THE CLOUD

We Christians are certainly familiar with the following incident from the Bible: Namely, when God had led His people, the Israelites, out of Egypt, He continued to guide them on the right path. He did this through a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of cloud and fire by night:

"And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys." (Exodus 40:36-38)

So God showed Himself to His people through a clearly visible cloud by day and a pillar of cloud and fire by night. So His people knew exactly when to set out and when and where to settle down. Needless to say, the people of Israel in the wilderness had to follow these appearances, i.e. be obedient, if they wanted to continue to be led in the right way and at the right time by God. It was therefore necessary to pay close attention to what God was doing (through the pillar of cloud) in order to be in the right place at the right time.

We read about this event in the Old Testament, concerning the Old Covenant. Does such a pillar of cloud or such a pillar of cloud and fire also exist in the New Testament, i.e. in the New Covenant?

As we can read in the New Testament, through Jesus Christ and the New Covenant there is a much more effective way for God to lead His people perfectly even today, provided that the person in question listens and submits. For the New Covenant is no longer about a whole people being led together in geographical unity to one place, but about every single member of the body of Christ individually following God's instructions in obedience, according to the plan that Jesus Christ has worked out for each person.

God has an individual plan for each person - and in order for this plan to be carried out according to God's will, this person must also submit to God's will and plan without compromise and without excuses. Every single person who obediently submits to God's elaborate plan for them can be guided, trained and ultimately successfully utilized for the purpose and benefit of God's overall plan. But this requires obedience. Obedience has to do with listening and ultimately implementing what you hear in accordance with God's will.

Imagine what would have happened if all of God's people had not listened to God's instructions and had not set out when the cloud rose, or had not settled when and where the cloud had settled. Absolute chaos would have ensued and God's great plan would have been constantly torpedoed by disobedience.

Disobedience is when we humans do not do what God tells us to do. The Bible says in Psalm 139 that God has already written our whole life, all our days, in a book before there even was one. This means that God has already planned our whole life - and for our good, as the Bible says:

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

We only have to recognize this with our free will, which God grants us, and then move towards submitting to God's will and walking in His plan. It only serves us for the best.

What God said through Isaiah in the Old Covenant still applies today:

"If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land." (Isaiah 1:19)

It starts with the fact that we should be obedient to our parents:

"Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord." (Colossians 3:20)

It is also written in Titus 3:1:

"Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work…"

Just as Abraham was obedient to God (Genesis 26:5), we Christians should still be obedient to God today and follow the commandments of Jesus Christ:

"If ye love me, keep my commandments." (John 14:15)

However, this is only possible if we truly love God (Jesus Christ) - and this is a consequence of complete surrender to God through repentance and renewal of our spirit, our complete surrender of life to Him and the resulting filling with the Holy Spirit.

In Revelation we read about an ideal case of obedience:

"These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." (Revelation 14:4)

Does this not touch us? Should this not be the goal of all of us, the desire of all of us, the way of all of us, that we follow the Lamb wherever He goes?

Yet, how often do we go ahead of Jesus Christ, or alongside Him, or how often do we go completely different ways, as He has planned for us? How often do we decide from our feelings, from our carnal heart, from our lust, our eyes or our sinful will, just because we don't want to bow down, surrender to God's will and indulge our own lust, which is so short-lived.

We, who like to call ourselves "Christians", must learn obedience, because obedience is a consequence of the fear of God and the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). The fear of God and the resulting obedience has always been important to God (1 Samuel 15:22), as King Saul painfully experienced. But today, in modern "Christianity", the fear of God is frowned upon and swept under the carpet. And that in itself is already disobedience - and the consequences of this disobedience can be quite unbearable and cruel for the individual as well as for the masses, for a nation.

Has God not already prepared everything for us and not already chosen everything for our good? But often our fallen human nature throws a huge spanner in the works of God and ourselves and our disobedience in an important matter can even undermine our whole life. We who call ourselves "Christians" should always bear this in mind! God knows our lives, from the beginning of conception in the womb to our last breath. He knows everything, even our deepest thoughts and heart's desires. In the book of 1 Chronicles 28:9 is written:

"…for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts"

So why not hand everything over to Him and let His will be done, as it says so beautifully in the Lord's Prayer:

"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10)

Often prayed, usually not meant seriously. Unfortunately. But this sometimes results in considerable, sometimes irreparable damage to us humans! Many Christians have experienced this first-hand when they married the woman or man they thought was God's choice for them and yet they deceived themselves because they never surrendered their life, their will and their desires to God. They decided with their eyes, with their romantic thinking. For some, hormones decide the will to marry and some are also led by financial or power-hungry considerations to enter into a marriage. How many Christian marriages have failed and ended in unprecedented disaster simply because they did not give God their own will and did not let Him decide who they should marry. Yes, God's decisions are sometimes not easy to understand, but He always has the best solution for us, for every situation and for every life! We just have to surrender to Him, be obedient in everything and let Him conduct our lives - He has already composed it anyway, only if we want to play the first violin in our lives, then it won't be a melodious, harmonious and spirit-filled symphony, but a croaking, trembling screech that nobody wants to listen to.

Our obedience to God should not only apply to our choice of marriage partner, but also to everything else we think, say and do; indeed, our obedience to God applies to our whole life and all areas of it!

It is in our hands alone how the complete work of the greatest Master of earth and heaven will turn out. God, the Father in heaven, has already accomplished everything through His Son Jesus Christ, the works are written, the compositions of every human life are stylish, harmonious and perfectly thought out and written down in His book with the Holy Blood of the Lamb. Will we submit to the Master in the fear of God and obedience? Do we want our strings, as the most finely created instrument of God, to be played individually by the Master Himself, inserted into an overall orchestra of heavenly melodies? Are we willing to selflessly serve God together with the other brothers and sisters in the Holy Spirit? Do we want to be obedient in all, yes in all areas of our lives, just as Jesus Christ was an example to us?

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:5-11)

Dietmar Reichenberger, www.IMJC.world