Come Up Higher - God is Goodness

Today we will journey through God’s love story the Bible and explore another aspect of God’s character, and that is goodness. A goodness that is the very essence of God Himself. For God is goodness. A goodness that is uprightness of heart and life. As you listen be blessed, empowered and transformed in Jesus name.

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Transcript

00:00 Intro music and voice over.

Welcome to jesus loves the world podcast. For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name! 

00:21 Speaker

Following on from last week, we discovered that God continues to invite us to come up higher, to know and experience His kindness toward us. 

A kindness that is pure and loving, selfless and divine. His kindness is intertwined with His unconditional love. God’s kindness has an aspect of reaching out through gifts or deeds to demonstrate compassion and mercy, all for the benefit of others. 

God’s expression of His kindness is shown in His relationships with individuals and people groups throughout the ages. With His ultimate expression of His kindness revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. 

So today we will journey through God’s love story the Bible and explore another aspect of God’s character, and that is goodness. A goodness that is the very essence of God Himself. For God is goodness.

A goodness that is uprightness of heart and life.  

Right back at the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and all things good. everything was very good. A goodness that represents God Himself. The word that had been translated as good in the Genesis creation story has a plural/singular aspect to it. Just as God the Father, Son and Spirit created all things good. One creator, one God, who is goodness. 

God created the fist man and woman in His image. Both male and female He created them. Everything was a perfect expression of God and His goodness. For everything was very good. 

Yet as we look around us today, we can see this is not our reality. We live in a world damaged by evil. In a world of injustices and inequality, conflict and chaos, shame and disrespect.

So back to the beginning. It was not long after God had created everything good that humanity chose to become one with both good and evil, instead of only good. As a result, humanity activated evil into God’s once perfect world. 

Yet God and His goodness remains constant. God’s goodness is unique to God Himself. His goodness is pure and selfless, and is always directed towards others. God in His goodness continues to reach down into our world, bringing true justice and equality, peace and harmony, honour and respect. 

In the days of old, God linked His goodness with His glory. Let us go back in time when God had delivered the Ancient Israelites from the hands of their oppressors, the Egyptians. God instructed Moses to set up his own tent outside the camp. It would be a place of intimacy between God and Moses, and ultimately all those who were willing. 

In this tent of meeting, God and Moses would commune together. The Lord God spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his closest friend. 

Every time Moses entered the tent of meeting, God descended down in the form of a pillar of cloud. All the Ancient Israelites saw God’s goodness in His glory cloud. Joshua, Son of Nun, Moses’ successor was always there. Even when Moses returned to camp Joshua remained in the tent of meeting.  

In one of those intimate moments between God and Moses, Moses asked God to show him His glory. Let us read God’s reply.

Exodus 33:19-23 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” And the LORD said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”

This is a very beautiful moment. God, the Eternal One, revealed His glory to Moses in an intimate and personal way. A very special way that Moses was able to experience and receive. 

The glory of God is all His goodness. That is His uprightness of heart and life. A goodness that wants the best for others and is solely concerned about the welfare of others. 

As God is goodness, all His actions are only good, for the benefit of others. 

So God made all His goodness pass before Moses. God Himself passed over the land and communed with Moses. Bringing a rest, peace and revelation of God’s goodness. 

The word that have been translated as pass in the context of God’s goodness would pass before Moses is first used in the days of Noah. Just as God and His goodness passed before Moses was for Moses’ benefit, everything God does is for the benefit of others. So when God made the wind pass over the earth after the flood, the waters subsided. Bringing the ark that was carrying Noah, all his family and the animals to a place of rest. As a result not only did Noah, his family and all the animals receive rest, but so too did the entire earth.

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God’s presence, His goodness, brings rest and regeneration, 

peace and healing, revelation and intimacy. 

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An intimacy that is with all God’s creation which includes humanity, the animals and all the entire cosmos.

God has been revealing His goodness to individuals, people groups and all of His creation since the beginning of time itself. 

As God not only made His goodness pass before Moses, but He proclaimed His own name before Moses. 

