Giving or Taking At The Altar

I heard the Lord say, "many come from afar to the altar of God, even to the City of the Great King to take, and not to offer."

He was talking to me about why we are here in Jerusalem, but also the Church in general. God is generous. He gives all we need already. Even to the hardened heart that says God doesn't exist, God provides breath and life and provision. God gives.

When we come to the altar of God to take more, we don't recognize the violation of both love and authority. God is looking for relationship... To be mutually yoked... To mankind, He as Father and us a children. When we come to God, we should be asking God what He wants. What is it that God made us for? What unique thing can we bring to Him?

Samantha and I have been in Jerusalem and Israel for about three weeks at this point. When we first came to Jerusalem in December of last year for a weeks long vacation, God spoke to me the first morning and said, "don't walk through this city looking for what is available to you, look for what I want here." I took that to heart.

Since we have been here, I've seen all kinds of worship, sightseeing, touring, shopping, enjoying... I've, quite honestly, seen very little offering to God. I've seen lots of worship (mostly Christian, but this includes every religion here) that leads the participants to take... Vision, power, anointing, land, victory over enemies... From this place to the ends of the earth.

I've seen some pouring out at the feet of Jesus, for sure, but mostly this idea of being in the center of the Holy city to take...taking this opportunity, or this near connection to God to do something for "us" or "them."

You won't find this sentiment in the Bible.

What we find in the testimony of God's heart in the Bible is God's will for His altar, for His city, for His kingdom, is to bring ourselves to Him as an offering. Seeking first the Kingdom and not our self is literally where we find what we need (Matthew 6)... Not to take what we need, but to obtain gratitude to see that God freely gives whatever we need to live in communion with Him.

This passage below, from Isaiah 60, has been burning in my heart for the last three weeks. None of it is about taking. All of it is about offering ourselves to God. This is where joy in our lives with God is found:

Isaiah 60:1-13 NKJV — Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the LORD will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising. “Lift up your eyes all around, and see:
They all gather together, they come to you;
Your sons shall come from afar,
And your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant,
And your heart shall swell with joy;
Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. The multitude of camels shall cover your land,
The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah;
All those from Sheba shall come;
They shall bring gold and incense,
And they shall proclaim the praises of the LORD. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you,
The rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you;
They shall ascend with acceptance on My altar,
And I will glorify the house of My glory. “Who are these who fly like a cloud,
And like doves to their roosts? Surely the coastlands shall wait for Me;
And the ships of Tarshish will come first,
To bring your sons from afar,
Their silver and their gold with them,
To the name of the LORD your God,
And to the Holy One of Israel,
Because He has glorified you. “The sons of foreigners shall build up your walls,
And their kings shall minister to you;
For in My wrath I struck you,
But in My favor I have had mercy on you. Therefore your gates shall be open continually;
They shall not be shut day or night,
That men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles,
And their kings in procession. For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish,
And those nations shall be utterly ruined. “The glory of Lebanon shall come to you,
The cypress, the pine, and the box tree together,
To beautify the place of My sanctuary;
And I will make the place of My feet glorious.

This is the heart posture God is maturing the church to: what can we give to God?

I heard a false prophecy yesterday in a worship meeting that God was "uniting all the streams in the Church right now." That simply isn't true. God is sifting and shaking... Cleansing... The Church right now. God purifies by sanctification. That means He gets unity by division:

Matthew 10:34-39 NKJV “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

Right now, God is purifying a bride for His Son. He is leading people from the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 to overcome into the unity of the Bride. He is also removing lampstands (Ephesus), fighting the church with the sword of His mouth (Pergamos), offering her up to sickness and great tribulation (Thyatira), letting die what is dead (Sardis), and spitting the church out of his mouth for her self-centeredness and self evaluation (Laodicea). Jesus is removing tares from wheat, or taking what offends Him out of His Kingdom (Mat 13), and bundling them both together, one to burn and the other to baptize with love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, and self control.

The difference between the two groups will be the fruit of the Spirit. Tares will come to the altar to take and conquer, and the righteous will come to offer themselves for whatever God wants, even unto death. These two groups will mostly be found in the same meetings! The roots are intertwined.

It is easy to come to God's sanctuary or altar looking for more. It's even easier to spruce up that selfishness with Bible promises to feel righteous in our self focus. That will leave us dry. Fruitless. God really won't connect to that.

You can stir a whole worship meeting into a frenzy with promises of what they are about to get. But, that doesn't make it holy... Just energetic. Antichrist worship offers a spiritual feeling of goodness to accommodate and even justify, selfishness. That leaves people in bondage, not free. They keep circling the same mountain trying to get God to move with shouting, dancing, and cutting.

Elijah was different than the prophets of Baal, though they were all at the same meeting.  Do not be deceived. If you try to save your life, you'll lose it. For sure. Yes, you can stir a crowd into a feeding frenzy with Bible promises. You can also deeply satisfy a group of people by going in first to give yourself to God for whatever He wants. We don't know what God is going to do. We have some faint prophetic promises, some dim interpretation, and whole lot of history of how God judges the proud and upholds the meek.

What we do know is God has given so much. He IS generous. Already. It isn't really about what we "are about to get." It is about being thankful He made us, loves us, and lavishes all we need... Already. That is the light promised to darkness.

God really doesn't need to give one thing more to be worthy of all we are and then some. Today, I want to look at the world around me and ask God to get my mind off of how I can get what I think is good, even in His name, and instead put my mind on how I can give myself away, so He can use me.

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth... Wherever we find the altar of God, we have a choice to give or to take.

1 Samuel 2:12-18 NKJV — Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the LORD. And the priests’ custom with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fleshhook in his hand while the meat was boiling. Then he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; and the priest would take for himself all that the fleshhook brought up. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Also, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who sacrificed, “Give meat for roasting to the priest, for he will not take boiled meat from you, but raw.” And if the man said to him, “They should really burn the fat first; then you may take as much as your heart desires,” he would then answer him, “No, but you must give it now; and if not, I will take it by force.” Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD, for men abhorred the offering of the LORD. But Samuel ministered before the LORD, even as a child, wearing a linen ephod.