YouTube channel
Yeshua says the following in John 13 after
washing His disciple’s feet.
JOHN
13: 13 - 17
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also
ought to wash one another's feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have
done to you.
16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than
his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
What a statement to make…’For I have given you
an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.’ Where do we start should we think on what He
has done for us in our lives and then to do it unto others? How lavish would our love, giving and
longsuffering be?
When it comes to the Blood and the Body, I see
the Blood as His Redemption and partaking of His body as sharing in His
suffering. Isaiah 53 is known as the
chapter of the Suffering Servant; however, Isaiah 52 and Isaiah 53 is not to be
separated. The last few verses of Isaiah
52 introduce this Suffering Servant of God.
ISAIAH 52: 13 - 14
13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall
be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so
marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
In Philippians 3: 10 Paul says that he wants
to know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings. As discussed in my devotional, “No Greater
Love”, we need to take into account not just Yeshua’s earthly life, but also
His preincarnation. He is the Lamb slain
before the foundation of this world. And
to be the Patterned Son to whom we are to look to, His death was a stripping from
the moment that He left heaven. He
stripped Himself from His divine attributes and became a man and took upon Him
the form of a servant. He was born into
this world to serve. His whole earthly
life was a stripping up to the point where His very flesh was stripped from His
body. As in heaven, so on earth. He was truly the Suffering Servant. Should we expect any less of our own serving?
Not that we are looking to suffer, but
that we understand that it will come. When
He told His disciples to wash one another’s feet, we understand that this was
not so that they all could walk with clean feet, but that He was talking about
a disposition by which they would be known, just like their Savior.
Romans 1 Paul starts the first verse with,
“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the
gospel of God.” So as to say, I wish to
be known first and foremost by my servanthood and not my office. In John 13 He says that he who is sent is not
greater than Him who sent him. The
distinction of an Apostle, Prophet and by extension anyone in office, is that
of being a servant. In The most noble
office for any child of God is in fact to be a servant. To be a slave in that time was
degrading. Only slaves washed feet in
that generation. The moment someone came
into the house, there would be a slave waiting to wash their feet. And by no means were their streets as nice as
ours.
Yeshua in that moment of washing the
disciple’s feet was not just demonstrating to them what they need to do, but He
was demonstrating to them who God in fact is…a servant. God serves.
God is humble. God goes down into
the gutters of this life and brings up from the miry clay the most wretched and
vile people, and washes them and establish them upon the Rock. This is who God is. He serves and He washes feet and He will
never cease to be a servant as we read that He will even serve us when we meet
with Him in Heaven. To be a servant is
more than just choosing to be humble in a moment that requires it of you out of
necessity or command. It is the very distinction of what it means to be a son
and daughter of God. I think we have
missed this in our walk. We think that
doing great things through Him is the greater things. But I cannot help but think that for the
Creator of all things to bow down and serve mankind in so much love is the
greatest of all. It is one of the
manifestations of the sons and daughters of God that this world is waiting upon
that in fact demonstrates who the Father is. And where will they see it? Amongst the brethren in a time that will have
many fighting for their own rights as they struggle to survive. Everybody will be desperate to make ends meet
or just kill someone for one morsel of bread.
The time upon us is a time where the veil will be ripped from all
pretense as there is nothing more revealing than tribulation to show mankind
exactly what they are. And as I have
said before, “It takes tribulation for the real church to stand up.” Where will His servants be in this time? Is our vision so limited to think that it
will just be glory upon glory and that it will not require us to endure to the
uttermost? Are we ignorant of exactly
what it means to get down in the dirt, get our hands dirty and at the sweat of
our brow serve the lost, the poor, the hungry and destitute until we are tired
to the bone? Notwithstanding, the
reality of persecution of those who serve as He did, will be very real. Light shines very bright in utter darkness
and you will be targeted. The servant is
not greater than his Master. Will they
see the Suffering Servant in all our doing?
