Positioned For Presence
Two paddleboats left Memphis about the same time, traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. As they traveled side by side, sailors from one vessel made a few remarks about the snail’s pace of the other. Words were exchanged. Challenges made, and a race ensued. Competition became vicious as the two boats roared through the Deep South. One boat began falling behind because of insufficient fuel. There had been plenty of coal for the trip, but not enough for a race. As the boat dropped behind, an enterprising young sailor took some of the ship’s cargo and tossed it into the ovens. When the sailors saw that the supplies burned as well as the coal, they fueled their boat with the material they had been assigned to transport. Lightening their load, and renewing the fuel needed to keep the ovens burning, they won the race. But at what price?
Positioning your self to enter into the Presence of God’s Holy Fire will cost you everything – even your life. Dt. 4:11-12; 33;36 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick gloom. And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the voice of the words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.…Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you heard, and live?…Out of heaven He made you hear His voice, that He might correct, discipline, and admonish you; and on earth He made you see His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.
Repeatedly Moses positioned himself to be consumed by God’s Holy, Fiery Presence: Ex. 34:2 Be ready and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain. Although Moses was never physically consumed by God’s Fire, his sinful nature was. Numbers 12:3 states that Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.” And we know from Scripture that as Moses’ sinful nature was consumed his physical countenance began to glow with the Glory of God. Moses positioning himself to meet the Lord was more than an attitude. It also involved his willingness to go the extra mile to meet with the Lord. His efforts in hiking far outside the camp, ascending and descending the mountain on numerous occasions, demonstrate his faith and humility. When we read the Scriptures regarding receiving answers to prayer, healings, or miracles – often times their manifestation was the direct result of their willingness to go the extra mile to position themselves to receive. Personally I can recount numerous times of seeking the Lord for an answer to prayer that eventually led to my going the extra mile to meet with God to hear His response. Often I’ve prayed, and worshipped way beyond the limits I had set upon my worship; far beyond Sunday only Christianity. There is an unusual, and mysterious passage of Scripture that most have turned into a formula for answered prayer that I believe points way beyond our 2 dimensional understanding. It’s found in Mt. 17:21 And He replied to them, This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting. Preceding this verse Jesus states something that sounds preposterous. He states that we could speak to a mountain to be uprooted and cast into the sea. Seeking to draw near to God is more of a mountain than many want to face. The truth and question that this text is asking, even requiring a response to is this: How bad do you want an answer? Are you willing to pray persistently? Are you willing to go to extra lengths in order to see it manifest it’s reality? The praying and fasting Jesus emphasized in this passage wasn’t a “one and done” formula for answered prayers. Not at all. It was a lifestyle of praying, fasting, and tossing into God’s Fire the cargo of our lives in order to win the “race.” Are you positioning yourself to receive the manifestation of Jesus’ Fire; seeking to see Him; to meet Him on His Mountain?
