A person cannot believe beyond what they know; and he or she cannot rise above that which he or she believes. Many of us are praying for God to do the miraculous in our lives, but yet our believing and faith in God is not yet at the point of supporting that which we seek to possess. Heavenly Father works through us, and this is why He is always rooting for us to stretch to maximum flexibility in our thinking and behaving, because this would indicate we’re pliable enough to yield totally to His leading. Every good and high thing comes from God. Rising higher in our understanding of Him is a must, because a higher understanding of God elevates us. So, if we are seeking to go higher and to be elevated far above our circumstances, where promotions and abundance abound, we will soon recognize that we cannot move unless God opens the door and allows us access. He does this when we cry out to Him, and understand Him as El Elyon, the ‘God Most High.’
‘Elyon’ expresses the extreme sovereignty and majesty of God. It conveys His highest preeminence. We will find the first usage of this name in Genesis 14:18(KJV). It says, “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.” In this verse, we learn that Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of the Most High God, brought refreshments to Abraham and his soldiers after their victorious battle against the forces that held his nephew, Lot, in captivity. We also learn that Abraham then tithed to Melchizedek in gratuity for the blessing of God that Melchizedek had bestowed on Abraham.
Abraham is known as the Father of Our Believing. He is given this title because his name is chief in that greater cloud of witnesses mentioned in Hebrews 12:1. The bible tells us that Abraham was fully persuaded that the Almighty God was willing and able to perform that which He had promised. He flat-out believed and trusted God, and Romans 4:3 tells us that God accounted righteousness to Abraham because of his faith. So, you and I can very easily deduce how incredibly special Abraham is to the Father. Faith greatly pleases God, and He was well-pleased with Abraham.
Were it not for the distinction that clarified Melchizedek’s standing and position with God, we, the readers of God’s Divine Word, may have pause to question if anyone was so worthy to receive Abraham’s tithe. A tithe given in accordance with God’s sanctions must be planted on good ground—fertile soil where the seed is nourished to the point of producing further fruit. Given Abraham’s caliber of personhood, it seems unlikely that anyone living during his time would have outranked him in the faith or was suitable to be considered good ground, but our God leaves no stone unturned. In Genesis 14:18, God identifies Melchizedek with a standard that is irrefutably supreme, for he was given the distinction as priest of the Most High God.
There isn’t anything about God that isn’t exceptionally holy and pure. His rank is beyond definition, yet He has taken great care to see that you and I have a way of comprehending on a deeply spiritual level exactly how majestically awesome He is. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 57:2(KJV), “I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.” Immediately from this verse we have a sense that David understood that he was crying out to El Elyon, signifying our highly exalted God, for which there is no limitation to His goodness, mercy, power and grace.
Because of Jesus Christ, you and I are in the highest, upper echelon of ancestry, where glory and honor abound. It is important to God that we know the spiritual character of our family’s eternal heritage, that it is of impenetrable, unfailing, and infinite supernatural prominence. It is imperative that we get this because our egos in the flesh sometimes get in the way. They cause us to see ourselves in a manner that undermines our authority in Christ and undercuts our efforts to become more like him. We forget the magnitude of what he has accomplished for us, and we forget why it was necessary for him to give his life as a sacrifice for our sins. It was necessary because our sin had caused us to be in such despicable shape, that without Christ, we had no way to connect to God.
We cannot get to God without the access that His Son has provided for us. This means that every time we go to God, we ought to do so with an engrained, deeply embedded level of gratitude that has been seared upon our consciousness. Through Christ, God looked down upon our sin infested lives, and made a way for us to have a Father and child relationship that mirrors the one He has with Christ. If that doesn’t make you want to shout ‘GLORY!’, I don’t know what will.
You and I cannot bring God down to our level. This is impossible. Through Jesus Christ, He has made it possible for us to rise up to a level of righteousness and holiness that pleases Him. He, the Most High God, has given us this kind of extraordinary access to Him and His Kingdom. People living in Old Testament times didn’t have the intellectual development and capability that we have today. God patiently taught them about His eternal holiness and character through not only His names, but His actions as well.
In Daniel 3, we have the record of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three young servants of God that refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s decree and worship idol gods. They served the Most High God and were confident that He would cover them as long as they remained obedient to His Word. They were put into a furnace so hot that a person could not come within a certain distance without being consumed by the heat. The flames consumed the soldiers that threw them in the furnace, but God miraculously preserved Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They walked through the furnace and came out with not even the smell of smoke on them. Daniel 3:26(NLT), tells us, “Then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace and shouted: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire.”
Even the wicked king recognized that they were servants of the Most High God, for he saw for himself the supreme power and love that God demonstrated when He covered these boys, and did so to such an extent that they walked through a furnace with not one strand of hair singed by the fire.
God is building this kind of expectancy in each of us personally; where we expect Him to do the miraculous continually, because He is so incredibly able and willing to perform the miraculous for us. Not all of us are at a place where we believe this. Strong winds are blowing and heavy storms are raging in our lives. We’re being toss to and fro in serious spiritual warfare, and we feel lost and insecure. Resolutions to your problems will come. Be assured of this, but something about you must be elevated higher as well. God wants you to recognize that you have a radical partnership with Him, one where He is working some things out in you spiritually. So spend more time with God and pray that as you do, He’ll brand upon your heart a realization that He is the Most High God, and He is upgrading your life to levels beyond anything you can imagine. ■