The Davidic hearts are crying out with the same conviction today as David had many years ago when he spoke to the elders of Israel???. ???Let us bring the ark of God back to us???. 

 

The state of the church has been a matter of concern to so many.  In a bid to rid the church of so called perceived evil, many structures and programmes are being instituted by Christian organisations.  In search of answers to seemingly age long problems of the church, Christians are fulfilling Daniel???s prophecy, which says ???people will go to and fro??? in search of increasing knowledge.  I remember the Lord speaking to me about the state of word church in Britain at the beginning of 2005 revealed, ???for five years My people have worshipped knowledge???the knowledge of man???.  So the celebral church has lost the essence of true worship of God and in its place we have substituted the worship of man.

 

The Lord was speaking to me only days ago after reading a prophetic word by Wendy Alec of GODTV Network that spoke of the glory of God departing from Britain.  The word resonated in my spirit especially as I was in the middle of my fifth series on the topic ???Bringing Back the Ark???.  The Ark being a symbol of God???s glory, I could relate to the word the Lord had entrusted in the spiritual hands of Wendy.  The Lord began to reveal that the church had a generation of people who did not know what the glory of the Lord meant, felt or how it is embraced. In essence the church now has a whole generation of people who are not inspired to hunger for something their spiritual taste buds had not been conditioned to experience. A generation of people exist today who have been brought up on the glory of man, of flesh and vain glory.

 

A generation of people sit in churches across the globe that have no knowledge of the true presence of God. They are cajoled by a sweating, over worked worshipper leader, keyboard tunes and bass guitars to worship the Most High God.  Sunday after Sunday they sit in Church, caught up in sin, all manner of sin, adultery, fornication, lying, cheating, thieving, pornography. They sit waiting to be set free from bondage to sin but the Pastor at the front himself under the ???ELI SYSTEM??? of worship is doing his best to keep the ball rolling despite the dimness that has beset his spiritual eyes. Such a leader operating on residual knowledge and anointing is not able to declare under a strong prophetic unction the presence of adulterers, fornicators, liars, thieves in the service.   The ???sin challenged??? brothers and sisters are dismissed at the end of that week???s service with a wave of the hand that says inadvertently ???go and sin some more???. 

 

When the glory of God departs from a place wisdom demands the people of God recognise the absence of God in manifestation in their midst. Recognition of missing elements in our lives (worship) will cause us to seek the Lord for restoration.

 

David, the man after God???s heart declared, ???In my distress I called to the Lord, I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice my cry came before Him, into His ear??? (Ps 18:6)

 

The church must begin to seek and hunger what has been lost. We have allowed the flesh to rule in the house of God for too long despite clear warning from the word of God that ???No flesh should glory in His presence??? (1 Cor 1:29)

 

Prophet Jeremiah warned, ???It is not for man to direct his steps???

 (Jer 9:23)

 

The Spirit of the Lord revealed believers had substituted the worship of God for the worship of man. In the absence of the true glory of God, the ???substituted vain glory??? had taken over many Christian services It is not uncommon for a church service or conference session to constitute largely of ???story telling??? instead of ???bible exposition???. 

  

We have a generation of Christians that are intolerant to sound teaching, glancing at wristwatches when a teaching mantle stands at the pulpit to give the word of God which King David considered more important than his ???necessary food???.  Their ears are only conditioned to ???persuasive words of human wisdom??? negating thereby ???demonstration of the Spirit???s power??? (1 Cor 2:4-6).  The worship of the flesh invites glory of the flesh which leads to spiritual death. But Apostle Paul speaking in opposite spirit of the norm in today???s Christian circuits stated,

 

???And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power??? (1 Cor 2:4).

 

The presence of God bears witness in a ministry or life of a person that carriers His ark. David knew all too well the folly of leading a nation without the presence of God. He recognised the nation had conducted its affairs outside of God???s direction and knew all too well failure was the end result of rebellion.  The church must come to the same realisation of the futility of running programmes and events   based upon man???s will.  As said, the Spirit of the Lord is seeking to make Himself known to a generation of people who have no teaching or experience of His presence.  So important is God???s presence to those who know Him that Moses cried out,

 

 ???If Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here??? (Exo 33:15).

 

Moses was referring to the exodus out of Egypt; which today represents the spiritual captivity many experience without even realising. Moses was focused on his commission to bring the children of Israel out of slavery to Pharaoh and the task masters of Egypt. He was ???result oriented??? so he knew it was pertinent for the presence of God to go with them.  We must humbly emulate Moses, crying out to God for His divine direction rather than encircle the same spiritual mountains for forty years. The church can no longer afford to substitute the worship of the Holy God with the worship of man.  It will take purposeful engaging with our primary assignment to make Jesus known to all, to reverse the trend of focusing on ???man???.  We must all cry out  like Moses did,

 

 

It is time to bring back the ark, the presence of God into our lives and gatherings.  Our temples must be cleaned out to host God???s presence not in a visitation but a habitation.

 

Obii Pax-Harry

August 2005