He chose that seat because of the pillar, and he chose it seven years ago, and nobody has ever asked him why he sits there.
From behind it he can see the front and the front cannot see him, and that is not a small preference. Being looked at does something to him that he has never been able to explain to anybody who does not have it, and he has stopped trying, and the pillar solves it.
So he has a good seat and a settled arrangement and one problem inside it.
When the invitation comes, he watches shoes. That is what he sees from there: rows of shoes moving toward the front, and he does not move, and the reason is not indifference and it is not doubt.
There is something he needs. He has needed it for four years and has never once asked for it, in that building or anywhere else, because the only route to asking that he has ever seen modeled requires walking into the open and being looked at while somebody prays.
If you sit where you cannot be seen, come and sit under the vines. Nothing about that front, or one person who walks to it, is going to be run down here.
One route was modeled and he took it for the only route
Let us look at the assumption, because it is not a belief he holds so much as a picture he has never questioned.
The picture is: asking happens in the open, in front of the room, with a person praying and everybody aware. That is a real route and it works for a great many people and there is nothing wrong with it.
But he has watched it for seven years and never once seen anybody model the other thing, which is a man asking from a seat with his mouth barely moving. So he does not know it is available, and a thing you have never seen anybody do quietly looks, over seven years, like a thing that cannot be done quietly.
You are not shut out. Nothing about being unable to be looked at has ever closed your access to God. I am not saying it to be kind to a shy man. Scripture says when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment (Mark 5:27), which is a reach made from behind and in a crowd, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes it hold in a man behind a pillar.
She came behind, and it worked
Here is the part that turned this for me, and it takes nothing off anybody who walks to the front.
Read where she positions herself, because the account is precise about it and the precision is the mercy.
When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.Mark 5:27
Behind. In the press. She does not come round the front, she does not call out to Him, she does not get anybody's attention, and she does not ask anybody's permission to be in the crowd.
And it worked. The thing she came for happened, from that position, before anybody in that crowd knew a transaction had taken place. The visibility came afterward and on His initiative, not as the price of the asking.
You can reach Him from behind and out of sight, and Scripture records exactly that and it is not treated as second best. That is written into the verse itself, and it is the Holy Spirit who carries it to a man watching shoes.
Nothing here is against the front
Something must be said plainly, or this becomes a page about an invitation given by people who love God.
The front is not a stage. The people who walk into it are not showing off, several of them find it hard, and God meets people there because God meets people. The man who gives that invitation is not asking anybody to perform.
And nothing here says he should never go. If a Sunday comes when he can and wants to, he should, and this page will not put one thing in his way.
This is for the people in the seats. You do not have to get to the front to be met. Scripture says the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him (Psalm 145:18), where nearness is His position rather than a distance a man closes in front of witnesses, and it is the Holy Spirit, and not the geography of a room, who carries what anybody asks.
And if these four years have cost more than the people at that table know, if sleep has gone, if Sunday has started to frighten you, please talk to somebody real: your doctor, a counselor, a crisis line, and the emergency services if there is danger to anybody tonight. That is not a detour around God. It is one of the ways He keeps people.
So here is the turn, and it is not a promise about what God does when you ask.
This is for the people in the seats. You do not have to get to the front to be met. Scripture has a woman come in the press behind and reach Him from there (Mark 5:27), where the position is stated plainly and never once treated as a lesser way of asking, and it is the Holy Spirit, not a walk across an open floor, who carries what you say.
I cannot tell you what happens when you ask, or when. Nobody honest would. What I can tell you is that she asked from behind, in a crowd, without permission, and that nothing in that account suggests she should have gone round the front first.
Declare this over yourself
Say these out loud, in your own voice. You are in Christ and Christ is in you, and the standing under these words is His rather than your own. You speak under His will and not yours, and what God does next, and when, is His to decide, however He answers.
- Pillar I sit behind on purpose, you are a thing I need and you are not a wall God has agreed to. Mark 5 has a woman come in the press behind and reach Him from there without permission and without being seen, and the Holy Spirit put her position into the record on purpose. In the name of Jesus I take you off my asking.
- Picture that asking must happen in the open, you are not what God says about me and you are not sitting behind that pillar on Sunday. Psalm 145 says the Lord is near to all who call upon Him, so nearness is His position and not a distance closed in front of witnesses, and His Spirit carries what I say under my breath. I am asking from this seat.
- Father, Mark 5 says she came in the press behind and touched His garment, and the thing she came for happened before anybody in that crowd knew. I thank You for the people who walk to that front at real cost and for a man who gives that invitation without asking anybody to perform, and Your Spirit carried it out of the seat I was in. This is for the people in the seats, and I do not have to get to the front to be met.
Mark 5:27
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