Private Time With The LORD

Reminiscing about my summer camp days as a youth; there was one experience that topped all other camp activities; it was my fellowship, in prayer, with our Heavenly Father.  Because my physical father had pointed me to my Heavenly Father; because Dad did all that he could to walk with the LORD and to set an example of devotion years before my birth; my life was blessed with a solid spiritual foundation.  My Heavenly Father has always been as real as my physical father.  Such a connection to God is hard to describe.  Mere words are not sufficient to convey experiences and emotions with the LORD.  In 1973 at the Pelican Lake summer camp in Orr Minnesota, my daily communion; my fellowship with LORD, took on a heightened awareness and reality.

My parents had conditioned me to be a morning person and Dad always arose by 5:00 am every morning.  Sleeping in was not in his vocabulary.  He started every day with prayer and Bible study.  At summer camp, we had to be up by 7:00 am; and at the dinning hall by 8:00 am for breakfast.  My internal clock had always been used to 5:00 am; so during camp, those extra two hours were spent every day in fellowship with God.  A path behind our cabin led down to the lake, about a hundred yards through the woods, where there was a massive rock at the water’s edge.  That became my private place to meet with the LORD as night would yield to the first rays of the morning dawn.  It was somewhat surreal to feel the chill in the air and to listen to the woods awake and break the silence.  Animals would come to the shoreline for a drink; beavers, woodchucks, raccoons and deer were a common sight.  They usually just ignored me as they went on with their morning mission. 

The presence of the LORD was vividly experienced at that spot every morning.  My prayers and meditations were alive and wrapped in the arms of Jesus Christ.  That rock became my altar of sacrifice where my heart felt thoughts were beaten fine as incense and offered up to the LORD as a sweet savor.

Revelation 8:3-4 ESV  And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne,  (4)  and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.

This was my daily worship; in the privacy of the early morning hours, with the woods behind me to buffer my shouts of praise, thanksgiving; and worship with singing.  It was intensely emotional and many tears of joy flowed.  There could be no more perfect place to commune with the LORD than in His cathedral of lake, woods and sky; all spoken into existence on the breath of His mouth.  As David said in Psalm 51; the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart.  My prayers carried my heart to the LORD; a heart; beaten like fine incense; refined by the Holy Ghost and offered up as a sacrifice of sweet savor to God.

Numbers 28:4-6 KJV  The one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other lamb shalt thou offer at even;  (5)  And a tenth part of an ephah of flour for a meat offering, mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil.  (6)  It is a continual burnt offering, which was ordained in mount Sinai for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD.

In the morning, my fellowship with the LORD was from that rock, my altar before Him; in the evening, my communion with the LORD was on the placid waters in a canoe; an equally profound and private experience.

We need corporate worship and the Apostle Paul warned against forsaking the assembling of ourselves in worship; but equally important is our personal private time with the LORD – building a relationship with Jesus Christ through personal worship and prayer.  We are to become one with Christ and put His mind in our heart and mind.

Hebrews 10:25 KJV Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Philippians 2:5 KJV Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

We have but one God who is Christ Jesus our LORD.  We are to be in a relationship with Him now as He is the Everlasting Father.  Through the Holy Ghost He lives inside of us and transforms us as His body the Church; purifying and washing us by the water of the WORD; that He might present us to Himself, the LAMB of God and enter into an eternal partnership with us as His bride.

Ephesians 5:25-27 KJV Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;  (26)  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,  (27)  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Revelation 19:7-8 KJV Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.  (8)  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

We are called to the marriage supper of the LAMB of God, Christ Jesus our LORD.  If we are not willing to fellowship with God now, how can He have confidence in us to be the Bride of Christ and become His eternal partner?  We were created for Jesus Christ.  This human life is all about preparing for eternal life with Jesus Christ.  We are to inherit all things; and to sit with Jesus on His throne; and to rule the nations.  We must read and study our Bibles and internalize the promises of God and begin to fully understand the purpose for our lives!  Only out of the abundance of our heart and mind that are immersed in the WORD, can we pray and worship in a meaningful fellowship with Jesus.  God is calling us all to awake out of the stupor of human life and materialism and raise our sights on the spiritual.  Take responsibility today for revival in your life.  Get on fire for the LORD!