Life in the
Presence
Comprising
Book 1: Pursuing the Presence
Richard Spencer and Laura Barratt
Book 2: Living in the Presence
Richard Spencer
Cover design by James Wade
…we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
2
© 2009, 2010 Richard Spencer and Laura Barratt
Holy Trinity Church, Belle Vue Road, Shrewsbury, SY3 7LL, UK Tel: 01743 244891, email: [email protected]
3
Contents
Book 1: Pursuing the Presence
Chapters 1-13Book 2: Living in the Presence
Chapters 14-241 Introduction ____________________________________ 6 2 Peter’s Confession vs. Peter’s Rebuke _______________ 9 3 The Authentic Presence of God ___________________ 14 4 The Golden Calf vs. the Day of Pentecost ___________ 19 5 The Sell-out of the Church _______________________ 28 6 Representational Worship ________________________ 36 7 The Bride of Christ _____________________________ 41 8 Experiencing the Presence of God _________________ 48 9 Saul vs. David – Worshipping in Spirit and Truth_____ 54 10 Entering the Presence of God ___________________ 60 11 The Muller Principle __________________________ 71 12 Baptism and Communion ______________________ 76 13 Conclusions _________________________________ 82 14 Introduction _________________________________ 86
4
15 The Two Lives _______________________________ 88 16 The Presence of God __________________________ 94 17 The Church in the 21st Century_________________ 104 18 Entering the Presence ________________________ 110 19 Continuous Revelation – Fresh Bread ___________ 122 20 New Wine calls for New Wineskins – Transformation 130
21 Water, Bread and Wine _______________________ 145 22 The Two Trees ______________________________ 156 23 Conclusions ________________________________ 161 24 The Way Forward ___________________________ 165
5
6
1
Introduction
here is a passionate intimate Father, looking for passionate intimate children .There is a passionate intimate bridegroom looking for a passionate intimate bride. There is a wonderful life giving Spirit looking to break free in His people. The questions is have you encountered these three in this way? Have you encountered God the Father, Jesus the passionate bridegroom, or the freeing Holy Spirit?
Many of us have only learnt about it, read about it in scripture, or maybe just had a one off encounter years ago. We’ve accepted Jesus into our lives and we know we’re going to heaven so we’re just waiting until Jesus returns and then we know we can be truly happy living in the presence of God forever and having a wonderful life but until then we have to try our best to be good, reading our Bibles everyday, praying everyday, confessing everyday, and trying our best to do what we think would please God or what we may think God wants us to do. We’re just going through the motions. Is this what Jesus meant when he said ‘have come that they may have life,
and have it to the full.’1? Jesus is talking about a life that many of
us do not know. It is a life of intimacy, of friendship, of love, of peace, of joy, of passion, of wholeness. It is a life of fullness.
1 John 10:10
7
Where can this be found? Only one place – ‘In your presence
there is fullness of joy’2. It can only be found in the presence. In
the presence of your father, in the presence of your lover the bridegroom and in the presence of the sweet Holy Spirit. God longs for us to talk and relate to him as a best friend, as a father, as a lover. All these things speak of intimacy. God wants you to know him in an intimate way, to encounter him. He wants to talk to you directly, he wants to touch you, he wants you to know his presence. He wants to be so real to you. Not just for a few moments not every few years, but every minute of every day. He wants you to live and minister from a place of presence. His presence.
God is in the business of romancing and pursuing you. Of taking you into a deeper place of intimacy with him. For some of us we’ve never been there, but God wants to go deeper with you today. For others we may have started on this journey of going deeper into God, and yet there is so much more! Life and our times together corporately are so much more exciting, life changing and transforming when we allow God to show up and invade us. God is not looking for a people who will hold him at arms length or not allow him to do things his way. He wants you to invite him to want more of him. He wants you to know his presence is all that you need. I believe God wants to move in his people he wants to move in his church. He wants to move comfortably and easily without us putting any restraint on him. He wants us to make room for him in our lives and in our times together corporately where he can come
8
and put his feet up and not be told when to leave or how long he’s got before we have to move on to the next thing!
Church services will not give you what you are truly looking for, because what we are all truly looking for is relationship. An intimate relationship. Are you satisfied with what you know of God? Are you happy to keep going through the same old pattern of service every Sunday? If you are then that’s OK, and God will still bless you because he loves you. But I urge you to look past what you currently know and what you’ve always done and pursue the presence. Chase after God and know that there is more for you. This book explores what it means to know the presence of God and live in it.
Discussion Points
At the end of each chapter there are a number of discussion points which can be used to get the conversation going when this book is being used by a group. The members of the group should read a chapter before each meeting and ask God to speak though everything they read. It is important to approach this material with an open heart and an open mind, no matter if it seems quite radical.
9
2
Peter’s Confession vs.
Peter’s Rebuke
eachers often use contrasts between opposites as a way of bringing out essential truths. There is an extreme Biblical contrast in the space of a few verses in Matthew 16. The contrast is in Jesus’ reaction to two statements from Peter.
Matthew 16:13-23 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
After Peter’s confession of who Jesus is, Peter is raised up to be the foundation stone of the church, given keys and authority. No-one
10
else in the Gospels is honoured in this way. All this comes from just a few words from Peter’s lips. Yet, just a few minutes later, Peter makes one more statement and receives Jesus’ worst ever rebuke. There really is not a greater contrast in the whole of the Bible. It is clear that the Holy Spirit wants us to learn something vital from this passage.
