In this piece, we want to look at something that I believe is going to be helpful, and we will start our meditation from the book of Exodus 33. There is something we want to learn and we will begin unraveling it from the book of Exodus chapter 33. We want to look at, “The Presence that Follows.” Exodus chapter 33, verse 12. Let see what the bible says. 12 “Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me.”
I am sure we have read this Scripture in the past, but I want us to pause a little here and think about what we thought. “Then Moses said to the Lord” See, Moses himself was saying to the Lord, “Lord God see, you say to me.” He didn’t say you said to me. If he had said ‘you said to me’, that means God spoke about it sometime in the past.
But he said ‘You say to me’ that means God was saying it. That is, God said it in the past, God was saying it and He was sure God was going to repeat the same thing. It is like God kept on repeating the same thing. Every time he prays, every time he sought the face of God, the word he was hearing from God was bring up this people. To as many as are reading this article, every time God speaks to you, God seems to be hammering on the same thing every time. And in your heart, you are like God you say to me.
Your own might not be, “bring up this people,” your own might be something else. And you are asking in your heart, Lord whom will you send with me? To bring up the people require me to go. Remember last week was, “Following Jesus.” When you follow that means you are walking, you are going, you are pursuing something. You are getting yourself busy with something.
Now you keep telling me your assignment is to do so and so. “Lord who will you bring with me? While I go, who will go with me?” Do we see that? He said, while I go, Lord I am not refusing to go, Lord I am not doubting that there is a need for me. The assignment of God for my life requires me to go, to be on a journey, to be on a move, to be busy on the appropriate assignment of God for my life. But Lord on this pursuit, concerning this business, this matter, who will go with me? Again, we can say, who will help me? Because on my own I can do nothing. Who will aid me, who will enable me?
Now let’s continue. He says, “Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way.” The man of God here, Moses was telling the Lord. He says, “Show me your way that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” In verse 14, He, that is, God said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
The man of God was asking God earlier, you keep telling me every time you speak to me, “bring up this people, bring up this people!” Lord you have not yet told me whom you will send with me. And God says the person I will send with you is what? My presence! You know when you use the word “whom,” it is not used for items that are not living things. You don’t use whom for table and chairs. So, when he was asking God himself, he was referring to a personality.
But because he was asking God for the personality, God told him the person that will follow you, that will go with you, is my presence! So, the question is; what is the presence of God? Remember God could have said, don’t worry I will go with you. Do we remember how the conversation started? The Bible says in verse 12, “Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, in other words, the Lord say to me. Then the Bible would have been ‘then the Lord said’ the Lord will go with you’. We could have read it like that. But there is something else the Lord wants us to understand that is, the reality for Moses that must become the reality for us too, God replied him and God said; “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.”
Verse 15 says; “Then Moses said to God, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” Do we remember the assignment of God for Moses? It says, you say to me, bring up this people. And Moses said, if your presence will not go with us, don’t bring us up from here. The assignment is that Moses may bring up the people, but Moses said God if your presence will not go with us, You! should not bring us up. A lot of things are joined together.
God was calling Moses for an assignment, and that assignment was simple, “bring up this people.” They are where they are today, bring them up to where they must be tomorrow. And Moses said, if your presence will not go with us, he didn’t say God, do not allow me to bring. Do we see that? He said God, do not bring us up. God was giving him an assignment, but he was saying God if your presence will not go with us, then God, don’t achieve the goal. Meaning that it was not Moses that will actually bring the people, it was God.
So, when God calls us, when God gives us an assignment, and it looks like there are certain things we are expected to do. In reality, we are not expected to do it, God is expected to do it through us. Lord if your presence will not go with us, if we will lack your presence, then do not bring up this people; don’t get this job done. Because what becomes of us as a people who are brought up without your presence?
Let’s continue, Exodus 33 verse 16, “For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So, shall we be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” By what? By your presence! Everyone on the earth was created by God, but the Presence of God is not manifest with everyone. So, the manifest presence of God with us, is what identifies us with God and it is what identifies God with us, it is what connects us with God, it is what bridges us and God. There will necessarily be a gap, a great gulf between us and God without His presence.
