A young lady made a post sometime ago on how she had been in prayers seeking for God for about six months if I could recall exactly. When I saw the genuine concern in her writing I sent her a friend request and then messaged her. I had just one job to do, which is to make her understand that there is a way to serve and find the face of God. Such that when we seek Him, we shall find Him; and we shall be certain that we truly belong to Him.
In my years of service to God, I don’t think anyone should seek God for many months without any response unless the seeker is unaligned. No one who seeks God unaligned will find Him. Alignment means we are serving God the way we ought to serve Him. That we are aligned to the plumbline of God and is worshipping God how He desires to be worshipped. Not how we want to do it!
One could have being a Church goer for many years and could have become a deacon, deaconess, priest, church leader, chorister, department leader, but is unaligned. One could stay for many years as a church goer but would never know what it means to hear God speak. Many of them will continue to be defeated by sin and darkness because they do not know, neither do they have the Light from God. They also can never come into true spiritual growth neither will they know the power of God made available to a Christian living for God in truth.
We must not be deceived, the five (5) Foolish virgins of the parable of the Ten (10) Virgins were equally members of the Church. They continued with the Church until the end and they were left behind. This is how many Church people who play religion and serve God in their own way, ignoring the chosen ways of God will not share in the eternal glory, but shall be perish in everlasting burnings. Him who has promised eternal life has chosen a sure way and it was written: “The standard of God remains sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his…” 2Timothy 2:19
A preacher was demanded by God to preach to a Church old timer. The Spirit had told the preacher that the Church goer was not saved. This preacher was hesitant to a preach salvation to this church old timer because he couldn’t imagine that the well known Church goer had no relationship with God. He thought about how the Church goer would take it, and so he left without attending to the demand of the soul searching Spirit.
The preacher was at his home the next morning when he was told that the man God had demanded him to preach to was dead; He cried.
The preacher was looking at the fact that this other man was an established church goer, but God was seeing an unaligned man whose worship was yet to be accepted in heaven. He knew not God all the years of his plight in the Christian Church. He probably had his religious ways, but God had a way He chose and so he wasn’t saved. He must have thought he was serving God, but the service of God was far from Him.
This is how many Church goers are still unknown in heaven despite all their religiousities; because there is a way God has chosen to be worshipped and served. And until we truly serve, we shall also be likened to this established church goer who died without salvation experience.
There is a way to serve God so that your worship will be accepted, and your voice heard in heaven when you call. And it is not by rigorous praying or fastings. Praise and dance with emotional tears cannot substitute it. The longeitivity of years as a believer means nothing here. Our theology and pulpit expertise means nothing here. Our popularity in the church means nothing. Our positions, titles and religious regalia means absolutely nothing. Our giving means nothing until we begin to serve in the way God has chosen to be served.
How to serve and find God
“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in Faithfulness, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15
Time came for Joshua to bow to the ways of his fathers. He then gathered God’s people together and began to reminisce on the journey which began from Egypt. As he was concluding his final speech, he enquired of the people of Israel if they were willing to serve God. The people of God replied and said: “Yes! We will serve our God”.
But to Joshua, he knew that it wasn’t just about saying it. He knew that there was a way God accepts and that not all forms of worship and service are able to please God. Then in Chapter 24:14 Joshua like Moses (The man of God) began to state how Israel must serve God if they wanted to be accepted by God. For He said: “Now therefore Fear the Lord…”
Fear the Lord
The fear of the Lord is the first thing that God requires from all who claim to serve God. It is number one in the ‘how to serve God.’ And until we can show that we fear God we cannot be established as people who serve God in heaven.
Abraham the Father of Faith, when he obeyed God to sacrifice his only son according to Genesis 22:12, it was written that God had said to Abraham “Now I know that you fear me“. Thus, God tried Abraham to know if he had the fear of God. He passed and this made God to establish his journey with God. The Faith of Abraham did not go without the Fear of God.
Job 1:18 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
Again, here is a man who served God- Job. God had noted to Satan that Job was a servant of His; this is to say that Job was actively serving God, not as a Prophet but as a follower of the ways of God. Job was blameless and upright. Then God recounted that he was a man who had the FEAR OF GOD in him.
What then does it mean to fear God?
“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.”- Proverbs 16:6
According to the scripture above, we can conclude that the fear of God is to depart from iniquity. The fear of God is for men to run from what offends the Spirit of God. It is for men to say: “No! How can I commit this wickedness against God?” Until then we are yet in the true service and worship of God.
