt him — evil passions and
desires ready to start forth in an unguarded moment ; and he feels the need, not only of
forgiveness, but of thorough cleansing. The great purpose of the atoning work of Christ is
to remove the corruption and disease of sin, and give health of heart and life. 2. It is the
beauty of purity. Purity is freedom from sin, from foulness, and from the presence and
pollution of sin. When we speak of the purity of the rose, the purity of the crystal, the
purity of 'the stars, and the purity of the light, we get the idea and thought of spiritual
purity. Heart purity is something more than mere regeneration. When we sing that old
song : ** There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from ImmanuePs veins; And sinners
plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains,^' 38 GoivD From God's Mint there
is no literal application of the Blood, no lit- eral plunging into a fountain, etc. The Blood is
the life and it symbolizes His sacrificial death. The Blood to atone, and the Spirit to
sanctify. Faith leads us to accept it and to open our hearts, and thus we are purified.
Regeneration is great, but purity of heart sweeps us into the heavenlies, to where there are
no more evil tempers, wrath, pride, malice, envy, self-will and other fleshly lusts, etc. How
can one sin while he abides in that pres- ence which transforms and assimilates into His
own likeness? His blood cleanses from all sin. 3. It is the beauty of repose. No great work of
art can be perfect without it. This is one of the great characteristics of the beauty of
holiness, it is the beauty of soul rest; rest from sin, actual and acquired; from guilt and
pollution. "Thou wilt keephim in perfect peace whose mind is stayedon Thee." Perfect
peace, perfect repose. It is that which anchors the soul when the storms are raging and

22. those contemptible en- emies of the soul — ^pride, the usurper; ambition, the desperado;
envy, the murmur er; and hate, the murderer — are prowling around. These enemies have
been cast out, and, thank Gold From God's Mint 39 God ! we do not have to let them in
again. What an unspeakable calm in the soul where self has been dethroned and Christ
enthroned ! ■ How our peace flows like a river ! 4. It is the beauty of symmetry. By this is
meant the beautiful equipoise of soul, or that divine supernatural naturalness that gives the
easy, ball-bearing carriage and recip- rocal balance like the boughs on opposite sides of a
tree. This is the beautiful grace of soul, the gyroscopic movement that holds all together
and moves on in sweet harmony, well rounded, well developed, and full orbed in every
sense of the term. 5. It is the beauty of activity. Holiness is no mere luxury. It does not sit
down and rock itself to sleep, nor sing itself away into everlasting bliss. It does not run off
and hide itself in solitary confinement where the winds cannot blow upon it, nor the rain
find it, neither the sun shine on it, nor the snow wreathe its beautiful brow; but it is most
practical, most bracing, most active. The faith that purifies the heart is also a faith that
works by love. Faith is a bride, young and beautiful; daughter of the skies. Her face, clear
as the day ; her garments, radiant as the light; and by her side stands one 40 Gold From
God's Mint whose name is Action, a sinewy athlete with valor in his eye, and cunning in his
fingers, and strength in his right arm. They are joined in wedlock, both to love and to obey,
and, ''What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder/' You know the legend in
which three fair ones were disputing as to which had the most lovely hand. One sat by a
stream, and dipped her hand into the water, and held it up; another plucked strawberries
until her fingers were pink; a third gathered violets till her hands were fragrant. An old
woman passing by, asked a gift for the poor. All three denied her, but another maid, who
stood near — her hand unwashed in the stream, unstained with fruit, unadorned with
flowers — gave her a little gift. Then they askedthe old woman to settle the dispute, and
lifted up before her their beautiful hands. -"Beautiful, indeed,'^ she said, "but not her
hand that is washed in the brook, nor the hand that is tipped with red, nor the hand that is
garlanded with fragrant flowers ; the hand that gives to the poor, that is MOST beautiful;''
and as she spake her wrinkles fled, her staff was thrown aside, and she stood before them
an angel from Heaven, with authority to decide. That decision stands the test of all time.
