Taking time to be with God will reveal wonderful things.,,,
Watching some of the streamed meetings at this year’s Elim Leaders Summit through the much-appreciated ministry of the ‘tech people’ who made it possible, I was greatly impressed by the ministry of several speakers who laid emphasis on our need as a movement to deepen our relationship with God himself.
It is easy for us to become so absorbed in our work for God that we neglect our walk with him. Our prayer times can become more like committee meetings where we ‘talk shop’ rather than being times of communion where we ‘forget about ourselves and concentrate on him and worship him’.
The Lord Jesus recognised that danger when, after a period of intensive ministry, he urged his disciples to ‘come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest’, (Mark 6:30,31; cf. Matthew 11:28-30).
There are times when we need to shut the office/workshop door, switch off that intrusive phone, and come out into the fresh air of the hill of the Lord, observing the rules of spiritual mountaineering (Psalm 24:3-6) and standing alongside God as he speaks through his Spirit-inspired Word. Take, for instance, how the Lord describes the ‘Landscape of Grace’ (Psalm 36:5-10). Although the psalm is attributed to David, it is actually an inspired word which flows through the Holy Spirit from God’s mind into David’s, making this painting really God’s!
Let your imagination roll with his as he paints the sky (verse 5), whether you visualise it as great cumulus clouds sailing across a morning sky or as the awesome beauty and perfect order of a starlit night.
Then he paints a mountain range, its massive peaks towering heavenward as symbols of his exalted righteousness revealed in the giving of his Law on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:12) and his astonishing acts of judgment and mercy throughout history.
Another feature is added to this masterpiece, this time a ‘seascape’ (verses 6 and 7). The Lord portrays the mysterious depths of a great ocean washing the shores of the world in daily tides of ‘unfailing love’. Yes, there are times when grey seas storm those beaches, but there are many days when gentle wavelets whisper the peace of God. So Paul exclaims: “Oh the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and his ways past finding out,” (Romans 11:33).
The ceaseless brushwork of the divine artist continues to add more details to his landscape (verses 7-9). First, a lovely close-up of a nesting bird spreading her wings round her brood, a symbol of protective, watchful tenderness; then a picture of a great house set in parkland where sparkling fountains rise and fall, and a lovely river wends its way.
But this is no ‘private estate’. Its gates are wide open to the ‘general public’, offering hospitality from its abundance to ‘whosoever may come’ because it represents the gracious goodness of God.
That is how God ‘sees’ himself and his kingdom in the context of ministering to the needs of his world; but we won’t be able to share that view unless we make time to climb the hill of the Lord and stand in the ‘secret place of the Most High’, seeking the help of the Holy Spirit and praying with the psalmist, “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your Word.”
And we won’t see them unless we pay close attention to what God is saying, verse by verse, and unless we use our imagination prayerfully and seek to understand and apply to ourselves what the Word and the Spirit are saying. That’s what it means to take time to be with God.
From Direction Magazine issue 239