Joseph could have had fun with Potiphar’s wife and nobody would have known. But when his fear for God was tested he said: “How can I do this great wickedness against God?” This is what it means to fear God. When we shun sin and evil in obedience to God no matter the cost, whether we lose or gain, whether we die or live, whether we are loved or despised, no matter the situation, no matter the condition and no matter the place. This is the demand of God; It is how He desires to be worshipped and served. For He said;
A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? Malachi 1:6
Today’s Church is full of many who claim to serve God but very few men who have the fear of God in them. And for this reason, the Spirit is far from many, for God having called himself a Holy God has rejected the worship of many and the scripture having also said, “Them that despise my command, I will likely esteem.”
So we pray, but God does not answer. We fast, but it looks like God has deaf ears. We cry and he doesn’t respond. We suffer and he is silent. Our voices are unheard in Heaven because God has seen our hearts that we have no fear for Him.
For freely we tell lies to meet ends ignoring that the Bible says: “The Lord hates a lying tongue.”- Proverbs 6:16. Without fear we slander and curse. We fight and do wickedness to one another. We beat and mistreat our wives and husbands. Even the children of other people, we treat with contempt. A time when Church people engage in deceit and fraud; When we fornicate and commit adultery; When Pastors steal church fund’s and engage in politics. When we are full of divorce of which the Lord has said: “I hate divorce!” A time when there are thieves amongst us, and those who mistreat widows and take from the fatherless.
A time when our church people are willing to do anything to make money and gain employment. Ladies sleep with their bosses, men sleep with job seekers. A generation of bribe seeking Church goers. I worked with a man who tried to encourage me to steal from my boss. He was a prominent member of the Church. You can hardly find a faithful stewardship these days even in the Church, both clergy and laity. The sin and wickedness we do are not hidden from the eyes of God.
I was in a bible school where pastors cheat and steal in exams. Some would even write exams for others. These are men who lack the fear of God. They don’t care about how God looks at them, but you’ll see them praying for anointing and power. Of course nothing will be given them. Just like Saul they have shown untrustworthiness in little matters, who shall then give them true riches? For this many cannot be established as Men of God, and some have lost the oil of ministry.
We have shown nothing but contempt to the righteous judgements of God and we have despised His law. Is it not written;
“Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? “He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” Psalm 24:3
If only the pure can stand in the Holy place of God, what do we think, that we will despise God and he will receive our service and be pleased with us? That we will do wickedness and he will smile on our prayers?
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect towards Him.”- 2 Chronicles 16:9
Again it is written:
“With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.” 2Samuel 22:26-27
Are there not deacons and deaconesses who steal Church money? Pastors who misuse Church funds. When Christian politicians steal public funds and Christian lawyers tell lies. When we cheat and do not pay back what we borrow. “The wicked borrow and do not pay back.” Psalms 37:21
Show me a Christian who fears God and I’ll show you a man who serves God in truth. Do we not know that David whom God attested to be a man after God’s own heart had one secret- He feared God! For He said, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed.”
Again, after David was fully established, he said of his journey with God: “He delivered me because He delighted in me. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, And have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me; And as for His statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also blameless before Him, And I kept myself from iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me for my righteousness.” 2 Samuel 22. There is no doubt David had the fear of God.
The fear of God, to run away from evil, is one of the ways to serve God. That is how to endear your worship to God and cause your voice to be heard in heaven when you call, even in the days of trouble.
We can never be established as true Christians and we shall never find God in our days in the church until we serve God in fear and tremble. His voice we will hardly hear, spiritual gifts we will hardly receive, the manifestations and power of God we will hardly know, until we have been proven to have the fear of God in us.
This is why I and many others have been able to find the God of the Church, talked with God, and have experienced the power of old and of the kingdom to come; having seen angels and Jesus Christ. I had and still have the fear of God in me. It is not about being afraid to talk about things of God or having fear of pastors, but it is about departing from iniquity and evil. Also knowing that if anyone does not serve God in fear, he will not find God all his days on Earth, and he shall not be with God in eternity to come. For while he was on Earth he had no relationship with God.
Proverbs 10:27 The fear of the LORD prolongs days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.
Proverbs 19:23 The fear of the LORD tends to life: and he that has it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.
Psalm 33:18-19 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on them that fear him, on them that hope in his mercy; To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
Revelations 14:6-7: Then I saw another angel flying overhead, with the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. And he said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the One who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
Fear God!