Communing & Coming Up Higher

Communing & Coming Up Higher

By Paris Strange

I’ve felt the burden and conviction lately from God to dig deeper into learning more about who He is and understanding the Scripture for myself. Not based on my mother’s faith, my father’s, or anyone else who had a familiar influence on my life. 

I have felt the pull from the Holy Spirit to study Leviticus. It is incredibly humbling to learn about the Levitical priesthood and what Jesus fulfilled in the New Testament. In the Biblical book of Leviticus, God isn’t an angry God. He wants to commune with us daily. We can genuinely be obedient in walking in His ways when we take the time to know Him. 

“And I will walk among you and will be Your God, and you shall be my people.”

Leviticus 26:12 ESV

“What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

2 Corinthians 6:16-18 ESV

To walk with someone, it takes patience and genuine time to slow down and ask questions that are developed out of general curiosity about that individual. I love to ask questions to get to know the person on a superficial and/or intimate level, depending on the individual. God wants us (of our own free will) to desire to fellowship and commune with Him as His sons and daughters. God presents a daily invitation to dwell among us, and we get the free will to choose to step in or not.

In Leviticus, I had a wow moment with the Lord. When I read the passage in regards to the farmers:

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap all the way to the edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the resident alien; I am the Lord your God.”

Leviticus 23:22 CSB

I said out loud, “Wowwww, God, you were so kind to think of others that didn’t have much to bring!” The Lord wants us to steward our abundance that He blessed us wisely. Also, Leviticus reveals that God is so holy and that we are to be a people set apart. In Leviticus, God spoke to Moses to relay to everyone about being set apart. In the New Testament, sanctification is brought up many places, but in Ephesians it states here:

“Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Ephesians 4:21-24 ESV

I believe God is cultivating the remnant to eliminate the unnecessary noise of our surrounding spaces and personal places. God is desiring our affection and attention in all that we do. This is not to be in a performance mindset but in personal devotion to the Father. God wants us to be sanctified and set apart for His Kingdom.