Acts 7:2 NASB95
And he said, “Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
Song of Solomon 1:12
While the King surrounded me, by spikenard gave forth its fragrance.
Sometimes we have breakthroughs that bring us into new specific places spiritually, but today I believe God is sovereignly encountering us and offering us a breakthrough into a place called Encounter. God is sovereignly showing up and surrounding persons and congregations with His presence and glory, leading us into a place of perpetual encounter. Full surrender is all that God is asking for. It is no more complicated than that.
Christ-likeness fully experienced is a life of perpetual encounter with the triune God. The God of glory is showing up all over the place, surrounding us, and wooing us into a larger experience of the normal Christian life that Jesus lives.
Twice, Mary of Bethany anointed the feet of Jesus was spikenard, and a third time in Mark 14, she broke the alabaster vial and poured the spikenard on the head of her Beloved. Was her pouring out from the alabaster vial an act of worship or an act of surrender? The answer is YES! A surrendered life is the ultimate act of worship. “I urge you, therefore brethren, in light of God’s mercy to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship.” Romans 12:1.
When the King reveals Himself to us and surrounds us with His glory, it should provoke our spikenard to give forth its fragrance. The word “King” is such a significant word in Song of Solomon 1:12 because the worship of a surrendered life is a response to Jesus being “King,” but not King in the objective sense of the word, but crowning Him as the “King of our hearts.” What I have discovered is when Jesus is crowned King of your heart, the surrounding glory never goes away. The very glory that encounters us to woo us into the larger experience is also a foretaste of what the larger experience actually is, as a way of life. Christ in you, the hope of glory.