Gold From God's Mint 41 Kindred to this legend, is that of the Quest of the Holy Grail, the
cup from which the Savior drank at the Last Supper. The brave Knight of the Round Table
traveled over the mountains and across the desert, in search of this mysterious Grail, until,
weary and disappointed, he was re- turning to Arthur's hall, when, at the gate of Camelot,
he saw a poor man struggling in the last agonies of death. Moved with compassion, he
dismounted and sought a cup of water, and raised it to his lips — when, lo! the cup glowed
and flamed as with the sapphire of the New Jeru- salem. He had found the Holy Grail while
do- ing Chrisfs zvork. It is objected that the fully savedare no bet- ter than other
Christians. Every justified be- liever is called to live outwardly a holy life, but the vital
difference is inward; the hidden life be- ing steadier, purer, deeper; the strong defences of

23. each besetting sin are broken down, the thoughts that direct the affections are chaste and
pure. Here, in the heart experiences, they are better, and yet in the life around, they are to
show forth those fruits of righteousness which are by faith in Christ Jesus, to the glory and
power of God. Holiness is not set on a pedestal, like a piece of elegant statuary ; not merely
a happy ex- 42 Gold From God's Mint perience — an uninterrupted, rapturous commun-
ion with God, a constant inward triumph; it is a life, and the most ardent lover of Jesus will
be the most earnest worker for Him. A man that lives so that men do not know that he is
holy, is not holy. 6. It is the beauty of completeness. Is not sound, full, complete life, a thing
of beauty? Why should any dislike it? It is our spiritual manhood ; it is the resplendent
constella- tion of any sparkling virtue. It is the blended fragrance of any flower of grace,
shed over the spirit. It is the richness of complete harmony; one may have sameness in a
pile of sand, but no harmony. The performer may sweep the keys of the instrument and
though each key has a dif- ferent pitch in tone, yet the most beautiful har- mony. So when
God sweeps the harpstrings of the soul perfected in holiness, the deep thunder of the bass,
the blending of the alto and tenor, the exquisite soprano all unite in the majestic harmony
of Heaven and that holiness without which no man shall see God. It is the fruits of the
Spirit, in their ripest, sweetest, most mel- low stage. 7. Finally, it is the beauty of
Christlikeness. God says, "Be ye holy, as / am holy;" and Gold From God's Mint 43 God in
Christ says, "Follow Me/' It is ''put- ting on the Lord Jesus Christ." It is having ''the mind
that was in Christ Jesus/' And how great is this beauty! He is ''altogether lovely!" The
beauty of flowers is the crowning glory of the material world. He is the Rose of Sharon, and
the Lily of the Valley, that has displayed His beauty, and loaded the centuries with His
perfume. His personal character was without blemish; the law of kindness dwelt upon His
tongue. There was no guile in His mouth. He was holy and harmless — undefiled. This is
the image of the heavenly, we are to copy. They serve Him best, and advance His kingdom
most, who go abroad among men, with the light of holiness irradiating the face, and with
hands full of blessing. Menare to be won to Christ, not scolded or driven into the fold with
dogs and sticks. "The servant of the Lord must not strive.'' He must be strong, yet gentle.
O beloved, if we would ''adorn the doctrine" of God, our Savior, and would bring many to
Christ, we must be so clothed with the heavenly Spirit, so mild and gentle, so sweet and
forgiv- ing, so noble and ennobling, that our hearts shall become the very homes of purity,
and our lives be radiant with beauty. And among Christian men 44 Gold From God's Mint
in business, care-pressed and toil-worn, we must preserve, amid the bustle and distraction,
the sharp practices and wrong-doing of others, such a conscious integrity, such joy and
peace in the Holy Ghost, that, in the mighty magnetism of love to Christ, we shall be
uplifted, and our faces shine with "the beauty of the Lord/' Oh, for a present, mighty,
simple, all-inclusive faith — faith in the promises, in Christ's blood, in the sanctifying
Spirit! Expect this blessing by faith; expect it as you are; expect it now. We shall be like
Him, This is the blessedness that fills the hearts of perfected spirits. The rapture of eternity
is the progress of eternity in the beauty of holiness — an ever-increasing and ever-

24. unfolding beauty; a mounting from height to height, from summit to summit of holiness !
CHAPTER VI. We:si.e:y vs. Mode:rn Write:rs. There are abroad in the land either false
state- ments concerning history and dates with regard to Mr. Wesley, or, on the other
hand, there is downright and gross ignorance on the part of some writers whom we have in
mind. I have in my possessiona set of Tyerman's *Xife of Wesley," in which he says Mr.
