All The Right Moves“Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey.” (Numbers or Pekudim 9:22) In the 1983 movie All The Right Moves, Tom Cruise is a high school football player desparate for a scholarship who clashes with his headstrong coach in a dying Pennsylvania steel town. Tom Cruise may have all the right moves as in Mission Impossible, Rain Man, A Few Good Men, and he may have been Born on the Fourth of July, but the Bible says it is Risky Business for us to move unless God says so. In the Torah, God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, and they had to pass through the desert on their way to the Promised Land. God was their guide by means of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. When it moved, they moved. When it stopped, they stopped. Long before the age of satellites, they already had GPS, God Positioning System. Their ability to plan is totally gone. Imagine the temptation to move when the cloud did not move because we felt it was time to move. For the Israelites, perhaps the manna was no longer falling from heaven, the oasis was no longer green, the water was not easily accessible, the sandstorms were unbearable, or the snakes were biting. Whatever the case, they were strictly prohibited by God Almighty from moving if the cloud did not move. God is still the same today, and we are not to move for even an inch unless the Holy Spirit tells us to do so. We are not to close that deal, take that job, accept that offer or marry that person on the basis of whether or not it makes sense, but on the leading of God’s cloud in our lives based on the Word of God and the prompting of the inner voice of the Spirit. It is indeed difficult to move only when we are directed, and to stay put if we are not. The pressure is always on us to move, to plan, to act, to do something, and to go our own way like Fleetwood Mac. But if we act without God’s consent and prior to His timing, we will move into a place where the presence of God is absent. And where there is no God, we won’t experience the favor, the protection, or the blessing of God in our endeavor and there won’t be smooth sailing. As children of the Most High God, we must learn to move when God says move, for it is a sign of absolute surrender and dependence on His Holy Spirit to direct our steps. We must learn to trust God as we meditate on His Word day and night so we can build up our faith. Keanu Reeves may take us for A Walk in the Clouds, but if we want to be on cloud nine, we need to ask God if we are being guided by His cloud, and then learn just to trust and obey.Copyright © 2003 Eddy Ministries. All rights reserved. Subscribe/Unsubscribe: eddyn@earthlink.net
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