This was a vision I saw as I was praying. In the vision I saw Jesus in my church, standing in front of the stage at a table, with a large ladle in His hands. He was serving our church hot soup. It was warming, and really hit the spot, like hot soup on a cold winter day. People were walking around enjoying the soup with smiles on their faces, content with the warmth in thier bellies.  Then all the sudden, in a blur, Jesus was drawn up and disappeared, like he ascended to heaven suddenly. Now there was a steaming pot of soup with a left-behind ladle still rocking back and forth from when Jesus dropped it. In a few moments, it became apparent, that there was nobody to serve the soup. Eventually people in the church started complaining that they weren’t getting any soup (because no one was being served).  In the vision, not being in the situation, but seeing it from above, I was thinking “Oh, will someone should just pick up the ladle and start serving the soup. No big deal.”  However, to my surprise, people would walk by the abandoned ladle and say things like “Oh, I’m not going to do that!” It was somehow too low for them. “That’s not a job I want to do.”  When I saw that in the vision I started to weep bitterly.  I was deeply grieved at what I saw.  As I wept, what came to mind was what the apostle John experienced when he started to weep as he realized that nobody was worthy to open the seals of the scroll described in the book of Revelation. That very accurately reflects what I was experiencing in the vision.

That vision triggered a message I preached on, and here are a few of the points that I shared as a result of the vision.

• A ROCKSTAR culture

Much of what Jesus is busy with is not glamorous enough to be appealing to many of us, for us to want to partner with him.

I’m afraid we have to be careful about slipping into this “ROCKSTAR” culture, where everything has to be epic.

Where if it’s not epic enough for a Youtube channel or to post on Instagram, then it’s not worth our time and attention.

We live in a time when Social Media is the quick and easy way to be a star, and get your reward now.

Why delay gratification and wait for a reward in heaven?

Get your reward now. And get it fast!

But Jesus said

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.(Matthew 6:1)

If the only relationship you have with the Father is what people see, then it’s not very deep.

We have to have our own history with God.

We have to have those personal things God shares with us, that we can’t share with anyone else.

As we learn to be obedient, and step out in faith, some of the things God will have us do; nobody will ever hear about.

And we have to learn to be o.k. with that.

We need wisdom from Holy Spirit to know what to share, and what not to share.

Some things that we would consider insignificant to us on earth, and that we may deem not exciting enough to share as a testimony, may very well be significant to our Father who is in secret, and sees all.

When we get to Heaven, we will be surprised by some of the people we meet with great rewards, because they are people we never heard about; not even on social media or on TV.

• Reward obsession

Part of the problem is that we have an obsession with being rewarded.

An example of this is when I was serving in the Prophetic Booths ministry at Bethel several years ago.

When you’re learning to minister in the prophetic, and you give a word, and someone gives you feedback, and tells you what it means to them, it can be very encouraging and fulfilling.

So to some degree you start to crave that, because it’s so encouraging and satisfying.

In the prophetic booths, we couldn’t enjoy a lot of that that however.

Because people were instructed to not give us feedback, because of time limits (they could do that on written feedback forms when they were done).

At first it bothered me very much.

I need that encouragement!  

This ministry requires so much risk, and I need that satisfaction, and encouragement of hearing that the word hit home!

But eventually I learned to rely more on faith, and trust the Holy Spirit, and that need that was so strong at first, slowly abated.

In reality, we would often later receive wonderful feedback in the written forms people would leave.

It’s the same in the area of healing.

We love to see instant results when we’re going after healing and miracles.

If it happens later, when we’re not around, it’s not as fun, and… it’s frankly not quite as glorious… (at least for us who prayed).

 

• Called to dirty work

Think of Apostle Peter, the first senior pastor of the early Church of Jesus Christ.

The job he was given by our Lord Jesus, was a pretty dirty job.

“Feed my sheep.” Jesus told him.

In Mark 9:33-35  Jesus shows the disciples that contrary to what they imagined as greatness, in the Kingdom of God, greatness is measured by the size of your servant’s heart.

If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

It’s not that it’s exclusively about SERVING God.  That would be entirely missing the point.  Our servanthood must be coupled with friendship.

We will always live in the reality of being both servants and friends of the Father.

Sons of the house, yet also soldiers in the Army of the Lord.

In John 15:15 Jesus told His disciples

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Notice that He says “No longer, do I call you servants…” which implies that He did call them servants before.

• A Coffee relationship

If the only thing you do to bond with Jesus is have coffee together, then your relationship will never be as deep as someone who:

• Suffered with Jesus.
• As someone who got their hands dirty with Jesus.
• Or as someone who has been through a few battles destroying the works of the demonic with Jesus.

The bond of brotherhood that soldiers in combat experience is universally understood to be something virtually impossible to experience in normal civilian life.

The military journalist Sebastian Junger, in his TED Talk about Why Veterans Miss War points out, that it’s that brotherhood, (not merely friendship) where people are literally willing to lay down their lives for one another, and act in the best interest of their team, that they miss in war.

This explains the bizarre stories from WWII when wounded soldiers brought back from the front lines went AWOL,  slipping out of windows, escaping hospitals, simply because they couldn’t stand abandoning their brothers in battle.

• My final point

Even though stepping out of servanthood into friendship and sonship is absolutely crucial, this does not mean you abandon obedience in the process.

In John 15:10 Jesus said:

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.  These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Just because the word OBEDIENCE might have become a bit politically incorrect, or unpopular, this does not mean that it no longer plays a vital part in our relationship with the Father.

So do the dirty work when it’s glorious and do it when it’s not so glorious.

Can you relate to anything in this post?  I would love to hear your comments below.

 

 

Image courtesy of Felipe Gavronski on Flickr