“Wait, I say, on the LORD!”
Communing
with God requires patience—waiting. This fruit of the Spirit1 - patience - this action of faith - waiting - seems more like a non-productive, inactive, waste of
time. This feeling of impatience - waiting for someone or something to happen - results when we expect communication with God to be
like our communication with each other—instant information and direction on
what to do next.
Communing with God is more than talk, more than
information, more than hearing a voice inside our head. Communing with God is
the most intimate aspect of your relationship with Him. Communing with God
occurs in your heart. Your divine purpose here on earth is to commune with God.This
is why “God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself;
male and female He created them.”2
Why does communing with God require waiting?
Moses, who is considered one of the most prominent, ancient prophets to
communicate directly with God illustrates this during one of his most memorable
encounters:
Then the LORD
said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you
tablets of stone…” Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered
the mountain. Now the glory of the LORD
rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh
day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud… So Moses went into the
midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and
forty nights.”3
What do you
suppose Moses did during the six days prior to going into the midst of God’s
presence? Please allow me to put this scene in the context of our daily life
today—Moses was not spending this time planning activities for when he returned
to his people in the valley. He was not conducting business on his cell phone
or using his laptop wireless Internet connection to search for the best buy on
eBay. He was not watching a movie on his hand-held DVD player. He was not busy
establishing his camp or making provisions for his stay on the mountain.
Although, it is not written
what Moses did during these six days, knowing the character of Moses and his
fear of God, that is, his reverence for God, what follows is what I imagine
took place—Moses waited. But, waiting does not mean inaction. Moses did do some
very important preparation during this time of waiting. He prepared his
heart. In those days, it was the custom to sacrifice animals as an offering
to God to cleanse them of sin. God’s
first instructions to Moses were those of heart preparation—
Then the LORD
spoke to Moses saying: “Speak to the
children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it
willingly with his heart you shall take My offering.4
God desires that you prepare your heart as you wait
for His presence. What does God want us to sacrifice today? We do not offer
animal sacrifices; this was the practice under the old covenant. With the new
covenant, sealed with Christ’s atonement for our sins, we are to sacrifice our
desires of the flesh, the motives that come from living for our “self”—the
activities that lead to self-realization. We are to replace this, give it up,
and sacrifice it for the divine joy of knowing Jesus.5 The apostle Paul writes of this in his letter to the
Philippians after he lists his credentials, his status in the flesh, the
results of his own work—
For we are
the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the
flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more
so: circumcised the eighth day, of the
stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning
law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the
righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
But what
things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also
count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as
rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in
Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and
the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being
conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from
the dead.6
Essentially,
Paul says to lose it all for the joy of knowing Christ. What is “knowing”
Christ? Knowing Christ is the “power to
understand” Him. Paul brings clarity to this mystery, explaining—
And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home
in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil
of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as
all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love
really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will
never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life
and power that comes from God.7
To know Christ is to know the love of Christ. We know and understand that this love is in our hearts
after we prepare our hearts sufficiently to commune with Him, to receive Him
into our “sanctuary” - the temple of our bodies - to allow Him to dwell within us. “Do you know that you are the temple of God
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”8 Paul writes in his letter to the Christians at
Corinth. And this is just what God
instructed Moses to do after his people gave Him a sacrifice, to prepare their
hearts for His presence—
“And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell
among them.”9
With the new covenant - Christ’s resurrection
from the dead and His ascension into Heaven - God gives the free gift
of the Holy Spirit -
to those who believe through faith - to dwell in His temple—our bodies. He asks us to
prepare our hearts for Him, His presence as the Holy Spirit. Communing with God
and experiencing His presence requires preparation. This is what Moses
accomplished on Mount Sinai while waiting on the LORD
for six days. Moses was prepared to meet
God. He met Him on His turf, in His timetable, for His purpose, and for His
glory.
The practical steps that you must
take to commune with God deal with the preparation of your heart. David acknowledges this when he asks God to
search his heart and to lead him in the “way everlasting”—
Search
me, O God, and know my heart;
Try
me, and know my anxieties;
And
see if there is any wicked way in me,
And
lead me in the way everlasting.10
David
prepared his heart with these standards for living:
Lord,
who may abide in Your tabernacle?
Who
may dwell in Your holy hill?
He
who walks uprightly,
And works righteousness,
And speaks the truth in his heart;
He
who does not back bite with his tongue,
Nor does evil to his neighbor,
Nor
does he take up a reproach against his friend;
In
whose eyes a vile person is despised,
But he honors those who fear the LORD;
He
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
He
who does not put out his money at usury,
Nor does he take a bribe against the
innocent.
He
who does these things shall never be moved.11
David
opened himself making him available to God for examination:
You have tested my heart;
You have visited me in the night;
You have tried me and have found nothing;
I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.
Concerning the works of men,
By the word of Your lips,
I have kept away from the paths of the destroyer.
Uphold my steps in Your paths,
That my footsteps may not slip.12
David
cried out to God with his voice and his heart:
Hear, O LORD,
when I cry with my voice!
Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
When you said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”13
David
waited for God to respond:
Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!14
And
God responded:
“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will
deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”15
Waiting
on the LORD is your time for preparation. Prepare Him room in your heart by
crying out to receive Him. He wants you just as you are right now. Let Him find
all of the dark areas of your heart as He searches you with His Redeeming
Light. Let him wash your heart with His Cleansing Hand by letting Him have all
of the bitterness that has festered from the wounds of past hurts - a devastating
divorce, the loss of a loved one, a financial fallout. Receive the comfort of
the Holy Spirit - living water with which you will thirst no more
for the darkness you gave up for His Light.
—Anointed king at age 16, David did not become king until he was 30.
Praise to Our Father for the
words He has given me. ~Jeff Cambridge
Written July 10, 2004
Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2016
Stellar Rhema Ministry, Jeff Cambridge
References
1. Galatians 5:22
2. Genesis 1:27
3. Exodus 24:12,15,16,18
4. Exodus 25:1, 2 italics added
5. Chambers,
Oswald, His Upmost, July 11, Philippians 3:10
6. Philippians
3:3-11 NLT
7.
Ephesians 3:17-19 NLT italics added
8.
1 Corinthians 3:16
9.
Exodus 25:8
10.
Psalm 139:23-24
11.
Psalm 15
12.
Psalm 17:3-5
13.
Psalm 17:7-8
14.
Psalm 27:14
15.
Psalm 91:14-16
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