Do we remember what we are looking at? “The presence that Follows” Where we are and where God is, if the presence of God is not with us, then it will be a great gap. There will be no connectivity, no linkage, no direct link between God and us. God can’t reach out to us; we can’t reach out to God. So, as the presence of God is with us, we are connected with God.
In two places at least in the New Testament, Apostle Paul was referring to the Holy Spirit as the seal, as the guarantee; as the seal upon our lives. We have seen that what can separate a people from people, a nation from a nation, is the presence of God that goes with the people. So, when the presence of God is not with a people, we can quickly qualify or identify them as a people who are not of God.
Those who are of God and not of God, they don’t have two heads. You don’t know if somebody is of God simply because the person is beautiful. You can’t say somebody who you think is ugly, God is not with the person, that is not how to know. You can’t say this person is God’s person, this person is not God’s person. The only thing that identifies a nation, a people, a group as God’s people or as not God people, is the presence of God with them.
Now let’s see something in the book of John 14, verse 15 to 18. “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper.” Where is the Father? In heaven! When Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray, He said in this manner you shall pray; our Father not in America, He said our Father in heaven. Do we understand? So, it is very easy to know where the Father is. The Father is in heaven, and where are we? We are on the earth. And there is a Scripture that says as the heaven is far or higher than the earth, so my thoughts, higher than your thoughts. So, my ways, higher than your ways.
So, we know that the heaven is very high and very far, how then can the heaven and the earth be connected? How then can the people on the earth be connected to the inhabitants or the creatures in heaven? How then can God speak in heaven and you who is seated somewhere on the earth will get to know it? How do you get to know the will of God for your life? How do you get to know that this that you are doing, you are not supposed to do it? How do you receive strength from God? How do you get corrected when you go wrong? How do you find direction from God? How does God who is in heaven speak to you on the earth and you hear it?
I don’t know how many of us can go to a very far place and we speak and people are hearing us here, is it easy? Is it possible? But there is a means through which we connect through the Father. Don’t forget, our focus is the presence that follows. Now if you are on the same spot, you go nowhere, you do nothing, can something follow you? There is a reason to follow because there is a movement away. If all you do is that you’ve been with the Father, the presence of the Father does not need to follow you, the presence of the Father is with you.
But it is because you are going on a mission, you are going in pursuit of an assignment, there is something somewhere you need to get done. There are a people that you need to meet. Three are messages you need to deliver, And so, you need to get away from where the Father is, to where the people are. You need to get away from where you are to where the job needs to be done. That is why you need an accompanied presence. Otherwise, you could have settled with the Father and you enjoy the presence of the Father with you. But since you are going on a mission, since you are going on an assignment, there is something you want to go and do. In year 2024, you want to do something. In December, you want to do something. By tomorrow, you want to go and do something. There is a people you are going to meet. Because of that, you require a presence to follow you.
Let’s look at that John 14 very well again. John chapter 14, from verse 15, it says; “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father,” so we’ve settled it, I will pray the Father, who is in heaven, and He will give you another Helper.” The Father is in heaven and He will give you another helper. The helper will not be in heaven, do we agree? If the helper will be relevant to you on the earth, then the helper must be with you. How much help can I be to you if I am away from you? But see what Jesus said, He says, I will pray the Father and He will give you. Whatever has been given to you means you have received it. You could feel it, you could handle it. When you get home you could talk to it, or you could lay your hand on it.
If I give you my Bible and you successfully receive it, I can say I have given you and you can say you have it. And then it becomes yours. Whenever you need to read the Bible, you can open it. You don’t need to open it in the Spirit so to say. You open it physically, you can see the bible, you can read it. Why? It has been given to you. So, Jesus said I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper. He says, that He may abide with you forever. He doesn’t leave you. You gave your life to Christ 22 years ago; He is still with you now. Why? Jesus gave Him to you from the Father. And He is not in your life for nothing, He is in your life to help you.
