We Will Serve the Lord

 

Joshua 24:14-15

“Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” 

I kept hearing this verse over and over in my spirit. Most church goers know this prominent verse from the Bible. They quote it in conversation, Hobby Lobby has the stickers to place on your walls at home, and it’s plastered for everyone to see, which is beautiful. However, I do believe the first part of this paragraph as a whole, gets left out quite a bit. 

Joshua states, “fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord” (Josh 24:14). There were prerequisites to serving the Lord. There’s the fear of the Lord and the putting away of other gods to serve the Lord in sincerity and truth. There can be no other idol of the heart, mind, soul that takes the place of Jesus in our lives. There can only be one true God, and that does not look like the perversion of this world. Trust me, you can see the beauty in certain aspects, but you can also see what has been occupied by the wrong tenants. 

There honestly has to be a true, real fear of God and relationship with Him that will not be severed. Our biggest call should be to serve. We should take after the biggest example, and that is Jesus Christ Himself. He is still serving to this day, interceding on our behalf. What does it look like to serve? 

To serve means humility; a lack of self-want or gain. To serve means not coming with your own agenda, but submitting to the Lord’s. There has to be a selfless want and need to further advance the Kingdom of God in true humility and intercession. What does it look like to intercede?

This looks like growing in love and compassion for your brother and sister in Christ. To intercede requires the heart and mind of God, so when you see someone you see their spirit and how God wants to deal with it verses your flesh. You see from the heart and mind and perception of God. He is literally using your eye-gate because you have been so tapped into the spirit. To intercede means to lay down your own will for the will of others, and in turn, God will take care of you and your needs. Intercession means to war in one hand, build with another, all-the-while watching on your post. In-turn, God will assign you specifics in your area or metron. You can serve through intercession, but you don’t want to take on a burden God did not call you to; know your lane and God’s divine assignment. 

Be a servant of the Lord. When you’re a true servant of the Lord, serving others comes easy regardless of how you are being treated. This does not mean to lay down, be used and abused, and give your pearls to pigs. There are relationship boundaries, there are limits, and we weren’t built and made to carry the world and everyone else’s problems; only Jesus can, and did, do that. 

John 5:19

“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.’”

***We will serve the Lord. We will worship you Father with our everything and with our lives. We will continue to honor you and adore you. We thank you because you are the tunnel of wisdom, strength, knowledge, and might. We honor you because you are our Father. We can look to you and see what a true, real Father is supposed to be. We love you because you first loved us, and for that, we will be lifetime servers. We will be servers of one another and of you. Lord, let not us lose this humility. Father, we thank you that you are even exposing to us any area of pride. Father, we shut down and cast out this spirit of pride that has run rampant for so long. We call it out and command fire to burn it to no more. Lord, we ask that you even expose any area of healing in our hearts that needs to occur in order to forgive others. We don’t want to be resentful servants. Lord, forgive us for serving with a hurt heart or out of an orphan spirit. Heal your children Lord, and let us all be healed servants, ready to “go-to-bat” in intercession for you and your people. We love you and we will continue to honor you, Father. Lord, continue to even show us what true honor looks like, and let not pride interfere or get in the way if it’s through the example of someone we may not like or care too much for. We honor you, and so let us honor your servants. In Jesus’ Name, we pray—Amen. ***