Are they seeing it now? A true
servant will serve even the lowliest, because His very character is part of
him. He is IN Him. “He who has been forgiven much, loves much”,
is what Yeshua told His disciples after Mary’s lavish giving. It was an expression of a life poured
out. A servant does not serve to be
seen, but is saved to serve.
In Jeremiah 38 we read of the account where
King Hezekiah left the fate of the prophet Jeremiah into the hands of his
princes. They did not like what Jeremiah
was prophesying. Instead, they chose to
let him down into a dungeon with cords into a pit filled with miry clay. No water, no food and no light. Left to die in complete destitution. Talk
about basic needs being stripped from you.
It says that Jeremiah sunk into the mire. One can only imagine what this pit was used
for and how terrible this must have been to sink into mire and to be left there
to die a very cruel death. However,
there was a servant with the name Ebedmelech.
He was an Ethiopian and an eunuch.
Eunuchs were trusted by the King because it simply meant that they could
not make use of the King’s harem and they were also trusted with the King’s
treasury, as was the case with the Ethiopian eunuch that Philip met along the
road, discussing Isaiah 53. Ebedmelech
means “servant of the King”. Ebedmelech had one goal. Get Jeremiah out of that pit. He went to the King telling him that his
princes have done a great evil against the King by putting Jeremiah in the
pit. The king trusted Ebedmelech and
told him to take 30 men with him and take Jeremiah out of the pit before he
died. From verse 11 we read the
following:
JEREMIAH 38: 11 - 13
11 So Ebedmelech took the men with him, and went into
the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence old cast clouts and
old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah.
12 And Ebedmelech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah,
Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine armholes under the
cords. And Jeremiah did so.
13 So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him
up out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
These rotten rags in the Strong’s Concordance
speaks of an old garment, and also to salt or season. This Prophet of God was saved by an
Ethiopian, one who was a servant and an eunuch.
In the eyes of man, not to be considered. But the Lord God chose this one man for this
purpose. To be a servant of the King and
to be in that moment, at that precise time the person the Lord God would use to
save Jeremiah. The Most High is not into
great numbers. In fact, the lesser the
number, the better. As was the case with
Gideon’s army that was lessen to only 300 men.
What would have happened if Ebedmelech was not there? Would we have had the privilege of the rest
of Jeremiah’s prophecies or even the ones before? What about Lydia in the book of Acts? Paul was meant to go to Jerusalem during the
feast times where one could consider the evangelical opportunity as perfect. But the Spirit of God prevented him from the
many and told him to go to Macedonia where he met one lady, Lydia. Such was Paul’s obedience. Because of Lydia, there was a place of refuge
for Paul and the disciples. It is said
that through Lydia the door of the gospel was opened into Europe. The same can be said of the Ethiopian eunuch
that Philip met along the road. Through
this eunuch the gospel went into Africa.
We have no idea what God can do just through one person. He is able to do super abundantly above all
we could ask or even think according to the power that is in us. How many of God’s servants will in the time
to come where the Prophets of God will be let down in pits of persecution be
there to take upon themselves cloths or rags to pull them out? Chosen ones to serve the brethren in a great
time of need. Notice that Ebedmelech
took rags or cloths to raise up the prophet.
Even so, Yeshua took off his garment when He was with His disciples and
took a cloth and washed their feet. Did
He not come down and take you out of a horrible pit, you of the miry clay and
set you upon a Rock and established your goings? (Psalm 40: 2) Did He not bend
down and bring you out of darkness into His marvelous light? This is such a beautiful example for us to
know that our serving one another and those whom He calls us to serve, will
have eternal consequences. Who knows
what He is preparing us for, whether it will be numerous acts of service of
this kind, or only one that will have eternal consequences? The only important thing is that we are
servants at heart and leave the rest to Him.
And now a word received from Father 24th
October 2021
A BODY PREPARED
Let Me love through you. When you surrender and offer your body as a
living sacrifice, it will mean sacrifice.
There will be a price to pay, which is to lay your will down, so that My
will can be done.
In this your mind is renewed to
know My good, acceptable and perfect will.
