Close to God....

We are called to stay close to God. When we speak of being close to God we are referring to continually being in his presence. Being in his presence should be the lifestyle of those of us who have accepted the lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. Being in the presence of God requires various spiritual elements that are part of the believer's life. The first element is our intimate time of prayer each day. As human beings we have spiritual struggles that turn into emotional struggles that we have to bring into the presence of God through prayer on a daily basis. Prayer time is the time where we discuss matters with God that we might not discuss in public. The time of prayer is the time where God strengthens and restores us through the power of the Holy Spirit that is manifested in us in that personal time of prayer . Psalm 34:4 says I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. We must seek the presence and power of the Holy Spirit and yearn for his work in us through the closeness that prayer provides us with God. The second important element to be close to God's presence is our congregational life. Congregating is a spiritual design of God so that all believers are united in the Holy Spirit, working to establish the Kingdom of God, save souls and strengthen and motivate one another to good works that please God. The church of Christ began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the feast of Pentecost. Each believer will be connected by the Holy Spirit to the body of Christ which is his church on the face of the earth. Everything that the Church of Christ does is designed by God to keep the children of God strong, united, ministered and filled with the presence of the Lord. Psalm 133:1 says look how good and how delightful it is for brothers to live together in harmony because there Jehovah sends blessing and eternal life. The Holy Spirit will put in us the desire to pray and to congregate. Keep in mind that the flesh always opposes us praying and congregating, but we no longer live in the flesh but in the Spirit of God. Romans 8:9 says that we no longer live in the flesh but in the Spirit if the Spirit of Christ dwells in us. To be close to God and filled with his presence we need time alone with God and time to congregate and be part of the body of Christ which is his church. God longs for his children to be restored, strengthened, filled with his Spirit and able to be a blessing to others. We have to beware of all the things in this world that want to take us away from a life of prayer and our congregational life. If we maintain a healthy life of prayer and congregating we will always be strengthened in God to face the situations that we will have to live on this earth without allowing anything to separate us from God. If we are filled with his presence and we are close to the Lord through prayer and a congregational life nothing can separate us from the love of Christ that is in Christ Jesus our Lord as Romans 8:35-39 declares. The third important element that has to be in the soul of the believer is to remain firmly in the perfect will of God. Romans 12:2 says do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, pleasing and the perfect will of God. In the perfect will of God is God's care for all areas of our lives. We have to take care of ourselves because the enemy of souls has strategies to entertain us, move us away from the will of God and then destroy. As long as we are in obedience to God's plan the enemy will not be able to touch our life, he can try, but he can only do it if we get out of God's perfect will. It is important to stay in God's presence, it is the only way to stay in his will. Prayer and our congregational life will always help us stay within what is God's perfect will for our lives. Prayer, congregating, and the will of God in our lives are the most important elements that we have to keep in mind in our spiritual life to stay close to the Lord. Stay close to the one who loves your soul, his name is Jesus and he has the plan for our lives that is perfect and one day we will see him face to face. Pray, congregate and stay within the perfect will of God.