The contrast here is not simply between good and bad, right and wrong, but between the ‘things of God’ and the ‘things of men’. From what Jesus says to Peter, doing things man’s way is not just second-best or a pale reflection of what God can achieve, it is ultimately the work of the evil one. Peter’s confession of Christ is a direct revelation from the Father, Peter steps out in faith, speaks what he has heard, and brings glory to Jesus. His concern for Jesus’ well-being is the total opposite, no matter how much it accords with our natural human instincts. We need to learn from this that saying or doing what we think is good can be so far away from God’s will that it takes us into the devil’s camp. Waiting for direct revelation and acting on it is the only way we can be part of what God is doing, anything else may be working against him.
Hiding from the Presence
The original state of humankind was to know the presence of God in a very tangible way, with nothing between them and him. They had perfect communion with him and continually received his blessing. The contrast between before and after the Fall is striking. After clothing (veiling) themselves, the first act of Adam and Eve after they disobeyed God was to hide from his presence:
11 Genesis 3:8 [RSV] And they heard the sound of the LORD
God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Sin brings shame, and with it the urge to get away from the holy. But it is a central principle of the Christian faith that this is not necessary now; it is through Jesus’ sacrifice that we have access to God.
Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have
confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,…
This is truly heaven on earth, because we can come into the direct presence of God:
2 Corinthians 3:18 [RSV] And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
It is in the presence that we are changed; we are made more and more like Jesus, so that we may be able to receive and to respond to the love of the Father. God gives us so much more than Adam and Eve ever had, because in Jesus we have access to the tree of life, a life lived for ever in the presence of God.
12
Discussion Points
1. Skim through the Gospels to find places where Jesus praises people and where he rebukes them. See if you can find if he ever approves of anyone more than Peter in Matthew 16:17-19; and see if you can find a more severe reprimand than Matthew 16:23.
2. See if you can find some more contrasts in the Bible between events – for example, the conception of Ishmael3 and Isaac4, and the battles for Jericho5 and Ai6. In each case you will see it is not a matter of good or evil, but whether people trust the revelation they have received and obey God or not.
3. Adam and Eve took the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They wanted to make moral decisions for themselves. Do you think that the law given to Moses at Mt. Sinai is God giving the people what they wanted? Is the rest of the Old Testament a record of the consequences?
4. The cross is referred to as a tree in the Bible7. Discuss whether we can think of it as the Tree of Life8. Is Jesus the
3 Genesis 16 4 Genesis 17 5 Joshua 6 6 Joshua 7 7 Galatians 3:13
13 fruit hanging on the tree? Does this give a new meaning to communion?
5. Read 2 Corinthians 3:18 in as many translations as possible. What does this amazing verse mean for us?
14
3
The Authentic Presence of
God
ave you ever read great classics of Christian literature and asked yourself “why is my experience of God so pale in comparison?” For example, A.W. Tozer writes:
The Presence and the manifestation of the Presence are not the same. There can be the one without the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it. He is manifest only when and as we are aware of His Presence. On our part there must be surrender to the Spirit of God, for His work it is to show us the Father and the Son. If we co-operate with Him in loving obedience God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face.9
How do we deal with statements like that? Do we assume that the manifestation of God’s Presence is only for great ‘saints’ like A.W. Tozer or do we think that he is writing about what is theoretically possible but that is never actually realised?
9 A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, (Camp Hill, PA, USA, Zur Ltd., 1982), Chapter 5
15
My great-grandmother, Susanna Spencer, had such an amazing Christian life that her autobiography was published as a testimony despite the fact that she was an ordinary working woman, the wife of a blacksmith. Her extraordinary life of service seems to have flowed from an experience of the presence of God while she was still living with her parents:
One terrible day, the burden seemed to become too great for me - I could bear it no longer: I came in from my work, and with heavy steps went straight up to my bedroom, threw myself on my knees by my bedside, and sobbed out the whole wretched tale to Jesus. I told Him how I had tried and tried to be good, and to get peace - and begged Him to take me as I was, and just let me be His child henceforth - I was so tired of myself. Perhaps the surrender was so complete, the trusting Him so real - for, there and then, as I knelt, light came, and a calm peace entered into my very being. He revealed Himself, and I knew Him!10
How do we explain the fact that some Christians “produce a
crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown”11
while most of us are almost fruitless in many aspects of our Christian lives? We are all gifted by God in different ways, and we must never feel condemned or even challenged by the ministries of
10 Susanna Spencer, My Life, (London, 1917), page 7 11 Mark 4:20
16
others, yet we know God has no favourites12, and all his children
should expect to receive everything he has for us, and to know him working in us and through us.
There are many Christian books that will advise you on what you must do to enter into a deeper experience of the presence of God and become more fruitful, but it is the premise of this book is that it is ‘doing’ that is blocking God’s work in our lives. Some years ago, God said to me very clearly, in a time of worship, that we need “manifestation, not representation”. The church (all denominations) is guilty of coming up with ways of representing the presence of God with his people, which effectively say to God, “we don’t need you”. Unless, we are willing to trust God to turn up when we meet (or do anything else) in his name, then we must expect a watered-down experience of him.
Manifestation, not Representation
It almost seems at times that the different branches of the Christian church differ mainly in the way they choose to represent God’s presence with his people. In their times of corporate worship, they may express God’s beauty and unchanging nature with liturgy that has been used for hundreds of years, they may convey God’s joyfulness and power in lively songs or they may express God’s wisdom in a carefully crafted sermon; but in each case it is their
17
planning and expertise that has determined what happens when they meet together. God is gracious and will still meet us in these human-designed activities, but how much more he gives us if we are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to be our worship leader.
