Archive: God Beckons ‘Come Near to Minister to Me’

If the Lord is to be lord worship must have priority in our lives. The first commandment of Jesus is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). The divine priority is worship first, service second. Our lives are to be punctuated with praise, thanksgiving and adoration. Service flows out of worship. Service as a substitute for worship is idolatry. Activity may become the enemy of adoration.

God declared that the primary function of the Levitical priests was to “come near to Me to minister to Me” (Ezek.44:15). For the Old Testament priesthood, ministry to Him was to precede all other work. And that is no less true of the universal priesthood of the New Testament. One grave temptation we all face is to run around answering calls to service without ministering to the Lord Himself.

A striking feature of worship in the Bible is that people gathered in what we could call only a “holy expectancy.” They believed they would actually hear the Kol Yahweh, the voice of God. When Moses went into the tabernacle he knew he was entering the presence of God. The same was true of the early church. It was not surprising to them that the building in which they met shook with the power of God. It had happened before (Acts 2:2; 4:31). When some dropped dead and others were raised from the dead by the word of the Lord the people knew that God was in their midst (Acts 5:1-11; 9:36-43; 20:7-10). As those early believers gathered, they were keenly aware that the veil had been ripped in two and, like Moses and Aaron, they were entering the Holy of Holies. No intermediaries were needed. They were coming into the awful, glorious, gracious presence of the living God They gathered with anticipation knowing that Christ was present among them and would teach them and touch them with His living power.

How do we cultivate this holy expectancy? It begins in us as we enter the Shechinah of the heart. While living out the demands of our days we are filled with inward worship and adoration. We work and play and eat and sleep, yet we are listening, ever listening, to our Teacher. The writings of Frank Laubach are filled with this sense of living under the shadow of the Almighty. “Of all today’s miracles the greatest is this: to know that I find Thee best when I work listening. … Thank Thee, too, that the habit of constant conversation grows easier each day. I really do believe all thought can be conversations with Thee.”[1]

Brother Lawrence knew the same reality. Because he experienced the presence of God in the kitchen, he knew he would meet God in the Mass as well. He wrote, “I cannot imagine how religious persons can live satisfied without the practice of the Presence of God.” Those who have once tasted the Shechinah of God in daily experience can never again live satisfied without “practicing the Presence of God.”[2]

Catching the vision from Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach, I recently dedicated one year to learning how to live with a perpetual openness to Jesus as my present Teacher. I sought to allow Him to move through every action—these fingers as I wrote, this voice as I spoke. My desire was to punctuate each minute with inward whisperings of adoration, praise and thanksgiving. Often I failed for hours, even days, at a time. But each time I came back and tried again.

That year did many things for me, but the one I shall mention here is that it greatly heightened my sense of expectancy in public worship. After all, He had graciously spoken to me in dozens of little ways throughout the week; He will certainly speak to me here as well. In addition, I found it increasingly easier to distinguish His voice from the blare and circumstances of life.

When more than one or two come into public worship with a holy expectancy it can change the atmosphere of a room. People who enter harried and distracted are drawn quickly into a sense of the silent presence. Hearts and minds are lifted upward. The air becomes charged with expectancy.

Here is a practical handle to put on this idea: Live throughout the week as an heir of the kingdom, listening for His voice, obeying His word. Since you have heard His voice throughout the week you know that you will hear His voice as you gather for public worship. Enter the service 10 minutes early. Lift your heart in adoration to the King of Glory. Contemplate His majesty, glory and tenderness as revealed in Jesus Christ. Picture the marvelous vision that Isaiah had of the Lord “high and lifted up” or the magnificent revelation that John had of Christ with eyes “like a flame of fire” and a voice “like the sound of many waters” (Isa 6; Rev.1). Invite the Real Presence to be manifest; fill the room with Light.

Next, lift into the light of Christ the pastor and persons with particular responsibilities. Imagine the Shechinah of God’s radiance surrounding him or her. Inwardly release them to speak the truth boldly in the power of the Lord.

By now people are beginning to enter. Glance around until your eyes catch those who need your intercessory work. Lift them into His presence. Imagine the burden tumbling from their shoulders as it did from Pilgrim’s in Bunyan’s allegory. Hold them as a special intention throughout the service. If only a few in each congregation would do this, it would deepen the worship experience of all.

This article is excerpted from Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, copyright 1978, Harper & Row, San Francisco, California. Used by permission.

[1] Frank C. Laubach, Learning the Vocabulary of God (Nashville: The Upper Room Publishing Co., 1956), pp. 22-23.

[2] Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God (Nashville: The Upper Room Publishing Co., 1950), p. 32.