This is why I have given you My Spirit, so that you may live by every
word I speak. Therefore, to lay down
your life as a living sacrifice requires you to constantly know My will in
every situation. Your will, will always
rebel against Mine. It has to be laid on
the altar every time, in every situation.
In that moment you will hear. In
that moment you will understand. In that
moment when you submit, I can love through you.
It is My love that touches hearts.
My hands, My feet, mind and mouth.
All is Mine. Therefore, as My
body you have to be subject to My will as the human body is to the mind.
Instructions have always come
from your mind. But now you have the
mind of Christ. My mind. How will you know unless you quiet the
distractions, the emotions and the demands of your own will? Therefore, do not think this comes
overnight. Practice makes perfect. Again and again, you teach your mind to go
into the path I lead you.
Have I not said that I will
instruct and teach you in the way you should go? Surely all My ways are peace. Therefore, walk circumspectly as a soldier at
all times. Ready to listen, to submit
and to obey. Trust Me to guide you in
every situation that I bring upon your path to make a way for you.
Come each time to learn of Me
for I am meek and humble. This is not
about you. This is about a vessel given
over to Me, to be used by Me so that I can love the lost, the broken and the
poor. Do you realize how much I want to
touch them? To heal them like I did with
the washing of feet? I said, “Father, a
body thou has prepared for Me to do Thy will.”
Your body is there to do My
will, not yours.
So let Me have full play through
your hands, feet and mouth.
Seek to do My will.
In Genesis we read of an embarrassing account
of Noah, where he became drunk and laid naked in his tent. Noah had three sons, of which two covered
their father and walked backwards to ensure that they would not look upon their
father’s nakedness. Not so with the one
son called, Ham, who was the father of Canaan.
GENESIS 9: 24 – 27
4 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had
done unto him.
25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be
unto his brethren.
26 And he said, Blessed be the Lord God
of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of
Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
A curse was spoken upon Canaan, Ham’s
generations to follow. And yet Yeshua
took upon Himself the form of a man and made Himself a servant. He took the curse of being a servant, and He made
it noble, Kingly and Priestly. To serve
is to express God who He truly is. It
displays His love, humility, mercy and longsuffering. It showcases His grace and wisdom that simply
turns the wisdom of this world into foolishness and confounds the wise.
When Yeshua took off His garment, it was a
statement of what He did when He left the bosom of His Father to come to this
earth. Showing us that in order to
serve, one has to first take off your outer garment. What does it mean to take off your
garment? Your garment represents who you
are as a person. The same way we can
make a logical conclusion of someone dressed as a doctor, nurse, someone poorly
dressed, who is dirty or the latest expensive clothing and car, to be exactly
that which the outer garment portrays. And
He took off His glory and divine attributes to become the Son of Man, a slave. Have we ever truly meditated on this? Have we truly thought of the price He paid
for us? Not just the suffering on the
cross, but the suffering of leaving His Father’s bosom for us? Yeshua makes it very clear. “I have not come
to be served, but to serve.” Can
there be any true washing, or act of true servanthood until the outer garment
is taken off? Mary that broke the
alabaster box is in the same way, a taking off or breaking off of the outer
garment, our earthen vessels in order to allow our lives to be poured out at
the King’s feet.
MATTHEW 10: 24
24 The disciple is not above his master, nor the
servant above his lord.
Note that here a distinction is made between a
disciple and a servant and whom they serve.
The one does not necessarily make the other. You can be a disciple and not be a servant,
but you cannot be a servant and not a disciple.
The Strong’s Concordance helps us to understand the differences:
The word “disciple” in the Strong’s
Concordance is G3101 which is a learner or a pupil. The word “master” holds hands with this,
which is G1320 and this means instructor, doctor and teacher. Whereas the word “servant” is G1401, meaning
slave or bondslave. Holding hands with
the bondslave is the word “lord”, which is G2962, which means (supremacy); supreme in authority, that is,
(as noun) controller; - God, Lord, master, Sir. This
serving is more than just being willing to wash someone’s feet, but is a
disposition that a slave has towards their lord. Interesting enough, only in the book of
Matthew do we read where Yeshua tells His disciples in Matthew 7 that not all
who say to Him Lord, Lord will be saved.