Wesley never testified to sanctification ; that though he may have preached it, yet he did
not give direct testimony as to having it. Strange, indeed, that such a man as Dr. Tyerman,
capable of writing a life history of so great a man as John Wesley, should not be in
possessionof all the facts in the case when it comes to a doctrine that distin- guished him
and his almost numberless followers, in a way that has enshrined them in the heart and
history of the New World. One historian, in writing of the great revival that broke out in
Europe in 1738, says: "The revival began in a 45 46 Gold From God's Mint small knot of
Oxford students, whose revolt against the religious deadness of the times showed itself in
ascetic observances, and in enthusiastic devotion, and a methodical regularity of life which
gained them the nickname of 'Metho- dists/ '' Three figures detached themselves from the
group as soon as, on its transfer to London in 1738, it attracted public attention by the
fervor and extravagancy of its piety, and each found his special work in the task to which
the instinct of the new movement led it from the first, that of carrying religion and morality
to the vast mas- ses of population which lay concentrated in towns,, or around the mines
and colleries of Cornwall and the north. The voices of these men were soon heard in the
wildest and most barbarous corners of the land, among the bleak moors of
Northumberland, or in the dens of London, or in the long galleries where, in the pauses of
his labor, the Cornish miner listens to the sobbing of the sea. Whitefield, a servitor of
Pembroke College, was above all, the preacher of the revival. Whitefield's preaching was
such as England had never heard before, often commonplace, but hushing all criticism by
its intense reality, its ear- Gold From God's Mini* 47 nestness of belief, Its deep, tremulous
sympathy with the sin and sorrow of mankind. It was no commonplace enthusiast that
could wring gold from the close-fistedFranklin, and admiration from the fastidious Horace
Walpole, or who could look down from the top of a green knoll at Kingswood on twenty
thousand colliers, grimy from the Bristol coal-pits, and see, as he preached, the tears
"making white channels down their blackened cheeks." The preaching of these men stirred
a passion- ate hatred in their opponents. Their lives were often in danger, they were
mobbed, they were ducked, they were stoned, they were smothered with filth. Charles
Wesley, a Christ Church student, came to add sweetness to this sudden and start- ling light.
He was the "sweet singer" of the movement. "His hymns expressedthe fiery con- viction of
its converts in lines so chaste and beau- tiful that its more extravagant features disap-
peared. The wild throes of enthusiasm passedinto a passion for hymn-singing, and a new
mu- sical impulse was aroused in the people which gradually changed the face of public
devotion throughout England/' (Green's "Short History of the English People.") 48 Gold
From God's Mint Now let us ask the question, What special fea- ture, or phase of doctrine,

25. characterized this great nation-wide, yea, world-wide, revival ? Suppose we let Mr. Wesley
answer it. Hear him. He describes these times thus: "In the year 1729 four young students
in Oxford agreed to spend their even- ings together. They were all zealous members of the
Church of England, and had no particular opinions, but were distinguished only by their
constant attendance on the church and sacra- ments. In 1735 they were increased to fifteen,
when the chief of them embarked for America, intending to preach to the heathen Indians.
Methodism then seemedto die away, but it re- vived again in 1738." This is the time
referred to in the secular his- tory we have just quoted. He further says: "Many years
since, I saw that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. I began following after it, and
inciting all with whom I had any intercourse to do the same. Ten years after God gave me a
clearer view than I had before of the way to obtain this, namely, by faith in the Son of God;
and immediately I de- clared to all, We are savedfrom sin, we are made holy, by faith.
THIS I TESTIFIED IN PRIVATE, IN PUBLIC, IN PRINT, and God Gold From God's
Mint 49 confirmed it by a thousand witnesses. I have continued to declare this for thirty
years." ("American Magazine," Vol. XX., page 563.) How does that compare with what Dr.
Tyer- man says? He says Wesley never testified once to having the experience of holiness.
Wesley says : "God gave me a clearer view than I had be- fore of the way to obtain this,
namely, *By faith in the Son of God,' and immediately I declared to all, We are savedfrom
all sin, we are made holy by faith. This I testified in private, in public, in print, and God
confirmed it by a thousand wit- nesses."Now whom shall we believe, Tyerman or Wesley?
Here is a case where a modern writer says that Wesley never testified to holiness or
sanctification, but Mr. Wesley said he did, and we have it in black and white. Not only in
regard to testimony, but he either wilfully or ignorantly misquoted Mr. Wesley in his
statement concerning the time when he (Mr. Wesley) found people professing the
experience. He says : "Wesley had held the doctrine of Chris- tian perfection ever since the
year 1733, but now for the first time (1760) he found people profess- ing the experience and
practicing it. Yea, more, they professed to have attained to this state of 50 Gold From
God's Mint purity in a moment, and simply by faith." (Tyer- man's "Life of Wesley/' Vol.
