What a splendid seminar this weekend ! What an awesome time in God. God came and sat with us. I always marvel when God comes to church and makes His presence felt. I don’t know when it hit me that God is not and has never sought to be an absentee deity, but when it did, the manifest presence of God in my life and in church became an obsession and a constant pursuit. From there it became a daily, living experience. Thus, far from being an impassive, distant deity as some would have us believe, i find that God is very much hands on in His dealings with His people.
Well, should i rather say in His dealings with those who ask and ardently desire it. Remember the story of Israel having just been brought by God out of Egypt. Well God’s intention was to be really close to them, relate directly with them. However, Exodus 20.19 shows that when God tried to come close, they had other ideas. They were terrified and found it all too overwhelming and decided to delegate their direct dealings with God to Moses. So they said, ‘Moses, listen, you talk to God, listen to God, then come back and tell us what He says, but we don’t want to hear Him directly cos it’s too much for our poor nerves, their exact words were ‘lest we die’.
And so it was that Moses drew near, and the others stayed afar off and He got the privilege of seeing more of God than any other human being of his time. He got the privilege of experiencing God in a way no one else knew. All because He said yes. Whereas they were timid, he was insatiable and kept asking for more of God ; kept insisting that God go with Him, and even once flatly refused to be moved anywhere without God going with Him. He became addicted to God. And when the remote worshippers quickly lost faith and began to worship the golden calf, he stood solid on God’s side. God is still looking for people who will say yes.
People love our meetings as they get consumed with the presence of God, and I am glad that they are filled and blessed. But then they go home and God is saying ‘hey, I’m here, let’s keep going’. They question is, at that point, what will you do, respond to His overtures and step in and draw near as Moses did or step back like Israel and say, you know, not now, not cool, too complicated, can’t pray too busy, can’t fellowship ; i will just be in church early and soak in some more of that sweet presence Lord. Or i will be sure to attend the next conference to top up some more and be re-refreshed. Let the pastor draw near, i will worship from afar and receive the overflow of the glory on their lives.
Every new divine experience must cease to be your ceiling, but must now become your threshold and a stepping stone into greater and higher places in God. But it does not depend this time on a Moses, rather on you saying ; i love that experience in God, i shall change my lifestyle, cease to be an absentee worshipper of a present deity and turn to God afresh so that not only will it become my daily experience, but i shall now become God’s catalyst to propel other people into that level of spiritual connection with God. For every time God touches you powerfully, He issues a call to heights, a call to be not only a constant enjoyer of that grace, but a vehicle for communicating it to others.
Thus every blessing of God is a call to be an agent of God in communicating that particular blessing to others. It is a call to responsibility. And so it is that the awesome presence of God is to be manifested consistently in the gathering of the upright as God finds willing vessels who live in it daily and communicate it to others. Will you be of those ?
Shalom !