Last weekend, we had one of the women who helped start the house of prayer back in 1999 speaking at our Friday night service. She spoke on the importance of prayer being dialogue with the Man Jesus from Matthew 25.
I know we all go through seasons where our relationship with the Lord suffers because of other cares in our life. I’m not saying that that is ok, because it’s not- we need to never give up on the fight of keeping Him first in our lives. And the way she was preaching to us her fresh exhortation to come back to Jesus like He is a real Man was so impactful to me.I feel the desire in my heart to renew my love for Jesus yet again, turn off my phone again, and come to Him in dialogue yet again.
The parable in Matthew 25 says that there were five virgins who were wise, who kept oil in their lamps, and five virgins who were foolish who did not. This isn’t a parable about unbelievers and believers. These virgins are all believers! They all had a lamp, which represents having a ministry before God and before man (see Revelation2:1-7). What Jesus is emphasizing in this passage is that there is a day when He will return, and what will we be found doing when He comes? And more importantly, what will we have been found doing for the decades of our life that He has given to us?
The oil in this parable represents that which keeps the lamp burning, and here it is our personal history and intimacy that we have cultivated (Buying oil is spending time with the Lord. The wise virgins were not being stingy… they literally could not give their oil to the foolish. In a moment of crisis you cannot give your relationship that you have been cultivating with the Lord to your neighbor. What you have is what you got because you have daily spoken with the Lord. A friendship cannot be bought!!). On that day when we see His face, the most important day ever, will we have the intimacy over years where we deeply know Him?
How do you come to the place of deep intimacy with Jesus? Dialogue with Him over His Word. Receive His love and give love back to Him.
So simple that hardly anyone does it! And this is your inheritance and your portion in this life. Though you haven’t seen Him, still you love Him. He so desires to reveal His deep love for you.
Read Matthew 25 today or tomorrow and ask the Holy Spirit where you are at in your relationship with Jesus. If you need to set things aside to dialogue with Him, do it! It could be just as simple as making time for Him, so put it on your schedule.
-bethany