“‘Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,’ saith the Lord.” Haggai 1:8
Dear Ones:
Ecclesiastes tell us: “To every thing there is a season, and a TIME to every purpose under the heaven.” (3:1) In the history of Israel, after a brief delay in the building of the second temple, there was a TIME which had come to build the house of God. When Moses stood on the edge of the Red Sea, after crying out to God for deliverance from the Egyptians, the Lord spoke these words to him: “‘And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Wherefore do you cry unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they GO FORWARD.'” (Ex. 14:15) There is a time to pray, and a time to worship. There is also a time to go forward. Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord commanded the people of Israel: “Go ye forth of (from) Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans with a voice of singing.” (48:20) When Israel was wandering in the wilderness, after leaving Egypt, there came a day when the Lord told Moses, “you have compassed this mountain long enough: TURN YOU northward.” (Deut. 2:3) From venturing forth from Egypt, to doing so in the wilderness, to leaving Babylon to building the second temple, we are faced with the fact that there is a time to rise up, go forward. The prayer has been made, and faith has taken its stand. The Lord’s word to the heart has come, and now is the time to move, to go forward into that endeavor, or to that place, where He desires to reveal His glory. The Lord had told Ezekiel to “…arise, and go forth into the plain,” with the promise, “…and I will THERE talk with thee.” (3:22) It will be in response to the Lord’s word, that Ezekiel would relate: “I arose, and went forth into the plain: and behold the glory of the Lord stood there.” (v.23) What is the point of focusing on the matter of going forward? It is this. When we go forth, forward, in the will of God, regardless of the difficulties or opposition, the promise of God is that He will meet us, and reveal Himself to the heart. Over and over again in Scripture we find that He IS that very present help in trouble, and that He will lead, instruct, and teach us in the way we should go. He does so in order to reveal Himself to our hearts, and through our lives. Moses saw the Red Sea divide. Peter saw the impossible occur as he walked on water. Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord. And the children of Israel who returned from the exile saw the blessing of God on their endeavors to rebuild the temple. The “glory” of God was seen. When there is obedient faith, there is the manifestation of God’s faithfulness.
How are we to apply this matter of “going forward” in the Lord’s time and in the Lord’s way, to see the Lord’s glory? E.G. Cherry writes in his great hymn: “We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling, and needing more each day Thy grace to know: Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing; We rest on Thee, and in Thy name we go.” “Going forward” in faith is a specific commitment to believe God in every and all circumstances. It is practically applied by giving Him access to those circumstances in prayer. But it does not stop there. Beyond the taking of the position of faith, there is the maintaining of the attitude of faith, “…trusting also in Him.”
Dear Father, give us to be those who this day LIVE by committing all to Thee, going forth IN FAITH, believing as we GO that You are faithfully going before. You will certainly strengthen, guide, bless, encourage, inspire, and meet us in a multitude of ways, that Your will, will be done on this earth. We praise and thank Thee, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad