If you remember nothing else about this book, please remember this chapter. Although all that you have read until now is very exciting, what makes it all happen is contained in this chapter.
Our relationship with God is the key that unlocks everything that is His best for us into our lives. It is the key to every successful ministry. We read in Psalms 84:1-12:
How lovely is your dwelling-place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young - a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They grow from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty; listen to me O God of Jacob. Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the lord God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good things does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.
In the Old Testament the presence of God used to be always in the temple. Today as a New Testament Christian, you and I can pray anywhere. In the Old Testament, they had to turn towards the temple - the dwelling place of God - to pray. The sons of Korah who wrote this beautiful psalm declared that God's dwelling place was lovely.
One burning question I am often asked is: "How do you measure the spiritual maturity of a person?" There are so many ways to gauge someone's spiritual maturity, but what I usually look for is the amount of time he or she can spend in the presence of God alone. The greatest challenge for a Christian is not praying in a group - it is praying alone! I know so many who make up their minds to pray for an hour every morning. They start off at 5 a.m. praying fervently and zealously, but when they think they have prayed for a very long time they discover that only five minutes have passed! They begin to wonder if their clock is demon-possessed!
Someone who can pray alone with God is a person who can pray in a group. Your group prayer should be the result of your personal prayer. Praying as a group is absolutely vital, but it can't take the place of your personal time with God.
Jesus spoke to every individual when He said that unless they took up their cross and followed Him, they could not be Jesus' disciples. There is no doubt that Jesus was talking about each individual's personal responsibility. Each of us is responsible for keeping up his own walk with the Lord.
In that passage in Psalms, the sons of Korah are looking at the presence of God in the temple and saying: "How lovely is your dwelling place, Oh LORD Almighty." But it's the next line that catches my attention: "My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." If you are a Christian and have tasted the love of God then your soul and heart cannot help but cry out for God's presence. Whether you pray or not is one thing, but every child of God most definitely yearns for and desires the presence of God.
Yet when I read this verse, I was staggered! I could understand the sons of Korah writing that their souls yearned for the presence of God. I understood that their hearts cried out for the presence of God. But what I found totally mind-boggling was that they said their flesh cried out for God. The Christians that I know don't have too many problems with their hearts or souls, but the flesh is a different story!
Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 26:41: "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."
It is the flesh that stops you from praying. Every one of us would like to rise early in the morning to seek God's face. But when the alarm actually goes of, everyone else in the house will be woken up and get out of bed except the one who set the alarm! Yet the sons of Korah stated that even their flesh yearned for God. That means that if we had been around in their days, we would have seen the sons of Korah dancing and singing and running around, and if we had stopped them to ask where they were rushing off to, they would doubtless have proclaimed exuberantly: "We're going to a prayer meeting!"
Whenever a church leader calls a day of prayer and fasting, he's fortunate if a handful of people turn up, but if he announces that there's going to be a church picnic or camp, then the members are out in force.
Why is it that we struggle so much to be alone with God, yet the sons of Korah could truthfully say that their flesh longed for God?
If I can only discover the secret of why they said that, maybe I shall then be able to say with them that my flesh longs for God. They had obviously experienced something that drew them into God's presence and made prayer such a delight to them. These men were denied access to the holy of holies that could only be entered by the high priest - and he only once a year - yet their flesh was absolutely desperate to be in God's presence. If I can only transplant some of what they had into my life, then prayer will become a delight to me too.
The sons of Korah observed that the sparrows were able to get right into the holy of holies and build their nest on the altar, lay their eggs there and see their young hatch. So they were actually envious of the sparrows. Verse 3 says:
Even the sparrow has found a home and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young - a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
They considered the sparrows blessed because they were dwelling in the presence of the Lord Almighty along with their whole families. The sons of Korah knew the value of being with God alone and also the value of being with the family in the presence of God. If we have tasted the joy of being with God alone, then we will enjoy being with God along with our families too.
We, as New Testament believers, can meet and talk to God anywhere, anytime. Unlike the sons of Korah, sometimes we have treated this awesome privilege very casually.
The question still remains as to what they found in the presence of God. I want you to pay close attention to what I am going to share now. I can assure you that the devil doesn't like it one bit! So, how do we know whether a person has spent time with the Lord or not? Let's see what happens when we spend time with God. Look at verse 4:
Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.
The first and foremost quality that develops in the life of a person who spends time with God is that he will be a man who is always praising God. It is not just about entering His gates with thanksgiving or His courts with praise, but about living a life of praise. Having a "praise lifestyle" is possible only when we dwell in His presence daily.
Many a time you may have gone to a meeting and found the worship very dry. Many people even blame the worship leader, accusing him of not coming properly prepared to lead worship. The problem is not with the worship leader, but with the worshippers, because they do not have a habit of spending time with God alone daily. If we are among those who spend time with God alone, we can arrive at a prayer meeting and just soar into God's presence.
Praise is a cure for the greatest curse that besets a Christian - grumbling! We learn in 1 Corinthians 10:10-12:
And do not grumble, as some of them did - and were killed by
the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you
don't fall!