II., page 417.) He claims that this was the ''first time'' Mr. Wesley found people professing
to experience and practice Christian perfection. Now suppose we turn to Mr. Wesley's
account in his sermon on patience. He says : "Four or five and forty years ago, when I had
no distinct view of what the Apostle meant by exhorting us to 'leave the prin- ciples of the
doctrine of Christ and go on to per- fection,' two or three persons in London, whom I knew
to be truly sincere, desired to give me account of their experience. It appeared ex- ceedingly
strange, being different from any that I had heard before, but exactly similar to the pre-
ceding account of entire sanctification. The next year two or three more persons in Bristol,
and two or three in Kingswood, coming to me severally, gave me exactly the same account
of their experi- ence. A few years after I desired all those in London, who made the same
profession, to come to me all together at the foundry. In the years 1759, 1760, 1 761 and
1762 their number multi- plied exceedingly. Not only in London and Bris- tol, but in

26. various parts of Ireland, as well as England." Forty-five years before would be 1739, when
Gold From God's Mint 51 these persons came to Mr. Wesley and told him the experiences
which were similar to his own account of entire sanctification. The next year (1740) there
were others from Kingswood and Bristol, and subsequently many from London met him at
the foundry, whose testimonies he could not but believe. These statements disprove Mr.
Tyerman's statement that 1760 was the "first time'* Mr. Wesley found people professing to
ex- perience Christian perfection. Twenty-one years prior to this, according to Mr. Wesley,
he conversed with witnesses. According to Mr. Wesley's statement, he did not take up the
instan- taneous feature later in life, as some writers would have us believe. Upon this false
foundation of dates and state- ments is where W. F. Tillett, of Vanderbilt, makes his gross
mistake in his book, in saying: "He (Mr. Wesley) was introducing an element into his
doctrine of Christian perfection that was logically and theologically irreconcilable with the
doctrine which he had been preaching from the beginning of his ministry." Having shown
that Dr. Tyerman was mis- taken and untrue as to the time the doctrine of
"INSTANTANEOUS sanctification" appeared. Dr. Tillett's statement that it was "then"
that he 52 Gold From God's Mint introduced for the "first time'' the element of. his
doctrine "which has been the fruitful cause of serious differences of opinion among his
followers from that day to this/' is also untrue. His state- ment that "during the last twelve
or fifteen years of his life John Wesley gave up all insistence upon instantaneous
sanctification," that he "quietly let it drop/' is also untrue to the core. It is plainly proven
by the plain, written statements of Mr. Wesley that, to the very day of his death, he urged
the people to press on into "full sanctifica- tion" received now by faith. Let me say in
conclusion that the personnel of the Church of to-day prefer to believe the state- ments of
John Wesley with his own signature attached to them, rather than the false
Bible Verses About Inner Beauty: 22 Awesome Quotes
by Daryl Evans · Print · Email
nner beauty is inside each of us. We are all beautiful in God’s eyes as we are created in the
image of God. God doesn’t make junk. However, many people don’t feel beautiful inside.
We are often smothered by a lack of confidence and even a lack of acceptance of other
people. It is easy to compare ourselves to others especially when we compare our outward
appearance. God’s word makes it clear that we are all beautiful to Him. Beauty isn’t just
reserved for models and Hollywood actors and actresses. You are beautiful. Readthe
following scripture passages and let God heal you as you come to the realization of how
much God loves and values each of His created beings.

27. Featured Bible Verse 2 Corinthians 4:16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is
wasting away, our inner self his being renewed day by day.
Beautiful In God’s Eyes
1 Peter 3:4-6 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable
beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. For this is how
the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own
husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do
good and do not fear anything that is frightening.
Proverbs 31:30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD
is to be praised.
Beauty is More Than Outward Appearance
God’s word makes it clear that we are all beautiful to Him.
1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the
height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man
looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”
Psalms 34:5 Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.
Psalms 45:11 and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him.
Proverbs 3:15 She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with
her.
Proverbs 20:29 The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is
their gray hair.
Song of Solomon 4:7 You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.
Ezekiel 28:17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom
for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposedyou before kings, to feast
their eyes onyou.
Matthew 5:8 Blessedare the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Matthew 23:27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s
bones and pall uncleanness.”

28. John 7:24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if
there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Beauty Because We Are Created By God
Genesis 1:31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And
there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Psalms 139:14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your
works; my soul knows it very well.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into
man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the
end.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Beauty Because We Are Children of God
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let
them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the
livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Colossians 3:12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate
hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
1 Thessalonians 5:5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the
night or of the darkness.
1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called
children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that bit did
not know him.