If you have no need, you will not see Him. It is when there is something to be done, and you suddenly realize, incase you are a forgetful person, you suddenly realize there is a helper with you. Sometimes we invite Him into our lives, He is with us. Jesus said, He will abide with you. Except we want to change this Scripture, He will abide. Abide means, He will live, He will dwell. He doesn’t sleep nor slumber but in a manner of speaking, He will be resident, He will be accommodated in you.
So, the only thing you need to do is to talk to Him. If I am living in your house and you never speak to me, you never greet me, you never communicate, you never share your burden with me, I can be there for donkey years but you may never benefit from me. So, there is a responsibility for us to acknowledge the presence in us, to converse with the presence, to relate with the presence, to ask questions from the presence, and to seek the help of the presence. What you are doing is not an extraordinary, a supernatural, earth quaking thing, you are just relating with who is in you.
Somebody can say if I talk with the Holy Spirit today and I talk with Him tomorrow, hope He will answer me the third day? He will keep answering you even if you come to Him one thousand times today. Let us not be apologetic, let us not pity the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, I will send to you from the Father the helper. Even though He helped you yesterday, He has not lost the sense of help, or the strength of help. He can still help you today. His help does not diminish with time. It is not like a man’s strength that waxes cold. His strength does not diminish.
As long as you acknowledge, you are not alone, He is there to help you. So, if there is something you need to get done, may it be in your family, it could even be in your finance. Anything you need to get done, it could even be with mathematics, the helper can help you. He can help you to solve your problems. It says; “That He may abide with you forever.”
In qualifying the helper Verse 17 says; “The Spirit of truth. That’s the helper. The person is the person of the Spirit of truth. The bible now says, Jesus speaking, whom the world cannot receive. There are some words I want us to meditate on now. He said, whom the world cannot receive. Do you know why? Because the world does not see Him nor knows Him; but you, you know Him, for He dwells with you and He will be in you.”
That is not where we are going. He says, the world cannot receive the help. The world cannot receive the helper. So, the world cannot be helped by Him. Why? Because the world does not see Him. And then it says, the world does not also know Him. As if the prerequisite for the world to benefit from anything in this world is that they have to see. You know they say that, “seeing is believing.” For the people of this world, the people of this generation to believe something exist, they have to see it.
It has to be something they have to subject to empirical research. You helped me yesterday, there were some things I did yesterday, if I can do it again, you will help me tomorrow, it doesn’t matter whether I just stole money or I just drank something, or I just killed somebody, as long as I can do one or two, three things, you will always help me. So, since the world cannot see the helper, the world does not know the helper.
If you don’t know the helper, you do not know how to enjoy the helper or how to be helped. But see another important part. He says, “But you know Him.” The Bible did not say ‘but you see Him’. Look at the word. They cannot receive the helper, why? They do not see Him, neither do they know Him. But you know Him! Jesus did not say but you see Him. And that would have been a great problem for many of us. Because we could have told ourselves, since Jesus said but you see Him. And you are like wait a minute, I have never seen the helper. I just left my house now. And Jesus said He abides with you and I have never seen. So, since I have never seen then I don’t have. Jessus did not say you will see the helper; Jesus said you know Him. The question is, how? That’s another thing. Don’t forget the world believes what they see. What do you believe? If the world believes what they see, what do you believe?
What is the central message of Christ? What is the central message of the kingdom of Christ? When the Bible says, the just shall live by faith. The world believes what they see, what do you believe? Is it what you see? How did the Bible describe faith? And let’s go over it again. In the book of Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” So, you have not seen it, yet you have an evidence. So, how do you get the evidence?
Before we go on, there is a Scripture that will help us. Let’s look at Romans 10 verse 14, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” The first part of this verse says how shall they call on Hm in whom they have not believed? We are looking at this; the world believes, but they believe what they see. Now the Bible says and how shall they believe? That’s the crux, that’s the question we are asking. How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? So, there is an alternative to seeing for believing. And what is that alternative now?
