Protocol To Come Before The King

I, a commoner, have never had the honor to come before the king of any nation, but I have read that there is a protocol to do this. First, I have to have an invitation.
There are many invitations extended to "who-so-ever-will" - that means all of us get an invitation. The most famous verse in the whole Bible tells us why God is offering this invitation, to whom it is sent and the wonderful reward that is received, if this invitation is accepted. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (Jn.3"16).

Then we have to answer the question, "Why come?" John 1:29 gives us the most wonderful reason to come to Jesus, "There is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world." Everyone in this world is born with a fatal "disease" - sin. It will eventually kill us if you don't get it eradicated. Jesus came take it out of our hearts and give us a new heart, new hope and a new life - but only by trusting Him to do it. Phillip in the 46th verse invited Nathanael to, "come and see," and the Samaritan woman went into her village and said, "Come and see a man who has told me everything that I ever did," We too have an invitation in Isa.55:1, from the Holy Spirit to "Wait and listen, everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come and buy spiritual wine and milk without money and without price, simply for the self surrender that receives the blessing." The Psalmist invites us to "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps.34:8). Are these not sufficient reasons to come to the One Who can save us to the uttermost, for all time (Heb.7:19); to give us eternal life; has all the answers; fills our spiritual hunger and thirst; keep us from falling and to present us blameless before the presence of the one and only God (Jude 1:24, 25); and to experience all of His goodness? We can boldly come and not be in fear of being rejected (Jn.6:37). We can have a hope in which we now can come close to the God of the universe(Heb.7:19)! One would be a fool not to believe there is such a God (Ps.14:1)!

Next I have to be eligible -
1) Permission and convicts - The Spirit convicts and draws - "No one is able to come to Me unless the Father Who sent me attracts and draws him and gives him the desire to come; no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father" (Jn.6:44,65). So when the Spirit is drawing you, that is the time to come to Jesus.

2)Thirsty - "If any man is thirsty let him come to Me and drink" (Jn.7:37), because He is the Living Water and whoever drinks of Jesus will become a spring of water welling up within him unto eternal life." (Jn.4:10,14). It is the Holy Spirit Who creates spiritual thirst within us. You have heard the old addage, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." The secret to get the horse to drink is to give him a cake of salt to lick. The salt creates a thirst within the 'old grey mare' and she will run to the water - her will has been convinced. This is the same principle, spiritually. A person may not know or think he is thirsty for Christ, the Living Water, or is not willing (Jn.5:40), but when the Holy Spirit (the Salt) finishes His convincing (convicting) work, the person runs to the Living Water. Their will and their desires have been changed (converted). There is a unique quality about this 'Living Water' - It fills and satisfies the one who comes, but because of the indwelling Holy Spirit (salt) our thirst for more of Him is perpetuated and we move from one filling to another, the we are thirsty again for more. We drink deeply from Living Water Who is also the Word, prayer and communion with Him. We don't ever get enough. We may go through dry times when we don't have a lot of thirst for this Living Water - (the cares of this world and the pride of life have drained us of our satisfaction with our Living Water),so we have to go back to where we stopped asking to be continually filled with His Spirit. That is the only place we will remain satisfied and are eligible to come to the Throne of Grace.

3)Confessing that we are sinners - (I Jn.1:9, I Tim.1:15). We have to recognize that we are not worthy to come into the presence of the Living God, our Savior, Jesus, and that we do not have clean hands and a pure heart, so we confess our sins -failures, transgressions and shortcomings. Having clean hands and a pure heart makes us eligible to come before the throne of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

So the protocol to come before King Jesus is: 1)to believe that God exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb.11:6); 2)to accept the invitation that has been extended (believing and trusting Jesus as Savior); 3)to understand the necessity of coming (that we are sinners in need of a Savior). By doing all of these things makes us eligible!

Jesus, thank You for inviting us to "come boldly before the throne of grace to help in good time for every need, that we may receive mercy for our failures" (Heb.4:16).