Worship is meant to be vertical, directed to God and (under the New Covenant) directed by him. Far too much time and effort is directed into pleasing each other. There is no doubt that we can enjoy a well-crafted act of worship, we can leave it with our spirits lifted; but that is equally true of a concert, a play, a lecture, visit to an art gallery or a good meal. Attending worship should affect us emotionally, but feeling good (or anything else) should be as a result of having quite literally met with the living God. The only parallel to the experience of corporate worship should be what happens when we meet with another human being we love and respect.
The Presence of God under the New Covenant
Under the Old Covenant, God manifested his presence in a number of ways, e.g. three men, an angel, a burning bush, a pillar of fire. For 33 years God’s presence was uniquely manifest on planet earth as one human being: Jesus Christ. The New Covenant was initiated on the Day of Pentecost when God became manifest in and through his people. This was accomplished by Jesus taking up residence in each individual who is willing to receive him, living in them and changing them into his likeness by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are the only representation that God needs on earth. As Jesus lives in us, as we are transformed to be like him, as the church becomes truly the bride and the body of Christ, we can re-present God on earth.
18
Discussion Points
1. Describe to the group ways that you have experienced the manifest presence of God. These may be dramatic or like the ‘still, small voice’ that Elijah heard13.
2. Find alternative ways of saying ‘manifestation, not representation’.
3. Discuss other ways that churches represent the presence of God.
4. Books like The Shack14 use fictional characters to represent
the presence and nature of God. Is this of any value, and can it ever be successful in truly portraying God’s nature?
5. What do you feel in a typical act of worship? What is triggering your emotions? What other events in your life make you feel the same (or a similar) way?
13 1 Kings 19:12
19
4
The Golden Calf vs. the
Day of Pentecost
here are a number of Bible passages that speak of how God’s people can experience his presence, and how they can get in his way as he seeks to manifest himself to them and to the world. Helpfully, the Holy Spirit has inspired the writers of the Bible to give us a number of linked but contrasting passages, so that we can see the profound difference that worshipping God can make if we are willing to totally abandon our representations of his presence. When we consider the incident of the Golden Calf at Sinai, at first sight, it seems as if the Israelites have turned aside to worship a false god when they bowed down, but it is clear that this is not what Aaron had in mind:
Exodus 32:4-5 Aaron took what they handed him and made
it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.”
20
Aaron made a concrete representation of the Lord’s presence and invited the people to worship him through it in a pre-planned festival. This provoked God’s anger to the extent that Moses had to plead with God. He relented from abandoning them but still about 3000 were killed that day15. This figure has a curious parallel
on the Day of Pentecost when about 3000 were baptised and added to the church16.
The Jews of Jesus’ time (as in the centuries before and to the present day) celebrated three main festivals: Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Passover is a thanksgiving for freedom from slavery in Egypt, at Pentecost the events at Sinai are remembered and Tabernacles recalls the time in the Wilderness (Pentecost and Tabernacles are also harvest festivals). Here is another link between the incident with the Golden Calf and the day when the church was born at Pentecost.
The connection between the Golden Calf event and the Day of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2 is even more striking when we consider that in both cases the leader of the people had gone up to meet with God, and a cloud had hidden him:
Exodus 19:20 The LORD descended to the top of Mount
15 Exodus 32:28 16 Acts 2:41
21 Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up…
Exodus 20:21 The people remained at a distance, while
Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.
John 20:17 Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, “Do not hold
on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
Acts 1:9 After he said this, Jesus was taken up before their
very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
There is no doubt that the Holy Spirit wants us to contrast these two events, so as to learn how to encourage new life rather than death. Probably the key common factor in these two events is worship. After making the Golden Calf, Aaron:
Exodus 32:5-6 …built an altar in front of the calf and
announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the
LORD.” So the next day the people rose early and
sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterwards they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
This was pre-planned worship, according to a familiar pattern; it can best be described as ‘religious’. The second-in-command (Aaron) decided when and how it should happen, and his decisions were guided solely by a desire to please the people. He implicitly encouraged the people to think about themselves, as shown by their actions at the end of the ‘service’.
22
The worship on the Day of Pentecost was different. As the visitors to Jerusalem said,
Acts 2:11 “…we hear them [the disciples] declaring the
wonders of God in our own tongues!”
The disciples praised God spontaneously, not according to any formula they had learnt. The worship affected those around them, not because someone had designed it to do this, but because the Holy Spirit was working supernaturally through it. The role of the second-in-command (Peter) was not to control or direct the worship, but to speak prophetically in the environment created by the worship, i.e. Word and Spirit working together. The visitors to Jerusalem thought that the disciples were drunk on new wine, but they were ‘high’ on another Spirit, which is another interesting contrast with the worship of God through the Golden Calf. Paul tells us:
Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to
debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Aaron’s words all through the events are clearly motivated by fear of the people and of losing his position of authority. He even blatantly lies to Moses:
Exodus 32:24 “…So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold
jewellery, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
23
In contrast, Peter was able to speak prophetically with great courage to all the people. He was bold enough to tell them that they were responsible for killing the Messiah:
Acts 2:23 “…you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”
Peter spoke out the truth, and was given insight into what was going on; he saw in the supernatural that ‘this is that’ which was prophesied by Joel. He was able to tell the people with real authority what they needed to do, and he was able to promise them the gift of the Holy Spirit, God himself, living in them. In contrast Aaron did not have a clue in guiding the people of Israel towards God’s will – he neither heard God, nor seemed to care what God might want for his people. Aaron could only take rather than give – he took their ear-rings, which eventually ended up as human excrement17, a rather ignoble fate!
