THE NIGHT BELONGS TO THE LORD
Night and day ministry is more than completing a 24-hour cycle. It’s a reality in the Holy Spirit rooted in the unsearchable
greatness of the Godhead.
I. THE UNSEARCHABLE GREATNESS OF GOD
A. The knowledge of God
“Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable.” Psalm 145:3
1. We need to grow in the revelation of the knowledge of God. We must return to the wonder and awe of the transcendence
of God’s majesty.
2. “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us” (Tozer, 1).
3. Psalm 40:16 “…Let such as love Your salvation say continually, ‘The Lord be magnified!’”
The purpose of night and day ministry is to grow in the knowledge of God’s greatness and majesty. In this way, we will begin
to declare “the Lord be magnified.”
4. Without growing in the knowledge of His greatness, night and day ministry seems senseless. In Psalm 145:3, David
connects the reason for continual extravagant praise (greatly to be praised) with the unsearchable greatness of God.
B. Night and day ministry is a reality rooted in the transcendence of God.
1. There are a few verses that directly point to this:
a. Luke 18:1-7
b. Malachi 1:11
c. Revelation 4:8
2. Psalm 145:3 “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised…” I believe David is saying, “God is huge. He is massive. He
is beyond your wildest imagination. Because of that you need to worship Him extravagantly.”
3. Psalm 145:3 “…His greatness is unsearchable.” David says, “Your greatness is unsearchable. Therefore, Your praise
needs to be unending.” The “greatness” or extravagance of our devotion, love and adoration corresponds to His greatness,
which is unsearchable.
4. Praise is a response. We don’t praise God because He’s insecure and has an inferiority complex. That is not the biblical
paradigm of praise. We praise what we enjoy and admire. In Psalm 145:3, David is saying, “If you taste only a little bit of the
greatness of God, you will praise Him accordingly.” Touching His unending greatness results in unending praise. Praise and
worship are responses to encountering God in our hearts.
5. There is a cry being awakened in the heart of God’s people that says, “God, we must have a much bigger vision of who
You are!” It’s the cry of the psalmist in Psalm 34:3 “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.”
6. “The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has submitted it for one so low, so ignoble, as to be
utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping people” (Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy, vii).
C. Idolatry – worshiping a god who is created in our image.
1. When we think of idolatry we think of little statues that we bow down and worship. I once heard a quote by St. Augustine
that says, “Idolatry is not only worshiping that which is meant to be used but is also using that which is meant to be
worshiped.”
2. According to Tozer, idolatry is when we make God in our own image. As soon as we make God smaller than He is, we’ve
stepped into idolatry. God made us in His image. The Lord tells us in Psalm 50:21 that He is not altogether like us.
3. The Holy Spirit is inviting us to ask the Lord to give us revelation and to expand our hearts and minds into the reality of His
greatness.
4. When our spirits and hearts get impacted with the reality that God’s greatness is unsearchable, then standing before Him,
worshiping and praising Him with extravagance makes sense.
D. The transcendence of God
1. Oh!!! (Romans 11:33) Do we have any idea of who He is? He is majestic in holiness, awesome in greatness and does
wonders (Ex. 15:11). When the prophets of old saw Him, He was indescribable. Even the highest created object used to
describe His likeness falls terribly short of the revelation of His true greatness. Ezekiel did not see His glory. He saw the
likeness of the appearance of the glory of God. “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods?” (Ex. 15:11) He has no beginning
and no end. He has always been and always will be. He is uncreated.
2. Isaiah 66:1 “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house you will build Me? And where is the
place of My rest?” I imagine Him saying, “Hey guys, I appreciate the thought, but heaven? I sit on it - it’s My throne. And
this thing called the globe? I rest on it. And you’re going to build a house for Me to come and dwell in?” It’s impossible. He
says “I’ve created these things by My own hand. But, I’ll tell you what, I will come and dwell and live in your heart. That I
will do.”
3. I Kings 8:27 Solomon had a revelation of His greatness. He was about to dedicate this big temple he had built, when he
realized, “God, are You going to dwell on earth? The heavens cannot contain You; how much less this temple I have built.
This is unthinkable to me”.
“Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?” Isaiah 66:1
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How
much less this temple which I have built!” I Kings 8:27
“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven with a span and calculated the
dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?” Isaiah 40:12
“It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out
the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.” Isaiah 40:22
“For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.” Psalm 96:5
“Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding ALL things by the
WORD of His power…” Hebrews 1:3
E. The greatness of God (Isaiah 40)
1. Isaiah 40:12 “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand?”
Who has taken the Caribbean Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the
Dead Sea, the rivers, the lakes and who has measured all of that in the hollow of his hand? Who has calculated the dust
of the earth in a measure? Who has weighed the mountains and the hills and the valleys?
2. Isaiah 40:21 “It is He who sits upon the circle of the earth and His inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out
the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent of dwelling.”
3. Isaiah 40:26 He named all the stars by the greatness of His might.
4. Psalm 96:5 “For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.” Notice the contrast - the people
made the gods, while Yahweh, the uncreated God, made the heavens. He is not created. He made everything.
5. The writer of Hebrews is beside himself when he talks about Jesus.
Hebrews 1:3 “Who being in the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding ALL things by
the word of His power.” Jesus, this carpenter from Nazareth, was the exact radiance of the glory of God. Hebrews tells us
that everything that exists is held together by the word of His power. I believe this refers to His creative power, His ability to
sustain with a word. Jesus spoke things into existence with a word. This is absolutely amazing! Unsearchable Greatness
walking in finite human flesh. Oh, the mystery of godliness (I Timothy 3:16)!