Beauty is more than skin deep. One interesting thing is that the love of another person will
often make us feel beautiful. When we have the love of a spouse or our family member we
will feel accepted and better about ourselves. When there is a lack of love in our lives, we
often feel alone and isolated and evendepressed. That is one reason why people are often
drawn to the Lord God. God is love. It is what He is. No matter how alone we feel in this
life we can always know that God is there for us and He loves us the way we are. Maybe

29. today you are feeling alone and depressed. People have let you down in your life and you
don’t feel any inner beauty. Turn to God today. He thinks that you are His masterpiece
and He loves you. Embrace Jesus Christ today. Praise Him!!!
by Daryl Evans
Let BeautyTake You There by unknown
Beauty takes us somewhere - higher, lower, but most importantly truer and more whole. It's a
vibe, but more; a reality, but also a glimpse of what's beyond. In doing so, beauty is a revealing
work of the Holy Spirit. It's a cover for the fake and an expression of the real, the half that's true
in many things that are half-true. It's in a lover's embrace, or the celebration of a bright sunshiny
day. It's better at communicating than naked fact or plain image, yet there is a beauty in logic and
in abstract thought-as-an-art. There is the beauty of a life well-lived and a relationship well-
loved. It's there in the grit of repentance and forgiveness, in the grace of reconciliation, and the
reestablishment of love where love was destroyed. There is, most of all, the Creator of Beauty,
the Beautiful Savior, who takes an ugly blood-dripped execution device and makes it worthy of
jewelry and art. The outstretched arms of the crucified Christ is the ultimate Yes to us all, and
that kind of welcome is beautiful in a world of rejection. The risen Christ who comes back to us
even from death is beautiful in a world of abandonment. If we follow this Creator, ought we not
also bring at least a touch of beauty into whatever we do, especially as a body of believers? And
ought we not bear the beauty and grace-full-ness of Jesus' way in our own way of living?
The Ultimate Artist gave us the divine gift of making beauty, and the challenge of making life
even more beautiful than it already is.
"Beauty and grandeur are not anonymous; they are outbursts of God's kindness."
Abraham Heschel, *the Prophets*
"Do I love you because you're beautiful,
Or are you beautiful because I love you?"
Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, *Cinderella*
"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting
— a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and
thank God for it as a cup of blessing."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
GAZING ON THE BEAUTY OF GOD – MIKE BICKLE Transcript: 10/26/97
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30. Gazing on the Beauty of God, Part 1
INTRODUCTION Psalm 27:4. A verse that’s one of my favorites in the book of Psalm;
because Psalms is so large, with 150 psalms, you’re all entitled to have ten favorite verses in
the book of Psalms, and this is one of my ten. It gives a unique insight into the heart of
David. David was called “the man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14, paraphrased), so
when God declares a man to be after His heart you want to know what's in David’s heart.
He’s the man God set forth that we’re to imitate throughout redemptive history.
“ONE THING I HAVE DESIRED OF THE LORD, THAT WILL I SEEK” David declared
the highest and the primary preoccupation of his heart. He declared his secret motivation;
the secret to his power in the Lord through seventy consistent years of walking with the
Lord. He said, “One thing I have desired of the Lord” (Ps. 27:4). That ought to get your
attention right there. He says, “One thing above all other things has been my primary
preoccupation; my highest goal, my vision in God. One thing I have askedfrom the Lord.
Not only have I askedfor it, but it’s the one thing I’m seeking after.”
Here it is: “. . . that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple” (Ps. 27:4b). David said, “If I had to
sum it up in one sentence, this is it.” Maybe David was asked; perhaps this was in response
to a dialogue, because he goes on in the next four or five verses and describes the journey
he was on in terms of his own personal life and his life vision. Maybe someone askedhim at
the end of his life when he wrote Psalm 27, “David, what’s the one thing that has gripped
you all the days of your life?”
A HEART LIKE DAVID’S IS A HEART AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART The phrase, “all
the days of my life,” is significant. In David’s teenage years, when he played that stringed
instrument on the hillsides of Bethlehem, as he was tending the sheepsinging love songs to
God at twelve, thirteen, sixteen, and eighteen years old, he was uniquely drawn by the
grace of God into the subject of God’s beauty. I believe it was a unique grace upon him
evenin the Old Testament; God drew him in this special way to make him an example even
throughout the new covenant church age of what God was after in cultivating a heart after
God. A heart like David: that’s a heart after God.
DAVID SOUGHT THE HEART OF GOD ALL THE DAYS OF HIS LIFE In David’s
teenage years the grace of God drew him, and he wrote a number of psalms where he
beheld the beauty of God in creation when he looked at the stars; but that’s not the only
place where he beheld the beauty of God. He beheld God’s beauty in the written Word of
God in the Old Testament as he had it in that day. He beheld God in terms of the
understanding of forgiveness and redemption, and there are many ways that David beheld
it. The point I’m making now is that he beheld the beauty of the Lord all the days of his

31. life: throughout the teenage years, as he sang those love songs to God as a youth; in his
twenties as jealous King Saul was chasing him from hill to hill and cave to cave throughout
all of Judea trying to kill him; through his early days as king at Hebron over part of Israel,
and later in his thirties, forties, and fifties as he was established as king over all of Israel,
when he was defeating the Lord’s enemies and the surrounding nations in tremendous
victories.