There is a real impatience in the people of Israel which seems to be the initial problem:
Exodus 32:1 When the people saw that Moses was so long
in coming down from the mountain, they gathered round Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will
24
go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
The disciples had been told by Jesus to be patient and to be prepared to wait:
Acts 1:4-5 On one occasion, while he was eating with
them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”
They had to wait ten days, but they did not waste their time. In addition to finding a successor for Judas:
Acts 1:14 They all joined together constantly in prayer,
along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
So what does this mean for us? From the comparison of 3000 deaths to 3000 people being born again we can tell that the Golden Calf incident is totally negative. It’s clear that worshipping a representation of God’s presence is no better than worshipping a false God. This seems to be reflected in the Second Commandment:
Exodus 20:4 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth
25 beneath or in the waters below…
If we construct and worship an idol we are breaking this commandment, even if the idol is intended to represent the true God, or his servants, or his creation. God wants to relate directly to those who love him, anything we put in the way (no matter how well-intentioned) is an abomination to him.
It is clear that this is not a matter of balance; we cannot have a bit of Golden Calf and a bit of Pentecost. God is leading us totally in one direction. He is looking for worship that:
• Is completely ‘vertical’, focussing on him and ignoring the ‘needs’ and desires of the worshippers.
• Involves no human-created representations of his presence. • Is lead by the Holy Spirit and therefore is unpredictable18
and spontaneous, rather than pre-planned and programmed. • Is completely truthful and authentic, and therefore has an
impact on those outside the community of faith. • Is willing to wait on him.
• Will spill out into the world.
18 Jesus said to Nicodemus (a teacher of Israel), “The wind blows wherever it pleases.
You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
26
This is what Jesus was saying when he spoke to the woman at the well:
John 4:23-24 “Yet a time is coming and has now come
when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
Those of us with the responsibility of leading worship need to emulate Peter rather than Aaron. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to be the true worship leader, we need to trust him to inspire the worshippers and to guide them corporately and individually to offer themselves as living sacrifices19. Our job is to call the people
together, to provide the environment for worship and to guard the presence of God. We also need to be ready to oversee the delivery of God’s word to the assembly, whether it comes through us or another member of the body of Christ.
27
To summarise:
Worship, pre-planned to please the people, using a representation of God’s presence brings condemnation and death. Spontaneous, Holy-Spirit led worship (focussed only on God) brings signs, wonders, revelations and new life in abundance.
Discussion Points
1. Read some or all of Exodus 32 and Acts 2. Try to get a picture in your mind of the two events.
2. Can you find any more parallels in the two passages beside those mentioned above?
3. Can you find any more contrasts between the two passages beside those mentioned above?
4. If someone said the connections between the two passages is just coincidence, what would you reply?
5. Is there anything good to say about the Golden Calf incident (other than they were not worshipping a false God)?
6. What can we learn from the comparison of the fear of Aaron with the courage of Peter?
28
5
The Sell-out of the Church
Substitutes for God’s Presence
rom the Bible passages we are considering, it is clear that different ways of representing the presence of God are not just a poor second-best to authentic manifestations. Putting into action human-designed methods for representing God's presence is the reason why so many Christians are starved of experiencing God directly. God says if you want to make a substitute for me, and use it to simulate a relationship with me, then OK, but don't expect me to turn up.
It seems almost that the different branches of the Christian church differ mainly in the way they choose to represent God's presence. Some representations are more obvious than others; we will look at some examples of current church practice.
The Orthodox Church asks the faithful to pray to God through icons, beautiful paintings of Christ or the saints. They say that they are not worshipping the icons, but when they venerate an image this veneration is actually of the person depicted. Orthodox believers have been accused of idolatry, but their worship is more like the worship of the Golden Calf at Sinai, which, as we have seen involved the worship of a representation of God’s presence, which invoked God’s wrath.
29
The Catholic Church focuses its worship on the Mass, the time when the priest says the prayer of consecration and, according to the doctrine of transubstantiation, when the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. Catholics are taught to venerate the 'host' (the bread that has been consecrated) and to see it as the actual presence of Jesus with them. Jesus told us to share bread and wine in remembrance of him, but this action should be taking us closer to him rather than to a representation of his presence with his people (see Chapter 12 ). The Catholic use of relics (bits of the bodies of dead saints, pieces of ‘the true cross’, etc.) hardly needs commenting on.
Evangelicals tend to put the preaching of the word at the heart of their acts of worship. Although this is a less obvious representation of God's presence, it can be one. The preacher may have spent many days working out how to draw out from a passage of Scripture a particular doctrine. He or she will deliver it with the aim of persuading the people towards a desired response. It is always hoped that the Holy Spirit oversees this process, but the sermon (no matter how doctrinally correct) can easily be a human-designed substitute for hearing God directly.
Charismatic worship often does not seem complete without a time of ministry, i.e. praying for individuals who have been prompted (hopefully by the Holy Spirit) to ask for this. This, of course, can be completely genuine, and God sometimes does move powerfully, but 'times of ministry' can be times when we are doing what has been done many times before, and is a way that the leadership of the service can give the people what they want.
30
Many people see social action as their worship, ‘loving God by loving my neighbour’, but unless our service of others is motivated, inspired, guided and empowered by our love for God, then we have got the two greatest commandments round the wrong way20.
Engaging in ‘good works’ may be loving our neighbour as ourselves and thus fulfilling Jesus’ command, but this is not worshipping God. The parable of the sheep and the goats21 can be quoted to
support the idea of social action as worship, but it is important to note that the ‘sheep’ do not know they are serving the King when they serve one of the least of his brothers. True worship must be intentional – if we intend to worship God by helping another person then we are worshipping a substitute. We will look later at the example of George Muller22 to see how much more ‘successful’
we can be in our ministry to the world if we are willing to put God’s glory first.
It is not only church traditions that are substitutes and representations of the presence of God. The desire to be relevant to the prevailing culture can tempt church leaders to adopt what can best be called a marketing approach to worship. In the commercial world, the developers of products will modify what they are offering in the marketplace according to the perceived needs and desires of their customers. If (as is often the case) the supplier is
20 Matthew 22:37-39 21 Matthew 25:31-46 22 See Chapter 11
31
unable to provide exactly what the customer wants at a price that the customer is prepared to pay, the supplier will design the presentation of their product (e.g.. the advertising and the public relations material) to change their customers’ perception of the product, or so that they feel good about it. Marketing can also be used to influence the customers’ own perception of their needs to be more in line with what is on offer. The world is now one huge marketplace, dominated by advertising, and there is no doubt that it works; but can we use its methods (and its morality) as we seek to ‘sell’ the gospel? What we are selling will inevitably be a representation, because to sell something we have to be in control of it. The temptation to alter the ‘product’ to make it closer to what the customer thinks he or she needs is overwhelming.
A common form of marketing is often used when a church decides to target a particular niche market, for example families with young children, students, the recently retired, etc.. Churches can attract large numbers when they tailor what is on offer to a chosen group of people. We can use the styles and the language of the culture around us as we express our worship to God, but we must do this just to please him and not each other.
Debates between churches often centre on which practice is closest to the Biblical record or a tradition or an aspect of contemporary culture or some other criteria. But the real issue is not which kind of representation to use, but why use one at all, when it so obviously not God's will?
The use of substitutes for God's presence has a very long history in church life. They are motivated by the desire of church leaders to stay in control of their flocks, to increase their numbers, and by a
32
lack of faith. If we don't trust God to turn up when we meet in his name then it is very tempting to invent something and say to the people 'these are your gods'23. It gives church leaders immense
power over their people if they can persuade them that the ‘something’ they have created is a (or the only) way to meet with God. The people may consciously or unconsciously collude with this deception, because it gives them a sense of security; they know that the ‘something’ is clearly under human control. The alternative may seem too risky; as the writer to the Hebrews put it:
Hebrews 10:31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God.
But relating directly to God is an essential part of the New Covenant:
Jeremiah 31:31…34 “The time is coming,” declares the
LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah… No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from
the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
33
We are to know God, not just know about him, and not know him through some man-made device. Each time a church leader encourages a church to ‘chicken-out’ of a direct encounter with God, then they miss God’s best for them, and also encounter his wrath.
In the Old Covenant, God gave the people very specific instructions as to how they were to worship him; much of the Mosaic Law details the construction of the Tabernacle and the regulations for worship. In the New Covenant, we are led not by a written code, but by the Holy Spirit:
2 Corinthians 3:6 He has made us competent as ministers of
a new covenant— not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
If we are to be New Covenant Christians, above all, our worship must be led by the Holy Spirit. We do not need anything written down, carefully prepared according to a formula or judged by any human criteria. We just need to be open to the prompting of the Spirit, ready to develop the fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
The second sentence can be translated as ‘According to such
things there is no law.’ – there is no fixed method or style of
34
try to impose one we slip back into the Old Covenant. The Holy Spirit longs to work in us and through us to bring out the fruit as we praise God from our hearts. As Jesus said to Nicodemus:
John 3:8 “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear
its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
If we don’t manifest the Holy Spirit by being (humanly-speaking) unpredictable, than we must doubt our commitment to living our lives Jesus’ way.
Discussion Points
1. Can you think of other representations of God’s presence that are used in corporate or individual worship?
2. Sometimes we just don’t feel like worshipping God when we come to church. What should we do about this:
• Just carry on doing what we have always done in the hope that God will appreciate our faithfulness?
• Open ourselves up to God and wait until we sense his presence?
• Any other suggestions?
3. What are the dangers in relying on the Holy Spirit to lead our worship? Are there any safeguards we need to put in place?
4. Skim through some of the regulations for worship under the Old Covenant (for example in Exodus 25-30 and Leviticus 1-9). There is only verse in the New Testament that does the same job: 1
35 Corinthians 14:26. Does this contrast tell us anything about how we should worship now?
36
6
Representational Worship
he events at Sinai are key for us considering the manifest presence of God. As well as being a (perhaps the) significant time in the history of the nation of Israel, God was more tangibly present with them at this time than at any other point in their history.
For the Israelites at Sinai, God’s manifest presence with them was the key factor in all that happened. His presence supplied the motivation, the guidance, the provision, the protection, everything they needed. Yet despite this, they still doubted; God directed Moses to release water from the rock in his presence.
Exodus 17:6-7 “…I will stand there before you by the rock at
Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And Moses called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarrelled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
God is willing to prove that he is with his people by supernatural signs, although he must be in charge of the how and when. Moses and Aaron attempted to take God’s place in the sight of the people years later in again bringing water from a rock. They were barred from entering the Promised Land:
37 Numbers 20:10..12 Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly
together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?”… But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
It is vital that we honour God’s manifest presence, and not try to take any of his glory.
The motivation of church leaders in putting up with representational worship (to coin a phrase) is as follows:
• A desire to please the people.
• A lack of trust in God that he will minister directly to his people each time they meet in his name.
• A lack of courage in not allowing God to manifest himself in them and in the people.
