Devo 67: Missions & Prayer: The Love of God & the Fear of the Lord

Devo 67: Missions & Prayer: The Love of God & the Fear of the Lord
October 12, 2010

“'From the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My Name shall be Great among the Gentiles; In every place, incense shall be offered to my name, and a pure offering; For My name shall be great among the nations,' says the Lord of Hosts." Malachi 1:11

Have you ever had a moment where you had a sudden perspective change concerning something you have been passionate about for a long time? This happened to me recently. It wasn’t necessarily that my perspective changed completely, but it was like my eyes were lifted higher and I saw something from a different point of view.

The Lord has been stirring my heart tremendously concerning the uniting of Missions and Prayer. I have been burning every day for the lost and for a Spirit of travailing intercession that births souls (see Rom. 8:26).

I have been passionate about missions and evangelism my whole life, and I have also been a person of prayer. When I was in college, I was in the Missions department trumpeting prayer; Now at the House of Prayer, I have been trumpeting missions. I have always been like, “God, what am I doing here? I’m an evangelist, how long am I going to sit in this chair? Why can I never fit in with the rest of everyone else?”

Well, recently I had the opportunity to be a part of an evangelistic campaign in the area, and I was doing the work of missions and evangelism over 40 hours a week for over a month and a half—on top of my normal prayer room and house of prayer staff responsibilities. As I worked with them, I loved it and wanted to just jump full-swing into a mission organization. However, the Lord made it clear that He wants me to continue being a part of the House of Prayer for right now. He said that He needs “missions people” in the prayer movement and “prayer people” in the missions movement—because He wants the two to be completely married and no longer separated. He needs people with the DNA of both to be in both movements.

As for the perspective change, I cry over lost souls all the time—lately nearly every day. I go through seasons where the burden is more strong or less strong, but I am always asking for the salvation of the lost.

Thursday, however, the Lord drastically changed my perspective to the fact that it is not just lost souls I am crying out for but it is the fact that Jesus is worthy of all worship, honor, power, and praise from every nation, language, tribe, and tongue. I can’t just cry over the fact that people are dying and going to hell, but also over the fact that Jesus is worthy of worship from people who are rejecting Him. He is worthy of songs and prayers of thanksgiving and lives of worship from literally every person on the planet.

Only the combination of the Love of God AND the Fear of the Lord can bring about this perspective. Sometimes we get so caught up on mercy and compassion that we completely forget about justice and we make God out to be the “bad guy” who is trying to kill all the people in the world while the people are looking at a beautiful, wonderful, loving, Holy God who they are turning their eyes away from and denying.

Jesus is not willing that any would perish but that all would have eternal life. However, we must also understand that Jesus is worthy of worship. He is worthy of the praise from every person and winning souls and praying for the lost should always be God-focused and not man-focused. Only God can truly give us a heart for the lost. His heart is way more broken over the sin and depravity of man than ours will ever be.

The passage in Malachi is a wonderful piece of writing that brings the Fear of the Lord and Love for the Son together to bring the reality that every nation should worship the Son of their own free will because He is worthy, but nevertheless, they will worship Him. One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. However, now people have a choice. When that time comes, they won’t.

The book of Malachi was not written to the lost, however, but it was written to the priests and the people of Israel who had lost reverence and honor for God and His law. They had put God on the backburner and had lost the Fear of the Lord. God said that regardless of how they responded His Name would be great among the nations and incense would arise from every place.

Malachi addressed the injustice primarily regarding the institution of marriage, which God loves, and he addressed adultery and divorce which God hates. Malachi used the terms God loves marriage and hates divorce in chapter 3.

He also addressed the lying and man-pleasing lips of the priest who God would come to purge and that the priests were to teach the law and not change it to please the ears of the hearers.
Malachi ends with a promise that God would send Elijah who would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He also says that if those hearts are not turned, He would smite the land with a curse.

In all, Malachi is about repentance and the Fear of the Lord. The Lord is Holy and to be revered and His plan will come to pass. He gives man freewill, but He is also sovereign, and those who deny Him will perish, and those who turn to Him will be as happy as a fatted stall-fed cow turned out to pasture in the springtime (to use Malachi’s expression in ch. 4). Also, he says that to those who Fear the Lord, “The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings…”

These passages were written to the priests whose job it was to stand before God and worship Him and they were to be the messengers who taught all others to worship Him. His name shall be great among the nations and He is worthy to be worshipped.

So now, I look at the uniting of missions and prayer not just with the Love and Compassion of God for the lost, but also with the Fear of the Lord and reverence that His name should get all the worship He deserves. He is worthy of worship and praise from every nation, tribe, and tongue and He desires a Holy priesthood throughout the earth who chooses His name because He is worthy.

©Copyright Amanda Rich 2010