“When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me”[Job 29:5].

“When the Almighty was yet with me...”

The presence of God in a mans life is felt in degrees. God reveals Himself to a man in measures, depending on the capacity of that man. I think one of the greatest prayers I should pray today is"Lord, enlarge my capacity, that I may receive more of You".
The extent to which God works or operates in and through my life, is the extent to which I have allowed Him. God never gate-crashes, He respects us. He deals more with our willingness and openness to Him, He will work only if we let Him.

The presence of God is so sweet. The beauty and the warmth of His love is so alarming and consuming. God does not want a mixture of Himself with something else, He will rather depart completely than permit a little adulteration. When a man loses the presence of God, it is a colossal loss. It is great humility on the part of God to condescend so low and conscript Himself to dwell within the frame of a human body. For those in whom God has come to dwell, it is a great privilege they cannot allow to slip off.
Friend, is it The Lords great delight to dwell with you, or you are discouraging Him with your numerous extremisms? Is He happy and contented? Is your heart a conducive abode, or is He just managing?, He may soon leave if He does not find space to express Himself. If it is the President that is with a man, the attention of the whole land will turn to that man. Are you a worthy example showcasing and reflecting that Jesus is present here?

To lose the divine presence of God is a heavy loss. When God departs from the life of a man, His departure never leaves the occupant vacant. Something lesser and terrible will replace Him. When God departed from king Saul, an evil spirit took His place, and king Saul last stage was worse than his first.

"...Almighty with me, my children were about me..."
When the Almighty was with me, oh!, how freshness flowed from my lips. Little words dropped here or there blessed hearts. My words fed the hungry. Grace and glory blessed men from me. I cooked my meal (spiritual) and fed myself, and the leftover was sufficient to feed to satisfaction, as many people that came close. As Isaac dug his well, and drank therefrom, so did I and was satisfied. Others who came near also drank till they were refreshed.[Genesis 26:19, 32].

There was a well of water within me that flowed endlessly out and blessed those who came near. My counsels were like those of Ahitophel, they were released from the depths of the divine my children were nursed at my sight, all they needed for life, health and ministry was readily available here. I was a pipe through which the blessings of God reached countless hearts without being mutilated or flawed.

”...children were about me"

That many people should stick to you, stay with you, hear daily from you, feed at your table, and desire to abide with you without bolting out, is not what you will force out of them. There must be a magnet that attracts and endears men to you. That magnet is GOD. If you want men to stay with you, if men are to always desire your presence and feed at your table, if your words are going to bless men, and they cannot afford to miss life-giving resources from your treasure house, if you want to be a SUFFICIENT channel of blessings unto many people to the extent that they do not even desire in the least to go elsewhere to be fed except at your table, then, they must see a glory beyond you, greater than the humans but resident within you. That overwhelming glory IS CHRIST.

This attachment of men to you, is not what you will demand from them by numerous commandeering messages, neither is it what you will push down their throats. It is not achieved by coercion. It is not obtained by creating an atmosphere of fearfulness that will compel men to stay because of fear of future repercussions or doom - should they depart. No, it is only achieved by YOUR LIFE - "Christ in you".

”...Almighty was ...with me, my children were about me...”