• An ego that needs to be in control, and to be the essential piece in the picture of the people’s relationship with God. • Following the pattern of the world in copying ‘best
practice’, i.e. what seems to be ‘working’ in other churches. At the heart of these symptoms is a self-focus which misses so much of what God has for us. As A.W. Tozer puts it:
To be specific, the sins are these: righteousness, pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love and a host of others
38
like them. They dwell too deep within us and are too much a part of our natures to come to our attention till the light of God is focused upon them. The grosser manifestations of these sins, egotism, exhibitionism, self-promotion, are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy. They are so much in evidence as actually, for many people, to become identified with the gospel. I trust it is not a cynical observation to say that they appear these days to be a requisite for popularity in some sections of the Church visible. Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice.24
Self-promotion is such a snare that churches and their leaders should avoid it like the plague. With so many voices clamouring for attention in the modern world, it may seem only expedient that the church should publicise its activities whenever it can. We sometimes think that the way to bring people to Christ is first to get them to like us, and then they will be attracted to Jesus. This kind of associative thinking may work in the world of promotion and marketing, but its underlying dishonesty means that we must not use it for the gospel. The logic that says that people need to like us before they will listen to us misses out on the power of the Holy Spirit to convict the sinner. Each time we use our own methods to draw the unredeemed to Jesus, we get in the Holy Spirit’s way. It’s almost like we block people’s view of Jesus, as he said himself:
39 John 12:32 “…I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will
draw all men to myself.”
He was speaking of his death on the cross, but we can lift him up in our praises, and this is sufficient for him to reach out and to bring people to himself.
A.W. Tozer wrote about the state of the church in his day (and nothing has changed):
The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged. This would burn away the impurities from our lives as the bugs and fungi were burned away by the fire that dwelt in the bush.25
Discussion Points
1. Read Exodus 17:1-7 and Numbers 20:1-13. List out the parallels and contrasts in these two passages.
40
2. Why was God so angry with Moses and Aaron (read his words to them carefully)?
3. Imagine you are a church leader. What would your way be in seeking to lead the people closer to God?
4. Can you find any place in the Gospels where Jesus promotes himself? Can you find any place where he seeks to make a good impression with anyone? Does this tell us anything?
5. As a church, can we rely on God to bring people to join us if we give up on any thought of self-promotion?
6. Read the following quotation, written by the first Bishop of Liverpool in 1867. How relevant are his words today?
There is a natural proneness and tendency in us all to give God a sensual, carnal worship, and not that which is commanded in His Word. We are ever ready to frame for our sloth and unbelief, visible helps and stepping-stones in our approaches to Him, and ultimately to give these inventions of our own the honour due to Him. In fact, idolatry is all natural, down-hill, easy, like the broad way. Spiritual worship is all of grace, all up-hill, and all against the grain. Any worship whatsoever is more pleasing to the natural heart, than worshipping God, in the way our Lord Jesus Christ describes, `in spirit and in truth' (John 4:23).26
26 J.C. Ryle, Prophecy, originally published as Coming Events and Present Duties, 1867, (Fearn,
41
7
The Bride of Christ
Isaiah 62:1-5
For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.
The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the LORD will bestow. You will be a crown of splendour in the LORD's hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah
for the LORD will take delight in you,
and your land will be married. As a young man marries a maiden, so will your builder marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
his is what God is saying to you, this is what God thinks of you. He sees you as crown of splendour right in the palm of his hand, he delights in you, he rejoices over you, he sees you as his bride. That is how amazingly, crazily in love God is with you that he wants to be married to you. This is mind-blowing - that God almighty wants to be married to me and you! You are his bride.
42
God uses this picture of a bride so we can know how much he loves us, how crazy he is about us. It is an intimate picture. It’s the greatest love story there ever was and that’s ever going to be. This is a love story between you and Jesus. Between Jesus and his church.
What God is saying to us in these days is that it is vital that we take hold of his love for us. That we experience it and encounter him because it is God’s love that will change us and those we meet, and it is God’s love that will change the nation. God wants us his church to know how vast, how wide and how deep his love for us is. The Bible is not enough. It’s not enough to read about it and believe it, God wants you to know his love! To feel it, to encounter it. He longs to embrace you. We can not understand what it means to be the bride of Christ until we experience God’s love. Any marriage should be the result of a relationship of love, and intimate relationship between two people. That is what God is saying to his church. I want an intimate relationship with you. I just want to love you, to delight in you, to embrace you. You don’t have to do anything just let me love you. I love you so much that I want to be married to you! Not because you’ve done anything but because you’re made in my image, and I’m so excited by you that I rejoice over you! This is so foundationally key in understanding our identity as the bride of Christ. We have to know God’s love.
Before the bride marries the bridegroom, before they embark on their journey of marriage she has to know that the bridegroom loves her. It is not enough for the bridegroom to keep telling the bride that he loves her but never showing it, she needs to feel loved by him. Then on her wedding day she is identified as this beautiful bride. How can we take hold of our identity as the bride of Christ
43
if we have never encountered or experienced his love? It’s not enough knowing it in your head, we need to know it and feel it in our heart. When we have a touch of God’s love then it changes us and we’re never the same again, and we start to see our true identity. We start to see ourselves the way God sees us, as this beautiful precious bride. As a crown of splendour held in his hand. We must encounter the love of God in order for us to take on our identity as the bride of Christ.
God has a destiny and a purpose for each of us individually, as well as all of us corporately. God has a plan and a purpose for his bride, his church. We’ve been seeing God move in many ways over the last few years throughout the world. God wants his church to become increasingly aware of his presence where people will be changed, where people will hear his voice, where people will only be speaking out the prophetic word., where people will feel his love, peace and joy. Where people will encounter God in all his fullness. Last year we saw the outpouring taking place in Florida, God was moving. In Bethel church in Redding, California they have been experiencing a revival for the past few years, where people are continually getting healed, where people are coming to know Jesus, and the presence of God is so evident there. God is on the move and we as his church are on the brink of something. There is a wave of the Spirit coming that is going to hit the nation. God is longing to sweep this nation with his love, grace and power and he wants to do it through his church. Through us. Through you! We have a part to play. Jesus is coming back for this beautiful glorious bride. It is time for the church to rise up and shine, to come into her identity as the bride of Christ.
