Riding on the High Places of the Earth

Dean Taylor

“Arise and shine, for your light has come.” That’s the prophetic word of Isaiah 60 over you and I. God wants us to live as high flyers because that’s our God given DNA. Isaiah 55 says that “His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts.” God is not saying all of that to big note and brag on Himself; He is saying these things because He is calling us up higher to ride with Him. Isaiah 58 says “we will ride on the high places of the earth” with Him if we will honour Him. There are so many different examples and places throughout the Word that describe a high riding experience with Him if we will just simply honour Him and embrace His ways and thoughts.

Being Holy Is To Transcend

The key to experiencing the “riding the high places” with God is to become more HOLY. Now, before you go and assume what you think that word means, let’s look at some other aspects of being Holy. Yes, Holy means set apart and separated to the Lord, pure and without any evil. Yes, Holiness means devoted, given over to God in an irrevocable way. But this Holiness of God and being separated contains within it the idea of transcendence. Take for instance the love of God. It is transcendent above all our human attempts at love. His faithfulness and goodness is so far above in quality, the goodness and faithfulness we muster up, that it is called HOLY. There is no impurity in God, His purity is transcendently above all our efforts.

So when God says “be Holy”, embrace Holiness, He is saying to live his higher ways and think His higher thoughts so we can ride the high places of the earth with Him. Kingdom ways of living, the Bible says, will cause us to come up higher to new levels of experience with Him. But we have to give ourselves to more Holiness than ever before.

Here are some more examples of honouring the Lord, or embracing more Holy, higher level living. Proverbs 3 says if we honour the Lord with our possessions, then we will experience favour and increase. Matt 6 says if we seek first the Kingdom of God then all the things we need will be added to us. Is 58 says if we will keep the Sabbath rest day Holy, then He will cause us to ride the high places of the earth.

What Is The Kingdom Of God Like

Jesus asked one day a very significant question. What is the Kingdom of God like? He went on to say it was like two things. A mustard seed and yeast. His point in His teaching was that both of these things were very small but would produce big results, given time, when put into action. Both had a lot of power. The smallest seed you would plant would grow into a big enough tree that birds could make their nests in it and the pinch of yeast rose a batch of dough out of all proportion to the amount used. Jesus, I believe, is saying that the Kingdom ways, the Holy ways of God seem insignificant to start with. They don’t look like they would produce anything, or make any difference in our lives. But the truth is, these small beginnings actually cause us to “Arise and Shine” because they are God’s Holy ways whereby we transcend the ordinary ways of living and ride with Him.

God Has Given The Right Building Materials

If we despise and do not value the Holiness of God’s higher ways and thoughts we will continue living in our own strength constrained to the valley of man’s wisdom and ability. Jesus said “beware the yeast (man’s wisdom and ways) of the Pharisees and Herod”, because using this stuff will give you a corrupt loaf.

“Arise and shine, your light has come.” Use all of God’s gold, silver and precious stones to build an ever increasing life that will survive the end time test of fire on the Last Day.

Living In The Light - The Fruit of Holiness

Dean Taylor

A simple way to understand holiness is to think of it as Christ-likeness. Christ likeness is being set apart to the ways of Jesus, the ways of the Kingdom. The 1st century Rabbi and disciple system of life for Jewish young men is very revealing in the way of setting your life apart because this was the sole desire of a young Jewish boy, to live a life set apart to his Rabbi. It paints for us a good picture of someone who desires to live set apart to God.
The Master Rabbi Jesus chose his 12 disciples at the direction of the Holy Spirit. The nature of a disciple was that they wanted to be like the Rabbi in every way possible. Not just learn what the Rabbi knew but imitate him in every way so they could do what the Rabbi could do. The Rabbi only chose those he was convinced could be just like him and spread his teaching.

Set Yourself Apart To The Ways Of Light
Daniel is a classic example in the OT of someone who wanted to live a holy life set apart to God and His ways. Daniel’s life was one of worship to God in the face of great idolatry and persecution all around him. But the exciting thing about Daniel’s set apart life was that he walked in great light. The Kingdom’s light, Heaven’s light saturated and surrounded him at all times. Daniel chapter one says that because he and his friends chose to embrace Gods ways alone, God gave them knowledge and understanding and wisdom so that when the King of Babylon tested them they were found to be ten times better than their counterparts in the land.

