Take a Step

We want a real relationship with the Lord. Dear old brother Paul, do you think that man, an apostle of the Lord, do you think he knew the Lord? He worked some fantastic miracles. He wrote the majority of the New Testament, yet in Philippians he is crying out, "That I might know Him" (Philippians 3:10). Yet, with all that Paul moved in, he realized, "Man, I'm not there yet. That I might know Him. I count everything as loss! I count it all as dung! Even the good things, even the things that God blessed me with, experiences that I have had. I count it all as dung. I'm leaving it for a relationship with the Lord that I don't have yet" (Philippians 3:4-10).

Back in the Old Testament, after the children of Israel left Egypt under Moses, they journeyed from one place to another. Numbers 33 talks about the places where they stopped and camped as they were going through the wilderness on the route to Canaan. There was a cloud, which was a visitation of the Holy Spirit, and it rested over the tabernacle when they camped. While it was there, the children of Israel didn't move. As the cloud began to move, they would pack up and go with it, and they journeyed to such and such a place.

I looked up that word "journeyed" one day, and it meant a whole lot more than "journeyed". It means they broke camp; they tore the whole thing down and moved out to the next place! I tell you, if you want to move in God, don't try to carry any extra baggage with you. Break camp, tear it down, get you a new tent and move on! Don't build any houses. Tear down the old dwelling place and move on to the new one. Just step by step, step by step.

Does everyone know George Foreman? He was talking on the television today. I didn't catch the first part of what he was saying, but it didn't take me long to figure out what he was talking about. He said, "Take a step. Begin to do something. It may not seem like you are getting anywhere but take a step. Be consistent. One of these days, you will break through into everything." It is the person who keeps moving, keeps taking a step that breaks through.

"I'm not getting anywhere."

Take another step. Keep stepping. I tell you, it is so hard to break out of your old nature and the limitations surrounding it. But if you can break out of that and get into God, you can. Take a step, believe, move on it.

I came walking through the house, and Rebecca was listening to a tape while she was doing some sewing or something. I heard the person say, "It is very hard to get into the will of God, but once you get in, it is very hard to get out of it." I like that.

Have you had God deal with you that way? You start to get out of line a little bit and He has a way of pulling you right back in, nothing working right. I want that, don't you?

It is hard to get into the will of God, but I want to get in there and get locked into it. Jesus said, "The path of righteousness is a strait path, it's narrow, it is confining. Oh, but the broad path of religion, you can take all kind of stuff in there with you on the broad way with you, but the end is destruction and death" (Matthew 7:13-14). Religion won't do it.

Take a step and journey on into God.