BLESSED BY THE PRESENCE OF GOD

PROCLAMATION

“The ark of God remained with the family of Obed-Edom in his house for three months, and The Lord blessed his household and everything he had.”  1 Chronicles 13:14 (NIV)

EXPLANATION
The ark of God was captured by the Philistines after a battle in which they defeated and slaughtered the Israelites. (1 Samuel 4:10-11)  After a series of bad things happening, negative occurrences, devastation, afflictions, and deaths among their people, (1 Samuel 5:1-12) the Philistines returned the ark of God to Israel. (1 Samuel 6:1-21)  The ark of God remained in the house of Abinadab in Kiriath Jearim for twenty years. (1 Samuel 7:1-2)  The thirteenth chapter of First Chronicles repeats the record of King David’s first attempt to take the ark of God from Kiriath Jearim to Jerusalem and provides a different perspective on those events. (1 Samuel 6:1-11 and 1 Chronicles 13:1-14)  The ark of God did not make it to Jerusalem, it ended up in the home of Obed-Edom. (1 Chronicles 13:12-14)

APPLICATION

There are those who say that they don’t invite The Lord God into their home because they don’t want to offend Him by the things that go on inside of their home.  It is as if we forget that The Lord God is everywhere all at the same time.  When we accept Jesus, The Christ, as our personal savior we immediately receive the indwelling of The Holy Spirit of God and all of the blessing which go along with that.  The Lord God wants to be with us, but He will not force Himself upon us.  He allows us to exercise our free will.  We must choose to let Him into our life.  He will stand at the door to our heart and knock, and He will not come in until we open the door to our heart and invite Him in. (Revelation 3:20)  However, once we receive Him, we are blessed and blessed with a more abundant life. (John 10:10)