44
In July of this year God gave me a vision of this. I had this picture of myself walking along a beach. As I was walking I could see Jesus walking in front of me when I saw it was Jesus I started speeding up to get closer to him and I was trying to show him that I wanted to be so close to him walking in his ways and that I was right behind him following his every move. I knew that he wanted me to follow him and watch what he was doing. As I was walking right behind him he put his hand out and I knew he was beckoning me to go and walk alongside him. I felt the Lord say to me “Do not walk behind me, but alongside me. Give me your hand, for you do not have to look at the back of me, come and walk beside me. For I am the bridegroom and you are the bride. Walk beside me beautiful bride, for this is the season I am leading my church into. It is a new season. It is time for the bride and the bridegroom to walk alongside one another. It is time for my church to be visible.” God is calling his church to be intimate with him. For us to walk hand in hand with him. For us to be joined with him hand in hand. For us to be one with him.
Isaiah 60:1-3
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See darkness covers the earth
And thick darkness is over the peoples, But the LORD rises upon you
And his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your dawn.
‘Arise and shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you!’ Now is the time for us to rise up and shine.
45
We’re not to rise up and shine when Jesus returns, but before so he can return to his beautiful glorious bride. If you read the rest of this Isaiah 60 passage it later says ‘Lift up your eyes and look
about you: all assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm’ and in
the Isaiah 62 passage it mentions how ‘nations will see your
righteousness and all kings your glory.’ You see people will be
drawn in as the bride shines and radiates the glory of her Lord. We will shine out Jesus reflecting him in all his glory, all his love, all his power etc.
This is a new season God is leading his church into. He is saying it is time for my bride to be visible; it is time for the bride and the bridegroom to walk alongside one another, to be seen as one. This is why our own personal relationship with Jesus is so key, as we need to continually need to get to know him more and more. We need to know him intimately and encounter his love for us! It’s okay for us to keep falling in love with Jesus over and over again, because the more we get to know him the more intimate we become with him and the more we love him. Jesus is extremely loveable. He is not this distant person we may have in our minds he is intimate and lovely. It isn’t enough to have a one off experience of God’s love. God wants us to continually know his love, to live in it and to rest in it. God wants to keep filling us with his love, telling us he loves us. Like a father may say to his child ‘I love you’ so does God say to us over and over again ‘I love you’ I love you’ I love you. God wants to become one with us. God wants to become one with his church, with his bride.
Ephesians 5:31-32 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father
46
become one flesh. This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church.’
When people get married they usually take on their partner’s surname. So with us
Isaiah 62:4 No longer will they call you Deserted, or name
your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah27,
and your land Beulah28; for the LORD will take delight
in you, and your land will be married.
When we come to know Jesus we take on a whole new identity, a new name. You are God’s delight and his delight is in you. God is your husband – see Isaiah 54. Our identity is now found in Jesus and as C.S Lewis puts it we are all little Christs29. You new surname
is that of ‘Christ’.
This is a new season God is bringing his church into. This is the time, this is the place, it’s time to rise up beautiful bride! It’s time for you to be visible. It’s time for the bride and the bridegroom to walk alongside one another hand in hand. No more hiding, no more being afraid, no more feeling inadequate, you are my bride. It
27 ‘Hephzibah’ means ‘my delight is in her’. 28 ‘Beulah’ means ‘married’.
47
is time for the church to be seen as one – one with the Father just as Jesus was one with the Father so will you be. I believe a time is coming where we will know God’s presence like never before, when we will have allowed him to invade us so much that we will hear his voice more clearly, where we will receive revelation from his word like never before. The Bible will become such a part of us that we will be abiding in it. We will no longer have to keep reading about our identity, what God says about us in the word, who we are in Jesus but we will know it and be it. We will be so entwined with Jesus that we will become one with him.
Discussion Points
1. Discuss the suggestion that there are some people who will always find the idea difficult of being the Father’s child or Jesus’ bride. However, should we always persist with these concepts as they are so strong in the Bible?
2. It is sometimes said that the depth of our relationship with God is determined by how hungry we are for him. What do we do that limits his intimacy with us?
3. Read Ephesians 5:21-33 very carefully. See how Paul weaves together the two pictures of the church as the bride of Christ and the body of Christ. In his quotation from Genesis 2:24 he helps us see that when we offer ourselves as Jesus’ bride, he comes to live in us so that we are quite literally his flesh here on earth. What does this mean for the church?
4. With reference to Ephesians 5:26-27, how is Jesus making us ready to be his bride?
48
8
Experiencing the Presence
of God
or God to make his presence evident to one or more human beings, he needs to somehow reveal part of his infinite being to very finite creatures. If you ask most people how they experience God’s presence, they will often speak about something intangible, perhaps a feeling or something at the edge of perception. As C.S. Lewis has pointed out so powerfully in his sermon Transposition 30, we have only a very limited range of emotions which
are evoked under many different circumstances. To feel that God is there is a good starting point, but we need something more to be really sure that it is him. God is love31 and therefore the closest
analogy in everyday life to knowing God’s presence, is enjoying the company of those we love. When we get together we bless each other by communicating, by doing things for each other, by serving each other, by sharing in the everyday tasks and joys of life. So it is with God, when we are in his presence he speaks to us, he reveals more of himself and he listens and responds to what we say. He works in us and with us in what we sometimes call ‘signs and wonders’. He directs us along paths to draw us closer to him. He
30 C.S. Lewis, Transposition in Screwtape Proposes a Toast, (Glasgow, Collins, 1965) 31 1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16
49
does all this in a way which is consistent with what he has already revealed about his nature, in our experience, in the Bible and supremely in the person of Jesus Christ. Yet everything he says or does is fresh, exciting, original; he is truly the God of surprises. It may be good to test that we really are experiencing God’s presence, but ultimately we will have to step out in faith, like Peter on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus allowed him to check that it was really his Lord.
