Nearer and dearer!
Genesis 21:22”At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, "God is with you in all that you do.”
The nearer and dearer you get to God, the lesser would you fear your enemies! Hallelujah! Abraham shed his previous fear and spoke boldly to king Abimelech, after his relationship with the King of kings became strong, intimate, passionate, fervent and ardent! The secret of real happiness, real joy, peace and everything is to really, really get close to God! King Abimelech looked at Abraham and said, ‘I can see God very close to you and hence you are blessed in all that you do!’ That’s a profound statement from a pagan monarch!
Mathew Henry says, “If we keep close to God, God will keep us close to us.”
The times when I feel totally devastated and lonely are the times that I felt VERY CLOSE TO JESUS! He seemed so close to me! So close ….that I can just stretch out my hands and almost reach Him in heaven! During my initial walk with God and when I was too young in the Lord to bear the heat of persecutions, I would run to a corner and cry out to Him. Those days I always needed heavy anointing and real pampering from the Lord to soothe me and comfort me. The Lord would exactly do that. I would so enjoy His Presence that I would almost look out for another attack on me to run to Him! Almost like a baby I wanted to feel His touch and love, but as I started getting matured in the Lord, the Lord taught me to stand on the Word and not rely on emotions. Jesus was teaching me to believe His Word that He is always near me. Joshua 1:5 says, “……..I will be with you, I will not leave you nor forsake you.”
Friend, next time you feel lonely, loudly confess that God is near you and that you are not alone and that He cares for you and loves you. Remember these kind of negative thoughts are planted by satan. He loves to discourage people by making them feel lonely and unloved. Nothing is more damaging than these kind of negative thoughts. Never allow satan to take control of your mind, fill it with the Word of God and confess it everyday in the morning. It would do you good to confess Psalm 23 and Psalm 91 everyday in the morning.
Friend, getting near to Him means getting close to His Word! You cannot ignore the Bible and say that you love Jesus! Do you hear me? Some of you may find what I am about to share with you crazy and weird,; nevertheless I want to share my experience, so that I set a few on fire for God. Right in the middle of my work, I would be stirred to read the Bible, so I would wrap up my small Bible in a small cover and smuggle it into the rest room in my bank and I would read it there with tears flowing down my cheek. I would urge Him,’ speak to me Lord!’ He would speak so much that I just did not want to leave the place. After I returned home from work, I would wait for my children to go to bed (my little son was an infant then) and then again I would open the Bible and read it through the night. John said, ‘the Word became flesh. Jesus is the Word.
