Ken Gott
Exodus 33:1-3
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your descendants I will give it.’ And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
Gods covenant to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and His promise to their descendants was more important to Him than the righteous judgement that Israel deserved for their disobedience and rebellion. They themselves had done nothing to warrant entry into the promised land but God had spoken and given His word to their forefathers and that was unchangeable.
Deuteronomy 7:9
“Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments…
It’s the basis upon which those of old could stand before God and make their petitions known to Him
Look how Nehemiah opens his prayer…..
And I said: “I pray, LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants....Nehemiah 1:5-6
Also Daniel….
Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments…..Daniel 9:3-4
And Solomon…..
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; and he said: “LORD God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day….1 Kings 8:22-24
God honours his covenant promises that He has made to previous generations. It might be worth taking time in this moment to consider what promises still remain unfulfilled in your bloodline. Did God make promises to your grandparents or your parents regarding you, maybe even to a past generation who have long gone to glory, remember He is the God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations. Consider the blessings that have come upon your life, the open doors that have appeared before you, the divine encounters and the unexplained direction that your life on occasions has taken. Is it not the hidden hand of God causing the fulfilment of the blessings promised to a past generation?
As I look back over my life I can see that this hidden hand was at work consistently steering me along a path that has led me and continues to lead me into the fulfilment of His purposes, the God ordained destiny for my life.
What’s amazing is I didn’t personally seek it, pray and fast for it or even had to remind God of His promises to me - my grandfather Andrew Whyte died at the age of 35yrs from cancer, he loved God and experienced the manifested presence continually. On the night before his operation and knowing that he may not survive I have no doubt that he would have prayed. What he prayed was of course not recorded so there is no certainty about what I am about to share but he loved the Holy Spirit, I have his bible to prove it, so what if his prayer was something along these lines.
“Lord I don’t know what your will might be in relation to my time here on earth but should it be that it is your desire to take me home then grant me I pray this wish. Will you cause someone I pray in my bloodline to have within them my passion and my desire to see You move by the power of the Holy Spirit in revival”
Only God Himself knows what promises have been inserted into your bloodline that He himself is watching over to fulfil. Let faith take root in your heart right now believing that no matter what circumstances you are momentarily in, God has made a way of escape whereby you can move on into all those things that He has prepared in advance. Also remember this, that the blessings will always trump the disappointments.
Moses was given a deal by God and he could take it or leave it. The deal was that He would send one of His angel’s to destroy every enemy that stood in the way of the ‘Children of Israel’ entering into ‘The Promised Land’ however they would have to enter and inhabit without Him.
The terms were simple - follow my angel and he will lead you into the land, he will destroy every enemy in your path, you will then have the prospect of living a life of peace and prosperity for generations to come but it will be without my presence with you.
God Himself is going to do all the work, all Moses needs to do is to instruct the people to follow the angel and enter into their inheritance. He himself would go down in history as the greatest leader that ever lived, he would have a statue in every city square, his portrait would hang on every living room wall and he himself would live a life of unadulterated luxury with servants carrying out his every command.
What an incredible deal!! All it will take for it to become a reality is for Moses to enter a verbal agreement to the terms and say “IT’S A DEAL” and all that he had promised the people of Israel would become a reality.
You may know great success and church growth and even angelic visitation and even intervention but could you accept this without the presence of God? Sadly there are some who no matter what will take the success, fortunately Moses was not one of them, look how he responds.
Exodus 33:15
Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
In other words “If Your presence goes with us, then we have a deal”
Exodus 33:14
And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
The deal was made, no angel, no easy passage, no inheritance on a plate and you will have to fight and drive out all the enemies that oppose you, but you will have my presence.
What makes a person accept the presence above everything else? Why would Moses dig his heels in when offered free passage for 3million plus people into the promised land? The answer is quite simply this - once you have experienced the intimacy of His presence everything shifts from logistics to relationship, the love affair has begun, the heart has been captivated and nothing else can satisfy.
Song of Solomon 1:1-3
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
For your love is better than wine.
Because of the fragrance of your good ointments,
Your name is ointment poured forth……..
We are created for intimacy and God longs for it to become the passionate desire of our hearts. Adam was given instruction on many things - be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish, over the birds and over every living thing but the most important instruction and the one that made all the others work was that he accepted the invitation to meet with his Creator daily in the cool of the day in order that he could engage with Him in the walk of intimacy. Adam loved it and so did God, while that relationship continued the whole universe remained in perfect balance. The same is true of our own lives, balance is only achieved from the place of intimacy, get that right and everything has opportunity to fall into place.
When Adam made the decision to hide from the presence of God the equilibrium of his world was lost. Prior to this Adam’s heart was bursting with peace, love, freedom, passion, purpose and destiny now it only knew guilt and fear. The garden itself was no longer paradise but toil and sweat, nettles and thorns and the lion no longer lay with the lamb. It was definitely paradise lost but only because it was first intimacy lost one precedes the other. It was at this point that the first drop of blood was shed, which was an innocent animal killed by God himself. God had only been presented as the giver and sustainer of life now he becomes the life taker in order to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness which was symbolic of their guilt and shame. This would be the situation for the next 4,000 yrs, that is the innocent slaughter of animals by the priesthood in order cover peoples sins and shield humanity from the wrath of God.
That is until approximately 2000 years ago when God himself would once again step into time and enter paradise to kill and shed blood. This time it would not be Adam’s garden that God would enter but he would search His own paradise to seek an innocent lamb without spot or blemish and the only one worthy was His own lamb ‘The Lamb Of God’ ‘The Darling Of Heaven’ - Jesus Christ God’s only son. This time it would not be to cover sin for the next 4,000 years but cleanse humanity of all known sin for eternity.
The question now is - Why would God feel the need to do that? The answer is simple, for 4,000 years He had been starved of the intimate affection of His creation and if it meant in order to regain what was lost He would have to kill His own son, then it would be worth it.
Jesus paid the ultimate price for our salvation (eternal life) but also that we would experience the love of God at an intimate level
Once intimacy has been established then the lure of success and recognition has little value in the human heart.
Today you will hear many voices and you may not be certain of there origin, whether it be the human heart, the devil himself or the very voice of God, however to know Him is to know His voice.
John 10:27
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
Here are the contractional conditions, unless your presence goes with me then we don’t have a deal.