Is God With You?

God With Us

¹² Behold, God is with us at our head, and his priests with their battle trumpets to sound the call to battle against you. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your fathers, for you cannot succeed.”  (2 Chron. 13:12)

This passage was written at a moment when Israel was going to battle against Judah.  Abijah, the king of Judah at the time, tells the Israelites they can’t win because God is with Judah.

Now I’m sure both sides believed their gods were with them.  Israelites has turned from God and sought after other gods.  Judah had stood firm under Abijah and were strong in their belief God was with them.

As Christians, we often wonder if God is with us in what we do or want to do.  Sometimes we feel as though our prayers don’t reach past the ceiling. We feel alone, cold, dry. As a result, we start to doubt our path or even our relationship with God. We want that emotional high, that closeness, we sometimes feel with our Lord. Somehow, emotion equates with closeness in our minds, but is that so?

The United Pentecostal Church is a cult.  They ordain their pastors simply by the standard of apparent personal anointing.  As a result, they have had some pastors who have not reached puberty before being ordained.  They also have not been careful to test the teachings of the pastors against the Word. So long as the pastor raises great emotional response in the congregation during the service the requirements have been met. The result is an emotion based organization without God.

Emotion is a good thing in its place.  How can we not be elated if God touches our soul?  However, dependence on emotion or experience rather than God’s Word is not of God.  We’ve all had times when we are overwhelmed by God’s presence during worship, study, or prayer.  God will certainly bless us in this way at times. But, is that emotion something to seek in place of God’s Word and clear instruction as an indicator of God’s presence in our lives? No. We seem to need both, but God’s Word, of course, is the ultimate standard.

So, this leads us to how we can know if God is with us.

The disciples walked, talked, ministered, and prayed with God Himself in flesh for three years.  Were they always on an emotional high?  Probably not.  Our God is a practical God.  He has given us instructions to follow if we want to stand in His will.  Yet we often seek other means. Paul tells us “16  ^aAll Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16)

So, if we ask if God is with us on our current path, waiting for an emotional validation is foolish when He has given us a standard by which to test our direction.

If we can’t find direction in Scripture that precisely addresses our question, we need to ask ourselves “Does this glorify God?”  If the answer is “yes,” we should push on in that direction until or unless God closes a door.

God can speak to us in any number of ways: dreams, visions, personal prophecy, the advice of others, and more.  But, the standard is always to look to God’s Word before stepping out.  Is it God’s will?  Does it glorify God? Is God with us?

Why is this important?

6 And they passed through the  ^aPhrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in  ^cAsia; 7 and when they had come to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; 8 and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a certain man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.  (Acts 16:6-10)

Here is a wonderful example of God’s direction.  Paul asked himself, “What can I do to glorify God?  Let’s go preach the gospel in Asia.”  God said He wanted Paul elsewhere, so He closed doors then gave direction.  God’s Word did not tell Him where He was to go, just that Paul was to go.

We often wonder if God is with us in what we are trying to do.  If we are trying to please Him and do His work, He is with us.  If He wants us somewhere else, He will direct us there.  The old saying Is true: “God can’t steer a parked car.”  We need to be moving for God to direct us.

As Christians, the emotional touch of God is not as often as we would like. Some will think their faith is dead or, at lest dry, if they don’t get that shot of emotion often. That’s just not how it works. Feeling no emotion, feeling dry, or alone are not indicators God is not active in your life. Are you praying? Are you studying your Bible? Are you serving?

We can never rest our faith on emotion.  Feelings can distract and sometimes misdirect.  We have a standard.  Let’s stand on that, God’s Word.