Unfinished Business

Many times, we wonder why the presence of God seems distant from a vision or project, especially for something we believe the Lord has called us to accomplish. This morning, I heard the words “Unfinished Business.” I asked the Lord to help me understand what He was saying. He took me to Exodus 40 where Moses came to the end of a very detailed season of tabernacle construction and priestly preparation.

As I read Exodus 40, I noticed a repeated phrase. Eight times in the last half of the chapter the words “just as the Lord had commanded him” appeared. If you have read about the tabernacle construction and the priestly preparation, you realize God had exacting measurements and details on how all the elements were to be prepared and constructed. Only after Moses finished each element of his assignment did the text read “just as the Lord had commanded him.”

In the last verses the blessing of Moses’ exacting obedience was made clear, “and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (vs. 35). The glory of God, something Moses was unwilling to compromise, was the goal of all his efforts as a leader of the nation of Israel. Seven chapters earlier, Moses said “If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here” (33:15).  Moses was committed to the presence of God. The presence of God was the most important issue relating to his leadership. He was unwilling to move forward in any stage of life without doing all he could to ensure the presence of God was leading him and filling his efforts all along the way.

Perhaps some of the stalled visions and life projects that are still hanging in the limbo of unfulfillment are because we did not complete what was asked of us in one stage of development “just as the Lord had commanded…”

If you are living in a stalled place where you are struggling to sense the presence of God and your efforts are not returning the promised fruit, it is time to ask “Is there any unfinished business?” The effect of the smallest unfinished detail is not God laying legalism on us. He is simply checking the integrity of our hearts to see if we are willing to move under His direction or assume the smallest details of His instruction don’t matter. They do matter because it’s always about the glory.