Dan 5 says that Daniel was described as having an excellent spirit. He embraced the yoke of God, the ways of God and His Kingdom, he was sold out to God even though it would have been easy for him to compromise in the foreign land he found himself in. He and his friends kept themselves set apart to the one true God.

The Worlds Philosophy
Daniel was described as being full of light (Dan 5:11). Now what an incredible testimony is that! To be full of light means you can “see” a whole lot more than most people around you who are groping around in the dark. The common philosophy of mankind is that it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you are not hurting anybody. “It’s my business not anybody else’s”. Most people would consider stealing and murder as things they wouldn’t do. But Jesus said if you covet and hate in your heart that is the same as stealing and murdering. The whole point is that according to how God sees things, we are either walking in the light or in the darkness, even though it seems that we aren’t hurting anybody. We are either walking in Heaven’s wisdom, revelation, illumination, and understanding, or stumbling and bumbling around in the world’s ways, even though it looks like we are just minding our own business. It’s all a question of “what are the ways of God like?”

God’s ways are light. The world’s ways are darkness. Daniel was able to “see” because He walked in incredible light. He was able to solve difficult problems, interpret dreams and visions. He was highly sought after by the foreign government because there was none equal in the land. He embraced Gods ways and worship and walked with great sight. Ps 119 says that God’s ways are a lamp and light to our feet as they walk along the path of life.

The Enemy Can’t Stand The Light
When we have wisdom, revelation, illumination and spiritual understanding, we can “see” things that are going on all around us. We can see who is trying to sabotage deals, who we should and shouldn’t get involved with both in business and relationships, where the devil’s traps and snares are that are set for us to fall into. We can discern the voice and direction of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says to put on the “armour of light”. Armour stands for protection. 1 Jn 5:18 says when we walk in the light as God is in the light, the “evil one touches us not”. The devil can’t stand light, we become too bright for him. He hates the wavelength and frequency of Heaven’s light. When we embrace as disciples of the Rabbi Jesus, all his ways and pattern our life after him, then we get in sync with heaven and harmonise with the frequency of Heaven’s light which is a sound of absolute sheer terror to the enemy because they only operate in the world’s wisdom of darkness. The world’s philosophy and wisdom is corrupt, decaying and falling apart. It has to because there is no light in it at all. Embrace the light – set your lives apart to the light and you will be able to see.

We Are Now Light
The words of that old great hymn, Amazing Grace are so true. “I once was blind (darkness) but now I see ( I am light)” Pray often the prayers of enlightenment in Eph 1 and Col 1 – that our God would grant unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the experience of God, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened so we can know…And that we would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Author Profile

Dean Taylor

Dean grew up in Newcastle, NSW surfing the beautiful beaches and playing on many sporting teams throughout his young life and into adulthood. He was born in 1967 and raised in a Christian home, attending a Baptist Church where he accepted Jesus as his Saviour in 1978. Upon finishing a science degree at university Dean worked in the cardiology unit at the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle before returning to do a diploma in teaching. It was around this time that he experienced the call of God on his life to ministry and while teaching at a Christian high school he had a transforming experience of the Holy Spirit which consequently altered the direction of his life.

Dean married his wife Wendy in 1993 and they moved to Brisbane in Jan. 1995 where he studied at the Baptist Theological College of Queensland. Graduating from there with a Diploma in Ministry, they were then led to Kenneth Hagin Ministries on the Gold Coast in 1997, where he completed studies before entering into itinerant ministry in 1999. During this season Dean was given a fulll time instructors position at Rhema Bible Training Centre which he filled until moving into a teaching/pastoral position at Destiny Church in 2003 which he continues in today.

Dean's home church is affilliated with Harvest International Ministries Australia one of the Apostolic Networks in a group known as the Revival Alliance. While continuing in his role at his home church, Dean has been directed by the leading of the Lord to also serve the wider Body of Christ.  Operating in the ministry of prophetic teaching, his mandate and passion is to help pastors mature the Body of Christ so her individual members can come into their God-given destiny.  His desire is to see God's children skillfully applying Jesus' Kingdom principles by bringing them practical, revelatory insight in a fresh, dynamic and understandable style. His heart is to see the Body of Christ being built up in strong faith and operating  in greater demonstrations of the Kingdom.

Dean and Wendy live on the Gold Coast with their daughter Darcie.

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