Our Servant/King

“Every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.” Hebrews 3:4

Jesus is still building things. He’s still the gentle Carpenter from Nazareth as much as He is the King of Kings. Just as He did at the Last Supper when He laid aside His garments to wash the feet of His disciples, He still takes on the quiet role of a servant as He works in our lives.

Often when the Lord speaks to me, He gives me pictures to help me better understand a concept. In recent months, I saw Jesus working on a set of wooden stairs, descending from heaven. They were being completed top down, not yet touching the bottom floor (only God can do carpentry like that!). Jesus glanced toward me, unusually attired in blue jeans and flannel shirt. He was incredibly gorgeous, with short dark hair and a gold earring that glinted from one ear.  An earring? I was so surprised, yet I recognized Him and my heart skipped a beat.

In that moment, with the full force of Jesus’ loving gaze upon me, I felt like a spoiled rich girl, incredibly pampered by her Heavenly Father, who had just fallen in love with a Worker in His house. All I wanted to do was be with Him. I didn’t care if the project wasn’t completed that He was working on. I didn’t want to just be recipient of His work in my life; I wanted to join in.

Just like in this analogy, throughout Scripture, we see Jesus inviting us to join Him as active participants in the life of faith He’s called us to. In fact, He sometimes slows His work to a halt until we join Him because everything He does depends upon our willingness to participate in relationship with Him. 

In psychology, we learn a lot about causal and correlational relationships. Causal is when Jesus speaks and the world comes into being. Correlational means Jesus speaks and we have a choice: free will. Will we act on what He’s said or squirm away from the truth He’s imparting to our hearts? When we edge out of Jesus’ project, it comes to a standstill. He’s perfectly capable of building staircases without us, but He’s chosen to seek our cooperation. He won’t force us to accept His truth.

Isaiah 28:9-10 says, “Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,  line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”

In this way, God stays radically committed to His plan of redemption: a people who have chosen to surrender and get on board with His ideas and His plan. The Holy Spirit reminds us in Isaiah 55:8-9, “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”

Maybe that’s why I saw Jesus building the staircase from top down, because my human wisdom isn’t going to connect me with His plans for my life. Rather He imparts His vision and His heart to me, adding to it, step by step, as I participate in faith. Oswald Chambers says in My Utmost for His Highest, “When God gives a vision, transact business on that line, no matter what it costs…. When God gives a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will make you in accordance with the vision He has given if you will wait His time.” When we get on board with God, He gets the work done in us, yet it is our great privilege to kneel down next to Him, holding the nails and boards in our hands, giving them to Him as He asks.

As for the earring I saw, the Holy Spirit whispered a reminder to me about a law in the Old Testament concerning servants. Exodus 20:5-6 says, “If the servant says plainly, ‘I love…my master, I will not go free’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door …and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl and he shall serve him forever.”

Philippians 2:7 proclaims the amazing truth that Jesus “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.” Hebrews 5:6 says of Jesus, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Jesus truly is our Servant/King who has a bigger plan for us--a bigger work that He’s doing in our lives--than we can ever accomplish on our own. Do we have such a yearning for Him that we will join Him, no matter what He’s doing? Building staircases, washing toilets, revitalizing our hearts?

Yes, Jesus! I’ll join You. No matter where You are or what You’re doing, I choose to jump on board with Your plans. Thank You for the power of Your Spirit at work in me, accomplishing in my life what I can never do on my own. May I always give You all the glory!!!