This week conviction fell heavy on me as the Lord exposed the hidden things in my heart by his Holy Spirit. The Lord showed me that there was a little hidden part of my heart that wanted just a little bit of glory, just a little bit of credit, to have my name in just one history book, etc... Ministry can so easily suck you in to thinking you are entitled to have a little bit of credit (after all you are working so hard for the Kingdom, right?). The fact of the matter is that the only thing a human is entitled to is an eternity in hell. That is the only thing we deserve. Thus everything else is a gift. We realized that pretty much every Christian has this desire to steal some of the glory. That's way we promote people, pastors, ministries, churches, etc... We look to people and to God.
After the conviction fell we started dreaming about what it would look like if we went about ministry without wanting our name somewhere. We wouldn't promote ourselves or our ministries, we would pass through a town, bring revival, and then leave without people knowing our last name! We would go to great lengths to be untraceable! So that the person who could get credit was Jesus! Of course I don't know how to actually do this logistically, but come on people! Dream with me! Dream of a movement of people who are all preaching the gospel, all saving the lost, all moving in power, all reviving the church, all disciplining, etc... What if it wasn't just a few "elite" people or ministries but everyone who called themselves a Christian was a doing all this. What if we did away with stages, and there were many that preached in many different locations on Sunday. What if everyone brought something to contribute (1 Cor.14) What if everyone actually read their Bible regularly? (Crazy, huh?) What if everyone had a prayer life? What if we looked to Jesus instead of pastors or ministers? What if we all heard from God for ourselves instead of electing a "Moses" to talk to God on our behalf?
Let me just tell you, this IS where the church is headed. Jesus is here, Jesus is revival. Where the presence of God dwells, idols fall on their face. God will share his glory with NO ONE. "I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols." (Is. 42:8)
There is a movement that is starting to swell and rise like a tsunami wave and it is going to build and build until an army emerges (Joel 2), but in this army there is no one or two leaders, Jesus is the only leader and there are too many people following Jesus' commands (obeying the Word), doing too many amazing things for God that it cannot be recorded and years down the road when people look back on our generation they wont be able to point to any one person, but all they could say is, "We don't know how it started or who did what, all we know is that God moved on the earth in a way that has never been seen before, and anytime we tried to get a name of a person or ministry we only got one name, Jesus, and these nameless faceless ministers of the gospel were bringing hundreds of millions into the Kingdom of the Living God."
Is anyone else excited to lay down their desire for a name, for fame, glory and go unrecognized and uncredited in exchange for the Holy One of Israel receiving his due reward? May the Lamb receive the reward of his suffering!
Let us go out with out wise words or cleverly crafted sermons that are created to impress people and show people our knowledge of the Bible or our vocabulary in hopes of getting just a little bit of recognition. But lets instead, with simplicity and clarity, preach the foolishness of nothing but Christ and him crucified!
All is For your Glory - Cory Asbury
The Reward - Jonathan David Helser
Jesus, All For Jesus - Robin Mark