Even if they come to Him and tell Him of all the great exploits they
have done in His name. The only thing
that will matter to Him is whether they did His commandments. Servants obey their lords without question,
in totality, unconditionally and without reservation. Obedience is by far the most valuable act
that we can do, far greater than any miraculous works. And this is what the Lord God wants us to
see. His love language is obedience and
this obedience can only be done in faith.
He is not asking us to be slaves in the context that we have no mind of
our own, but willing bondslaves that love Him so much that we are willing to be
cut off from anything that we depend upon. Why?
So that through our bodies, being living sacrifices unto Him, He can
love and serve the lost and broken. That
as His corporate Body the greater things that He promised, right around the
world will be done. Not us doing it. We can do nothing. But vessels given over unto Him, through
which He can pour His love and salvation.
It is not about us.
This word “servant” in the Strong’s is the
word “doulos”, which means: a slave, bondman.
One who gives himself up to another’s will, those whose service is used
by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men. It means to
bind, tie and fasten with chains.
Whenever in the Word we read the word “servant”
or “handmaid”, we should know that the context is a bondslave. The custom was that all slaves were to be set
free at the 7th year. However, a bondslave
is one who has been set free, but decides to remain with his lord as his slave (Exodus
21: 2 - 6) saying, “Though I am free, I bind myself to you as a willing slave.”
One who has given up his own will to
live his own life the way he wants to, being free, in order to give up that
freedom to be a slave. Saved to
serve. That is to say, released after 7
years and choosing out of his own free will to become a bondslave. Yeshua laid down His will to become a
bondslave to His Father. He was not
bound, but He became a slave, a bondslave.
He said, “Nobody forces Him to lay His life down, but that He lays it
down willingly.” A thought came to me
the other day. I was wondering whether
this will not be the requirement for some of His chosen servants during
tribulation, having been translated into glory, and then to make a choice to
leave that glory, come to earth and lay their lives down for the Father. It is admirable to be here and say that you
will stay and lay your life down. It is
quite another thing altogether to be raptured into the glories of heaven, then
to take off your “garment” and come to earth.
We serve an ultimate God. In
Revelation 14 we read that they are the lambs that followeth Him wheresoever He
goeth. They know His voice and shall not
follow another.
This is the difference between a disciple and
a servant. Not that disciples are not
committed, but this is for us to understand that commitment goes much deeper
than just following. Also, understanding
that you first have to be a disciple and mature in Him for the purpose to
become His bondslave. It is not a moment only, but a way of life. In 1 Peter 2: 16 Paul says that we as free are
not to use our liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of
God. Use your freedom as a cloke of
servanthood.
It is easy to see this outer garment as the
cutting off of the “flesh” that is in enmity with the Spirit. And there would be nothing wrong with
that. However, the Lord wants to draw
our attention to that which cuts even deeper and permanent, that of
castration. Just like there are physical
and spiritual circumcision, so also physical and spiritual eunuchs. Yeshua spoke about this, as well as Paul,
calling himself an eunuch for Christ. Yeshua
also mentions in the Gospel of Matthew the different eunuchs. When circumcised, there is still life within
you that you from out of your natural self, even spiritual things, still can
produce. When an eunuch, no more life
can be produced from out of you. This
same analogy can be seen in a slave and a bondslave. A slave being set free can now make his own
decisions, but he who chooses to be a bondslave gives up that right.
Should you choose this, you need to understand
that in the context of a bondslave, there is no such thing as autonomy. Webster’s dictionary gives us a very clear
definition of the word autonomy. He
says…
Autonomy: the
quality or state of being self-governing.
Especially, the right of self-government, self-directing freedom and
especially moral independence.
In a nutshell…free will or the ability to make
your own choices. As Christians we are
given the choice whether we want to hold on to our autonomy or not. We can still go on with life as normal and
pretty much make our own decisions. We
can get to choose what our imitations or boundaries are in our Christian
walk. I am not talking about sin, but
rather to what degree we give Him our lives in every category. Some may aspire to this, whereas others are
perfectly happy with their Christian walk.
