Honoring An Encounter With The King
(5 minutes)
Pastor Tim shared an Old Testament story on Sunday that is the perfect illustration of the Ladder of Devotion and growing in intimacy, honor, and order. As we read this story it's important to remember that every Old Testament text we read is a foreshadowing of Jesus. We may be reading an Old Testament story, but Abba wants to use it and parallel it with what Jesus wants to do in our own lives. This is the story of a very notable and prominent Shunammite Woman's encounter with Elisha, who represents Jesus.
Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food. And she said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly. Please, let us make a small upper room on the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; so it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there.” (2 Kings 4:8-10)
"I want to start right here. She persuaded him to eat some food. That is, she engages with Elijah and she says, 'There's something different about you. I need to invest in this relationship.' This is how we all get started. We encounter the King and all of a sudden our hearts are so stirred and we want to do something else. Let me put it another way, she doesn't let the encounter stop at bumping into him on the street. She doesn't let the encounter stop with just hearing about him, seeing him. She says, 'What I have encountered is so valuable to me, I want you to come to my home and have a meal with me. This is honor." (Pastor Tim)
The Shunammite Woman has an encounter with Elisha, and she honors that encounter by inviting Elisha to her home for a meal. This may seem like nothing to us, but meals took quite a bit longer in Elisha's day than they do now. There was a good bit of preparation that went into preparing a meal. This is a picture of honor. This is a picture of us and Yahweh. How do we respond when we bump into Yahweh and have an intimate encounter with Him? Do we let the stirring of our hearts overflow into honoring that encounter with something that costs us a little more? How much preparation are we putting into our acts of honor? Can you see this Shunammite Woman growing in her devotion? Intimacy, honor, order.
Pastor Tim mentioned this important truth at Linger House this week: every time we have an encounter with the King, we have two choices. We can either honor that encounter and invite Him and His word to go deeper in us, or we can dishonor the encounter and not let it affect our lives at all. These are the only two choices we have after encountering Yahweh. Like Pastor Tim said on Sunday, thousands of people encountered Jesus. Thousands of people bumped up against Him. They encountered the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and they didn't get anything out of the encounter. Why? Because they treated something incredibly valuable, casually. They didn't honor the encounter, so they never saw the seed of the Kingdom grow past that encounter.
How are you honoring your encounters with the King? Honor is how we see the seed of the Kingdom become a tree of life to us. We have to honor the seed into maturity. It begins with letting your heart become stirred after encountering Yahweh and then honoring that encounter in a way that costs you. And to say it costs you is such poor language, because you're so delighting in the Lord at this point that the costs don't seem like costs at all. It simply becomes the desire of your heart to pour your love on Him. That's all honor is after all: a heart getting so full from an encounter that it has no choice but to pour something out. It's a heart that says, "This was so valuable to me, I refuse to let it cost me nothing."
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Worship: "Pour My Love On You" by UPPERROOM
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
