Watch out! The devil's watching you...

The last couple of months have been tremendous. God has been opening new opportunities for me to serve him... I went through an experience I thought would have crushed me but it just made me stronger and brought me closer to God... God has been ministering to me so beautifully through His Word. I was on a 'spiritual high'. And that's not all. My professional and personal life seemed to be soaring too.

Then suddenly, a couple of days ago, something happened... and before I knew it I was down in the dumps. I was actually asking, "Where are you, God?" (I know you're thinking 'how tragic!' and you're allowed to. It's not something I'm proud of anyway :p)

I desperately wanted to take my Bible and start confessing God's Word but instead of picking myself up and rising above the situation, I was lying on my bed and hoping God would miraculously make everything disappear. And you know what? He did... in His own way!

He spoke to me from the book of 2 Samuel that I had been reading the previous week. Here's what jumped out at me...

In the run up to David's love affair with Bathsheba,

• David was anointed king over Judah.
• He had danced before the ark of God with all his might, wearing just a linen ephod. And when his wife Michal despised him, he said, "I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this."
• God had given him victory over all his enemies.
  
• God had used him to show kindness to Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth.
  

David was definitely on a 'spiritual high'.

Then suddenly in Chapter 11... in a flash... everything came crashing down. What in the world went down there? Well, to put it simply, the devil was after David. He didn't like the idea of David being sold out to God. So he decided to keep David busy with something else. What David didn't realise was that Satan was out to get him and so he gave in.

If you are soaring on wings like eagles, be sure the devil is out to get you. He doesn't care about Christians who live defeated anyway. He's after you. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

So be on high alert! Resist him, standing firm in the faith... And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast! (1 Peter 5: 9-10)

Experiencing Bethel: Right Here, Right Now!

Have you ever been at a church service where everyone else seemed lost in worship (some crying, some slain in the Spirit) and you just couldn't seem to feel the presence of God in any dramatic way? You closed your eyes. You concentrated. You went on your knees. You tried everything but nothing seemed to work.

Well, here are some things that I have learned from my personal experience about the presence of God. And since I'm no expert, I've used Jacob's experience in Genesis 28 to give you a better understanding of what I'm talking about.

1. I cannot control the way God chooses to reveal Himself to me.

Everyone likes to feel God's presence in a tangible way. There was this one time that I experienced some very tangible signs of the presence of God. I smelled the aroma of God - something sweeter than I've ever smelt before, I heard a choir of hundreds of thousands of angels and I saw a beautiful vision all during a single time of worship. It was an awesome experience but that doesn't mean that all those things are necessary to determine the presence of God.

It's not my fasting and prayer, how loudly I worship or how much a cry before God that will invoke His presence. God does not reveal Himself when and in ways we think are appropriate because His ways are much much higher than ours!

God appeared to Jacob in a dream when he was least expecting it. For Pete's sake, he was on the run!

2. I can never associate God's presence with one specific emotion or place.

Experiencing God's presence doesn't mean I have to be weeping uncontrollably or be overjoyed. It also doesn't depend on whether I am in the confines of my bedroom, at a church worship service or on the street.

Jacob was escaping from his brother Esau after stealing his birthright. He was on his way to his mother's hometown when he stopped at a certain place - "no where in particular" - for the night. He was asleep with his head resting on an uncomfortable stone when he felt the presence of God!

3. I don't have to strive to feel God's presence.

When Jesus came to earth, He was Immanuel (God with us). God is with me right now as I write this post. I don't have to be reading my Bible, praying behind closed doors or listening to my favorite worship CD (although that would be great) to feel God's presence.

God's promise to Jacob was,"Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you."

God longs to be with His people. I believe that's what the ladder was all about. It was God coming to down to Jacob, not the other way around.

4. God's presence may be all around me and I may just not know it.

Sometimes I can get so engrossed in my daily activities during the week that by the weekend I can't wait to go to church on Sunday and just rest in God's presence. Granted, Sunday mornings are a great time to spend with God but that doesn't mean I can't do it during the week, even while I'm busy working. Just because I can't find too much alone time during the week doesn't mean God can't be part of my busy schedule.

Jacob wasn't seeking God when God showed up and that's why when he awoke, he said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." We tend to miss the presence of God when we are not expecting it.