With their circumcision. Castration
is too drastic. Asking, “Do I really
have to be cut off from this world and all the little things I like that hurts
no one?” Nobody is offended. Children of God sounds a bit better than
bondslaves. “Do we really have to go so
drastic?” The truth is, you do not have
to. Just like the slaves were released
after 7 years and had a choice, so do you.
However, we are called to it, but it still remains a choice.
Being free we still make the decisions in our
day-to-day life, trusting Him to guide us and give us favor. And He does.
We are His children and He guides us and gives us wisdom. However, to become a bondslave of Christ is
to take off your outer garment, and put on a towel and that then becomes your
identity. You are putting off your
autonomy, your right to make decisions of how you live your life in every
category. Not one area is to be kept for
yourself, whether, physically, emotionally or spiritually. Even your very thoughts, motives and intents,
your opinion…all is given up once and for all.
Oh, and do we not love to romanticize such an undivided devotion. It sounds so heroic and pious, when in truth
it is nothing of the sort. For there is
just simply no more consideration for yourself, only your Lord and Master. Your will has been taken up in His. Then you no longer live, but have in fact
died and the life you live, you live by the faith of Jesus Christ.
We know now that the word “lord” means
sovereign, supreme, controller, master etc.
You can only embrace His sovereignty and call Him authentically Lord,
when you have died to your autonomy. We
acknowledge and celebrate our God’s sovereignty, but that’s of course until He
disrupts our schedule. Small things
like these show the true disposition of our hearts. How we react to when things are taken from
us. One thing after the other demands
your attention and that which you set out to do is shipwrecked. And how we react to all of this, gives us an
indication of where we are still at. Giving up things like wants,
we deem difficult and it is true when one is addicted to something it can be
pure hell to let go. But giving up your
basic rights to life is quite another thing.
You feel victimized. You feel
that something is taken and not given. You
feel controlled. You feel that your will
is dismissed or your very reasonable and natural needs ignored. You feel you do not count and that you should
just constantly suck it up for the greater good. Doing this for a season is still bearable,
but doing it as a way of life, you are bound to feel like a victim. Taking
it even further, we cannot celebrate and worship God as sovereign in our lives
and yet say, “He can take my things, but He cannot take my child.” He can take my home, but not my husband or
wife.” We have these secret thoughts in
our hearts that we will not admit to others or ourselves, but He knows where we
truly are in our walk. The problem with
these types of secret thoughts is that first, they contradict His sovereignty
and secondly, it is not a matter of Him taking, but us giving. Having an open hand in all things. And by our own standards we may very well see it as
just that and would be considered justified in our thinking. But seeing how He sees it is of far greater
importance and value, because He holds all things into account, even the latter
end.
In the Bible there is one man known especially
for this stripping. Job. Job was the
first man in the Word that the Lord God called His servant. Satan was with the
sons of God, the angels, presenting themselves before the Lord. He was asked by the Lord God,
Job 1: 8
8 And
the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my SERVANT Job, that
there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that
feareth God, and escheweth evil?
We know things turned out quite badly for Job,
but Job shows the true disposition of a bondslave in verse 21.
21 And
(Job) said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return
thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;
blessed be the name of the Lord.
Later, his wife comes to him, seeing the sorry
state her husband is in, and tells him to curse God and die. He responded to her, saying…
Job 2: 10
10 But
he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What?
shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all
this did not Job sin with his lips.
Notice that Job did not sin with his
lips. We know that our lips testify of
our heart’s true condition. Job lost
everything and still did not sin against God with his lips. Can you imagine that? Going through so much and not once sinning
with your mouth against the Lord? His
heart was truly upright towards the Lord and he feared God. It
is amazing how quickly we hold onto something, whether time, purpose, mission,
rest, comfort, family, ministry, calling…you name it, we latch on. Not necessarily for wrong reasons. Our motives might even be pure and exactly
what He required. In the time to come
this is exactly the disposition that will be required where many of His
servants, like Job, will find themselves completely stripped as workers in the
tribulation. Will they be like Job and
not sin against the Lord with their lips?
