This is what I heard today morning, very clearly , in the silence of the room, "Go forth and Gather". It took me some time to connect what I was reading to what I was hearing and eventually my mind heard it all. We are busy building things around us, the church, the ministries, the positions , the kings , the queens and the idols of our life and we tend to forget the most important thing He told us to do. "Go forth and gather my people and bring them to the Holy Mountain, Jerusalem."
He was not asking for a legalistic and judgemental process of gathering his people but He was pursuing our hearts to reach out to people so that they may know the name of Jesus through love, hope and charity. This meant we have to change our mindset to work the way God wants us to work and this can be done only if we -:
1. Work for Love - We have to work out of love not out of the compulsion of people or the want of position and recognition. The satisfaction that follows God's work does not come from people but from Him in mysterious ways. When we pursue a soul out of our love for Christ , we work according to His timelines, in patience and hope, knowing that the fruit will be borne at the right time.
2. Work with Faith - We will face obstacles higher than we can see and deeper then we can go but when Jesus calls and says walk on water, what more do we need. He can and will move away every obstacle allowing us to grow in faith. The only condition here is that we need to take the first step of faith , we need to believe in the Word of God and pursue it in every circumstance that we are put in.
3. Work for the audience of ONE - All we do, should be done for the glory of our God, anything else would mean we are seeking our own glory in tasks that require God's presence and purpose. Everything we have in our being would be to pursue the glory of God, our passions, our talents and our gifts are provided to work for the audience of ONE, the audience of GOD.
So it does not matter who we meet, the sick, the criminal, the homosexual,the transgender, the slum dweller, the prostitute, the priest , the bishop or the drug addict, leave the judging to God and pursue what God has asked us to do through the power of the Holy Spirit and love of Jesus Christ. "Go forth and gather my people and bring them to the Holy Mountain, Jerusalem."
Ref: Isaiah 66:18-24