Let us continue. It says; “And how shall they hear without a preacher?” And that is where we come in. Verse 15 says; “And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,Who bring glad tidings of good things! 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17 So then faith,” that thing that we explained initially, that we said now, faith it is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now it says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
So, while the world believes what they see, you are expected to believe what you hear. And you are expected to believe what you hear from God. So, going back to where we were in John 14, Jesus said, “the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit.” The helper that comes from the Father, because the world does not see Him, and the world does not now Him. But you know Him. The question then is, how do you come to know Him? Don’t forget, Jesus said the world does not see Him.
Do you have four eyes? Are you peculiar by your eyes? Jesus said, the world does not see. So, let us give it that you don’t also see Him. But the Bible says, but you know Him. I don’t want to say Jesus assumed. But it was not an assumption, it’s a declaration of faith. It is a declaration of what He knows. Jesus said the world does not know the Holy Spirit, but you know Him. The world does not see Him, you don’t see Him. What is your difference? You hear Him.
Jesus said, my sheep, they hear my voice, the voice of a stranger, they will not hear. So, what is it that shows that you are a follower? It is that you can discern the voice of your leader, of your master and you are able to follow what you hear. Many of us and many times, our challenge is not lack of hearing, we don’t believe what we hear.
There is a place in Exodus where God was not happy with a people and He said if there is any prophet among you, I the Lord, I speak to such a prophet in dreams, in visions, but not so with my servant Moses, I speak to Him face to face as a man speaks to his friend. But let’s say the man is a prophet of the Lord, God says I speak to Him by dreams and visions. Let’s say you have had a dream and you have seen a vision, even though you have seen a vision, you didn’t see the Holy Spirit, what you have seen in the dream and in the vison is a sum of what you’ve heard. The question is, when you woke up, when you came to yourself, did you go about believing what you heard, what you saw or you immediately abandon it?
What will determine how greatly helped we have been and we will ever be is how great our belief of the things we hear. Jesus said, the Holy Spirit will speak to you, when you are sleeping, He will speak to you, when you are awake, He will speak to you, but when you come to yourself, do you abandon what you heard or do you follow it? Some of us have had experiences of the Holy Spirit talking to us about ourselves, you were sitting down on your own and you began to hear words and the words were describing you and you were smiling, saying this thing can only be God. You know you are hearing something. But how many of us have developed that capacity to hear the something?
How many of us begin to obey the little things we heard from the Holy Spirit. Or how many of us continually resist the Holy Spirit? There was a generation that resisted the will of God. How many of us continually resist what we hear? God keeps speaking to us, we keep refusing it. And then we keep wondering how comes we keep making mistakes, even though we are believers, are we not expected to have the Holy Spirit? The person that we never follow, the same person that we never listen to!
So, as we are looking at the presence that follows, it is important that we understand the meaning of the following, it is because we are on a go. It is because we are pursuing something. God has sent us from one point to another, one people to another, one place to another, and as we go away from the Father, the presence of the Father accompanies us. When the presence accompanies us, the presence will not be visible to us yet the presence must be heard, the presence must be believed. So, when we are inside storm and the presence is telling us, peace be still. And you are like, there is no reason for anybody in his normal senses to be peaceful in this place, this is problem oh! All of us are going to die. What is the declaration here? It is a declaration of doubt.
The presence is speaking to you and you believe it and confess what you hear. You don’t confess what another presence around is saying from outside the window. Because sometimes it looks as if, even though we have the presence of the Holy Spirit with us, we still hear the voices of other spirits. They are not that close even though you hear them, they are talking from somewhere. But many of us have been choosing the voices from outside the window to the voices from within us. That is why that song says; “Out of my belly, shall flow rivers; rivers of living waters, eya eya eh…,” talking about an expression of God coming out of us, coming into the world.
