Values Shape Our Decisions

I want to open this hub with this share from Habakkuk 2:1-3, "I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry".

The first verse spills out how personal prayer has to be of value to us.We must be willing to stand upon our own watch and lock ourselves in with God and watch and wait to see what will He say to us and what we shall answer when we are reproved. Yes, reproof will be present and ongoing so we acquire all that we need to change our way of seeing things to God's way, and that these features manifest. Our ways become His ways when we see things His way. We agree with Him not imply that He agrees with us.

The prophet began his approach to God by positioning himself and claiming his own personal watch and the setting of himself into the tower of prayer. First he invites his will and determination. The Prophet considered time with God valuable. He prepares himself to pray, and seek God for the answer, but he first postures himself. Prayer is a place where we lock our selves into a designated space with the Godhead. We lock out all that is oppositional and we lock ourselves in with God.

Matthew 6:6, But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Jesus called it a closet, signifying the closeness, intimacy and secrecy we experience in this space, and the value of doing it just as He counsels us. "When we pray, we should go into our secret closet", it is a prepared place and space just for the Godhead and you. He told us that God who sees in secret would reward us openly. it speaks of a place that only God is allowed and we are allowed with God, it is personal. we as one. It speaks of the glory of His presence on an individual level. We need this level of prayer to arrive in every stage of our lives. Interestingly enough in the garden, Jesus told His disciples to watch and pray that they entered not into temptation, somehow sleep sounded like a better idea. Sleep has a way of doing that.

This is a biblically based writer's horizon, to write the vision and make it plain, so that he/she may run that reads it. It may appear to be taking too long, but wait for it because it will surely come to pass and will not be detained. This verse is inspiring for the writer, and so is knowing that only God can cause he/she that reads it to walk or run is of the utmost importance to not getting discouraged when we can't see the evidence of movement on behalf of those who read. Readers beware that the purpose for what is written in the Scriptures and being written is for you to run. The Scriptures are surely written to make us run to God as we read them.

The Prophet Habakkuk was ready, he starts out with his own declaration to stand in his ordained place "I will stand my watch, and take my own place in prayer, and I will watch for the purpose of seeing, listening and hearing what he will say to me and what I will answer when I am reproved'. The Word of God is good for doctrine, instruction, correction and reproof. The Lord answered him and said, to write the vision, but not just to write it.........to make it plain. I learned a new word in while compiling this hub, "perspicuous".

In the process of being giving the definition to this word, further study of the word seemed appropriate and it quickened the verse in Habakkuk 2:2 and bought it to my immediate attention. For those of us who didn't know what it meant. Listen to this, the word perspicuous means clearly expressed or presented; easy to understand: perspicuous as in prose. How about that hubbers, isn't that the desire of our hearts to make our writings, poems and prose clear so that they are effective? Expressing oneself clearly and effectively is an intentional goal. I love this word. Further more, it is to make things plain and simple, to give clear explanation. Plain to the understanding especially because of clarity needed and precision of your presentation. Language is powerful, and words have creative power. Expanding our vocabulary is always a good thing. Hub word for this hubisode is perspicuous, remember it and add it to your vocabulary list.

There is a place that I enter in my relationship with God. When I arrive in my secret closet, I am never the same way when I leave. The values I had prior to entering in continuously change in God's presence. It is a place of reproof, a place where He reveals what He means and that changes my perspective and focus. I love writing because of the truth He reveals and gives me to implement and to share. Sharing is my intention, knowing that only the Holy Spirit can grant you the increase in what I am saying. Moreover, all of my writings are the result of long, long, conservations with the Holy Spirit, He grants me understanding and provides all the insight. The value of His glory is exponential. Values increase to maximize maturation. Maturity can only happen as a result of our realization of His presence preeminent within.

Writers do not merely compile and compose just to be writing, they are inspired by what is greater than they can ever imagine. We write because something has been revealed to us that is beneficial for us to observe first and foremost, and can be beneficial to others as well. Writing is also a place of preparation and learning. If you write and you are not learning anything from what you write, that can be questionable. The principles and precepts of God's Word help us to change our thinking and renew our thought life. Principles shape our values. Being taught the principles found in Scriptures are transporting us from faith to faith and glory to glory. Every ideal and value about God is glorious, it is a glory step and stop, and packs our bags to move towards another level of glory.

