"Be careful who you are around when your faith is being
tested or challenged.
They will either smother your faith or build your faith.
They will either cause you to change your worship into complaining;
or (produce) a
stronger worship.
Supt. Gerald M. Mandrell
~.~
That particular quote could not have come at a better time. I was reminded recently of a lesson that I had already learned, but a fresh experience helped to reinforce it. As we grow in the Lord and in our desire to live for Him, we experience times of refreshing, times of leanness, times of solitude, times of suffering, and times of victory. There have been times when I have felt my soul poured out like a drink offering. I am, among many who are committed and have laid down personal goals and sacrificed some things to give this small thing called worship to God. The greatness of who He is cannot compare with what we give Him. Yet the Grace of God allows our weak praises, prayers, and worship to be made strong through what Christ's sufficiency brings, not our own righteousness.
So, I asked the Holy Spirit this the other day: What's one of the worst things you can say or do before someone is poised to lead worship or deliver the Word of God?
One of the worst things? Sow a weed (not seed) of dissatisfaction.
While you are tending the ground of your heart, preparing it to receive from God or preparing to be used of God to pour out what God is stirring in you, the last thing you need is a fly in the ointment.
And well meaning people, even Believers who are not discerning can be used by the enemy to sow weeds into the ground of your heart. Do you know how hard it can be to remove a weed in the natural? Consider that in regards to who you allow to speak into your ear, make suggestions, interject into your stream of Living Water.
Some things I have to return to sender.
When talk comes against the OIL in my alabaster box, I have to reject that.
No one, I mean NO ONE knows what each drop cost you.
No one but GOD can count the value of what you give to God.
Here is something about worship: Worship has to be Internal before it is external. Jesus said, "Out of your belly (internal) shall flow rivers of living waters (external).
If I look outwardly and think "that is praise" or "they are really praising" based on what I see with my eyes, I will miss what worship is.
Jesus said, "They that worship the Father must worship The Father in Spirit and Truth."
I asked the Lord what this meant. What He said made me pause:
The flesh is only a response of what your spirit is communicating to His Spirit of Truth.
Worship happens when you embrace what is True about God and let that supersede what is true about you. You allow the TRUTH of who Christ is to reign and everything else about you bows and submits to the Rulership, Lordship, Kingship of Christ. That's an internal submission that begins to flow out of you
You cannot lead where you have not been. Moses was instructed to bring the Children of Israel to the same place He had met God in his encounter. He was taking them to the place He had been with God, not to have HIS experience, but to the place of ENCOUNTER. When he left, a Bush was burning. When He returned, the Mountain was on fire.
You cannot lead people to where they will not go. You can lead them to the base, but they must ascend to the place of worship. God did not tell Moses to drag the people up the mountain. He was to get them to the base, the place, and give them preparation instruction.
Do you know they could have told Moses how they thought they should come before God? They could have told Moses what they wanted to wear, how many days they wanted to prepare? But they would not have seen God come down in the thick cloud of his presence.
They could have criticized God's instructions to Moses on how to approach HIS Holiness. In fact, some did. It did not turn out well.
The Lord told me:
There is a danger in this hour to get into the criticism of the experience and miss The Experience Himself. Jesus is the experience we are looking for. He is the Bread and the Wine. He is the Living Water. He is that Manna that they ate from in the Wilderness.
No one can lay you down on the altar of worship. You must do that. Leaders can provide an atmosphere. They can bring you to the base, but you must ascend of a free will.
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 This is the generation of them that SEEK him, that seek thy FACE, O Jacob. Selah.
Worship is not only what we say, but also how we WAIT. And waiting happens individually and corporately.
Acts 1:
3 To
whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible
proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things
pertaining to the kingdom of God:
4 And,
being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not
depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which,
saith he, ye have heard of me.
5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Acts 2:
2 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
While we wait, God knocks over our religious cows, our cultural and racial cows, our class divides, sexism, all those things that interfere with HOLINESS which unites all under the banner of Christ. When we as His Saints resist the enemy's devices to divide, something divine happens:
Acts 2:
5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
6 Now
when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were
confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
All nations begin to hear, and it's not about an assembly, a man, a style, a format, but it is about the WONDERFUL WORKS OF GOD (not man) through HIS CHURCH.
Beloved, you MUST resist the spirit that would attack you to operate in performance rather than purely seeking the heart of God. You must resist the urge to go "correct" someone else's OIL. Let's get back to the heart of worship. The heart of worship is looking into Your heart and asking for God to light HIS fire there, burning out all impurity. As He burns in us, our impurities come to the top. Our worship is our warfare and praise is our weapon. Let's not assist the enemy in accusation and indictment on what God is desiring from us in the myriad of ways we deliver it to him: Worship.
John 12
3 Then
took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed
the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was FILLED with the odour of the ointment.
4 Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,
5 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?
6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a THIEF, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.
7 Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.
8 For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.
There will always be someone who can find a reason why you shouldn't POUR on Jesus what you have to offer. POUR anyway. Jesus checks hearts. He knows how to check what is trying to "check" you!
Some want your worship for merchandise and consumption. That is the only motive. To steal and merchandise what should be poured out to the Lord. Nothing poured out on Jesus is ever wasted.
Take heart! If your offering, your worship has been counted as odious, insignificant, or wasted, you are in the position to give to the angels of heaven, an incense that can reach the throne. Jesus is STILL accepting our incense!
Revelations 5
6 And
I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts,
and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain,
having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God
sent forth into all the earth.
7 And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
8 And
when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders
fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden
vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
9 And
they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to
open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God
by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
11 And
I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne
and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand
times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
12 Saying
with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power,
and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and
blessing.
Beloved, don't fall for spectating. We can come under the guise of being
spiritual when what we are really doing is criticizing the move of God.
We have become a consumer oriented church mentality, spectating rather than
participating in the presence of God as we shall all do in the Millennial Kingdom. We become receptors rather than
givers. We come to receive, expecting someone to lead us, rather than
bringing ourselves to God, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices.
Let's not assist the devil but ever resist him in the most powerful place of Prayer and Worship! Bring your oil, let the TRUTH of who God is supersede your truth. How can we do that?
Isaiah 40
31 But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
He will meet you in that place! Resist what the enemy has said and PRESS into GOD with everything you are! He's ready to defend your OIL if you will bring it!
