Not Without, I

1 Chr.21:²⁴ (NIV) “But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

For there to be true worship, there must be Sacrifice. There can be no true worship without sacrifice. John 4:¹⁶ “Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.” For that woman, what she needed to sacrifice was her ‘husband’. 2 Chr.1:⁶ “There in front of the Tabernacle, Solomon went up to the bronze altar in the Lord’s presence and sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings on it.” When you add up all the animals Solomon sacrificed, it numbered one hundred and forty-four thousand. Jesus says, for the Father seeketh such. What happened next? 2 Chr.1:⁷ “That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!” I pray that God will appear to you.

The picture I get when I read 2 Chr.1:7 is like God could not help Himself. So, He said to Solomon, this boy, tell me what you want. At that same time, I can assure you that there were people having vigils seeking God. But God was not paying attention to them, God was seeking Solomon. If Mr. A is looking for God and God is looking for Mr. B, who do you think will encounter God first? Even if Mr. A employs all the contractor prophets on all the mountains to seek God out for him, it still will not make a difference. So where do you want to be?

The place of true worship is where God Himself will seek you out and find you. In my little study of scriptures, I have discovered that God looks for three categories of people.

1. God looks for Loyal People. Loyalty is huge with God. 2 Chr.16:⁹ (GNT) “The Lord keeps close watch over the whole world, to give strength to those whose hearts are loyal to him…” Disloyal people miss God.
2. God looks for Intercessors: Ezekiel 22:³⁰ “I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap….” God is always looking for people that are praying for God’s will to come to pass on earth.
3. God looks for Worshippers: God is actively looking for worshippers. John 4:²³ (KJV) “…true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” God is looking for people who will disregard their titles and their qualifications – people that will acknowledge that they are nothing without Him.

These three categories of people all have one thing in common and that is sacrifice.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, please help me have a loyal heart, help me give myself to praying for God’s will to be done and help me to be truly sacrificial, in Jesus Name. Amen!