The Measure Of His Presence

I've been trained by the church to think that "measurable response" means "right."  That how many people show up, or how many people positively respond, directly relates to where God is working and is present.  Our concept of how to "do" church is very much anchored in our results-driven culture.  We want measurable results and we covet encouraging responses.  But when we look at the example of Christ, we see something quite different.  We see God quietly and consistently working behind the scenes, for the most part, imperceptible to the masses. 

He announced His birth to a small group of lowly shepherds-- a group of simple, working men who were so insignificant, that Scripture doesn't even bother to give us their names.  Then, He spent the next 30 years on earth......doing what?  Well, the Bible really doesn't say.  The only thing we know about those 30 years is that Jesus schooled some priests in the temple when He was twelve and that He "continued to grow," and became strong in spirit and increased in wisdom, and the grace and favor of God was upon Him (Luke 2:40).  God Himself walked around on earth for 30 years, and most people were none the wiser.  I find myself wondering how many people stood right next to God during His time here on earth and didn't even know it?  If you had asked any religious leader during the time of Christ where God was, they would have said He was with them in the temple.  But the truth was, God was out among His people.  He was doing all the things that the religious leaders weren't willing to do, because it brought them no recognition.

When Jesus finally began His public ministry, we see Him consistently doing things and working in ways that have very little "measurable results."  We see candid conversations, we see secluded teaching areas, we see menial and obscure.  We see a man who only wanted to be where God was, Who only wanted to go where God said go and interact with who God said to interact with, and for the most part, God led Him to situations and people that would be lost to history if they had not been recorded in the Gospels.

Jesus said, "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" (John 5:19).  Jesus compared the work and presence of God to leaven that remains hidden in the flour as it works imperceptibly (Matt 13:33).  Jesus often received little, if any, encouraging response.  He said what the Father told Him to say, and then quite often He simply moved on.  Like a sower casting seeds of truth that would sit and incubate in the soil until it was time for growth.  I often think, if Jesus and the prophets had based their obedience on people's reception and their encouraging response, they would have quit before they even began.

We have to be willing to do God's work, God's way.  Which means we have to be willing to wash feet in obscurity, doing what the world deems as menial tasks.  That is how God determines the purity of a person's heart and motives.  That is one of the things Jesus meant when He said the greatest among you shall be your servant.  Because the person who perseveres in dutiful obedience to God even when nobody is looking and nobody is encouraging them, evidences the purest motives and purest heart (Matt 6:1-6, 16-18).  Those who are willing to do whatever God asks them to do, regardless of the seeming impact or productivity level....or encouraging response.  We cannot draw our encouragement from people's response.  That is the way of the world.  First and foremost your relationship is with God and His response is the only one we should seek.  We must draw our encouragement from whether we are being obedient to God or not.  The greatest work of God is through incremental impact and He accomplishes that type of impact when we are obedient to the simple, seemingly insignificant things He asks us to do (Matt 25:35-38).  That is what true ministry looks like.

When we look at Jesus' first coming, we see that only a scant fraction of His time was spent teaching in the synagogue.  Jesus didn't hang out with the religious leaders.  Jesus ministered to the people who were looking for something they weren't getting from the religious leaders.  Jesus sought out the wandering sheep who weren't "worthy" of interest by the religious leaders.  We must direct our prayers in such a way so that we ask God to put us wherever He is truly working....and we must be truly willing to go there. We must pray for God to put us in whatever secret place He is building a relationship with someone.  Whatever wandering, hungry sheep that can be scavenged from the ruins of the religious landscape.  We must pray like this because we should resolve in our heart that we don't want to be involved in anything God's not in.  We should come to God and say, "I don't want to be a part of any 'measurable response' that is void of any measure of Your presence."

"When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, 'Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.' And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, 'He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.' Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, 'Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.' And Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.'" (Luke 19:5-10)

"And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, 'When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.'" (Luke 14:12-14)

"My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth and there was no one to search or seek for them." Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:  "As I live," declares the Lord God, "surely because My flock has become a prey, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock...I am against the shepherds, and I will demand My sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep. So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore but I will deliver My flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them....I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest," declares the Lord God. "I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick." (Ezek 34:6-16).