So, that means the expression of God came into us, and since He came, He has been staying in us. But do we celebrate him, do we hear Him, do we obey him, do we follow Him, or the voice of a stranger speaking from outside our fences, speaking from outside our job, speaking from outside our ministries, are they the ones that guide us? Are they the ones that create fear around us? Are they the ones that give us a sense of hope? When they say, don’t worry you will smile tomorrow, indeed we will go home, we smile. Or when they don’t say anything, and the presence is telling us even though things are difficult now you will smile in the days to come. Do we believe what we just heard now or we believe nothing. Don’t forget we said, the outside voices are saying nothing.
The inner voice is telling you don’t worry be happy, things will be alright. But you say, I am not hearing anything from outside, whatever I am hearing from inside must be completely inappropriate. And now the voice from inside has been frustrated by us and we are hearing voices outside, run, run get out of this place never stay here, wherever you are now get out of here, you are going to die. And we begin to run. What are we telling the presence that is with us?
Don’t forget the presence is a person. Are we telling Him that we regard what we hear outside to what we hear from Him? Jesus said, but you know Him. How do you know Him? He keeps talking to you. He tells you about Himself, He tells you what He has as a plan for you. He tells you what your days ahead will be. He even tells you about your weakness and how you must treat them. He tells you, He shows you the things that are not correct with your temperament that you need to work with. He shows you how your life is not currently aligning with God’s perfect plan for your life and the things to do. And He jokes with you. He shares some funny jokes about your life with you. And you smile. You cannot claim ignorance of the person that speaks to you.
Jesus said, you know Him, and the reason is, that He dwells; yesterday He was, today He is, tomorrow He shall be. He dwells with you. He said, I will be with you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.
There is a place in Hebrews I also want us to read. Hebrews chapter 12, from verse 18 to 24, “For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.”
Let’s jump to verse 22. It says; “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”
You have not come to a mountain, but you have come to mount Zion. There is a place you have not come to, there is a place you have come to. You have not come to insignificance. You have not come to littleness. You have not come to scantiness. You have come to mount Zion. You have come to innumerable company of angels. When you see yourself, you see one boy, one man, one woman, but you have come to innumerable company of angels. Those are the presence around you. The presence is not one person, it goes with the large company.
Sometime ago, when President Tinubu became president, he went to Lagos and some people started sharing the video of the entourage of the president. For many minutes, more than 50 expensive vehicles followed him. And people were like, in this time that petrol is not available? There is no money. People said, there is nothing the president can do, he can’t go alone; everybody wants to follow Him. That is the President of Nigeria, who is nothing in Africa, nothing in the world. How much more the one who created the entire system called the universe? He doesn’t go alone, whether it is 12:00pm or 12:00am, when you see yourself, don’t see yourself as one man, you are with the presence. You are not alone.
When an army invaded the place where Elisha was, and the servant of Elisha was afraid, and Elisha prayed that God should open the eyes of his servant. When the servant eyes opened, he saw that the mountains were filled with chariots of fire, then he realized that those who were with them were more than those who were against them. Until our eyes are opened, we think we are alone yet we are not alone. We are with a helper.
Jesus said, I will not leave you as orphans. The basic explanation of an orphan is somebody who has no father and mother. There are degrees of that state. Some people don’t even have siblings; so they exist in isolation in the world. Jesus said I will not leave you in isolation. I am going to leave you with another helper. And as you engage him, you will know yourself that you are not alone. All the struggles of your life that you have been trying to carry all alone, then suddenly know that you don’t have to carry it all by yourself. There is an helper that you can call unto and say help me, I need your help. If you don’t help me, I will sink, if you don’t help me, I will fail, if you don’t help me, I will run, if you don’t help me, I will fall. I will commit mistakes, I will commit errors. Help me!
We need to pray that God should help us, that God that is with us should help us. The presence of God that is with us should become visible help for our lives. Our marriages cannot continue the way it is without the help. The help has been with us, let us not have the help for fun and for nothing, let’s engage Him.
