The Presence of God

This morning I watched a teacher I really like exhort on how to get into the Presence of God. He spoke about lies we believe that keep us unable to enter the Presence of God and he taught on truths we need to embrace in order to get over the wall of ourselves to enter into that place with God. I really had an encounter with the Presence of the Holy Spirit this morning in my living room. I could feel my body heat up as I emptied myself of me and toiled to enter into that place with Him. I gave Him my time and made room for Him to touch me. I realized He’s been talking to me about doing this all along. Bringing back to my remembrance times passed when I had experienced His Presence all by myself in my bedroom. I had a verse come to mind this morning as I experienced this. It comes from Song of Solomon 3:4: …when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go.

When I can enter that place with God I realize how thirsty my soul is and how much His Presence quenches that thirst. Oh believer don’t listen to that lie that goes around in Christian circles that says you ought not to feel the presence of God. That you ought not to base your relationship with God on how much you feel Him. Because He wants you to feel His Presence since when you do you are in that right place of fellowship with Him. According to 1 Corinthians 1:9: …you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The only thing we’re to toil or labor for as believers on this earth is what Jesus said in John 6:29: …’This is the work of God: that you believe [adhere to, trust in, rely on, and have faith] in the One whom He has sent.‘ This does not say we are to first believe in ourselves and try to do anything with our own might, it says we are to work to especially rely upon Christ. I believe that this fellowship with Christ only comes when we truly admit our brokenness and need for God. Then we’re truly trusting and having faith in Christ. When we rely upon our our own strength we miss that sweet fellowship with Christ.

I want to challenge you this year to really press into God and His Presence. The Bible says: …in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Ps 16:11). Who doesn’t want to experience that? Really consider how you’re feeling internally. And how much time and energy you’re investing in your relationship with God. Because in the end this is the only lasting thing that we will be judged about by a Holy God. Make it a priority to increase that precious time with Him in your prayer closet. Wasting less time on unimportant things and spending more time filling it with God’s Presence. Everyone gets lonely and tries to fill that void with stuff or people. Challenge yourself as Luke 9:23 says: deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Christ. And truly as you spend time in that place with God I believe Eph 3:16-19 will be real in your life:

                         
...out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.