PERSONALIZED REALITIES!

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Psa 63:1,2 

O God, thou art my God… 

God is God, all on His own. He is not like ‘brother’ or ‘father’ or ‘mother’. A brother needs someone outside of himself to merit and sustain that designation. He has to be brother to someone. A father needs to have a child to qualify as father. Not so with God. He exists, all by Himself, needing no one to qualify Him. His admission to Godhood is intrinsic, is self-sustained. It is not relative to anything or anyone else. Before there was anybody to call Him God, He was very God. Nobody needs to do Him the favour of believing in Him to substantiate His existence. God simply is. Period! 

O God, thou art my God… 

The Psalmist says to God, thou art my God. Surely, God is God all by Himself; but whether He has become my God or not is a different matter altogether. In the days of David, there were many gods on parade, calling for worship and human allegiance. He made his choice. He said to the God of Heaven ‘thou’ art my God. To him, neither Baal nor cash was God. God was his decided God. 

There are people who believe in the existence of God but have chosen other things apart from Him for their personal gods. David looked God in the face and said: not your miracles, not your angels, but O God, thou art my God. Today, there are more gods on parade than in David’s day. And I have to make my choice. I have made my choice. O God, thou art my God!

O God, thou art my God… 

The word art means are. The language is all-embracing. It means: ‘God was, is and will always be my God.’ To David, God was not a past experience; He was not a future anticipation. He was his God in the present continuous tense. God, to him, was the essence of and the reason for his life. 

Lord God, you know how easy it is for me to see you in my past experiences. I know so well how your hand brought strong help for me in the past. You know how easy it is for me to anticipate your intervention in some distant day in the sweet bye and bye. My real problem is NOW. I find it hard to be still and know that you are God in the here and now. And now is when I need you the most. The past is a collection of ‘nows’ that have now evaporated. The future is but the conceptualization of anticipated ‘nows’. Arise my soul; say to the Lord your God: Thou art my present, current, immediate God. Thou art the Reality of my reality! 

O God, thou art my God… 

The idea of a personal God carries grave implications. When I leave God to Himself as God, I can choose to live my life as I please, but the moment I go on to personalize Him, I bind myself to a colossal obligation. Personalizing God is not a joke. It means I accept He is no more a distant, disconnected Idea or Being. I admit that His divinity pervades and invades my autonomy. David meant to say ‘O God, thou art my acknowledged God, my creator, my source. You are my Director, my Boss. What you okay goes, what you disapproves fails. You are to me everything that the concept of God entails.’ 

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: 

I will not wait to be out of options before I seek you. Early in the morning, early in life, I will seek you. I will seek God early, before problems meet me. I will baptize my everyday with His supremacy. Early, before I am overwhelmed, I will seek Him. I agree: it is vitally important for me to meet with God early, everyday. 

Early will I seek thee also means ‘I will seek you early in life; I will seek you in and with my youthfulness.’ Many people waste the prime of their lives in various indulgences while they are young and later bring the dregs to God. I am not of their stock. The prime of my life will go in the pursuit and service of my God. Early will I seek thee! 

…my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; 

What a level of rare blessedness for a man’s soul and flesh to unite in a longing for God. I can easily understand the soul’s thirst for God but not the flesh’s. It is not usual for the flesh to long for God. The flesh is normally the dissenter in my yearnings for the divine. Often, the soul is willing, but the flesh is weak. 

I long for this level of help. I desire to be completely caught up - spirit, soul and body, in desperate longing for God. Lord, help me. Woo every faculty of my being after your blessed Person and Presence. 

…my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; 

David said: “I am thirsty for God. I must drink God. Water is lacking in the land but it is God I want to drink. The water is scarce in the land because God is distant from my soul.” Wisdom speaks: “When there is no water in a land, look for God. If you want to be of any help to a land, seek God. Dryness and thirst in a physical setting, or home, or business, or land are primarily symptoms of a scarcity of God, not of water.” 

If I secure God, the land will know refreshing. There may be no water, no cash, no progress where I am at, but divine discretion prescribes that I should hunt for God above all else. He is the fulfillment of all needs and necessities. 

The dryness of a land ought to be first uploaded (in computer jargon) into human souls and thereafter discharged from the soul as a soul-need, to God. If God is to be brought into the condition of a land, He must first be sought and secured by a living soul. He does not just respond to a land. Usually, He responds to the cry of a land. In context, men are the voice of a land. I am the voice of my land. This land is dry; this land is parched; this land is thirsty; but it has a voice. I am the voice of this land. 

If our lands and churches and homes and ministries will witness the freshness of God’s love and presence during seasons of droughts and scarcity, my soul must first experience Him. In this matter, I am called to be a “step-down transformer.” God needs to be stepped down into situations from my soul, my belly. Jesus said of anyone that believes in Him - like I do: “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” He meant Holy Spirit Rivers. The river is designed to flow from within human containers. I want to drink GOD, huge draughts of His Spirit! 

…To see thy power and thy glory 

I have seen the power of the enemy, I have seen the power of witches and wizards, I have seen the power of men - evil men, good men - but now, I want to see the power of God. All around, in this land, I see the power of government, I see man-power, I see woman-power; but Lord, to see thy power. 

…To see thy power and thy glory. 

The sequence is deliberate. I will see His power before I see His Glory. The Glory of God is preceded by His Power. If I want to see glory, I must first secure power. Lord, both are yours. It is your power. It must be your glory. Sometimes I am tempted to hoard some glory for myself, after your power has procured some victory. Help me: Let me not seek my glory from the labours of your power. So help me God! 

…To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. 

David said: “O God, I want to see thy power and thy glory in the land just as I have seen them in the sanctuary. I want to see on pulpit what I have seen in private. I want to see in the congregation what I saw in the sanctuary. I ask to see outside, what you showed me inside. Let men be touched in public as I have been touched in private. Let me see in the place of preaching what I have seen in the place of prayer…” 

I have had experiences, significant experiences in the private, in my personal place with God. I need to bring them to bear upon the land. But, Lord, my public realities mock my private privileges. Harmonize these experiences. Public and private, let me see you. 

Let me see you in the land as I have seen you in the sanctuary. Amen!

–Gideon Odoma 

(July 2010)