When Moses stepped in front of the burning bush, which was a manifestation of the presence of God, as He revealed His glory to His beloved prophet. Moses heard the voice of God. This was before God and Moses could engage into a conversation. The place God chose to meet Moses was indeed holy and required the removal of his physical shoes. The spiritual space Moses was standing in was holy because it was in the holy presence of God. It is the space (closet) that you and I are occupying with God in His presence that is indeed holy. We too should hear His voice calling us to take off our shoes.

For us, unlike Moses, this happened through the acknowledgement of the blood of Jesus and His imputed righteousness which grants us access to the throne of grace where we have our conversation with the Heavenly Father. God told Moses to take off his shoes because the ground that he was standing on was holy ground. If we are listening to the point of hearing, we too must hear the same voice when we enter prayer with a Holy God; that we too are standing on holy ground and in a holy space and place. We repent and ask forgiveness for all of our trespasses, this is how we take off our shoes and posture ourselves to pray. We too must remove our shoes, we take off humanness and all the sins of the flesh which are symbolic of shoes we wear, and we put on holiness before the Lord. The imputed righteousness we put on is the equivalent of putting on the mantle of Jesus Christ to enter the place of prayer.

By acknowledging the blood of Jesus, and His righteousness of which we are partakers, we put on the imputed righteousness Jesus purchased for us at Calvary in order to approach our Holy Father. Are we even cognizant at every interval of prayer, where we are really going? We are traveling to a place of holiness and glory as we ascend in prayer. We are not earthbound. As God speaks to us individually, we learn as did Moses to see everything God's way. We repent and ask for forgiveness of sin through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. Upon doing so we enter into the presence of God, He always shares His values with us, and His rod and staff comfort us and we are ushered into His abiding glory.

This is so important in understanding our part in seeking, and entering God's glory because you will never come out the same way you went in. Entering God's glorious presence is like going into a vault filled with valuable treasures. You walk in poor and needy and walk out enriched. We have legal and lawful permission through Christ Jesus and access to the throne of grace. There you are on the inside of the vault, now we must choose to wear treasures that represent God's values. You cannot go in.to the vault filled with wondrous treasures without being decked with precious valuables. Characteristics that speak of grandeur and are grandiose because they are the attributes of God. You always come out of prayer feeling wealthy.

Of course, natural treasures differ from spiritual treasures. Spiritual treasures are values we receive through principles we observe and obey from the Word of God. The Apostle Paul called them fruits. All the fruits of the Spirit are valuables and treasures which make us prosperous and wealthy. You can't wear God's love and not be clothed in royalty, decked in precious gems. But spiritual treasures are qualities we must place value on. You can own a diamond ring, but if it means more to you than peace your value system may need to be examined through the Word of God and Holy Spirit.

Naturally speaking there are diamonds, rubies, and gold in natural vaults. It is also true of the spiritual vault and guess what? All of these treasures we have permission to access and enjoy, but the challenge is which one should I pick up first. Wisdom is what we need to pick up first in order to make the right choices. Wisdom that transcends all dimensions and is from God. We can never enter God's glory and not come out with spiritual treasures, that's impossible! If you enter value you will come out valued, of value and valuable. You see why we say and ascribe to God that He is worthy, we deem You valuable to praise, we honor and praise You. We value You! Your glory is valuable to us. Our relationships with God are high maintenance because His standards are full of lofty ideals, yet all are tangible and pragmatic. Listen to the counsel King Solomon gives us out of his repertoire of experience and possession of natural wealth. He qualifies and contrasts his values.

(Proverbs 8:11) tells us that wisdom is better than rubies and all the things that we may desire cannot compare with the wisdom from above. (Proverbs 8:18-19) adds that riches and honor are with it, yea, durable riches and righteousness and that the fruits of it are better than gold, yea, than fine gold and its revenue than choice silver. (Proverbs 9:9) Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser, teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

We have traveled and we still travel from general revelation of God to spiritual revelation. The journey we make from comprehending God's glory in nature and creation are physical and natural glories. We travel from the natural glory to spiritual glory. From glory to glory. Through nature and all that it entails we can clearly see and know God through creation. The design of creation alone can leave you awe stricken. We went from the glory of all the beauty of nature and creation to the glory of the spiritual and the law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ. We are now residing in Christ and He is residing in us, Christ in us the hope of glory.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

I don't think I can fully understand His glory, let alone know all that His glory entails, but I know that It is something precious and valuable, and inspires in me the desire to be changed into the same image as I am preparing for the entire journey marked destiny. His glory captures my attention. When you think of the glory of God what comes to your mind? Something powerful, invisible, and wonderful, right? Yet unattainable with words. If I took all of the words which define greatness and grandeur, I still would not find a word to accurately define God's presence and glory. It is something we must experience in a personal way. We can comprehend His glory is valuable and inculcates that He is worthy of our undivided attention because in Him lies value. The values of God are conforming us into His image and likeness. Everything we acquire from Him is of worth. His love, grace, forgiveness, peace, joy, truth, and mercy have to experientially become the most valuable gifts that we can ever receive in this life. Therefore, you place worth and value on these qualities and practically apply them in, and through your life.

