I love the Clash! Enough of that, though.

Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.

I desire intimacy with my God. Being still in His presence is a discipline we all need to develop. It’s hard in our society, because we are programmed to go, go, go. We have to practice being still before God. Jesus had His times of being still with the Father. We need our times of quiet with the Father.

I can’t help but notice a progression, though. In the Old Testament, the Israelites had to be near the temple to be near God. His Law made it necessary to spend a lot of time in and around the temple to be in the presence of God. In the Gospels (the account of Jesus’ ministry on earth) the disciples could be in the physical presence of God in the person of Jesus. Jesus would spend time, usually before anyone was awake, being still with God. When the sun came up, there was work to do. The disciples had to understand this. They had to learn that when the world was awake, Jesus was going. If the disciples said, “Let’s take a couple weeks or a month and pray about our next step,” they would lose contact with Jesus, because He was going. This is where the Sabbath comes in. One day a week, we have premission, in fact we are required, to stop everything and be still with God.

Now, we have the Holy Spirit. He is fully portable. We have the ability to go and be with God at the same time. When I am on mission, I don’t have to stop and physically return to the temple or physically return to Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes with me. I still have to stop and abide with Him, but I can do that before the world wakes up. I can do that on the Sabbath. Is this why Jesus said we…

… will do even greater things than these – John 14:12

He has equipped us to be on mission and still be able to abide in Him. We need to prayerfully find that balance. There are times in my ministry when it’s easier to be still. I must relish those. There are times in my ministry when it’s hard to find moments of stillness. I need to protect those moments.

Should I stay or should I go?