It is because the Almighty is yet with you that you can sustain people with you. People can only be about and around you because they are enjoying the warmth that oozes out of you. This warmth can only be found in the lives of men with whom God has tabernacled. No man can sustain people perpetually with him, if the presence of the Almighty has left. If the Almighty is not with you, you cannot keep the children abiding with you. Words alone, no matter how sweet and eloquent, activities, religious programs,... cannot sustain men with you if God is absent.
I discover that what endears the hearts of men to a man, the things that make them want to flock around him to hear him continually, is not the charisma of the man, it is not his sonorous voice, it is not his outfit, his language, his carriage or his jovial nature. It is none of the things surrounding such a man that are physical or visible. Rather, it is the presence of God in his life. God Himself, is the magnet that attracts people to a man. He is the life that men are hungry for. He is the water of life that thirsty souls are yearning to drink and be satisfied with. He is the beauty they see, the glory they admire that makes them want to stay forever.
When many men begin to lose the Divine presence of the Almighty in their lives, something about them that looked so glorious begin to fade out. Men will still come to them, but they are beginning to go back empty. The satisfactions they once derived begin to wane and fade out. The words which were “spirit” and “life” are becoming empty. Even though the Bible is still being quoted, but the power thereof has been snuffed out. The man who was once a force on the pulpit suddenly starts losing his grip upon men. He does so much now, but so little is achieved. He uses so much energy, yet, there is no visible result. People are no more getting blessed, their inner man is getting reduced by the day. They start getting hungry because the living word that satisfies, is getting scarce.
Sooner or later, the man of God begins to sense the departure of the Almighty, so he begins to make plans now to cover up for the absence of God. He begins to devise various means of keeping the people continually under his leadership. He starts introducing numerous programs. He begins to bring in a lot of artificial activities, much music, many talks, many jamborees that the flesh loves just to fill up the wide gap that the Almighty has left vacant. Church suddenly turns and becomes society. Church becomes a mere club house - where people go to make friends and show off their fashionable dresses. He keeps church running now, not with the power and presence of God but by mere ideas of men, just to make up for the lack of God and keep the people abiding.
Other men who do not want to bring in worldliness because they still have some fear of God, but since God has departed, they devise some seemingly religious means to replace the absence of the Holy Ghost, in other to keep the people. They bring in rules and regulations and back them up with scriptures. They tie the people under perpetual bondage of dos and do nots. They introduce stringent laws, and get the people occupied with non essentials. They load men with burdens and engage them. People come, but no more to see Jesus. These will hold men down in submission, and anyone who does not conform is seen as a heretic...

”...Almighty...with me...”

What men see, is what I reflect. Genuine authority that a man commands to draw men after him, is not by forcing or by bullying the people. It is not by much persuasion, cajoling, advertisements, loud publicities or by organising a bait or a kind of great material reward that people cannot refuse. All these are worldly methods.

I do not command followership by imposition. Genuine discipleship in holiness never ensues by the use of an autocratic approach or some dictatorial commandeering that enforces self upon people, and which the people will be afraid to disobey. This method in itself is witchcraft.

Your children are around you simply because there is something they so covet, so rich and glorious, and which they see in you, but is scarce elsewhere.

Authority in ministry is a function of your personal life and the light you shine rather than commanding people to obey you.You are not to make yourself a monster or a masquerade that people fear to disobey.

You are not going to force obedience out of people. You are not going to be taking daily physical head counts of people that remain, and be bullying and forcing them to go and fish out those who have departed by force. You are not going to be enforcing some stringent, strict compliance to some rules and hold the people bound by your rulership. Instead, You are just to live a beautiful life in the midst of the people - a glory they will see, which will be their strong passion and desires. They are round about you because they have seen something, a glory they covet to obtain, a height they long to attain, and by their personal wishes, they have become endeared unto you. They are getting richer, deeper, fuller and more nourished. When they touch you, they touch God. This glorious life is what keeps them around you, and their staying is NOT A STRUGGLE, neither is it by being forced.
If you have to use your mouth instead of your life to command obedience and submission out of people, then your life is evidently wrong, you are only a hypocrite looking for NAME and STATUS. If men are going away from you and do not desire to abide, then something is fundamentally wrong with your inner man, the solution is not to block the exit gate by placing security men to force people to abide and comply, those people may abide by much intimidation but they will only be listening to empty doctrine that lack power and divine authority. The solution is to go back to God and cry out that He may make you a sharp threshing instrument, having teeth, effective, which radiates divine glory that men cannot refuse.

”...my children... ABOUT me"

Do men see a glory in you, that they want to share in? Do they want to be like you? Is there a kind of simplicity and Christlikeness they cannot explain about you, but which speaks volumes?. In Christ, there is not a single commandeering, aggrandisement, autocracy or lording over men. There is nothing loud and shouting, nothing forcing men against their will in Jesus, yet, the glory of God within Him melts men into absolute surrender.
Men would love to spend hours and days in your presence, because they recognise that your presence takes them deeper into the presence of God. They enjoy your company, they see God explained through you, the more they listen to you, the more they want to listen. They will call their friends and neighbours to come along and hear mysteries..., they are all AROUND you, they are all ABOUT you...

Is the Almighty yet with me?, if He is still present, HE will do His work in me and through me...
Selah...