Presence – the Gift That Keeps Giving

4/30/11 “I want the presence of God Himself, or I don’t want anything at all to do with religion… I want all that God has or I don’t want any.” A.W. Tozer

Jn 9:26-33 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?” Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

Too many people spend their time asking “where is this from” or how, when or why God will or will not do the “sign” they desire to “prove” Himself to them. The man blind from birth who now sees has a good response for these questions – what do you mean you don’t know where He is from, how many choices do you have? In all those times you have questioned God, did you really question His existence? Were you really concerned with “when” He would give the healing or relief you wanted, or were you simply asking a question based in doubt and unbelief hoping to force God’s hand?

When God’s timetable or the requirement for us to ask and seek until we have entered His presence to receive His answer isn’t met, we respond with doubt. We doubt and malign His character, His love, His power rather than question our own faith or willingness to draw in to God. He is not as interested in doing a miracle as He is in drawing near to us. We do not find our answers by seeing signs any more than the Pharisees of Jesus day did. We find our answers by entering the proximity and presence of God. By seeking the One who Gives the gifts, Who Heals the sick, delivers and sets free the captive soul we are able to gain that which we seek.

God listens to the godly man who does His will. That is what the now seeing man said. This man who had never read one word from any book, who had never been to school, who spent his entire adult life as an outcast and beggar understand this basic fact. It is about who you are seeking, not about what you wish He would give you. The man did not expect to see that day, but when Jesus drew near hope grew in his heart. Jesus will draw near to you if you will ask. When will you begin to expect to see what He desires to show you?

To read John 9 in its entirety click on http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jn%209&version=NASB

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Ex 27:20-21 Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. In the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.

Bringing clear oil to keep the lamps burning and keep them burning all night is the command here as the Jews begin to worship God and begin to gain revelation of who He is and what He is like. Burn the oil in front of the Testimony; keep the light on through the night to reveal the testimony of His presence. The Tabernacle is all about revealing God’s character and giving the people the opportunity to draw near to His presence. To show them the need for holiness and for God’s mercy. To give them a tangible way to see God who cannot be seen.

We are to worship God in spirit and in truth. His Word reveals the truth for us so that we can learn of Him and know Him in fact and testimony. Drawing near to Him in spirit reveals His character in experience so that we can put the truth of what we have read together with our experience of His presence and gain that closeness to Him we desire. We cannot know God without both, we will not – because without learning the truth about God and drawing near to the presence of God we will not choose His ways, we run out of oil and we let the lamps burn out.

In the NT there is the story of the ten virgins, five did not bring extra oil and missed the bridegroom and the wedding while they were going out to seek more. Their situation was dire but yours does not have to be. Why miss God’s presence and your opportunity to enter when there is oil available to keep the lamps burning through your time of darkness? Oil from olives is obtained by being pressed and crushed until the oil is released. Testimonies often come from those who have come through a crushing experience and found that God has been true to them. Don’t waste your sorrows or struggles, allow you situation to bring forth the testimony of God’s faithfulness. Run to Him, seek Him, draw near to Him, allow His presence to flow in your life, to burn away your doubt and unbelief – gain the place of testimony and share your hope with others that they too will be able to enter in.

To read Ex 27 in its entirety click on http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%2027&version=NIV

I Know That You Are For Me

4/29/11   “I have to get to the point of the absolute and unquestionable relationship that takes everything exactly as it comes from Him. God never guides us at some time in the future, but always here and now. Realize that the Lord is here now, and the freedom you receive is immediate.”  Oswald Chambers

 Jn 8:31-37 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word.”  

We have never been slaves of anyone. Really? Seems to me that the feasts and important events of the Jewish calendar were to remind them that they had been slaves of Egypt and God had set them free. And of course their statement also would indicate that the Roman soldiers walking the streets and the Roman governor sitting in the palace were of no effect either. Can it be that the Jews were actually blind to their own enslavement? That they were so familiar with and comfortable with their situation that they could not imagine what freedom could look like? Or were they just futilely trying to deny and hide their sin from the sight of the world and from God?

Everyone who sins is a slave to sin, but if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. Are we living lives of freedom because the Son has set us free? Have you cut off sin and refused to give it a place in your life because you are free and no longer have to listen to the siren song of sin? Why not? Are you free or not? Did the Son set you free or not? If He did, has His blood lost its power so that you are no longer free? Are you taking your free-will as a slavery pill and putting yourself under the thumb of your old ‘master’ – your sin? 

Yes, God is for you

 

Stop! Jesus said hold to His teaching, know the truth. You’ve been set free, stay that way. If the Son sets you free it is a decree from the King, don’t through yourself back into the pit! You’ve got to walk in your freedom, walk in your victory. When sin tries to wheedle its way back into your thoughts and actions cast it off forcefully and sing out to Jesus – I Know that You are For ME!

To read John 8 in its entirety click on http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jn%208&version=NASB

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Ex 26:30-35 Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain. Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim worked into it by a skilled craftsman. Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases. Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Put the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony in the Most Holy Place. Place the table outside the curtain on the north side of the tabernacle and put the lampstand opposite it on the south side.

“The devil is in the details” is a common saying to denote that trouble can often come when details are not dealt with, either through insufficient planning or a lack of ability to deal with new information and adjust. God is definitely not suffering from these problems. He has detailed for Moses the plan for the Tabernacle, the house of God that is able to travel with His people as they move through the wilderness toward the promised land. The same God points out in the NT that “a cup of water given to the least of these” is as one given to Jesus Himself.

A cup of water. The least of these. Both are very small units in the scheme of life, details, but the man who claims to belong to God is told that if he will give attention to the details, the small things, he is giving to Jesus. The artisans and craftsmen who stitched the curtain, carved the wood, applied the gold, cast the rings and made the tables for the Tabernacle were doing detail work that went into the very House of God. Did they have the big picture of what their work was being incorporated into? Until they saw the end product I doubt they could have imagined what they were building – there was no place like this in the world, they were doing a new thing.

Do you believe that the assignment God has given you for the Kingdom is just a small, insignificant one? Do you dare to see that your part, your cup of water, is of vital import to the King of Kings? The smallest gift or action done for God has impact on His Kingdom. And there is our key, are you doing for God what God has assigned for you to do? If you are, nothing is too small, nothing done for God is insignificant. If you are doing things for yourself, even amazing impacting things, your work will amount to nothing of value to the Kingdom. Let us be Kingdom builders, though we may be just needle craftsmen, let us be those who build into the Tabernacle of God.

To read Ex 26 in its entirety click on http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ex%2026&version=NIV