5. God can reveal His presence to me in people I don't even like.

One of the most common ways in which God reveals Himself is through people. It's only when I start practising the presence of God daily that I will be able to notice this.

We may not like everyone in our own church, let alone everyone we ever meet. But we have to be willing to see God's presence even in people we don't like. After all, human beings are the primary carriers of the presence of God.

After God revealed Himself to Jacob at an ordinary place and an unexpected time, Jacob learned how to recognise God's presence even in the ordinary and unexpected. That's why when he meets Esau, he was able to see God's presence in his brother (his enemy for twenty years or so). He says to his brother, "For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably."

Our Bethel can be anywhere, any time. Let's not limit God or try to fit our experiences with Him into a box because if we do, we just might miss Him!

The Law of the Oatmeal Brush

This is an extract from the book God Is Closer Than You Think by John Ortberg:

Sin always has the consequence of damaging our ability to perceive God in the present moment. Consider, for example, the Law of the Oatmeal Brush.

For some years I have been trying to make each day an adventure in practicing God's presence. I try to direct my thoughts toward Him first thing when I wake up in the morning. On one particular morning I was getting ready to leave for work. I'd had oatmeal for breakfast, and after I finished washing my dishes, the white scrub brush in our sink was covered with oatmeal.

My wife asked me, " Are you done with this brush? If you are, it's be helpful to just whack it on the sink, get the oatmeal stuff out."

I was feeling defensive. I had actually been kind of proud of myself for washing the dishes in the first place. I didn't want someone telling me to clean the oatmeal brush.

So what I said was, "No, I'm not done with it." The reality is that the dishes were done. What was I pretending I was going to do with it? Brush the oatmeal junk into my hair? It wasn't just a lie - it was an unbelievably stupid lie. Even I couldn't pretend to believe it for a second.

But as long as I tried to maintain it, a strange dynamic was at work in my spirit. I had to muster up enough anger and hurt and pride to justify my deceit. I had to cut myself off from humility and truth. I had to say the prayer, "Don't look at me, God."

And as soon as I confessed the ridiculous truth to my wife, I could quit hiding.

The Law of the Oatmeal Brush is that every choice to sin - no matter how small - diminishes my capacity to experience God. Now, every morning when I see the Oatmeal Brush, it has become a kind of icon for me. It reminds me of how quickly I can go into hiding.

My Heart's Song

Caught in the half-light, I'm caught alone
Waking up to the sunrise and the radio
Feels like I'm tied up, what's holding me?
Just praying today will be the day I go free

I want to live like there's no tomorrow
I want to dance like no one's around
I want to sing like nobody's listening
Before I lay my body down
I want to give like I have plenty
I want to love like I'm not afraid
I want to be the man I was meant to be
I want to be the way I was made

Made in Your likeness, made with Your hands
Made to discover who You are and who I am
All I've forgotten help me to find
All that You've promised let it be in my life

- Chris Tomlin

The next level of HOLINESS 'with God'!

For years while I was growing up, I had this image of God as strict, immovable and swift to punish me for my sins. Almost like He was waiting with a stick in His hand, expecting me to mess up any minute. I guess that came from the fact that I knew He was so exceedingly holy and that He said, "Be holy, because I am holy." (Leviticus 11:44) and I was all too aware of the fact that I could never match up to that holiness of God!

Then during my teens, God had a makeover (in my mind, that is :p). He became a God who was forgiving, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, which I might add, is definitely true! But my juvenile mind inadvertently thought that this gave me the right to do as I please because Jesus' blood would wash me clean and restore me. What a sorry state to be in!

Yes, we can never match up to God's holiness but that doesn't mean we give up on "pursuing" it. It might seem like God gave us an impossible command - Be holy, because I am holy - but He doesn't expect us to do this on our own. It's His grace and strength that will enable us to live lives that are holy unto Him.

I believe that God is calling us to the next level of holiness 'with Him'. When we try and achieve this holiness on our own, our holiness is worth nothing. God wants us to rely on His Holy Spirit for this.

We'll never be perfect. Being holy is a ongoing process of chastening and pruning and is often not very pleasant. But remember, God chastens us for our profit, that we may be partakers in His holiness (Hebrews 12: 10).

So the next time, you find it difficult to give up something, or do something that God is asking you to, know that unless God disciplines us, we have no part in His holiness!