Grumbling and murmuring opens the door for the devil to come into our lives. The church or family where you hear a lot of grumbling is very prone to satanic attack.
The Israelites were professional grumblers. They bleated about the food and living conditions in the wilderness. And they moaned about Moses, questioning his authority as their leader. Never grumble against the leadership that God has placed over you. If they are in the wrong, go and speak to them and with humility. Make your point clearly, but do not complain.
Submission is an attitude. Obedience is an act. Leadership here may mean your husband, your parents or your leaders in the church. We are even disgruntled with God sometimes. But we can overcome grumbling by praising.
Once my wife and I discovered this secret, we began to encourage each other to get into the presence of God more and more. So whenever I think she has put too much or too little salt in the curry, I don't moan but I try to say "Hallelujah!" instead! I have seen how our family life is blessed as a result of being with God alone on a regular basis.
It's time for people to walk closely with the Lord and become mature so that they can minister to someone else in the church. It's time people spent time daily in God's presence, which will help them to grow up spiritually, so that they don't still need to feed on milk and look to the leadership for advice on every little problem. Stop grumbling and start praising!
The lifestyle of praise is possible when we dwell in the house of the Lord. Paul said in Philippians 4:4:
"Rejoice in the Lord always..."
Now you can imagine the reactions he got from some of his readers in Philippi: "No way! How on earth can anyone rejoice all the time? Paul must have been half asleep at night in his prison cell when he wrote this. He probably meant 'rejoice in the Lord most of the time'."
The Holy Spirit knew that there would be some bright sparks who would contribute comments like this, so He inspired Paul to write: "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. "
Spending time in God's presence also gives us strength. Verse 5 says:
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
In the presence of God is the strength of God. Speaking for myself, I know that I am very weak on my own. But Jesus said in John 15:5:
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
Jesus is telling us straight: "Don't attempt anything without me." Knowing my weakness, I can say with Paul: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I know I need the strength of God in my life on a daily basis and I can receive it by spending time with God alone. Isaiah 40:31 promises:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (KJV)
That phrase "wait upon" in the Hebrew has so many meanings, one of the most beautiful being, "to be bound together as one".
Now if I try to smash up some equipment, say a microphone, but have nothing stronger than refill from inside a pen to do the job, I wouldn't have much success. But suppose I tie the pen refill firmly to an iron rod as thick as a baseball bat and then smash it into the microphone? It would make short work of breaking it, wouldn't it? How did the refill get the strength to break the microphone? Was it the strength of the refill or the strength of the rod?
They that wait upon the Lord shall be bound together as one with the Lord. I know 1 am weak, but when I enter His presence and spend time with Him, a divine exchange takes place. When we wait upon the Lord we renew our strength which means we exchange our strength. My weakness goes and His strength comes in, so when I come out from being in God's presence, I am bound together with the Lord. Then I can boldly say: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
So when I am asked, "Rambabu, what is the secret of your ministry?" I have to explain that it is what happens when I get into God's presence. The Rambabu that goes into God's presence is different from the one that comes out. The secret lies in being with God.
Look again at that wonderful promise in Isaiah 40:31. You too can have the strength of God enabling you to soar like an eagle.
But don't be ignorant of the fact that the devil is very concerned with whose strength you are moving in.
The Bible tells the story of Samson. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Samson was a muscular man. The strength of Samson lay in the anointing of God upon him. The Bible clearly states that before he tore the young lion apart, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. He was no Rambo or Mr. Universe with heavy triceps and biceps.
Samson was anointed and used by God to judge the people of Israel. But he had one big weakness. His heart was so accommodating that he fell in love with any woman he saw and found a place for her in his heart! He kept on falling in love until it destroyed him. He could not stop himself. Maybe you have a weakness which you have not taken seriously. You are feeding it again and again, thinking it won't harm you - but one day it will destroy you too.
One day Samson was with Delilah (his weakness). His
enemies persuaded her to lure Samson into their clutches
by telling her the secret of his great strength. My friend, the
enemy is interested to know the secret of your strength.
Some people's strength lies in their money, some people's
in their job, their business, their church, their own abilities
or their ministry. Everyone's strength is in something
different. Samson did not tell Delilah the secret of his
strength, but kept lying to her as day in and day out she
pestered him to tell her his secret. (Judges 16:16):
"And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death." (KJV)
Finally Samson snapped and blurted out that his strength was in his hair. But I want you to take a closer look at where Samson's strength lay — was it in his hair or was it in his God? Sunday school teachings have attributed far too much to the hair of Samson. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God told him his strength was in his hair. Samson was a Nazarite. Now a Nazarite was not permitted to drink strong wine or take a razor to his head. He was lulled into a false sense of security, believing that as long as he had this long hair everything would be fine. So he told Delilah that his strength was in his hair, and Delilah got Samson to sleep and called the enemies to shave his hair off so that his strength went from him. We read what happened in Judges 16:20:
Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought 'I will go out as before and shake myself free.' But he did not know that the LORD had left him."
In the past God might have used you and me, even though we lived in sin, never prayed or read the Bible. That was because of His grace. But just because He did it in the past we cannot take His grace and goodness for granted and think He wil
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