To have this disposition will require of you now to constantly ask Him
what you need to let go of in order to allow the Spirit to have full control
over you. The same disposition that was
in Yeshua who said in John 10 that nobody takes His life from Him, but He lays
it down. Can we see that which is
“taken” from us, as not actually being taken, but the right He has to our lives
to do so as His bondslaves? How can we
say we live for Him alone, but when these things are taken, we squirm, feel
victimized, and bereft of our own free will?
Depending of course what is taken from us. He never said that we are to feel nothing,
but what will at that moment come out of our mouths? Did we not lay our will down on the alter and
echoed His words from the Garden, “Not my will be done, but Thy will”? Or what about “Father, hallowed be Thy Name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”? Words come easy, but He proves our
hearts. The key is to have the right disposition,
not only about our wants, but also our very basic needs…the disposition of
being saved to serve. At the end Job was blessed with twice as much. He received a double portion.
After I wrote this devotional, during my quiet
time, I received a vision of a golden key opening a door. This door was in fact a porthole. I walked through the door and was ascending
stairs that were enwrapped in clouds. As
I was going up, Yeshua came down and just lightly touched my hand. Then I clearly heard, I am the Way, the Truth
and the Life. I instantly knew that He
was saying to me that as the Way He is that door, and that by the same means
that He came down, I will go up. In
other words, the way up, is down.
Humility or in this case servanthood.
Truth be told, the devotional was not even on my mind, so I was not sure
why He showed me, until the afternoon I “stumbled” upon a short video, explaining
what the Hebrew letters of the word servant means. There are no coincidences with our God.
The word servant has three letters, the first
being Ayin, then Beyt, and lastly Dalet.
Each letter has a meaning as well as a picture
to go with it.
Ayin means eye, which is to see, know, experience,
and to understand.
Beyt, means a house or tent
Dalet means a door or path.
Very similar to the vision Father gave
me. Servants were never given the
privilege to be part of the household.
The open door speaks of the ability to see in
the spiritual world, but also to understand.
This speaks of revelation. The door, like in the vision is have access
to live both in heavenly places and on the earth. The door is open for these servants where
they can enjoy the intimacy of being part of the household of God. I was also woken up the
next morning at 5:19, which means in the Strong’s Concordance, maiden, bondmaid
or bondslave.
In Acts 2 we read the
following…
ACTS 2: 18
18 And on my
servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and
they shall prophesy:
The open door is for His servants,
that is to say His bondslaves. “Ayin”
particularly means eye, to see, know, experience and to understand. When we see with spiritual eyes, know from
where He has come and understand our inheritance in the Lord concerning what He
has given us now, we have an open door before us to know the mysteries of God
by faith. This made me think of
Revelation 3. The context is that this
door is open to His bondslaves
Revelation 3: 7 - 9
7 And
to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is
holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no
man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
8 I
know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can
shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not
denied my name.
At the end of the Age, we have this promise
from Yeshua.
Luke 22: 24 - 30
24 And
there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the
greatest.
25 And
he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and
they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.
26 But
ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the
younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
27 For
whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is not he that
sitteth at meat? But I am among you as he that serveth.
28 Ye
are they which have continued with me in my temptations.
29 And
I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
30 That
ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the
twelve tribes of Israel.
If you want to reign, you have to serve. It is by now a known fact that all great
rulers are great servants. Ruling and
reigning as kings on this earth, will not happen unless your heart is in the
hand of the Lord, all autonomy given over, and you have been brought to this
reality of being His bondslave. It goes
much deeper than works of humility or compassion. Unless you are a bondslave, you cannot
rule. We make a grave assumption when we
cheapen God’s standard to fit our own and grab whatever verse in the Bible as
ours without the corresponding reality in our lives. You want to rule one day,
then you have to be a servant at heart. You have to become a willing bondslave
of the Lord. Clearly, He was not
speaking of us just serving one another only, but as one, just like Him, who
has come to serve, even willing to lay your life down. Your autonomy. Your dominion and reigning are directly link
to your submission to His will in all things. This is our call. “As My Father has
sent Me, so I send you.” He
came to serve. One can serve and yet not
have a servant’s heart. How is your present serving? Not necessarily in ministry, but with what
disposition are you serving your loved ones, your boss, and your enemies even
now? You can do many things and not do it with the
appropriate disposition of heart. It
does not matter whether it is big or small, but rather with what heart we do
and for whom. We can do great acts of
service, because we love Him, but secretly pride ourselves in a job done
well. In that case, you have done it for
yourself. Or you can simply hate what
you are doing and moan and groan all day long.
