Then the Lord said to Moses, “You and the people you brought out of Egypt must leave this place. Go to the land that I promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I promised them that I would give that land to their descendants. So I will send an angel to go before you, and I will defeat the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. I will force them to leave your land. So go to the land filled with many good things, but I will not go with you. You people are very stubborn. If I go with you, I might destroy you along the way.” -Exodus 33:1-3
Then Moses said to him, “If you don’t go with us, then don’t make us leave this place. -Exodus 33:15
Now the people of Israel were offered the promised land without God. All of the good things promised by God would be theirs, the only catch was that they would have all of those things and not have the presence of God. For many today that sounds like a great deal. We desire health and wealth and are willing to sacrifice the presence of God to get it. Many want the Kingdom without the King. We want to be rulers of this Kingdom. Our greatest desire is to be God. That sounds much like the issue in the Garden of Eden. The power to control nature, control society and power to control all of our life is our greatest desire.
However, for Moses. All of that is as nothing if he did not have the presence of God. For the Spiritual Leader that too must be our statement. “If you don’t go with me, I WILL not go.” I really want this job, success on this project, a relationship, a lifestyle or this home. But they are as rubbish if I don’t have you Jesus. Our flesh wants comfort and ease of life. But our soul desires a relationship with God. Give your soul what it desires.
To get in the presence of God we need to be deliberate about inviting Him into our day. Start your day by laying out your plans and ask God if this plan matches with His. If it does not, adjust your plan to match His. You might have a brilliant plan, it might even work. But if you don’t do these things His way you might be birthing an Ishmael.
You remember the situation. Abram was getting old, his wife was also past the age of being able to conceive children but there was this promise of a son hanging out there. Abram was declared in Scripture as a man of faith. He had persevered in faith longer than most of us would have endured. Yet nothing had happened. Then his wife had an idea of how to make this thing happen and they went with it. The result was Ishmael. The result was conflict in the middle east that exists even today.
You, Spiritual Leader, wait on the Lord, adjust to His plan and move forward with your life with the presence of God. Jesus, if you are not going with me, I will not go.
