DON’T LET THEM SEE YOU SWEAT
© 2009 Taveau D’Arcy All copyrights reserved
“ But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD:
They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge.
And it shall come to pass, [that] when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.
They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat. Ezekiel 44:15-18
By refusing to take a personal Sabbath rest, apart from ministry, and/or by resisting God’s direction to cast all of our cares, burdens and worries onto Him, we leaders may not realize it, but we can give off the strong unpleasant perfume of ministry sweat.
Through continual overworking, remaining in overdrive, a Christian leader, pastor, can emanate bad VIBES which may give off the false impression that he/she does not really value Father’s Children.
Without knowing that this happens, running ourselves too ragged may make us appear to others as not sincere. And even though we truly place value on each one, by our being unwilling to obey God in taking a Sabbath break completely away, the ministry tiredness and SWEAT builds up and becomes too noticeable. It may be even more highly noticeable at home with our families.
Lest we forget:Wasn’t our original true leadership born in those long, deep times of prayer and seeking God? If that is so, then how can any of us ever trick ourselves into believing that God forsakes these long, lengthy, indepth All Alone Times with Him, once our ministry starts to expand and prosper?
By over working resembling automatons, we loose that spontaneous childlike creative ministry joy. Running from business meeting to business meeting to appointment, we find that our lives gradually from one born out of our personal RELATIONSHIP with Father God, into one that is more us ACHIEVING and automatically PERFORMING OUR OWN MINISTRY .
This starts to spill over into our private lives. Once we ever start to believe in ourselves more than we rely on the Father, it starts to suck us dry from our insides to our outsides. If we do not allow God to keep us in touch with our own human emotions, we eventually grow cold and compassionless.
Our deep wells of God’s tender mercy, His flowing empathy which is why God’s people(not to omit our spouses and loved ones) are drawn in the first place. And without GOD’S refreshing source of emotional reserves, each one of us could wind up feeling drained and emotionally, spiritually dry or even dangerously depleted. …. so that is why each one of us NEED to practice a Sabbath apart from “our” pastoral, leadership ministry.
If we do not follow God’s command (Isaiah 56, Isaiah 58) to take Sabbath time off to recreate, go to conferences, take a cell phone free, time away real vacation… and also devote ourselves to spending much time with ( only) HIM in the Secret Place, then those up close to us will start to SEE US BEING TO SWEAT.
The longer we allow ourselves to run ragged, the more the SEEING will turn into SMELLLING THE SWEAT.
Rather than radiating the pleasant sweet perfume of the joy, patience, favor and fragrance of the Lord. we could all wind up emanating the negative style of leadership /ministry STINKY SWEAT: brusqueness, condescending impatience, increasing irritability, or an completely exhausted aloof indifference to those God has placed around us.
Worse yet, a growing casual complacency to SIN. Soon we are in the HALT Leadership Condition; HUNRY, ANGRY, LONELY or TIRED..and then( just like in Luke, when Jesus was exhausted, tired after fasting 40 days)..the Devil arrives on the scene with offers of fast and easy BIG temptations!!
In Ezekiel 44, God directed the Old Testament priests to wear only garments of linen which ‘breathed” and did not retain,(which would then give off the odor of) human sweat.
Likewise, if we do not schedule times away in our own busy schedules to BREATHE and to truly be REFRESHED, then the air around us will be permeated with strong unpleasant odor (or some might call them, the strong negative VIBES) of personal and ministerial sweat.
Let us heed God’s admonition found in Song of Solomon to ,
”COME AWAY, MY BELOVED.”
Here are words from an old song: “Breathe upon me, wind of God Breathe up me, Spirit of the Lord, Make me hear the melodies of heaven.” -Anonymous
(C) 2009 Dr. Taveau D’Arcy All copyrights reserved
