The Lord will lead you

I know that leadership matters – it is just that ultimately the Lord leads and we follow.  If not, no leader should have any followers.

It is because of our awesome God going before us, fighting our battles for us, that we have no fear.

We have the constant presence of God with us. With His presence with us we are encouraged in our faith and hope; we have the Good News; He will never fail us and He will never leave us.

When I meet such a fork in the road of life, on my own, I will choose either path – if there is no other guidance available to me – and I will never be afraid that I made the wrong decision because I did not.  I believe that God is my ultimate leader and He would never have taken me this far in my relationship with Him to make me lose my way.  I believe that an angel of the Lord could come and stop me from making a wrong decision.  I believe just as a donkey could talk, the trees, birds and dirt road could talk, if necessary.  I believe that whatever road I choose that God would come with me and together the adventure continues.

Point is only this – He leads, I follow and should I have the opportunity once in a while to make the choice – I would love it and enjoy doing so.  May the Lord give you lots of opportunities to be joyful in your journey and never fear, the path you are on is the same one He is on.

 

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fire

I am an OT kind of guy – I am always tempted to rebuke someone and ask God to blind them, wither their right arm, give them leprosy and consume them with fire….

Don’t worry, it lasts for about a second in real life and I proclaim His grace and love for that individual and God is glorified in my life. Can’t say it lasts a second in my dream world, but that is not reality so lets say that does not count.

I guess I miss the incredible display of God’s mighty power.  God and fire were an awesome combination in the day.  People fell to the ground in awe.

Some people today wonder if God really exists, because they don’t see His activity in the world.  I know He is.

Someone asked me the other day why we Canadians do not have dreams and visions of God like the people in the Middle East and North Africa.  I think that God tends not to display His power in the form of mighty physical acts and instead, He works to change people’s lives through the work of other followers of Jesus (in the Middle East and North Africa, that body of believers does not exist).  When we realize this, we will begin to see acts of love and faith in our life that are just as spectacular as anything recorded in the OT.

Fire today is one of the elements that describes the work of the Holy Spirit.  The purification of my heart manifests God’s presence in my life.  He enables me to fulfill the mandate and the commission on earth, and to love and serve the Church.  I have come to expect to have the presence of God here in my life so that I might resemble the character of God.  I know that without holiness, I will not see God for how can I enter into the Holiest but by the blood of Jesus?

So I joy when the fire of the Holy Spirit consumes me for then I have the appearance of the glory of God.  There lies my true joy and pleasure as the spiritual blessings by Christ, and the gracious presence of God in me.   I fall down on my face with all reverence and humility, under a sense of the divine Majesty being so near to me, in this sensible token of His presence.

 

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Call to worship

It is a call that is for me as an individual and for us as a body of believers.  It is a call to those who do not know God to come and join us in the worship of the one, true God.

The call to worship is a calling, a purpose in our lives – without it we would literally die.

I do not believe that there is a single other purpose, calling, mandate or service that we can give to God that is greater than worship.  Worship is the climax of our touchpoint with God.  It is the time we bend our knee, our heart, our mind, our soul and claim Him to be Lord, Almighty God.

It is a calling out, a calling towards God, it is the very “protein” of our spiritual make-up.

There are two clear times in my life when I sense the call to worship the greatest.

When I find myself slipping away from the presence of God and when I find myself right in the middle of His presence.  Both experiences have the same result – my car, my house, the place where I am worshipping becomes filled with the presence of God.  When His presence is near, my sense of my sin is great and so I spend time crying, repenting, turning back to Him.  When His presence is near, I am almost outside of my own skin with the knowledge, the absolute knowing, that He loves me so much and the few inadequate words to express my love back to Him causes me to fall to my knees, be silent, soak in His presence, and just let Him love me.

I am thankful that I had a pastor who taught me what a call to worship looks like – and he had a son who knew how to bring the church to worship whenever he lead a service.  There are times when I feel I can stretch out my hand and actually touch the hem of His garment.

If we are going to be stewards of God on this earth, lets focus on not just doing the job, but worship, call others to worship, lead others in worship and melt together in the presence of God so that we are filled with God and can serve Him with all of our strength, mind, and soul, with passion and enthusiasm that comes from being filled with God.

 

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