6. When Jesus moves in supernatural power by healing, raises someone from the dead or calms a storm, it is not a big
deal for Him. When Jesus heals cancer it is not a big deal. When we shout “JESUS, RELEASE YOUR POWER,” I think that
sometimes He looks at us, smiles and says, “I appreciate the energy, but it’s not necessary. I whispered and the earth came
into order. I whispered and the suns were made. I whispered and the trees were made. I whispered and the animals were
made. I can deal with cancer with a thought.”
7. “When we speak of God as transcendent we mean of course that He is exalted far above the created universe, so far
above that human thought cannot imagine it” (Tozer, 69).
8. “We must not think of God as highest in an ascending order of beings, starting with a single cell and going on from the
fish to the bird to the animal to man to angel to cherub to God. This would be to grant God eminence, or even preeminence,
but that is not enough; we must grant Him transcendence in the fullest meaning of that word. Forever God stands apart, in
light unapproachable. He is as high above an archangel as above a caterpillar, for the gulf that separates the archangel
from the caterpillar but finite, while the gulf between God and the archangel is infinite” (Tozer, 70).
9. “The caterpillar and the archangel, though far removed from each other in the scale of created things, are nevertheless
are one in that they are alike created. They both belong in the category of that-which-is-not-God and are separated from
God by infinitude itself” (Tozer, 70).
F. Do we have any idea who this God is? We must go on a journey and ask the Father to give us the spirit of revelation to
fascinate our hearts and begin tearing down arguments and imaginations that exalt themselves against the knowledge of
God (II Corinthians 10:5).
G. When this begins to grip us, night and day ministry begins to make sense. There are not enough hours to search out
His greatness. That is why night and day ministry to the Lord is not a 24-hour schedule. It’s a reality rooted in the
transcendence of God. Outside of this context it doesn’t make sense.
H. It’s about His glory. He’s truly magnificent. He’s altogether lovely. He is the greatest being we will ever know. No wonder
when the seraphim stand before Him their only response is “Holy, holy, holy…”! They are speaking of His transcendence.
II. FIFTEEN ATTRIBUTES OF THE BEAUTY OF GOD - REVELATION 4:2-8
A. Rev. 4:2 “… I was in the SPIRIT and behold, a THRONE set in heaven and ONE sat on the throne.”
1. Rev 4:2 “I was in the Spirit” The Spirit speaks of the realm of eternity. Isaiah 57:1-5 “For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity…”
2. John is caught up in the realm of the Spirit, eternity, the place where God dwells. There he sees the throne, the
government of God. Can we imagine political affairs, our finances, our relationships, and potential marriages and children
are being ruled from that place? Nothing goes on that He does not know about. He sees everything.
3. David says, “…such knowledge is too wonderful for me…” He says, “He knows the words that come from my mouth
before I speak them. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” Psalm 139:4, 6, 7
4. When John sees the uncreated God, he describes Him as One. One is His description, because He is indescribable.
John is seeing Abba God in His indescribable splendor. SPIRIT, THRONE and ONE are the first three.
B. Rev. 4:3 “And He who sat there was like a JASPER and a SARDIUS stone in appearance; and there was a RAINBOW
around the throne, in appearance like emerald.”
1. One who sat on the throne is like a JASPER stone. Jasper, some believe, is the equivalent of a diamond, a bright,
translucent light coming from the being of God. Paul described it as unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16).
Psalm 104:2 says, “God clothes Himself with light as a garment.”
2. A SARDIUS stone is like a red ruby stone. I believe that John was seeing the very being of God on fire. His greatness is
unsearchable. This is but a dim description of what God is like. The sardius stone represents God’s very being on fire.
Deuteronomy 4:24 “God is a consuming fire.” The sardius stone speaks of His passion, love and the intensity of His wrath.
3. There is a RAINBOW around His throne. The rainbow is the color of emerald, which speaks of His mercy. In Genesis, God
gives a rainbow as a sign of His covenant of His mercy. I believe the rainbow in Revelation 4:3 is circular because His mercy is
unending. His mercy endures forever.
C. Rev. 4:4 “I saw twenty-four elders SITTING, clothed in WHITE ROBES; and they had CROWNS of gold on their heads.”
1. “ …I saw 24 elders sitting…” Not only is this a God who possesses beauty, He also shares and gives it to us. He gives us
the privilege to be seated in His presence.
2. “…clothed in white robes, with crowns of gold on their heads…” He robes us in white robes. These are the priestly
garments He gives us that are garments of intimacy with Him. The crowns He gives us represent our ruling and reigning
with Him.
D. Rev. 4:5 “And from the throne proceeded LIGHTNINGS, THUNDERINGS, AND VOICES.”
1. “And from the throne proceeded lightnings…” A most incredibly fascinating scene of what that must be like to see lightning
coming forth from the very being of God.
2. “…thunderings and voices…” Voices and sounds, noises and music, beyond our wildest imaginations, coming from the
being of God.
E. Rev. 4:5b-8 “…SEVEN LAMPS OF FIRE… A SEA OF GLASS LIKE CRYSTAL … FOUR LIVING CREATURES.”
1. The seven lamps of fire speak of the seven spirits of God (Isaiah 11:1-3). The number “seven” represents the complete
fullness of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
2. A sea of glass like crystal is found in Exodus 24:9-10 and Ezekiel 1:22. The four living creatures are found in Isaiah 6:2,
as well as Psalm 104:4.
F. Some other passages revealing the majesty of God
1. Exodus 24:9-10 - the sapphire pavement mentioned for the first time.
2. Isaiah 6:1-7 - the transcendence of the Son of God
3. Song of Songs 5:10-16 - the transcendence of the Bridegroom God
4. Ezekiel 1 - The transcendence of the Son of God
5. Daniel 7:9:14 - the transcendence of the Ancient of Days (the Father).