“By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.” Exodus 13.21-22

Do you notice what it says?  “By day the Lord went ahead of them…”  The place to find God is not by going back to where the pillar used to be!  When you’re in the desert you don’t want to go where His glory was.  If you do that, you’re going to be sitting very alone in the middle of the desert!  The pillar has moved on!  You won’t find God where the pillar used to be.  I suppose you might find traces back there of what once was.  There was a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud, that’s bound to leave some artifacts behind!  Yes, we can remember what it was like to feel the fire and see the cloud, but don’t you want to be where the fire and cloud are now?

God’s never stopped moving; we often do.  It usually goes one of two ways when we stop moving forward… we stay behind where the pillar was, blind to the fact the pillar’s gone… or, we wake up one day and say, “What’s happened?  The glory has departed!”

Christian history is littered with movements that had their beginning in God, and owe their continuance to man.  They have all the signs the pillar was once there, but the vitality of cloud and fire has long since disappeared.  No amount of commotion will make up for the fact that something’s missing.  Men can’t produce the pillar and cloud!  What’s true for the church at large is true for the individual; we cannot live on past experience.  What accounts for so much of the deadness in the church and stagnation in our own lives?  Failure to move on with God.

For those of you who aren’t content to bask in former glory, it’s time to ask, “Where is the pillar now?”  The temptation is to go back to where the pillar used to be, but you will never find the glory there!  I’m not looking for where God was 30 years ago, I want to know where He is, and what He’s doing now!  Don’t comfort yourself with the voices of those who tell you that God’s still in your midst and that “He never changes”.  No, you’re the one who never changes! The pillar has moved, and you’re still sitting in the same place you were 10 years ago!  God never changes, but He’s constantly doing new things.  Isn’t it time you joined Him?