Ministering Knee deep…
What Happens…Between the porch and the altar
JOEL 2:17- Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say , Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?
Our nation is in trouble, the people are in trouble and the land needs healing.
Who will weep for the people?
Let the priests weep. Priest is defined as a person ordained to act as a mediator between God and man in administering the sacraments, preaching, blessing, guiding, etc. The priests are the ministers of the Lord. Their role is to go before God on behalf of the people to offer up atonement for the sins of the people.
Let the priests weep. To weep is to shed tears, to express grief of anguish. Crying also indicates the shedding of tear but to weep speaks of the level of intensity. One may weep out of sadness, frustration and even anger.
This porch and altar language references the layout of the ancient Temple. The porch was at the front of the sanctuary. Beyond the porch was the entrance into the Holy Place. The porch opened outward into the Inner Court which contained the large altar. This place between porch and altar was the place where the priests made intercession on behalf of the people of God who remained in the outer court, just beyond the walls.
Today we need priests, pastors, shepherds, and all of our religious leaders to lead the way to prayer. We need them to show the people by example how to rend our hearts and not our garments and seek forgiveness for our sins, mistakes, errors and disobedience. We need them to cry loud and sound the alarm against sin and unrighteousness. We need them to lead the way to humility, brokenness and repentance. Enough of preachers ministering to each other!
When the priests weep and cry out for mercy then the people will weep and cry out for mercy. When the pastors fall on their faces, lay prostrate before the king and seek his face in fasting and praying then the people will follow.
Why should the priests weep? He should weep for the disobedience of God’s people. He should cry out for God’s mercy, strength and grace that the church would regain her position of authority. He should cry out so that God’s wrath would be turned and that he would lead a blessing instead of destruction.
What is the result of the priests weeping? The people are forgiven, the land is healed, what has been lost, stolen or destroyed is restored. The people turn from their sin and turn to a loving and forgiving God. The spirit of the Lord is poured out upon his people that the world might know that we serve a mighty God who is wonderful, glorious, to be feared and reverent, great and greatly to be praised.
We challenge the priests, pastors, leaders to weep for the people of God. We challenge them to make a commitment to corporate prayers in the churches, in homes, in parks, in prisons. We challenged them to come into unity with other churches and pastors just to pray. We challenge them to instead of preaching a sermon to… instead lead the people to the altar, bow down in repentance and worship God. If pastors would begin to do this then the spirit of revival will break out because the spirit of revival follows the spirit of conviction and repentance! Amen.