“The Lord went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night. And the Lord did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from its place in front of the people.” (Exodus 13:21-22 NLT)
One of the hardest struggles that anyone has is knowing what God wants us to do. Also we try to find out when God is saying to stay and when He is saying to move.
When we don’t know or when we struggle, is it God speaking? Is it family pressure? Is it even ourselves?
If we are not walking in the will of God we need to understand that God will not raise His voice.
If we are not close enough to God to hear Him whisper, then we will always be wandering in the middle of nowhere and wondering where God went.
God does not need to raise His voice to talk to the people that He wants to talk to. God says that if we are really interested in hearing from Him, we must move everything out of the way. This means everything that blocks us seeing God working. It means moving every barrier that blocks God from showing His leadership. It means removing every cover that hides His glory. It means getting rid of those things which are not conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ. If we are interested in seeing God’s pillar of cloud in the daytime and pillar of light at night we must clear the path for Him to show us.
So the first thing need to do is get everything out of our life that might be blocking us from hearing God.
We need to get rid of the stuff in our life that does not please God, does not honor God, and keeps us from hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
We cannot bring treasure in until we take the trash out.
God can’t bless a mess. To ask God to bless this or that before the barriers are removed blocks God from working out His plan. It is like putting grass seed, fertilizer and water on a concrete driveway and expecting grass to grow. It is not going to happen.
This may seem radical, but we need to realize that there are some things that God wants to do through us.
It may require a step of faith. It may even demand a leap of faith. A faith move is when we do not know exactly, specifically, precisely what God is saying. But we know that God is saying “JUST START WALKING AND I’LL SHOW YOU ON THE WAY.”
And there are times, moments and instances where God will not tell us in detail exactly what He wants us to do. But He is going to see if we will trust Him enough just to get up and move.
Let’s not misunderstand this. God was with His people in one cloud. It was not a pillar of cloud by day that went away and was replaced by a second cloud of light at night. No the cloud in the day became the light at night. It was the same cloud. There was not a difference.
God says “I may come in different ways but it’s still me. Sometimes I deal with you in the night one way; and the daytime of your life in another way. But it’s still me.”
Our problem is we have been looking to two sources. It’s me and you; me and the family; me and the job; it’s me and the Church. God says: NO…IT’S ME! SOMETIMES I’M YOUR JOB; SOMETIMES I’M YOUR MUTUAL FUNDS—BUT IT’S ME!
God can bless us through our job, through somebody else, through a stranger, or through us receiving a check we did not deserve or expect. BUT IT’S STILL GOD!
There are some people who believe that the Christian life should be an easy life. And yet, you and I know this isn't a Scriptural perspective. After all, Jesus told us to expect life to be challenging.
But one of the extraordinary aspects of our faith is learning that God's grace and presence are always with us… especially in the hard places. We see this so clearly in today's verse where we find the newly liberated children of Israel being lead in daylight by a pillar of cloud, and at night by a pillar of fire.
Do you know what these two pillars are? They are the same cloud. The same cloud that is there in the daytime is the same one that is there in the dark times .It is the majestic presence of God, what's known in Hebrew as the Shekinah glory of the Lord.
Can you imagine how comforting it must have been to look into the sky, by day or night, and see God's glorious presence leading you? Does God lead us like that? Well, He can and He does!
When we go through life's dry and barren places, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and on His Word. Step by step, we will discover the presence of almighty God leading us into all he has promised us.
Here are some important principles in seeking God’s leadership in our life.
• Be serious about wanting him in the driver seat.
• Trust him—even while going through the desert.
• When he tells us to do something—do it immediately!
Maybe someone is putting off that phone call or restoring a relationship. Maybe God is asking us to go to a place where we are not comfortable. Maybe someone is putting off giving in to God’s leadership.
Jesus promised never to leave us or forget us. God said the same thing to His people in the desert. God desires to guide us every step of the way in our life. But we have to let him. We must keep our eyes focused on the cloud, the Shekinah glory of God that is with us always.
Hello Again!!
7 years ago
