Standing Your Post April 6 , 2013

Saturday April 6 Musings
 
As I sat down to write this a song came on my music station that was  called  I Know Where I Belong!!

How appropriate as I address some concerns and issues this Saturday.  How often have some of you questioned why you were given some of the assignments the Lord sent you on?

I was visiting with a dear friend this last week and we talked about "standing our post" and she mentioned how she saw that I had been sent to various congregations and was there to "stand my post."  I was in one congregation three years and it was a congregation that has been around 100 years and that was  raised up in one of the early revivals in our county back in the early 1900s.  It was also a church my dad pastored for a few years as an "interim" while I was in 7-8th grades.  I knew after being in that congregation for awhile I was there to "stand my post."  Otherwise, just to be there!!  I knew that I carried the Presence of the Lord with me or in me when I went there and He had some purpose for being there.  I saw the power of the Holy Spirit move among that people. I saw that group pruned down to a "faithful few" and I saw a pastor who was upset with the pruning and didn't realize the group he had left was the crew that God had chosen to carry out His work.  


Sadly, that work was not done and still is in limbo. And while those of the "force" that held that church in its power have left that congregation, the "force" is still there, binding up the Holy Spirit.  I don't understand the Lord's ways but I did see that as the Holy Spirit moved upon the congregation and the pastor, the pastor had a choice and that pastor chose to whine and complain about the small numbers rather than to welcome the Holy Spirit and yield to what He wanted to do.  A day came when I knew I was to leave....no big deal. Just quietly done. I had played the piano for them for 3 years.

Then the next congregation was one not so removed from the one I had left. The founding father of the last church was involved in building the congregation that was housed in the building on the site of the next church I learned.   Plus, the new one was a congregation I had been in back in 1971 and which we were told to leave.  In 71 when we left God told us that we'd been on that mountain too long!!  And off we went to wait upon the Lord for where he would have us...newbies in the Holy Spirit. We were placed in 1971 in a non charismatic congregation for the next 10 years. Shortly after we left that congregation built on a historic foundation, it split and how thankful I was not to be a part of that. Being a minister's daughter, splits were something I never wanted to have to deal with again!!

So back I was to that congregation full of old people. At 64 I was one of the "young ones" with a pastor in his 70's.  I was there on a one year assignment with very specific instructions. At the end of the first year that assignment was completed.  God had done what He told me He wanted to do and which he had asked me to cooperate with.  Service after service I was there to "release His Spirit" into the services as I knew I carried His presence into the services. And Second, I was to call forth leadership into that congregation. 12 people with strong spiritual backgrounds came into the congregation. A strange and motley crew I have to admit, but God had sent them or maybe brought them. However, leadership didn't recognize them because they were "in the congregation" "in the pew." The power of the Holy Spirit moving across that congregation was so present but since it didn't come from the platform it wasn't acknowledged as having great importance, or enough importance to be yielded to or to
 cause leadership "wait upon HIm."  At the end of the year I knew that my assignment was done. I was pretty much hidden and yet I had become accepted within the congregation.

I sought the Lord and wise counsel and  I determined the Lord gave me freedom to stay in that congregation for another year, to enjoy the fellowship and safety of the people.  A year to the date of when my first assignment ended, I saw something happen in a service and the Lord spoke to me and said it was no longer safe to be in the congregation.  I waited upon the Lord that week to see what He was saying and I got no clear direction other than it wasn't safe any longer.  Sunday morning I checked on line to see who the guest prophet was that was to be filling in the pulpit and found out he was someone I had heard before. And as I looked at the website where he was featured, my eyes caught a link that said something like When Life says it is time to make a change. And I clicked on the link and the first sentences of a pastor who I never heard of were about being on that mountain too long!!  Same scripture given to me in 1971 when we were told to leave the same congregation!!  I knew as i went to church that day I was saying my goodbyes to those special ones whom I knew would understand.  And I was gone! Quietly and no one inquired where I was or why I left. Now that is hidden or "welcome loss?"


In the following months I went to various churches in the area and attended a Baptist church for about 3 months but knew that my pot wasn't to settle there.  Then in the spring of 2012 I attended a little church in the community where I live. I have been there a year.  I have just "been there." I carry whatever God is with me and in me to service on Sunday morning and a rare other service.  This last week visiting with my dear friend we were talking about what I was doing there. Again, there was talk about "standing my post."  There is something in this congregation that God values and is working out.  I admit I don't really know all what He is doing but I know what I am to do and be....at rest!!  To go to church the same way I do anything else...at rest in Him and letting Him be what He wants to be in me and in the service.

 I haven't gone to church to "get something from God" for many years. Not since one day the Lord told me to take my lunch to church and give it away!! My food is to do His Will. He is my food, the bread of life. So I have learned since the late 80 's  to go to services "in Him" "more or less"!   It has been a process of laying down my own desire and plans and resting in Him and allowing HIm to be in and through me what He wants...and in the congregation!! That is my acceptable worship!


The sad thing is I see the Holy Spirit wooing the congregation and its leadership.  And the agenda doesn't let them see what He is doing or how to respond.  Recently the pastor referred to the moving of the Spirit as "getting all stirred up" and he was stirred up but he "put it down" rather than yield to it and wait upon the Lord to see what He wanted to do! He just saw it as his flesh being "stirred up" but it was Holy Spirit!!  But then how many of us responded to the presence of God with our flesh/carnal nature rather than yielding to Him in worship and praise and quietness? 

Standing my post.  I remember years ago there was a man in a congregation that I had been a part of.  He was an older man and when that church fell to pieces long after I attended, I ran across the guy and I knew that he was "holding the pew."  He was a piller that was holding the Lord's standard up over that congregation. He was "holding his place" against whatever the enemy was trying to do in that congregation.  And that congregation weathered puny days and new leadership came in and it began to grow. And guess what...the old guy died!!  His "place holding job" was done!!

I don't know what other names this kind of assignment might be called. Are these 'watchers", "gate keepers"?  I remember in one congregation I was given one of two jobs at different times. Sit in the very back and keep people from falling away (figuratively) and then at times i sat up front and in some way God used that place to direct what was going on in the Spirit. How and why? I have no idea!! I just manned my post so to speak.

The interesting thing, is that manning my post put me in the places that have changed me and caused me to draw near to God. The trials of the assignments are too many to mention for in many I wasn't very "hidden." And even when i sought to be "hidden" it seemed that I was "seen" by forces that didn't appreciate even my hiddenness! And little did I understand the power of my words when I even spoke casually!  The assignments or calling are the ways the Lord has chosen to change me and invite me into more fellowship with Him! He who gave the call and the call are One!

As I close these musings, I think of that scripture that says a person in the military doesn't get involved in civilian affairs.  To those of you who are "manning your post" and are set in a place, remember, stay out of civilian affairs!! 

Sincerely,

Meri Ford

Meri Ford
516 Park Rd
Winlock, WA 98596
360 520 4503
blog http://meriford.blogspot.com/