This word that has been translated as proclaims is the same word that is used in the Genesis account of creation. 

In the first instance it has been translated as the word ‘called.’ 

Let us go to Genesis 1:4-5 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.  

God’s power and authority to name the light and the darkness is intertwined with revealing of His glory. 

Genesis 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

In this instance the glory of His creation represents His goodness. For when God created, it was good.

God saw it was good and proclaims it so. For only God can determine what is good and what is evil. For God is goodness. 

The name that God proclaims represents His character, authority, reputation, glory and honour.

As a beautiful representation of His goodness, God gave His power and authority to name, to the first man, Adam. God invites Adam (representing all of humanity) into His goodness. He continually invites us into His world and together with Him be actively involved in it. 

Genesis 2:19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.

What a beautiful moment and reflection of God’s goodness. Whatever Adam called every living creature, God honoured and that was it’s name. For God is goodness. 

So from generation to generation, God continues to proclaim His name to reveal His goodness. Through His relationship with individuals and people groups, God continues to reveal His goodness. A goodness that is His uprightness of heart and life, that is always for the benefit of others. 

God continues to go before humanity, proclaiming His name.

Just as in the beginning, God’s goodness discerns and separates the physical and spiritual light from the darkness. He separates good from evil. 

God knows those who will come to Him and those who will never come to Him. God declares those who receive Him and give their total allegiance to Him, worshipping only Him as good. They inherit His goodness and eternal destiny.

God declares those who have rejected Him and His right to rule and reign as having effectively aligned themselves with evil. Thus inherit the judgement of evil and its eternal destiny.

God’s goodness separates the good from evil, and the light form the darkness. He goes before us proclaiming His name, revealing His divine majesty is for all eternity. 

The Apostle Paul writes about this to those who have received Jesus, received God.

Ephesians 5:8-14 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”

Having received Jesus, received God, we are now children of light. He is the divine light that is goodness, righteousness and truth. His goodness that is His uprightness of heart and life is a fruit of His transforming work of His Spirit. 

As we surrender our self will to that of God’s will - which is only goodwill - He produces His fruit in us. In this instance His fruit within is His goodness, righteousness and truth. 

Righteousness being God’s equity of character and actions. That is God’s true justice of equality, inclusion, honour and respect. The goodness of God and His kingdom. 

Truth being absolute truth as determined by God Himself. A truth that is the revelation of God and His goodness. A truth that is pure and divine, with a total absence of falsehood or deceit. 

Having received Jesus, received God we are light in this dark world. For it is His light within us, which He makes to shine out of us to others. We are a testimony to His glory, His goodness. 

For His light in us is a spiritual purity of worshipping the one true God. The divine light who created the heavens and the earth and all things good. 

For it is God’s goodness, His equity, His truth in us, that He produces as we surrender to Him, which proclaims His name. 

So God continues to invite us to come up higher. For God is goodness. A goodness that is God’s uprightness of heart and life. His goodness is His glory, His light, truth and righteousness. All intertwined with the proclamation of His name. God’s name being His reputation, His character, His goodness, His heart that none should perish and for all to be truly free. A goodness that is eternal, selfless, majestic, equitable and truth.

So together with the Apostle Paul we pray. 

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We can rest in the security knowing that God is the one who enables us to do what is good and right. That is to receive Him and His right rule and reign. To surrender continually self will to that of the God’s will, being transformed by Him with all His goodness. God’s will is goodwill, where we live in the fullness of His gift of salvation and hope. The goodwill of God toward us and others is the fruit of His goodness and transforming power within us. 

The name of our Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified as we surrender to Him and receive from Him. His name is His reputation and honour, His character, His glorification, His goodness.

So as we enter into this new season, God is inviting us to come up higher. To know and experience Him and His goodness more and more. A goodness that is revealed in His glory. The glory of His presence. For it is His presence within and around that sets us apart. Surely His goodness shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. For God is and always will be, goodness.

19:40 Outro music and voice over. 

For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name!