Praying Rest in days of Racing

Praying Rest in days of RacingBy Lars WiderbergTo begin with:Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and escape.Then they that feared Jehovah spake one with another; and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name.Mal 3:14-16One marvels at the frivolity and recklessness exposed by means of the many questions set forth by created beings, feeble creatures, in the face of the Creator throughout the text of Malachi.What profit… Serving the Lord holds no other profit than being and becoming what you were meant to be. The fear of the Lord and worshiping him in awe and humility will never deliver any benefit outside the very fact that there is life and a testimony about what Life is within the framework of this single activity, and this only.What profit…A godfearing man will end up as a servant. He will for ever stay a servant. He cannot grow beyond this role. There is nothing beyond servanthood but an ever deepening understanding of the necessity to fulfil the intention of creation and an ever growing capacity to live as a true servant. And yet, waiting on the Lord will bring about knowledge of the Holy One, Prov 9:10. What a tremendous, overwhelming profit. A gift, a treasure hidden as a Testimony in hearts who longed for the stillness, who gave themselves to learning the art of waiting.

What profit…The question exposes a casual and careless attitude which by means of a couple of not so clever but indeed fascinating twists turn the Father into another utility god, another fertility god to be manipulated by superstitious methods of faith and thought. The principle of utility is defined as the ability of a commodity to satisfy human wants. Malachi described the state of the people of God B. C. – that is Before the Cross. The majority of his people are still involved in the same race, still forwarding the same questions. What’s in it for me... Modern religion is reduced to a matter of usefulness – 1 Tim 6:5. The Church lives B. C., not willing to let its fleshly demands go in proper crusifiction. Our days are indeed days of racing. These hours, the last hours of this dispensation, are intense rush hours. The call upon the Church is one and undivided; enter into rest, deliver a proper testimony of Life as it was intended to be lived - at rest, in peace, as a sign of an everlasting Sabbath, as a ministry of God’s Shalom, a Ministry of the Interior.

Warfare according to the Sermon of the Mount.Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God. Mt 5:9. One prays according to what one is. A man’s prayer never moves beyond what his heart is like. A man’s words are a manifestation of his heart. The Ministry of the Interior is a life lived within the veil. The Ministry of the Interior is a life lived before the Throne. The Ministry of the Interior brings forth men who are at peace, men of integrity. Peacemakers practice rest and tranquility. Priests do not run. The divine patience steadily growing during the priestly Shabbat of the New Testament may be described as a steadfast spirit which will never give in. It is a spirit who can bear things with a blazing hope, a masculine constancy under trial. The royal priesthood do not avoid pain, cowardly running from the Father’s rod or hiding from the responsibility to carry a neighbour’s burden. Jabes stands out exemplifying that ever growing category of dodgers by his effort to free himself from pain through prayer, but he is right where he is as an example of warning. He lost the ability to engage in conflicts as a radical catalyst, as a radical peacemaker simply because he renounced the capability to carry burdens. He lost his “Oh, that...”, and by that he disappears from the stage. He spent his “Oh” on futility. He lost his “Oh”, his calling to bridge gaps. 1 Chronicles 4.If a peacemaker runs, he does it because he is after something which is there to materialise, but which will not do so until someone dares to spend himself as a living sacrifice. Jabes turned God into a utility god and the Father allowed him to do it for the sake of exposing the folly. Enlargement will come, but only through adversity, an adversity which is out to destroy the innermost testimony concerning life and rest. The Shalom factor is something fundamentally different from the rest of Jabes. The Ministry of the Interior provokes powers to interfere and obstruct. The rest within the veil agonises. Practicing the rest involves a paradox which man cannot handle without faith, a faith which overcomes any obstacle set up to hinder God to become all at all times. The priestly ministry secures rest. The royal priesthood is invited to live within the veil to capture peace, capture the rest and to bring it as a gift to those who have not yet been able to enter the sanctuary. Priests are heralds of the Shalom of the Father, of the Sabbath. Priestly ministry, born at the feet of Jesus, is more than that – it brings peace, conveys peace and establishes peace.

What profit...Profit dictates. Profit produces arrogance. The arrogant are the main perpetrators at rush hours. Independence was born at a tree in the first garden. It brought isolation, insecurity and inferiority. The great I grew bold in its demands and questioning. “And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and escape. Then they that feared Jehovah spake one with another; and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him.”The Ministry of the Interior is the ministry of togetherness. It is the ministry of an open heart.“Jehovah, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, Or in things too wonderful for me. Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child with his mother, Like a weaned child is my soul within me.” Ps 131:1-2. The Ministry of the Interior is a matter of a composed and quieted heart. Hastiness and shallowness do not bring any prayer answers. Trying to take the Kingdom of peace, of Shalom, by force is utter folly, a solid and brutal contradiction to its own goal.My soul waiteth in silence for God only: From him cometh my salvation. My soul, wait thou in silence for God only; For my expectation is from him. Ps 62:1-5.Blessed are those who dare to lay down their weapons of self-defence. The open heart proves in its weakness and vulnerability to be a most elegant and cultivated devise to be used where force and brutality, negligence and insensitivity rules. The open heart which is won during walking, slow walking in the Spirit builds resistance, a spiritual disobedience towards haughtiness and pride. The Ministry of the Interior gathers a testimony of the otherness of the Spirit of Christ, a testimony which speaks in silence, yet firmly, against the blatant testing and tempting of God.

The Ministry of the Interior creates an intimacy, a confidentiality, a companionship which is allowed to be counted as intercession in Heaven. Books are written as a result of the networking. Books are written as those who fear the Lord communicate and share burdens. The mature intercessors are praying for those books to grow in number. The mature intercessors would never trade the pain involved to see the shelves in Heaven to be filled with such books for all the pleasure in the world. Intimacy overrules the principle of utility. Confidentiality opposes arrogance. These virtues are won while resting and waiting. The priest cannot perform without the two. Priesthood develops as intimacy is sought for. Practicing the rest and the confidentiality will create a master testimony of Life in days of racing.The House of the Lord, the House of Prayer – Isa 56 – is a major demonstration of the Sabbath. An interest in the House, in the ministry in His House requires a profound longing for the Sabbath. Also the foreigners that join themselves to Jehovah, to minister unto him, and to love the name of Jehovah, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Isa 56:6-7.

The Sabbath is something more than certain days marked in a diary. It is something in season and out of season. It does not require specific settings and timing. It is a state of mind, of attitude. It is the Ministry of the Interior. It is the Spirit of Christ poured into fragile vessels for the sake of a testimony, for the sake of the reality of redemption. Our days need more than anything a recovering of the rest, the Shalom state, a recovering of the testimony. Our days, which are days of intense racing, need a testimony through a priesthood, whose constitution is founded upon the ability to make peace, the ability to bring rest and tranquillity.The fruit of the Ministry of the Interior is never to be enjoyed in solitude or splendid isolation. Its existence is motivated by the need of a display of godliness in a godless society as a provocation towards repentance and return to the original purpose of creation. 1 Tim 2:1-4.

The Ministry of the Interior opens up the fundamental question of Christ-likeness versus that which pretends to belong to Christ, but does not. The Ministry of the Interior opens up the fundamental question of Christ-likeness versus that which cannot belong to Christ. Books need to be written, based on the reactions of the saints concerning this issue. Books need to be written, founded on the will to carry the burden of those in trouble and pain in this late hour. Books need to be written and to be presented before the Lord for the sake of solid Heavenly response and reaction in this intense hour of arrogance and racing for things which never will pass as a blessing.Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who dare to enter into the Ministry of the Interior, they will be able to bring a testimony of Life and Peace.END