07/15/2019
Are you listening?
Zep 1:7 Be silent at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.
God is longing to speak to His people but the modern day church, Christendom, is like a bustling city where everyone is going there own way, rushing to and fro, distracted and self focused.This shrill noise of music that directs and moves people, the beat being increased as the people seemed to be moved is merely a reflection of the power of any music and not the presence nor the worship of God. It is God’s presence that moves us in the realm of the spirit. Worldly music, including almost all of what passes for worship today, moves in the realm of the soul. The soul is immense and can never be filled with anything apart from God, everything else will leave you wanting.
We need to encounter something bigger than all that exists, and only God, and God alone can do that. So why does the modern church settle for something less than God and choose to stay within the realms of the soul? It does not want to sacrifice to come into the holy of Holy's. It is the Cain spirit. They will give the product of their own efforts and count this as sacrifice but God will have none of it. It remains outside in the court of the gentiles, so close, but yet so far away. God dwells in a high and lofty place but He beckons to us to come, He beckons to the humble and the contrite and they come to where He is and they dwell there.
Only that which is of the kingdom can enter in, only that which is of eternal value can come into this place, all that is earthly and sensual cannot enter, all that focuses on our best life now, with a greedy and grasping heart that has eyes that can only see the mortal can never come into a place that is immortal. If our focus is on the finite then we can never see the infinite. Our focus must be on God alone, He is our exceeding great reward, we must see our lives in the context of who we are in Him or we can never see Him, can never come into that place.
God is calling and He is calling with a still small voice. His voice is not in the thunder or the earthquake, His voice is heard on the breeze. If we would hear Him, then we must fall silent. When our instruments of worship, designed to glorify God, have become adornments and additions to our noisy distracted lifestyles then we must lay them down. For worship begins in the heart as a small whisper in the wind. Can you hear the Lord calling? Our Lord does not compete with other noises nor does He compete for our attentions. Worship begins with God and ends with God. He is our central focus and worship flows from our lives. Only by living the worshipful life can we ever hope to enter into praise. A worshipful life is the broken heart, the contrite spirit, the humble and the thankful.
These are the seeds of joy and praise. The discontent, the proud, the unthankful heart cannot enter into praise that takes place behind the veil. To be discontent and proud and unthankful our eyes must be upon ourselves and our own desires. When our eyes are on Jesus, when we focus on such a great salvation that is ours, when we peer into eternity and catch a glimpse of the majesty and glory of God then the spirit begins to soar into high and lofty places and there we find a high and Holy God, there we find true praise.
True worship never leaves us the same, it makes us more thankful, more contrite and more humble thus taking us even deeper into the heart of God. God is calling on His people for a holy hush. Listen, can you hear the voice of God? He is calling His own. Wont you draw near to God this day? Run from all the noise and everything that distracts you. There is no distractions before the throne, there is only God and He is high and lifted up.
