Jesus tells us in Matthew 23.26 NLT: You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.
You see part of being a Pharisee pastor (as outlined in a lot of previous posts in this series) is that all that matters to you is the outside. A ministry couple could be beating each other up Monday to Saturday, but as long as they are all smiles on Sunday as she sings and he preaches and prophesies, that’s fine to a Pharisee.
Jesus calls this kind of approach “blind”. He says wash the inside first and the outside will become clean. Rather than pretending every Sunday, if that couple actually cleaned their hearts, fed on the Word, humbled themselves, started to by faith treat each other well, and so on, every single day – then by Sunday their smiles would be real, the singing would be pure, the preaching would be authentic, and the prophetic flow would be genuine.
To stop being a pretender, we need to work on the inside FIRST. There is a place for tidying up the outside, learning how to preach a little better, wearing the right clothes for your audience, being clear and articulate, singing in key, practicing the guitar, whatever it is. But that is NOT FIRST. First is getting your heart right, your attitude right, going to minister with faith and love and hope and expectancy. Find your place in the kingdom, relate well to the King, and the outside will nearly always take care of itself and you will have the added bonus of being neither blind nor a hypocrite. Selah!
Inspiring and Challenging Dreamers 