A relationship with Almighty God can empower you to accomplish things you never thought possible. The believer’s leadership role is a catalyst for biblical outcomes that impact God’s love for everyone everywhere. It harnesses confidence that expects impossible outcomes, even supernatural interventions. When the pace speeds up in the spirit to which you are called, then we can run ahead of anything that we previously thought possible or anything really that we even believed. I’m thinking specifically of the passage in 1 Kings 18 and especially verse 46. The word says here, “Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah.” So the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah. And he, Elijah ran ahead of the  king’s chariots.

The verse tells us that Elijah outran the horse-drawn chariots and was back at the city ahead of the king, the chariots, the horses, everybody. I love it. It even says that as he began to run, he lifted his skirts and tuck them into the waist, the belt at his waist. Meaning, that would’ve been the dress in that day. So he was ready for a supernatural outcome. And he was intentional as he did that. So what is God saying? I think he’s saying three things:

  1. The presence of God. And you remember in the Old Testament in the passage there in Exodus where Moses said to Almighty God, “If your presence does not go with us, then we will not go.” And the implied intention there is cannot go. We can’t go without your presence. The presence of God is everything. And we even learn as we grow in the faith to practice the presence of the Lord. Intentionally sit in his presence so that you can be with Him, hear with Him. So the presence of God.
  2. Alignment with Him. If you can be aligned with Him, that means you can be out of alignment with Him, right? You want to be aligned with the Lord and not distracted by anything that comes to deter you, weaken your resolve, that kind of thing. So once you’ve heard Him in the presence of God, you intentionally align with Him. The presence of God and alignment.
  3. Why are we doing this? We’re not just doing this for today. We are doing this with a view of what’s ahead. There’s a day ahead. There is a prophesied day that is ahead because we’re living in the end of the end times. We’re living at the last of the last of days. Some people speak of the end of the world. That’s not what I’m referring to. I’m speaking of the end of an age. So we’re preparing for the church’s role, what the church will look like. This is why we practice the presence of God. It’s why we are intentionally aligned with Him. We are preparing for a day that is different from today or yesterday. And just one last point here, did you know that nothing can stop the will of God? Nothing.

Now, people manage to entangle themselves in ways that delay or circumvent God’s plan or it seems that way on the surface. But the truth is even that kind of foolishness does not, cannot, never will stop God’s divine plan. So the emphasis is to inspire bold confidence in God. And again, we want His presence. We intentionally align with Him and we prepare our lives for the day that is ahead for everything that God pours out onto the earth.

It is so important to build into our lives the habit of intentionally aligning with Him. We intentionally want to mature. That means not stay the same, not remain childlike. We move from praying small prayers to praying big prayers. In other words, we grow in our faith.