Matthew 14:28-29 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to
come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
Once we encounter the Lord Jesus, he is always there to catch us if our faith fails.
The Transfiguration was a wonderful opportunity for Peter, James and John to experience the presence of the Father and the Son. Jesus was transformed before them at the Transfiguration (the same Greek word, metamorfow, metamorphoo, is usually translated ‘transfigured’ in Matthew 17:2; and ‘transformed’ in Romans 12:2 and 2 Corinthians 3:18). Jesus manifested the glory of God in a direct and undeniable way. His authority was confirmed by the additional presence of Moses and Elijah.
50
The contrast we need to draw here is between what the three disciples experienced and Peter’s initial reaction. He believed that what was needed was a traditional religious act, he wanted to set up booths as are used by the Jews at the Feast of Tabernacles, and he wanted to prolong and fossilise the experience.
Matthew 17:4-5 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to
be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
The Father is gracious and he intervened to stop Peter even before he finished speaking. True worship always seems to result in the worshipper receiving revelation, it is then his/her responsibility to act on what has been revealed, which often guides the subsequent flow of the worship. The next action by the three seems much more appropriate:
Matthew 17:6-7 When the disciples heard this, they fell face
down to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”
True worship results in a direct encounter with God. And then, what could be better than to feel Jesus’ touch on your life and to hear gentle, reassuring words from him?
There is one other occasion recorded in the New Testament when Peter has a heavenly visitation and that was when he was on the
51
roof of the house of Simon the Tanner32. A sheet with all kinds of
‘unclean’ animals is lowered from heaven, and he is told to “kill and eat”. This leads to what is sometimes called the ‘Gentile Pentecost’ when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the household of the Roman Centurion, Cornelius. This time Peter acts according to the revelation and orders that all should be baptised, even though they were Gentiles. He stepped away from the religious norm in response to a revelation and is rewarded by a great demonstration of God’s power and mercy.
“My Presence will go with you”
After the Golden Calf incident, God’s plan for the Israelites was for them to go and take the Promised Land with an angel to drive out their enemies33, but without his presence. Moses petitioned God
and received his assurance.
Exodus 33:14-16 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go
with you, and I will give you rest.” Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people
32 Acts 10 33 Exodus 33:3
52
from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
Moses made a vital point here. Ultimately, what distinguishes God’s people from everyone else is that the presence of God goes with them. Any other distinctions are superficial and secondary. We expect Christians to be more moral, more joyful, more compassionate, etc. than other people, and that is often our experience, as the Holy Spirit works in them; but Christians do not have a monopoly on these qualities. The whole human race is made in God’s image34 and we all share in his characteristics to a greater
or lesser extent. But it is God’s tangible presence, or it should be, that makes Christians different. John Wesley knew this; his last words were spoken twice, with great passion, “The best of all is, God is with us.”
Discussion Points
1. Talk about times when you have felt God’s presence especially powerfully?
2. Share any times you have tested that it really is God’s presence? What have you asked him? How has he responded? 3. Bill Johnson says that God manifests his presence to the extent that he can trust us not to make a representation (or idol) of the experience. Can he trust you?
53 4. How can we lose the habit of judging each other35, and learn to discern the presence of God in others?
5. Peter is a wonderful example for us (both positive and negative) – we have already seen a number of examples of contrasts in his words and actions. How would you describe his character before and after the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2)?
54
9
Saul vs. David –
Worshipping in Spirit and
Truth
t is very interesting to compare the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David, in another great Biblical contrast. These two stand out from the rest of the kings in that they were directly selected by God, rather than by inheritance or a coup d’état. After Samuel anointed Saul king over Israel, he said,
1 Samuel 10:5-7 “…you will go to Gibeah of God, where
there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, tambourines, flutes and harps being played before them, and they will be
prophesying. The Spirit of the LORD will come upon
you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you
will be changed into a different person. Once these
signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.”
Saul was anointed with oil and with the Holy Spirit, and by the standards of the later monarchs, Saul was a good king. However, God took the monarchy away from him and gave it to David, and
55
for just one reason – Saul led worship to please the people on two occasions. In the first (1 Samuel 13:8-14) he was not prepared to wait for Samuel to come to make the planned sacrifice because his men were scattering, so he offered up the burnt offering himself. When Samuel arrived shortly afterwards, he informed Saul of God’s judgement on him – that he would be replaced as king. Saul’s error was to use an act of worship for his own purpose; in this case, to hold the army together. Until we get an appreciation of the seriousness of this sin, we will never enter God’s best for us. The second time is in 1 Samuel 15. God sent Samuel to instruct Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites and all their livestock. In this Saul, was completely successful, except that he and the army spared the king and the best of the cattle and sheep. Saul gave into his men and allowed them to keep these animals to sacrifice to the Lord. Samuel relayed God’s disappointment with the king he had chosen:
1 Samuel 15:22-23 Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight
in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.”
Saul confessed exactly what had happened:
1 Samuel 15:24 Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned. I
