go for a walk

"at the Lord's command they encamped, and at the Lord's command they set out." (numbers 9:23)

the context of the above verse is this...the israelites are in the wilderness after God used moses to deliver them from egypt. God has told them how the tabernacle is to be handled and moses talks with God regularly in the tent of meeting. God places a cloud over the tabernacle. during the evening the cloud looked like fire. whenever the cloud lifted from the tabernacle, the israelites would set out, and whenever it settled, the israelites encamped.

after reading this i began thinking about how marvelous it must have been to be in such close communion with God. i mean, can you imagine being moses and audibly hearing God's voice? and then to see so clearly what God's will was. just watch the cloud. up it goes, let's start walking...down it settles, let's stay here a while.

how i yearn for that cloud sometimes...not just to clearly see God's direction, but to rest assured that He is intricately involved in every decision i make. i so desperately want to be intentional about making God-oriented decisions.

craziest thing about this though is that i AM in communion with God. thru Christ, God is closer than the nearest tent of meeting. i can feel Him in my mind and in my heart, moving around, cleaning up shop...believe me, there's a lot of cleaning to do!

my experience.

this may not be how God works with you, but let me tell you how i tend to know He works with me. it has everything to do with the verse, "since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."

i will feel a slight prodding of my heart to do something (take a step). it may be something as small as a hunch, but i feel it and i know i feel it. it's the Spirit urging me to do it, and i can resist (stay here), or i can act (step). if i act, i become more sensitive to the next time i'm prodded to do something, but if i resist, i become slightly more calloused--largely because i stop trusting the "hunch". it will be a little harder to feel it next time.

like a dance. the first time two people dance together, there's a lot of toe stomping (at least with me), but after a lifetime of dances, i think they'd both be a lot more sensitive to the other's movements. the slightest nudge of the hand turns into an intricate and beautiful twirl across the wood floor.

i'm hoping that after a lifetime of keeping in step with the Spirit, i'll be a lot more sensitive to its movements.