You might be serving, but you are most definitely not honoring the true
essence of the word, not from the context of one who has laid his life down. We have to remember that what we are
presently doing is the training ground for what is to come. It has eternal value, just like Ebedmelech
who had a true servant heart.
Yeshua chose to become a bondslave, because of
His love for His Father. This love is
not just a feeling, but an undivided devotion in all things. Love for the Father lies at the heart of why
He laid down His life. There is no
greater love. It is not so much to do
with how much He loves us, but rather how much He loves the Father. It is from this place that He took off His
outer garment. Love bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. He knew from where He came and where He was
going to and that all things were given unto Him. Love lays its life down for its friends, how
much more for its God? It all depends on
who your true God is…yourself or Him. As
the Word clearly tells us, whomever you serve, he is your master. What is that thing that you are now presently
unable to give up for Him? Anything we
depend on, meaning that we struggle to go without, whether as simple as your
morning coffee, your husband or wife, or your children, your job, or your
favorite tv show. Anything that you
cannot go without, you ultimately depend on.
How then can you say that you truly abide? You cannot feed from two trees, and yet many
of us are. We have been circumcised, but
not truly been made eunuchs. He still
loves us, but He is looking for those whose hearts are perfect towards
Him. The call of God is an ultimate call
and only He can bring us to this, if we are willing, by His Spirit.
Will you be able to live life willingly like
that? Not as a prophet, apostle or
teacher, or any other great office with great gifts, but just as servant? And even if you are called to operate in any
specific office, what is your true disposition?
Not necessarily in the great acts of service, but in the small and
mundane everyday life? For the true test
is not in the big, but in the small in diligence, faithfulness and an excellent
spirit. These are your training ground
for what is to come as well. Be careful
to see this in the light of your own understanding. See it through spiritual eyes, because if
there is one thing you need to understand, it is that God is in the
details. The smallest of details matter to Him. Every
single detail of your life under your Lord’s watchful scrutiny to see if your
heart is perfect towards Him. How much
of that will you be able to handle and for how long? His grace is sufficient in our weakness to
bring us each time to such total surrender if we are willing. This is what Yeshua did. Understand that this is how Yeshua
lived. This is the price He paid for us
in order to show us how to walk as He walked.
This is how He served His Father. He was total and ultimate in His love,
obedience and suffering towards His Father.
And because of that, He was so dependent on the Spirit. He took off His outer garment.
One has been fully cut off. A type of shadow of the female version of
this, is Hannah in the Old Testament and Anna in the New Testament, also Sarah
and Rachel. These women were unable to
produce offspring from out of their own natural means. They were barren. When we read John 15 Yeshua tells His
disciples that without Him they can do nothing.
They too are barren and unable to bring forth fruit. The whole chapter is about abiding in Him,
saying that He is the Vine and that they are the branches. In the book of Romans Paul states that we
have been grafted into the Vine. It
stands to reason that for any branch to be grafted in, one has to first be “cut
off” from any dependance on all flesh or things of this world. You are cut off in order to be grafted in and
to live from the sap of the Vine. Only
when grafted in can we produce abundant fruit.
This fruit will then not be from our own loins, our own human
capabilities, even for spiritual means, but it will be the fruit produced from
that Resurrection Life within that will be abundant and everlasting.
