1 Thessalonians 5:19 "Do not quench the Spirit."
Father, I pray You will guide me, give me the words I need to make this Yours alone; to bring Light to those You are seeking to reach, wanting to teach. Let me be a vessel for Your Glory alone.
The Lord gave me this word yesterday as I was reading the Bible off the app I have on my phone. I was not sure just where He wanted me to go with it so I looked up the word diminish in the dictionary. Dimish - to make or become less; reduce; decrease. I thought, well, okay, I can see where this may go, but then I looked below the definition and saw the opposite meanings: worship, exalt, lift up. There were more but these seemed to be highlighted in bold. And I understood.
When I go to church, there is such a wonderful expectation of the Presence of the Lord. I walk through the back doors, walk down the aisle and sit second chair, second row, each step an excitement knowing that soon worship will begin and the Lord will make it known that He is in the sanctuary. I am never disappointed, for He comes. Almost as soon as the worship begins to fill the room, you can feel His Presence. There is a beautiful awareness of His Spirit. You can't miss knowing He is there. Worship rises and fills the room, such a freedom of rejoicing in His Presence, crying out to Him, telling Him how much He is loved, praising His goodness, His faithfulness. The Glory of God reigns in that sanctuary.
I have been in churches, where the people are precious, hearts loving the Lord, but there is not worship, there is singing for a few minutes and then on with the program. Now, please understand, I am not saying this to put down any service, I am only being obedient to the Lord. These people, when they leave the service, they are same as when they came in. They feel no different. Perhaps it was lack of expectation on their part, but the Lord is telling me it was the lack of worship. I have been there, I know the feeling when I leave, the grievous feeling as I have felt my spirit just dying inside me. Where, upon leaving a service, one's spirit should be excited, still worshiping, rejoicing in the Lord; instead, it is slowly going down. Where to put the blame, you might say? You might say leadership, but I have seen the pastor worshiping, exhorting the people to praise the Lord, to worship and glorify the Father, to no avail. Some people are just not free; not free of their religious past. They love the Lord but they just cannot break free to openly worship and praise the Lord. The Lord so wants this to be changed. I don't think many recognize what is happening. I guess they have been so use to going home with the same feelings of "well, that was a good service; where are we eating" routines, that they don't notice each time that there is less and less of expectations of the Lord's presence.
I so wish I was not chosen to write these things but I am nothing at all for my Lord if I cannot be obedient to what He tells me to do. If I were to quench this Spirit in me, then I would find my spirit diminishing also. I would slowly begin to lose the knowledge of the Presence of my beautiful Lord if I were to pick and choose what to write from His words to me. You know, in essence, all we have that we can offer to our Holy God, our Creator, our Faithful Father, is our love and our obedience to His call on our life; we truly have nothing else that He desires. You see it is out of our love, out of our obedience to Him that our true praise comes from. We can sing songs all day long but if they are not coming from hearts of love; true, passionate, obedient love for Him, all they are are songs. They will never become worship no matter how loud, how long we sing.
I long to be the child of God that He knows He can use in anyway He choses. I desire to be the one He knows He can call on to give a word to one, or in this fashion to many, and not be worried about it it will make people like me or hate me; or to think I am somewhat off center. I don't care what you think of me.....you know, that takes a lot for me to say that; I can remember when it meant a great deal to me what people thought of me....to the point where that became a god to me. Man more important to me than my Lord God. But no more, thank You, Father for Your mercy; my Lord is the most important thing in my life and it is to Him I owe everything. I may not always get it right, and I don't. But I know if I do what He asks me to do, keep myself out of it, my will becoming diminished and His will being exalted and lifted up then I will be doing what He desires, what pleases Him.
Children of God.....prepare yourselves for church. Leave all your problems at the house when you leave for services, yes...it is easier than you think. Put on beautiful worship music to play in the car on the way, and walk into service with expectation, knowing that when you worship the Lord, He will be in the service with you. Don't pay any attention to what your neighbor next to you is doing on your row, just lift up your voice with words and songs from your heart and love on the Lord. Let yourself become free to worship the Lord. Who are you worrying about? Who might hear you sing off key? You may forget some of the words? Fill it in with words from your heart, it is for the Lord's ears alone. Worship the Lord, exalt Him, lift up the Name of Jesus. Song leader not wanting to go there....don't worry about him or her, let the Lord take care of that. I promise you, when the children of God begin to worship Him in spirit and truth, from hearts filled with love for Him, the ones on the platform will come along. They have been waiting a long time to hear the choir of God's children worship the Lord.
Father, I love You. I pray the spirits of Your children will begin to increase in expectation of visits from You as they begin to worship and adore You. I pray that their spirits will begin to long for Your presence and take You with them as they leave services. No more diminishing spirits. The only thing that will diminish is their will as they become obedient chidren of Your will.
01-11-12
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