I met a man that was speaking at a conference, he was, is, well known in the "Spirit filled" church circles.
I had wanted to go to the conference because it was about love and the power of love. Instead Father God had different plans.
I was working as a waitress and bartender at a family restaurant in town. While working, I prayed for those at the conference and that the Holy Spirit flood the small town, small city now, that I lived in.
Lunch time came and if you have worked restaurants, you know the lunch and dinner rush hour timings. I saw many coming in the door and i realized they were pribly coming from the conference right down the street.
Busy with my section, I saw one speaker from the conference confirming. "Yep..they were on lunch break." My pappa Sharp taught me as a child, "Nay, whether you meet a preacher, a pauper a king or any in-between, you hold your head up and show them the respect you would like in return. They put their pants on just like you." So meeting famous people in the world's eyes has never been a thing with me. Father, instead of glorifying them, put compassion in my heart for them. I figure they have a super hard row to hoe and genuineness and honesty, people that will love them not for what they have done but for who they truly are in heart is maybe scarce in their life. Instead of buttkissers, truth speakers and honesty of Agape love is needed. Aren't those needed for all no matter the President a king, a janitor a parent a child?
So I walk to one of my tables and feel the presence of Father God there sp powerfully. 3 men were seated at a table in my section nearest the kitchen. I had the party section so had to be hoppin. One of the men spoke directly to my heart..it was as if right away he saw me and Father had something to speak that pierced thru the business of the restaurant and loudness all around, directly to my heart and soul, my very being. As the man spoke, I began to tear up not knowing how to reply. I went silent and softly pushed out "thank you. Yes I do know Him." I quickly went into the kitchen into a secret spot and wept. Pulling it together lightening fast as only Christ could do, I got their drink orders and the big party I was serving in back as well. The 3 men and I were instantly family in Christ. It was evident. I lingered each time at I went to serve them at their table as we spoke about Christ and where they were from. 2 men Isaac and Tiago were from South Africa and the other man from America. They were in town for the "conference". I'm thinking we were having a Jesus Christ conference right then and there!
I was taking care of the party and this table and another with ease as Father was flowing and had prepared me for that very moment in time, knowing I needed to hear all shared.
The man that spoke to my heart was one that was the "main speaker" of the conference. We enjoyed sharing and just being in that secret place, in that set apart pocket of Father God even in the midst of the whirl of the world all around us at that restaurant. We were together in Christ.
In the conversation the man that was speaker at the conference shared his heart. He had been saddened by the way things and churches and people had become. How churches usually struggling to be half full, when this man was came to visit and his name on a flier or announced on the radio..people would flock from all over and fill the church overflowing. It hurt his heart because they were coming to see a man. His heart hurt because they were not coming to see Christ or to learn more of Christ and experience Christ, they were coming because of a mere man and his name known.
That made my heart swell and tears began to pour out. I understood his heart. I shared in reply, that maybe he could speak that to the people telling them that. And maybe they would begin to experience Christ thru him..realizing it was Christ IN him..not the mere man himself doing those things so powerfully as healing and deliverance and sharing powerfully filled words Holy Spirit provided.
This was over 10 years ago and it has been brought to remembrance again today. My heart still is pained to see that little has changed. If not it has become worse with people looking to man instead of Christ. I do have to speak that I believe that there is a shift and change happening tho. As the times have been more pressing and difficult, Father God is removing idols and all that would hinder us from running well the race before us that Christ be glorified. People are being brought to their knees realizing it is only thru Christ we can be saved. Only the Living God can make a way thru this wilderness, we as a Nation, we even as humanity, are in . It truly is an Exodus from the old ways, the ways of the world that Satan manipulates out of slavery into the freedom and liberty in Christ..the promised land being Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven being brought to earth thru Him in us.
Do you see??
It is not about our name being known, but the name that every knee shall bow to and every tongue confess. That name above all names Jesus Christ of Nazereth, Yehushua, the Son of the Living God. We are here to glorify HIM, not ourselves. My brain thinks about the man that touched the arc of the Covenant to try to keep it from falling and he instantly died because he touched the glory of GOD that radiated and was somehow of the arc of the Covenant.
We cannot touch the glory to take it for ourselves..it is then we are destroyed. We are not here to glorify ourselves but Christ in us the hope of glory.
When Father God gives a platform for people to share Christ and help others learn truth and grow from, it is that Christ be known thru that person and Father God glorified.
We are not our own.
Christ stood and walked among the people. He did not speak down from a "pulpit" or stage..He simply walked among the people speaking and healing and glorifying His Father in Heaven. Who are we to lift ourselves or any other up above Christ?
Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."