In the past year God has really been giving me such a paradigm shift that I just have to share. Especially during my DTS last April in Kona, God has shown me that He is so much more concerned about us being in love with Him and making Him a priority than He is about me doing good spiritual things.
He has been teaching me that really the first commandment is first for many reasons. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, and we're so consumed with loving Him, we will do anything with joy! We won't do good things for the praise and attention of man, to show off to everyone around us, we won't do good things because we're getting guilt tripped by other people. We will obey God and do what He wants simply because we love to make God happy! We love to please God and bring Him glory!
When we make our priority to be in love with God, everything that Jesus modeled for us to do simply flows out of our love for God. He said in John 14 that if will love Him we will obey His commands. He said in John 15 that if we abide in Him and His love we will bear much fruit, and that will give the Father much glory! This is good news, that the key to being an effective witness to the world and giving God glory is to be in love with Him!
Back in the garden, it all started with love and relationship. God created man on the 6th day, and then on the 7th day He rested, just to be with man. He said about all the other creation it is good, but about man He said they are very good, even before Adam started working. And later, when Jesus is coming out of Jordan river, having been baptized by John, the Holy Spirit comes and the Father says, so everyone can hear, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”(Matthew 3:17). Even before Jesus did any ministry, the Father was already pleased with Him! He made the Father happy just because of who He was and because of who God is!
Because we're united with Jesus through his death and resurrection, and we've been given His righteousness, we look like Jesus! Of course, we are only realizing that more and more everyday! That means that because of what Jesus has done, and simply because we have faith and repentance, the Father is pleased with us, even before we do any ministry! And at the end of this age, Jesus will come back to the planet and He will make His dwelling among us (Revelations 21:3). Its all about relationship!
And another paradigm shift that God has given me is that we're not making more workers who will make more workers, who simply perform, work and do the right things. We're making more people who will be with Jesus, who will love Him first and foremost, and then they will do anything He wants! And so actually my goal as a missionary is to connect people to Jesus, to love Him and adore Him.
So to connect people to Himself, God has really been giving me a heart for the house of prayer. Jesus said "for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” I really believe that God is calling His bride to greater intimacy with Him, I've seen it happening in my life and am hearing about it worldwide. God is birthing a movement of prayer and worship like never before! There are so many more 24/7 prayer ministries on the earth than there has ever been! How this looks practically is a lifestyle of prayer and fasting, bible study, worship and intercession with a community of like minded people, and an overflow of outreach fueled by the power and love of God, where more disciples in turn fall radically in love with God, and the cycle continues forever.
Right now I am a part of a community that really carries those values called Fire and Fragrance. Headed up by Andy Byrd, Fire and Fragrance runs the prayer room on campus, as well as several DTS's over the past years with many more to come.
To give you more vision and insight, here is a video with Andy Byrd himself:
