There are some of you, and particularly leaders in the Body who are holding onto relationships, people, things, etc that the Lord has told you to remove. I feel the weight and burden, that “you have no one else”. And for some you just can’t seem to place what you are sensing in the Spirit with the natural – it doesn’t look like anything is wrong. Better to have no one else, than an entire body be defiled. One of the greatest sources of defilement is coming from pride in worship. Better to deal with it, before the Lord deals with you for a lack of obedience.

I’m reminded of when I was a very young General Manager of a quick-serve restaurant. They hired me in and sent me to the store struggling the most. It was in a high-end area, though the store was performing very poorly – there were several reasons for the challenges however it was my job to problem solve. Employees who did not want to be retrained to meet the standard were let go, it was a long season of retraining and training and self sacrifice. If I didn’t have the labor dollars, I worked, because salary doesn’t count. I worked and worked well over what was “required” of me. There was one instance I worked over two days straight because we had a new rollout and I stayed through the night to re-dress the store and meet the deadline. Eventually the store was consistently maintained to standard; in cleanliness, with employees of excellent work ethic that I trusted, and we had become a well-oiled team. My personal sacrifice of time and even money, led to me achieving the number one GM in my district for three consecutive quarters. In what seemed to be a long season of self-sacrifice in the big picture led to reward rather quickly.

I attribute much of that success not from my ability in and of itself, though from my personal convictions and work ethic. I grew up serving my father and grandfather in a family business, and here I learned humbly by sweeping the floors beginning at age 11. As I grew in other positions in the Dry Cleaners, I would actually inspect the clean clothes before they were bagged and filed away on the line. Here I was as a teenager, putting red tape on missed spots, or wrinkles and sending them back if they didn’t meet standard. I of course took a healthy pride in what I was doing because it was a family business. The father’s standard of excellence became my standard. And it was the integrity of my heart and love for him, that allowed me to serve in this manner. And so it is with our Heavenly Father.

The Lord is looking for those who will uphold His standard, and be about His business. “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.” 2 Chronicles 16:9

In letting go, we honor the Lord. This is the humility He will bless. We know our hearts are completely His by our obedience, for if we love Him, we will obey. “If you [really] love Me, you will keep and obey My commandments.” John 14:15