A Full Relationship with God = Full Lordship
Relationship and Duty = Manifested Presence
A Prayer
Why is it that we try to do it ourselves?
Our Father said to let Him do the work.
What starts in the spirit can be completed if we believe.
Do we think God loves us because we do things for Him?
Have we no understanding in us?
Are we that ignorant of His ways?
Do we believe we can add to God anything He does not possess -
only ourselves do we have the power to give to Him.
I, in my weak understanding, try to please Him through my own efforts.
Change my attitude Lord.
Increase my understanding.
Lead me to what your heart is calling from me.
Be fully formed in me.
Let me automatically and without question do what the spirit says.
No more, no less.
Let me trust you with all my heart.
Let me not lean on my own understanding.
Below is the answer I received from God in answer to this prayer.
There are two important aspects or parts of our relationship with God. It seems we stress one more than the other but both are equally important because one relates to the purpose of God for us, and the other, the purpose of God through us. Some people have all of one part of the relationship but none of the other, or very little, and vice-versa. Some love the Lord but do not minister in His name. Others try to minister but do not have a love relationship. In both cases the glory of God is not manifested the way it should be. To have the fulness of God work in our lives we need both and intimate relationship with Him and obedience to the duty that God asks from us. The two sides make the whole when we want God to have full lordship in our lives. We have an example in Mount Gibeon, David’s Tabernacle and Solomon’s Tabernacle. Mount Gibeon was a place of duty and obedience while David’s Tabernacle was a place of intimate relationship. Solomon’s tabernacle was a marriage of the two and God was pleased with that combination as evidenced as His glory fell and He made a permanent home there before the New Testament. We want God to manifest Himself to the world through us. We want the world to see the manifested Glory of God in us and through us. We can have that with the marriage of the intimate love relationship and duty and represent God and minister perfectly before the Lord.
The first aspect of the relationship is the intimate love relationship
where we fall in love with the lover of our souls. We seek after God and
we want to love Him above all else. We have the burning desire to fellowship
with Him in His sweet presence. The purpose for this part of the relationship
is for our preparation and dedication to the Lord. This is a very important
aspect of our lives. In this aspect we become filled with the fulness God.
We learn to know His voice. We start to be able to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ Him.
We are opened to Him and allow Him to cut away or heal things that we have
in our hearts that make
us less than perfect and will effect our ministry. We learn how to
trust Him. We enter this part of the relationship and we grow in it through
prayer, seeking God and worship. We see Him as He is and we love Him. We
can comprehend what is the length, breadth, height and depth of the love
of God. When we comprehend this we are filled with all the fulness of God.
We are strengthened in the inner man. We have turned our hearts to Him
and we are changed into His image. We can be the image of Jesus ministering
on Earth; we can be like Him.
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.Jesus was perfect in His ministry and we can be perfected also. We want to minister perfectly before the Lord. The things we need to have changed in us are not always obvious to us so we need God to uncover them for us and show them to us. We have an example in the old testament. There were certain ‘physical afflictions’ that hindered the ministry of a priest. If a priest had one or more of these afflictions they were not allowed to minister. If we take these examples of physical afflictions and look at them in a spiritual light we can see in them the afflictions that God will deal with in us in our ministry. There areEphesians 3:14-21 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Leviticus 21:17-23 Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blindman, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them.Notice that the priest was allowed to eat the bread but he cannot minister. He has a relationship with God in that he can eat the bread and be in the presence of God but because of the blemish he cannot minister. We need to have our affliction healed in God before we can minister without tainting our ministry or before we can minister at all, not because God does not want us to minister but we find we can’t. For example, if we’ve been rejected in our lives and we still have open wounds we will avoid being rejected by hiding from others. How can we effectively minister if we avoid people? How can we obey God and minister if we are afraid to face rejection - the unhealed feelings of rejection will taint our ministry. God needs to heal these areas in order for us to be effective as we can be. We may even avoid ministering for God at all and not obey Him because of this fear. When we look at people who need to be ministered to through us, we need to see them as God does and not through our own perceptions and past experiences or, in other words, our own afflictions. If we are not blind then we can spiritually ‘see’ the needs of others. If we can walk straight without a crooked foot we will not lead people astray. All these things God can and will correct in us because He wants us to minister. We are to become vessels meet for the Master’s use, without blemish or cracks.
I mentioned before that the love relationship with God is for our preparation and dedication. The blemishes should be removed or healed before we can minister perfectly . We want to be meet for the Master’s use. We want to be a priest, to stand before God in perfection, and to serve Him. His will becomes our will, His mind our mind, His attitude our attitude, His wisdom our wisdom, His knowledge our knowledge. This is the other part of our relationship with God - service/ministry/obedience. We must obey God when He speaks to us to do something for Him and God wants to help enable us to do so. The cost of obedience is our lives. We must be able to fully trust Him in the obedience/duty part of our relationship which we learn in the love part of our relationship. Jesus said we must take up our cross daily and follow Him. Just as in the dedication of Solomon’s Temple there was much sacrifice to get to that place of manifested presence, we also must be prepared to sacrifice everything to get to the place where we can minister perfectly. We must lay down our lives to Him, open our hearts and allow Him to work in us. We must give up our own ambitions and glory seeking. Jesus is our perfect example. He did whatever He saw the Spirit doing. Jesus did not think of Himself apart from the Father. Without hesitation Jesus ministered to people in the spirit. He prophesied - He stood before men an announced the messages of God without the fear of rejection or if wondering if He was in the will of God. We don’t know much about Jesus’ childhood but I think that He went through the same kinds of experiences we go through in our childhood, yet He did not seem to have the same ‘hang-ups’ that we do. Why? Because in His love relationship with the Father He was perfected.
Without hesitation, without fear, without reservation, without doubt,
without trying to lean on my own strength, without lack of wisdom and understanding,
without hypocrisy, without leading others astray, without immaturity,
without defilement, without striving with others in the church, without
unfruitfulness I will
serve God. He that started the work is able to complete it.