Inner Court Ministry – Your Ministry to God

God is seeking worshipers.He desires His people to be eager to know Him intimately and experience all of who He is. He wants a people who are not content to be just born-again and sitting on their eternal security. He longs for His people not only to love Him but to be in love with Him. When you are in love, you desire to please your beloved more than anything else. You are joyfully, willingly submissive to the one you love. This is commitment. This is surrender. God would rather have you than the things you can do for Him. He is more interested in your being all He wants you to be than in your doing things for Him.

In the Old Testament, the Levites stood before the people to minister to them in the outer court of the temple; but the sons of Zadok, the Levitical priests, kept charge of the sanctuary, coming near to God to minister to Him (Ezekiel 44:15). There is a difference. We need to be not only ministering to people in the outer court, but as priests, first ministering in the inner court to God (Deuteronomy 10:8). Our hearts and spirits need to meet His Spirit in worship before working in His name.

Inner-court ministry is intimacy with Jesus Himself with an undivided heart. It is the right of all the church, not just the people on the platform on Sunday. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the holy of holies was torn from top to bottom. Now every believer has access to the inner court. What an awesome privilege! All may boldly come into the holy of holies to praise, worship, adore, love, glorify the Father, and yield as a minister. Outer-court ministry without inner-court ministry to God will not yield God’s best eternal fruit. To minister God’s life, we must wait on Him in the inner sanctuary, sacrificing all we are and have to Him, so that His Spirit can flow freely through us in ministry to others. Ministry that has been anointed with His presence has transforming power in other lives.

The need of the hour is for believers to be in the inner court as priests. God desires to visit you powerfully to convict, woo, love, proclaim truth, reconcile, make all things new, and glorify Himself. Intimacy with the risen Christ is first priority. Minister to God in praise, worship, and communion in the inner court – just because He is worthy of worship. Let His presence and power flow through you to His glory. Inner-court ministry is the key, if you want desperately to see the works of God done in your life, your family, and your church.

by Sylvia Gunter
used by permission