Prioritizing God’s Presence

A friend of mine recently posted a quote that I’ve been thinking about for a couple of days now. It says that we need Christians who prefer the secret place more than the public place and who love God’s presence more than the platform. It goes along with something I tell my son, “Your talent will get you on the platform, but your character and your alone time with God is what will keep you there. We live in a time where anyone who is gifted or talented can create a platform, get views and influence people. We’ve somehow elevated a person’s talent over their walk with God. I believe that’s why we have some of the best church services in the history of the world right now, but we’re having the least impact on the world in Church history. Prioritizing God’s presence matters.

There’s a story in Leviticus 10 that has always stuck out to me. The sons of Aaron, Israel’s first High Priest, offered strange fire before the Lord, and fire went out from the presence of God to consume them and kill them. Verse 3 says, “And Moses said to Aaron, ‘This is what the Lord spoke, saying: “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified”’” (NKJV). The “strange fire” has been talked about for a while, but the consensus is that God provided the fire in the Temple and these two sourced fire outside the presence of God. In other words, they used a human source for their fire and not a divine one. God reminded them and us that we must treat Him as holy and we must use Him as the source for our fire, talents and gifting.

2 Timothy 1:6 says, “I’m writing to encourage you to fan into a flame and rekindle the fire of the spiritual gift God imparted to you when I laid my hands upon you” (TPT). The way to keep that flame holy and to make it burn brighter is found in the secret place of God’s presence. It’s recognizing your talents are God given and the anointing comes by spending time alone with God. We can’t afford to bring strange fire before God by taking credit for our talents and receiving the glory that is due to Him. We must learn to separate the holy from the profane as mentioned in Leviticus 10:10. That distinction comes from knowing what’s from God, honoring Him with it and through spending time in that secret place with Him. We must prioritize God’s presence in our lives and offer holy fire to Him that recognizes Him as the source of that fire.

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