Yeshua changes the direction of abiding to
that of servanthood and friendship. He
tells them that He calls them no longer servants, but His friends. They know all things, because He told
them. Servants often become the closest
confidants of their lords, just as Ebedmelech could entreat the King with such
boldness. The King trusted him, by how
he served Him. Yeshua is here
acknowledging that His disciples are His servants, but He considers them no
longer as servants, but they are now His friends. Can the one be without the other? This is not afforded to all, but only those
who are His servants.
John 15: 13
- 15
13 Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye
are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth
I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I
have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have
made known unto you.
From just this one statement we can clearly
see the blessing and honor of what it means to be a bondslave of Christ. Their disposition as a slave is what
qualifies them as a friend. Not the work
they do as slaves, as if we can obtain any merit by works, but their
disposition. A slave belongs completely
to his lord. The relationship between a lord
and his slave is that of knowing that what he requires of him, will be done at
any cost, without question. At the same
time, the slave, beyond any doubt, knows that he solely lives to do the will of
his lord. This in itself fosters trust,
and those we trust we call friends. As Psalm 25: 14 says, “The secret of
the Lord is
with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.” That word “secret” is H3245. It means a session, that
is, company of persons (in close deliberation); by
implication intimacy, consultation, a
secret: - assembly, counsel, inward, secret (counsel). And for these friends, He lays His life down,
because they have laid their lives down. They have cut themselves off from any
dependence and are His bondslaves. The
heart of this is covenant…a life for a life.
This is not a place or disposition that we
just walk into, but one that He has to bring us to. What you do in the “seven years” of slavery
before you are set free, will determine whether you are willing to become a
bondslave or hold on to your freedom, just like the slaves who are set free. How much of your wilderness years, that is to
say your sanctification years, have brought you to a place where you are willing
to be castrated from your autonomy? And
should you decide from where you are presently at now in your spiritual walk,
that you do want to be a bondslave, you should know that all bets are off. There will be no more negotiations about what
He can do or cannot do in your life, so choose wisely. You are completely and utterly His. You are no longer your own. Refrain from romanticizing it, because it
will not serve you in facing the reality of the cost. And from that moment on He will then do
whatever it takes to bring you into the full authentic reality of what it means
to be a bondslave. Should you desire so,
you need to count the cost and then commit with all your heart, mind and
strength to the process. It will not be
easy.
Many of us in truth are not yet here in our
walk with the Lord. It takes a long time
to reach this place simply because of how much we depend on other things than
on Him. He has to work this in us in our
daily walk and our will has to be laid down completely on the altar. It almost sounds impossible. But the Patterned Son did it so that we may
know that it is possible, when we abide.
And to abide, you need to depend with all your heart, mind and strength
on Him, so that His life may flow through you.
He is very patient and He is seeking those who want to become His
bondslaves. He is committed to make you
one, but you have to count the cost.
And now a word that I received on the 22nd
of February 2021
ARE YOU WILLING?
Are you willing for Me to devastate you, even as I did with
Job? In righteousness you now stand, but
are you willing to fall down to the ground?
Down in ashes?
Are you willing for Me to strip you bare of all things and
consume you with fire? For any
self-preservation will cause you to cry out for help, but I will be
silent. I will speak no more. For you have to become silent yourself. You have to become still and know that I am
God. And as God, I choose how I will
form My vessels of glory. If I beat you
to dust, it is My will. If I burn you to
ashes, it is My will. For unless you are
willing for My will, whatsoever it may be, without any limitations, how are you
choosing My will above yours?
At the ultimate extremity, to the point of shedding blood, His
cry was, “Not My will, but Your will be done.”
There can be no limitations.
There can be no degrees. All is
Mine, even your very life. And if you
hold onto that life, you will surely lose it.
But, if you are willing to lay it down, I will not only give you life
eternal, but resurrection life now.
From out of you I will be your life. No longer you living, but I.
Count the cost. Sit down
and count it. Be still and think on what
I am asking. For I will not take your
life, even if I can. You are My friend
and I am yours.
Will you lay it down?
Whose will do you choose?
Mine or yours?
Are you willing to lay it down?
No comments:
Post a Comment