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David said, “Whether in the seasonof victory or the seasonof testing, whether in a time of
exhilaration or a time of depression; the one primary thing I returned to again and again
was this issue of gazing upon the beauty of God.”
I don’t believe David would claim it was something that he never, everlost sight of; he did
lose sight of it. It makes it clear in the Psalms; evenin this psalm we see that. But it was the
thing that he returned to regularly throughout his life. Again and again, God drew him
back to this; it was the center of his life, the core of truth from which David lived his life, in
all the days, in all the seasons of his life: in his youth, in his early twenties, in his thirties,
forties, and fifties. It’s a very, very important declaration of David’s heart.
This is a very precious verse, that we could have this kind of insight into a man who had a
heart after God in the way that God declared about David. David said, “This one thing I’ve
desired and this one thing I’ve sought.” David desired it; it was the goal, the focus of his life
in a primary way. But he didn’t just have it as a goal; he sought after it. He endeavored to
exert energy to go after it; it wasn’t just a goal that was out there in the byand-by, but
rather something for which he exerted energy and invested time to go on this lifelong
treasure hunt to discover the beauty of God, and to gaze on God’s beauty.
Today and on the next couple of Sundays, Lord willing, I want to draw attention to the
subject of the dazzling beauty of God that’s manifested in His acts and personhood and
personality. I can only give an introduction into the beauty of God because at best I only
understand an introduction to it. I imagine the angels that attend each of the saints, and
when we come to gather many of them are here today. I imagine what they’re thinking:
“That little man wants to teach on the beauty of God? Does he understand who God is?
Does he understand the infinite transcendent beauty that God possesses?”

32. No, I don’t. I just want to whet your appetite and give a few tokens of a beauty that will one
day so utterly consume you, so utterly conquer you when you see Him face to face, in that
day when He unfolds His beauty.
THE GLORY OF GOD IS TO HIDE HIS BEAUTY SO THAT WE CAN SEEK IT OUT
The interesting thing about God, the reason we have to seek His beauty, is because God is
delighted in hiding His beauty. The most powerful force of God is His composite beauty; it
conquers all of creation, it conquers all the hosts of the angels, and it conquers all the
redeemed. When He progressively unveils His beauty, it entirely subdues us and changes
our emotional chemistry and makes us wholehearted lovers of God. It’s the fact of God’s
beauty that’s fully unveiled at the end of time; this beauty He has possessedfrom before
eternity. He has hidden it, and little by little He unfolds it in redemptive history.
He’s so secure in His beauty, although His beauty is so obscure. He holds it back, because
as we embark upon the treasure hunt, the journey to seek it, He unveils it for the hungriest
of hearts. In the very process of unveiling it He creates ownership in us of those things. He
could declare His beauty; He could just make divine proclamations of His beauty, but He
wants us to discover it step by step. Ownership and transformation and our own emotional
chemistry are changed as we not only desire it but seek afterit. It’s the goal of our life; we
go on a specific journey to discover it.
THE SECRET OF DAVID’S SUCCESS IN HIS PURSUIT OF GOD David says, “I’ve
desired it. It’s the primary preoccupation of my life.” The secret of David’s life is that
although he had many things that occupied his time and heart and mind at the secondary
level, there was one
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primary preoccupation. That’s the power of David’s life: not only did he have one primary
preoccupation, but it was the right one. It was the beauty of God.
A thousand years later Jesus was to comment on this concept: the power of having one
thing in the highest position of our life. It’s a very important psychological principle that
our power and our strength are diluted, are weakened, by the many things that are in the
primary position of our heart. Things that were designed to be secondary are primary, and
when there are many of them, you can imagine the emotional fatigue that we have in trying
to pursue many things in the most intense way. We were designed to be a people of one
primary thing. It’s a principle, and it’s one that David tapped into, and it’s the key to his
success in his pursuit of the Lord: for that one thing to be the beauty of the Lord. David

33. was doubly right. He was right in having one thing, and he was right in the thing that he
chose.
EVEN THE BLESSINGS OF GOD MUST OCCUPY A SECONDARY PLACE A
thousand years after David, Jesus entered into the house of Martha and Mary in the town
of Bethany. You can read about it in Luke 10:38-42, a very well-known passage. I just want
to reference it. Jesus enters into the house, and Martha, the older sister, is in the kitchen
preparing food, while the little sister, Mary, is sitting at the feet of Jesus in the other room.
Martha comes in exasperatedat her younger sister. “Jesus, tell her to come and help me!”
To her surprise, Jesus called Martha to come and sit and join Mary. He reversedit. He
loved Martha, but He said, “No, Martha, your little sister Mary has chosen the good part.
