God's perception of the prophets and the prophets' perceptions of themselves are completely opposite. In this day and age, we are fully convinced that we know God's heart and are speaking on His behalf. But how can we be so sure? The prophets of this age are busy with full calendars and an abundance of activities. But what does the Lord say? They speak not out of listening to His word. They have activity but they do not have authority.

God wants us as a church to be filled with His authority and to release His power. God wants His church to be a gateway to heaven.

In this scripture, the Lord shows observation, offering, and gives us further understanding:

Observation: We're so busy that we don't fully spend time with Him. The God that we worship is close at hand, and although we live in an age where everything else is close at hand, the great tragedy for our generation is that we think we know the Lord, but we have only scratched the surface of who He is. He is not JUST close at hand but far away, in need of pursuit.

Offering: He is giving us access to His throne and wants us to come into proximity with Him. We have to disconnect to connect. There have to be seasons in our lives where we push back on all the other things that are close at hand. There are parts of God that can only be discovered when we give God our day.

Understanding: It's the far away God that comes to us in moments of our life that marks us with calling, with commission, giving us faith and vision. The far away God ruins us for the ordinary and makes us say that we don't want anything else but heaven right now.

We're sustained by the close at hand God, but revival is started by the far away God. There are some levels of demonic oppression that can only be broken with prayers to the far away God, so let's press into that today!