Weak and Naked in the Presence of God

A pastor I know had quite an experience recently at one of his Sunday morning services.

I will recall it as best I know how:

Apparently, at the tail end of the worship service, his worship leader shared with the congregation what he felt the Lord was saying to his heart.

"It's time! " he said as he played his guitar, "The Lord says the time is now!"

After this, the pastors wife got up and told everyone how she was feeling a sense of urgency from the Lord.

"Don't let this moment pass... " she stressed as the musicians played spontaneously behind her.

There seemed to be an atmosphere for people to make some important decisions about their walk with God.

Suddenly, the word "disarm" went through the pastor's mind.

Was this word of the Spirit of God or just a random imagining?

Then he saw it... In his mind's eye, he saw his pulpit (he uses a rather fancy music stand as one) tilted on its side in front of the altar.

That was it.

When his wife had finished speaking, he shared that word with the congregation.

"I keep hearing the word 'disarm'" he said, "I think we should take anything that we have right now that is a symbol of all of our strengths, gifts, talents and abilities and lay them down at the altar before the Lord. We need to disarm before God."

At that point, he lifted the pulpit and said "Right now...this pulpit serves as the symbol of my authority here in this church. We teach from it, we preach from it...So...I'm going to lay it down at the altar..."

At that point, one by one, people began to flood the altar.

A Berkely music school grad, along with a local business owner, a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, a head of a local ministry, and others came forward. Each of them either kneeling or spreading themselves face down on the floor before the Lord.

Even the worship leader took his guitar and laid it on its side as he prayed.

After a few moments, the pastor said he fought every inclination in his soul to try and "explain" to everyone what was happening.

"This too was symbol of my strength..." he said.

So off came his headset mic as he continued to kneel at the altar.

Minutes later, amongst the weeping, the prayers and the soft music being played by what was left of the worship musicians, a few people at the altar spoke up.

One said the Lord was requiring this time of surrender inorder to prepare His people to effectively minister to others.

Another cried out to the Lord that we would all continue to pursue and not miss the will of God for our lives.

Finally, someone shared that this 'disarming' was an experience of being naked before the Lord.

They continued to say we should even lay down our righteousness before Him. This was to be in gratitude for the righteousness that was all his to begin with. We took what we grasped as our own and acknowledged it was never ours to begin with.

This truly was a day of being weak and naked in the presence of God.

1 Corinthians 1 (AMP)

26For [simply] consider your own call, brethren; not many [of you were considered to be] wise according to human estimates and standards, not many influential and powerful, not many of high and noble birth.

27[No] for God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame.

28And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are,

29So that no mortal man should [have pretense for glorying and] boast in the presence of God.

30But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, [revealed to us a knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as] our Righteousness [thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God], and our Consecration [making us pure and holy], and our Redemption [providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin].

31So then, as it is written, Let him who boasts and proudly rejoices and glories, boast and proudly rejoice and glory in the Lord.