You have not” (Lk. 10:42, paraphrased).
He goes on to describe what’s going on. He says, “Martha, let Me tell you the reason why
you’re so bothered and so anxious all the time.” He described her as bothered and anxious
and distracted. “I love you and your heart for Me, but you’re so easily distracted” (Lk.
10:41, paraphrased). It’s such an accurate description of the Church today across the
nation: so easily bothered, so easily distracted, so easily irritated, so easily in turmoil.
He says, “Let Me give you the key to understanding why your little sisteris not distracted.”
It’s the word focus. “Martha, Martha,” He said, “You have many things that are primary,
many things that have captured your attention that are supposed to be secondary. Your
little sister has found the gold, the secret of spiritual focus. She has one thing, whereas you
have many things, and she has peace and joy. The many things that your little sister has are
secondary, but she has one primary thing.”
Beloved, we need to imitate Mary and David. We need to be a people of one thing as our
primary preoccupation. Yes, it’s good to have many things, but they must be secondary.
God has ordained many things, but He ordained them to be second. When those become
first, we lose the ability to enjoy His blessings. You can’t enjoy the blessings ordained for
second position when they become primary. He looked to Martha and said, “Your little
sisteris a woman of one thing.” That’s the power of her life. David was a man of one thing
in the primary position of his heart. He was a man of one thing, and we do well to imitate
Mary and we do well to imitate David and we do well to listen to the exhortation of Jesus to
be a people of one thing.
“I AM YOUR PORTION AND YOUR EXCEEDING GREAT REWARD” The Lord
appeared to Abraham in Genesis 15. He promised Abraham through a series of visitations:
“Abraham, I will give you a lot of money; I will give you a lot of spiritual authority; I will
give you a lot of favor with people; I will give you a lot of blessedcircumstances, but let Me
tell you, Abraham, all of those things must be

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secondary, eventhough they’re My blessing.” He says in Genesis 15:1, “I myself, I alone,
am your exceeding great reward. There are secondary rewards. I alone am the exceeding
great reward of your heart, Abraham. If they become your main rewards and I become
secondary, you’ll never be able to enjoy or use those rewards properly” (Gen. 15:1,
paraphrased).
THE GREATEST PLEASURE IS WHEN GOD REVEALS GOD TO THE HUMAN
SPIRIT The very blessing of God that was ordained to be secondary becomes primary, and
it undermines our ability to use that blessing rightly and to enjoy it in a proper way. It
chokes our heart and strangles our ability to love and enjoy God. He told Abraham, “I
myself am your exceeding great reward.” What did He mean by that? Partially, the
unveiling of the splendor and the beauty of God to Abraham would so exhilarate Abraham
and so empower him to walk in a right way. When God reveals God to the human Spirit, it
brings us the greatest pleasure our human makeup was designed to experience. Did you
know that God, in establishing our humanity, ordained many arenas of pleasure, and He
ordained that we would walk in these pleasures? There’s one pleasure that’s supreme
according to our design, and one that exhilarates more than any other pleasure. It’s the
pleasure of God revealing God to the human spirit. When the Holy Spirit takes the things
that are Jesus’ and communicates them to us, something in us resonates simply because we
were designed that way. He becomes the unveiling of God to us and the exceeding great
reward; the exceeding pleasure; the exceeding comfort of the people of God.
ONLY IN SEEING THE BEAUTY OF GOD CAN YOU SEE YOUR OWN BEAUTY IN
GOD This is what David experienced. The promise of ministry, the authority of ministry,
the blessing of ministry, economics, favor, friendships, all of these things can actually harm
our hearts and our lives if they become primary. David was a man of one thing who had the
primary thing primary and the secondary thing secondary. He didn’t always do that, but
he realigned himself in times of trouble.
It was only in seeing the beauty of God that David could see his beauty in God. Did you
know that in redemption you possess a beauty that’s staggering? You possess a beauty even
in your creation. The fact that you’re a human being already separates you from all the
rest of the created order. A token of your beauty is seenin your natural humanity, but a
greater fullness of your beauty is seenin your redemption. In seeing the beauty of God,
David could see his own beauty more clearly. Beloved, when you see God’s beauty and then
you see your beauty in God, it changes your emotional chemistry. It changes the way that
you think and feel about everything. A man or woman who sees God’s beauty and his or

35. her own beauty in God feels differently about everything. It changes you. You feel powerful
when you feel beautiful. You feel powerful before sin when you feel beautiful before God.
Redemption has beautified the people of God.
