Every Day Should Be Moving Day
Rev. 4:1 1After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
One day the McDaniel Family was preparing to move. Everyone in the family was excited about the move. Dad was going to a better job making more money and working for a larger corporation. The eldest son was leaving for college and mom was getting a bigger house to decorate. Yes everyone was happy except for little Katie. This would have been her first year in Jr. High. At least here at their old house she would have here friends to help her make the transition from elementary school to Jr. High. But at her new home she would have no one. Excuse after excuse she presented but all to no avail she had no choice but to go with her parents. On the first day of school she made many new friends, she joined the band and there were some talk of nominating her to the student council. Wow may be this move wasn’t bad after all in Fact just maybe it was the best thing that could have happened.
Today I believe that many Christians hear the call of the Holy Spirit to move to a higher place with God, to mature more spiritually. And many ignore the call. Some hear the call very clearly and respond and others hear a faint echo since they have moved so far away from God. God is always calling us to move closer and closer to Him. Just like anyone of us would want our children to live near us our Heavenly Father wants His children to live nearer to Him also.
Prayer
Look at the following verses with me: Exodus 40:37 If the cloud was not taken up, they did not set out until the day it was taken up. Numbers 9:22 Whether it was two days, a month, or longer, the Israelites camped and did not set out as long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle. But when it was lifted, they set out.
A. Why did God alternate the length of time the Israelites stayed in one place before taking up the journey again, because He wanted to teach them and us a lesson?
a. He wanted to teach them how to get from prophecy to the promise land, from the dream to the reality or from faith to sight.
b. It was to teach them that on their journey through life they had to depend on God for their provisions, their protection, and their guidance.
c. And as we journey through life we are to be moving closer to God also.
i. We are to come to depend on Him for our needs just as the ancient Israelites had to depend on Him for theirs.
One of the lessons that was taught to the Israelites while wandering in the wilderness and we should learn from their experiences is that we are not to get to comfortable with where we are. That no matter how comfortable or convenient the place we are at today is not the place where God want us to finally end up. It is not the promised land.
A. Notice in these verses that God never sent an advanced warning that He was about to travel.
a. The Israelites had to be ready at all times to travel they always had to be in a state of readiness to change.
b. One of the greatest battles we fight is that of the familiar.
i. Even if a place becomes dry and desolate once we become familiar with that place it become home and it is very hard to leave.
ii. We are comfortable there and we don’t want to go anywhere else.
iii. But God calls us to ever be ready to move closer to Him.
iv. We need to move forward so that we can continue to mature in the Holy Spirit and to grow to be more like Jesus every day so that we can grow closer to God.
c. Moving is one of the most interesting things to be a part off. There is a process of ordered chaos that occurs.
1. Everything is chaotic- everything is out of place, the familiar is replaced with what seems to be confusion and disorder.
2. Nothing is convenient- nothing you want will be easy to get or find. It is packed on the bottom or we forget where we put it.
3. Another thing is when you begin to move you realize all the things that you have accumulated over the years some of which you no longer use.
4. It becomes a time when you shift and sift, throwing things out which is not useful and keeping all that is good. A lot that we accumulate at one place we did not need at another place. As we move closer to God we leave more and more things behind that we no longer need.
I don’t know about you but I have some things I am ready to leave behind, doubts, fears, discouragements, and disappointments. I am ready to leave some traditions that have no power and I am ready to leave behind some excess baggage that has been slowing me down. As we move closer to God we shed these useless items so that we can better serve Him.
A. Many times, moving is difficult because you are leaving the familiar , the comfortable, the normal.
B. We are leaving our jobs, families, acquaintances, our lifestyles, our experiences.
C. But we must move our faith closer to God. We must continue to grow.
D. God will provide new experiences, a new lifestyle, and new friends.
E. He will provide use with new experiences, a new lifestyle, and new friends. He will provide us with comfort and He will be familiar.
F. We are to enter the unknown with a familiar friend by our side. You see we don’t ever move alone because God always there to help us move closer to Him Rejoices in our moves.
Heb. 11:18 says By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
A. Abraham when he was called to move into the unknown stepped out on faith without knowing where he was going.
B. God is looking for more Abraham’s today. He is looking for those who will follow Him into the unknown.
C. Is. 42:16-19 Isa 42:17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods. Isa 42:18 Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Isa 42:19 Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant?
Is anybody ready to move on?
Is anybody ready to let go and let God Lead?
Is anybody ready to the unknown?
Is anybody ready to obey even when it doesn’t make sense to obey when it looks foolish, to obey and to go when every natural instinct says stop?
An African impala can jump 10 feet into the air and cover the distance of 30 feet in a single bound, but this great animal can be imprisoned for the4 span of its life behind a 3 foot wall, because it will not jump if it can’t see where it’s feet are going to land. It refuses to go into the unknown. Many Christians are like the impala they also refuse to go into the unknown. They are comfortable where they are at so they never grow more spiritually because they refuse to move closer to God.
A. To be blind means to that you trust God. To be able to jump when you can’t see where your feet will land is to trust God.
B. We must be willing to move even though we can’t see where we are going. Even though we can’t see where our feet will land we must be like Abraham and be willing to step out blindly on faith not knowing where we are going but trusting that God will lead there.
But why do we have to move? There are some things that want happen until we do move closer to Him. Things will not be revealed to us until we are ready for it. That should be our greatest motivation to move closer to Him. The fear of staying where we are right now should give us the desire to move closer to God. We should crave to learn more about God. We should have the faith to step out blindly and move closer to Him.
What about you is today your moving day? Have you moved lately?