God's holiness becomes a valuable asset which we honor in our communication with Him. We can approach Him in the righteousness that Jesus Christ wrought for us, which He has imputted to us and given us a free passage to the Father through His blood. The blood that Jesus shed for our sins should be the most valuable thing that anyone could ever have given us. Therein do we acknowledge His glory and that His selfless sacrifice screams glory and value. We can proceed on into the purchased life He wrought for us and travel from faith to faith and glory to glory. We must see the value of God sending His only begotten Son to die for our sins. Sin devalued and discredited our accounts, but Jesus gives us a value system that is above reproach. We must see God's holiness even when we fall short of His glory. Because we missed the mark doesn't make Him any less holy. He will always be holy and His holiness is a core value which should determine and qualify our approach towards Him.

Imagine standing in front of a mirror in all white, and it is not your wedding day. I can only imagine it is a marvelous time to gaze at yourself on that special day in this life. I say that I can only imagine because I have never been and I am not married.

However, the realm of spirit and soul is embracing what looking into the Word of God and seeing what I should look like, not just on one specific date, but every day. Every day we travel in our times of prayer, thanksgiving and praise; and in our study of the word of God. We can qualify our travel by the Word. Whether we are comprehending to the position of understanding the Word as it takes us from faith to faith and glory to glory. Glory is something of value, something we deem worthy and place the most importance on. God's glory is His magnificence. We oftentimes ask Him to show us His glory, but first we have to know Him and desire to be ushered into His presence for ourselves. Just you and Him, one on one.

There is a certain attitude which accompanies entering His presence. We begin by esteeming Him worthy and valuable. We realize that He is prestigious and worth more than anything He has created. It's when you realize that God's love for you is really more than all the money that has ever materialized on and in the earth. He loves you more than a million dollars, seeing He has no use for a million, but it is us who concern ourselves with obtaining a million or more. We reason, that if we could just access that million we would be worth something, or have real value. Now how true is that? when the blood that Jesus Christ shed for our sins is worth more than all the monetary things known and unknown in the world.

The renewal of our mind as Romans 12 instructs us is teaching us how to increase our value and the power of godly increase. How to maximize our value. Christ in us is the hope of glory, it is the way we increase our value based on Christ living in us and increasing not only our faith, but our value. We now have a biblically informed value system which increases our value. The glory is our intrinsic value and worth, as we understand the glory of God.

We must qualify value, because we came out of a world system that qualifies all worth in dollars and cents. Now we are taught the true value of our worth and value has nothing to do with money. The fallen glories that the world system offered we have climbed out of and are transcending and now we travel from glory to glory, as we learn how one value differs from others. The value of grace is different from mercy. Grace is unmerited and undeserved favor, Mercy is kindness and forgiveness. Even though they function differently they are both valuables which we need. In the world system we were taught to want monetary things, not because we needed them, but because we desired possession. Our born again lives teaches us that we need grace and mercy, from this awareness we discover that we want grace and mercy to abound in our lives because they are respectfully valuable to live enriched and abundantly.

Our values changed from what the world dictated to what God authorizes. if you can identify with this you are experiencing being transformed by renewing your mind and values. The world speaks of a grace period in terms of paying a bill, it is not a actively used premise. Grace in the Kingdom of God is not a period of time it is on going, but God knows we can never deserve His grace but has commissioned it to see us through. Grace is a gift, gifts are usually valuable to us, making grace a value we appreciate.

The Bible is where we receive all of our true values from. it is a book of patterns and principles which form and shape our value system and gives us what we should consider valuable information. We are being taught what God values so that we can implement these values into our lives. We are learning organizational traits which help us to qualify what is valuable. In the world system the thing most esteemed is money.

Unlearning that money is not the utopia as a value, is only one aspect of renewing our minds, which means to change our way of thinking about money. Money can take you from a false sense of value of your worth, which can only cover the flesh. The spirit and soul are not prospering without the values comprised in the Word of God. Only Jesus can teach, He warns us that we cannot serve God and mammon and that we will either love one and hate the other and vice-versa. What that impresses to me is that the value we place on money can never compare with how valuable God is for our lives.

Besides, there is nothing more valuable than the Father, and the blood that Jesus Christ shed for us, and the power of the Holy Ghost working all things together for our ultimate good, money truly pales in comparison. Yet monetary values have been embedded, established and occupy a better and loftier seat at times in us, until we understand that God created the substance that money and all things derive from. Every jewel and gem, who created them. All of the substances used to make money, He created. It is at this point of reckoning that we can perceive that money is an object that we need for all things in the world, but it is up to each one of us to measure that importance as it shouts for all of our attention. We must tell it to simmer down, my need for you is never going to be more than my need for God. Here at this place we commence our journey from the natural glory money can give, to the glory only God can provide. We travel from the value we place on money to the values which unfold, we uncover and discover in God. Money leads to it own value systems which have nothing to do with God until it is used for and in the Kingdom of God. This is where money has value, when it is used for the purpose of God. Which has more value to you, money or God? Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.

This hub is not about the adventures of possessing or not possessing money. It is about traveling from the glory of money and all that it offers us in earthly values to the glory only found in God. There is no path to meet up with God's glory through material things, only in retrospect will we understand the dysfunction it promotes. Remember the day you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.

While we are on this subject of going from glory to glory. Think about this for a second, who will ever love us more than money and what it offers them? The Godhead loves us more than all the money that has been, presently is, or ever shall be in and upon the earth. Who do you know that loves you more than money, if put through the test and their back is against the wall? Blessed you are if you know anyone, who for a couple million dollars would still stick with you. Personally, I'd rather believe God would because He has no need of money. We have need of it and in order to establish and fortify our travel from glory to glory, money has to be put in its proper place, and that place should never be over God.

The Bible depicts and grants us the understanding of God's glory, it is a book of unfolding light. The words are capable of carrying us and translating us from darkness into light. In the light we behold the glory of God.

These truths are the basis for establishing and building a value system for operating our lives. A principle is a basic truth. Jesus asked the Father to sanctify us by His truth, and through His Word which He declares is truth. Truth is a value we need in everything we think, say, do and for everyday and in everyway. We cannot make it under God's program without truth. Truth paves the way to glory, by truth we can see God's glory and absoluteness, His sovereignty and greatness. We are created in His image and after His likeness, truth is valuable. Jesus was pointing us back to the reality that the Word of God is our source of faith and rule of conduct based on principles which pattern us into the image and likeness of God, conforming us into the image of Jesus Christ.

Traveling from glory to glory is moving from one value to the next to overflow. Glory to glory describes movement. Every believer in Jesus Christ is an open letter, a walking living advertisement, for Christ. It is an awesome responsibility because the world is watching and judging us by our attitudes and actions, by our values

You may ask who is adequate for such a responsibility? The apostle Paul declared, "It is He who is all sufficient who has made me sufficient for this task." He always thought of God as making him adequate to live and minister the Christian life. Only the Holy Spirit can change our human nature, therefore God calls us to an intimate relationship with Himself. The new covenant we have with Christ produces in us a greater splendor that will never fade. He calls us to an ever-growing intimate love relationship with Himself that never fades away.

The Christian looks upon the unveiled, the unhidden glories of the Lord, and are transformed into the same image from glory to glory. It is through faith that we look upon Him and are changed by the Holy Spirit. Where do we get our vision of Him? It is as we are occupied with Him in His Word. As we study the Bible we understand and comprehend what He is like. We learn from all of the individuals in the Bible who have seen the glory of the Lord and have been transformed?

How do we experientially go from value to value? We practice what we are taught. If we desire to be wealthy and prosperous spiritually and in our soul we adhere to the Word of God of so that we can increase our values and remember all the benefits of applying the truths therein. As we apply the Word of God we will see the benefits of its application. Application is the evidence of learning, just like faith is substance of the things we hope for and the evidence of the things not seen. The journey from faith to faith is a real one. We travel from level to levels, but we arrive in stages, meaning we are building as we go, but we move gradually, but constantly and consistently.

The comments area is where we as writers hope that all who read lets us know that what we are saying is clear and plain and encourages a deeper value spectrum. Drop a comment if you have time. I believe I speak on behalf of ever writer on hub pages, we love hearing from you!

We are occupying until the return of our conquering hero Jesus Christ. Let's travel from faith to faith and glory to glory. We are always moving even when it appears we are standing still. Grace and peace to each and every one of you.