You may think I’ve forgotten about Pursuing the Presence of the Lord for our generation because I haven’t written about it recently. Be assured, I have not. I know summer is busy, people are out late or traveling. While I’ve cut back on the organized prayer to twice a week, I’ve not cut back on my private prayer. Every morning, when I take my worship walk, my thoughts turn toward Revival, in other words, to the Presence of the Lord in my life, the lives of our congregation, our church, and our community.
Last Tuesday I was alone at prayer. I started to cry, the burden seemed so heavy at that moment. I wasn’t doubting God was bringing Revival, I was crying out that if I am the hindrance to it, I would step away to see The Way blessed by God’s pastoral choice to bring it.
I had been walking around the inside of the church perimeter as I prayed, head down, eyes open just enough to keep me from tripping over something. As I rounded a corner at the back of the church I looked up … and saw the cross on the wall perfectly highlighted by a reflection of the sun bouncing off my car windshield through the church window. I was immediately overwhelmed with the Father’s love. I stood there staring at it for a few minutes, then as it started to move, I ran and got my phone-camera to record it. (The picture does not do it justice, as it had already begun to move and fade, and it was a brilliant light in the darker church that my phone-camera could not capture.)
I am not sure I can tell you what it all meant. I only know that at that one moment I knew God heard my prayer and that He was with me. I also knew that Revival was coming, that His Presence would grace us, no matter who is behind the pulpit. Be assured, I have no desire to vacate the pulpit, my heart is still firmly attached to The Way.
The writer of Hebrews has laid out a pathway for those who seek the Presence of the Lord. It’s a pathway that I desire to follow. “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God….” [Heb 12:14-15 NIV]
Amen.
