Today's reading: I Samuel 2, 3, 4; Psalm 22, 52, 82, 112, 142; Proverbs 22
I Samuel 4:3, "And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies." The ark of the covenant represents the presence of the Lord. You cannot just up and take the presence of the Lord with you wherever you go in the Old Testament economy. God would give the order to break camp and move and He had done no such thing. I Samuel 4:7, "And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore." Even the pagan people knew that this was not the "normal" practice of the Israelites.
It is my fear that today this is happening all the time. I think the reason we see the Church loosing influence and power is that Christians are doing things in the power of the flesh and not the power of the Spirit of God. In me is nothing worthy of being used of God. When I am filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit I can be mightily used. The children of Israel were doing things their own way by taking the ark without the leading of God to do so. They were doing what is called in the fire service as "freelancing". This is a deadly practice. You cannot do things your own way and expect to get the results that God has intended. It will not work that way. We must do things God's way, in God's time, in God's power with God's presence. Otherwise, it will not work. Ask the Israelites. They got spanked to say the least in the battle and it will be the same for you and I. If we are God's child and we disobey we can rest assured that we will be chastened.
Are you going with the presence of God?