“LET THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD OUR GOD BE UPON US” It says in Isaiah 61.3,
one of the well-known statements of redemption, “God has given you beauty for ashes”
(Isa. 61:3, paraphrased). In place of the ash heap of broken humanity God has given you
beauty, but more than that He has given you His beauty for ashes. The very beauty of God
has been imparted to you. Moses was to pray in Psalm 90:17, “Let the beauty of the Lord
our God be upon us” (Ps. 90:17, NKJV). That’s what took place in Jesus Christ. It’s not
just beauty for ashes; it’s God’s beauty that has been given to you. It’s fantastic! Moses
understood that a little; David understood that a little. God beautifies everything He
touches redemptively. Whenever God touches something redemptively, He beautifies it
with His own beauty. God beautifies His people with salvation (Ps. 149:4). He makes you
beautiful. He adorns and makes beautiful a bride for His Son (Rev. 21:2). God the Father
makes beautiful the people of God for Jesus in the grace of God.
GAZING ON THE BEAUTY OF GOD – MIKE BICKLE Gazing on the Beauty of God,
Part 1 Transcript: 10/26/97 Page 5
IHOP–KC Missions Base www.IHOP.org Free Teaching Library www.MikeBickle.org
GOD RESERVED THE HIGHEST CAPACITY FOR BEAUTY TO THE HUMAN RACE
The subject of beauty is a very important subject for your life, whether you know it or not.
The subject of beauty will change your emotional chemistry; the subject of beauty will
break the power of shame. The subject of beauty will break the power of despair in your
heart. When you see God’s beauty and you see your own beauty, shame is broken and
dispelled and cast away, along with the spirit of heaviness. It’s a very powerful doctrine.
The beautiful God created people for beauty. Imagine the indescribably beautiful God
when He’s creating a partner for His Son; imagine the foresight He had when He created
us. He created us, number one, with a capacity for beauty. We look at some of God’s
creation, some of those funny, little creatures that float around in the ocean, or little
insects. He says, “The highest capacity for beauty I reservedfor the human race. In My
foresight ahead of time, when I was designing you on the Designer’s table, if you will, I had
forethought and I put in you a capacity to receive and reflect the very beauty of My
uncreated Son.”

36. Fantastic! You have the ability to reflect the beauty of God a little in your natural
humanity. The very fact that you have a mind that thinks and emotions that feels is a
declaration of your beauty. It’s only a token in your natural makeup, but in redemption
your capacity to reflect beauty comes to fullness. Beloved, one of these days when your
spiritual beauty and your natural beauty come to fullness in the age to come—and there’s
no contradiction between them in the age to come—when you see yourself and look at one
another, you will be stunned at the capacity for beauty that you possess. You’ll look at one
another and you’ll overwhelmed at the beauty of your loved ones and your friends, and
you’ll be so anxious to go look in a mirror somewhere, and you’ll say “Oh my goodness!
They were right! I’m stunning, I’m brilliant.” You’ll be blown away.
But that capacity for beauty is already in you right now; God in His forethought built you
according to that design. Beloved, you’ve been created by the beautiful God for beauty, and
you have a capacity for it. You possess a spiritual beauty now; we all do that, though we
don’t understand it. The angels in holy envy look at the Church; they’ve been adorned by
God in beauty in a way that the Church doesn’t understand, but the angels, I believe, are
awed by what God has made from the dust of the earth in redemption—the Bride of
Christ.
OUR NATURAL BEAUTY RADIATES IN THE LIGHT OF OUR SPIRITUAL BEAUTY
You have more than a capacity for beauty; you have a God-given appetite for it. You have
a hunger, an appetite to be beautiful. Every human being was made that way. You crave it,
you delight in it, you desire it, you have an appetite for it. Menuse different language. Most
men don’t think of being beautiful, but it’s the same impulse regardless of what language
they use. Every one of you was designed by an indescribable God to be beautiful. That’s
why you hunger for it and why you can’t get rid of it; you can only answer it in the right
way. The disorder is that our natural beauty has taken preeminence over our spiritual
beauty. God wants to reverse those in order that we pursue beauty in the right way, and
then in the age to come He joins them together and there’s no separation between our
natural and our spiritual beauty. In this age our spiritual beauty is to be preeminent; our
natural beauty is enhanced when we walk in the reality of our spiritual beauty.
Your natural beauty isn’t just an issue of your hair, your eyes, your teeth, and the
condition of your body; your natural beauty is contained in the fact that you have a mind
that reasons and a heart that feels the capacity to do things in this age that go beyond the
grave, that last in the age to come. Your capacity for beauty is greater than your physical
appearance. Our natural beauty is to be secondary in this age by ordinance of God, and
our spiritual beauty is to be predominant. When we connect it with our natural beauty, it’s
significantly enhanced.