Vigilantly Guarding HIS Presence

"Eli was waiting beside the road for the news of the battle, for his heart trembled for the safety of the ark of God." -1 Samuel 4:13

    In 1 Samuel 4 the Philistines had stolen the Ark of the Lord from the Israelites. This soon did not bode well for the Philistines and they soon realized they had to get rid of it. In the midst of this we see Eli, young Samuel's mentor, as he awaits the results of the Israelites taking the Ark to battle. Eli was a man of God. He was a priest in the Temple, so by vocation and nature of heart, he was consumed with the presence of God. In these days of the Old Covenant, the priest was still the mediator for the people and God, he knew how precious it was to be in the presence of I AM. We even read at the beginning of chapter 3…

"Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were uncommon." -1 Sam 3:1

    This is just another testament to the passion with which Eli must have upheld his position. I have heard it said that you should guard the presence of the Lord in your life above all else. Do not let anything come between you and your relationship with God. We need to not put our image, our job, even or passions above God. He is at work in all of those, yes-but spending time with him must be FIRST and all else is overflow. Here, the priest Eli had his heart trembling for the safety of the Ark. Not the safety of his friends in the battle...but the Ark that was Holy and contained the Presence. Eli trembled for it…when was the last time you trembled at the loss of one hour you could've spent in the PRESENCE?

"…And the Ark of God has been captured. When the messenger mentioned what happened to the Ark, Eli fell backward from his seat…He broke his neck and died…" – 1 Sam 4:17b-18

    The PRESENCE of God was such a defining aspect of Eli's life that when that element of who he was, he died. His life revolved around this mystery known as the PRESENCE, and he anxiously awaited its return, but when he heard of the disastrous turn of the Battle, his life simply had no reason to continue on. Just as Moses did, so did Eli's heart cry go up to the Lord of Lords "if you aren't with me, than I don't want to go on from here!?" This is the heart cry our souls should wrench from our bones-GOD WE NEED YOUR PRESENCE TO live! Don't you see our very purpose stems from interacting with the God of the universe in his presence? Not only did Eli tremble at the lack of the PRESENCE but he died once he realized it was would no longer be in his life. His PRESNCE is life.

    We take the free access we have to God's PRESENCE for granted. When was the last time you ached over not having God's presence in your life? How many weeks have you let pass since you had a heart connect with the One Who Holds Your Heart? Do you even know what he went through to allow you to enter freely into his PRESENCE? The church today is a sickly bride; she is happy for the name change but doesn't want to spend the needed time to get to know their new husband. They use his money and stay a room away from him. We need to let our bodies ache with hunger for our God's presence. We need to tremble at the mere possibility of something getting in the way of our time with the I AM. We need to tremble to be near him.

    As the Philistines began to realize they needed 'rid' of the Ark we see an interesting dynamic. Those who welcomed the PRESENCE for what is was were blessed; it was a life giving source. But in juxtaposition the presence of god is too Holy and glorious for any sin to surviving the midst. In one town 70 men peered into the Ark out of curiosity. This brash treatment of holiness of God got them killed. God is a holy God and he cannot tolerate being treated as nothing more but a door mat.

Today the veil has been torn yes, we can enter freely yes. But today we stand in front of the torn veil and bow our heads pretending to enter in, today too often we perform every ritual possible trying to be worthy of passing through. Today we treat the PRESENCE with disdain. Today we find it inconvenient to take time to dwell in the most holy PRESENCE and to wait on our God. It is time for the complacent, Bride to fight for the PRESENCE, to defend the PRESNECE and to vigilantly, jealously and rigoursly guard the PRESENCE in its life.

Oh that the people of today's church, of today's culture would raise the soul wrenching cry as the people of Israel did!!! The cry that raised that pierced the heart of El SHADI-

    "Who is able to stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God?' They cried.."-1 Sam 6:20

Do you hunger? Do you ache? Will you guard his PRESENCE in your life as if it WAS YOURE LIFE?