One of the things that has been on my mind
this past week is the desire for God’s presence. Have you ever thought about what God’s
presence is all about?
Jude
1:24-25 (NKJV)
24
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And
to present you faultless
Before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
25
To God our Savior,
Who
alone is wise,
Be
glory and majesty,
Dominion
and power,
Both
now and forever.
Amen.
In verse 24 it says…”Before the presence…”, Thayer’s greek lexicon defines this word presence as kä-te-nō'-pē-on, which means to
stand …‘over against, opposite, before the face of, before the presence of, in
the sight of”. Or metaphorically… “standing
as one before the eyes, or standing as a witness”. This
describes what it means to be before the presence of God, but what is the
actual presence of God?
Adam and Eve
had intimate fellowship in the presence of God before the fall in the Garden of
Eden
Genesis
3:8 (NKJV)
8
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
among the trees of the garden.
Since that
time, sin has prevented our ability to be in the physical presence of God
Exodus
33:20 (NKJV)
20
But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”
Now only the
holy, sinless angels are in the physical presence of God
Luke
1:19 (NKJV)
19
And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the
presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings.
But as Christians,
we have the presence of God within us by virtue of His indwelling Holy Spirit
John
14:23 (NKJV)
23
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and
My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
and that
indwelling presence comes only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
John
15:4 (NKJV)
4
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it
abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
We are aware
of the reality of this presence from our obedience to His Word.
1
Peter 2:9 (NKJV)
9
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own
special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light;
Every child
of God invariably goes through this feeling of losing God’s presence from time
to time, like a landlord who has left his house and gone away on business for a
while. He has not left the house completely empty, for, if he had, he would
have taken all his belongings with him. But because he has left all his
furniture and belongings in that house, does it not mean that he will return
once again? Any believer knows that there are times of spiritual leanness where
perhaps the Lord determines to test our faith. Does He not sift us; does He not
push us through the times of affliction that we might be all the more pure?
Job
23:10 (NKJV)
10
But He knows the way that I take;
When
He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
And as Peter
proclaims:
1
Peter 1:7 (NKJV)
7
that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that
perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory
at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
But the
positive aspect of being in God’s presence is joy! Many Christians go around
gloomy and dejected because they lack this sense of God’s presence. The hymn
“Trust and Obey” tells us there is “fellowship sweet” for those who walk with
the Lord in obedience and faith. But the sweet fellowship that comes from
obedience and trust in the Lord is not a mere fancy or passing whim. It
sustains us, especially during trials.
Nehemiah
8:10b (NKJV)
10b
…”Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
James, the
Lord’s brother, writes;
James
1:2-3 (NKJV)
2
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
Because
trials produce faith and develop perseverance. When we persevere through
trials, proving to ourselves and to others that our faith is real, our sense of
God’s presence increases, as does our joy in it.
David speaks
of a joy that only the righteous can know:
Psalm
16:11 (NKJV)
11
You will show me the path of life;
In
Your presence is fullness of joy;
At
Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
—a joy that
is but a taste of a far greater and everlasting joy when we see the Lord’s face
in the glory to come. The hymn writer John Newton spoke of these in 1779 when he wrote
the Hymn ‘Glorious things of thee are spoken’. The last verse says “solid joys and lasting
treasures that only Zion’s children know.”
On a similar vane, California
has been going through a drought for some time now, one could say that it is God
testing His people to thoroughly trust Him in spite of the current
conditions. Do we pray for rain, YES we
do, and we SHOULD! If rain does not come,
does that mean that God is not listening?
NO, not at all! God does hear our
prayers, and everything happens according to a bigger picture we call God’s
will or God’s timing. Most of the time we only see a small portion of that bigger picture. But the drought is
only the manifestation of something much much bigger and deeper, and that is
the drought of knowledge of God in our land. God is using a physical drought to reveal the spiritual condition of our State and also reveal our California heritage. We in California have been given much prosperity over the years to be a provider of
cotton, rice, beans, nuts, and vegetables to the world. This has been an outpouring of abundance and prosperity that
has touched the entire world, but that outpouring has come with a price,
and the price of prosperity is for the healing of the nations, not just the
feeding of the nations.
Ezekiel
47:12 (NKJV)
12
Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds
of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not
fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the
sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
God is
calling His people to prayer, not just for California, but also that He would extend our sphere of
influence beyond the borders of our state into the nations where our food
goes. God is calling us to be consumed
with His real presence where our
soul longs for nothing but Him, and nothing else will do until we meet with
Him and encounter His desire for the lost by bringing healing and restoration to those who need it most through us, both here in California and abroad.Stephen Barnett
God is good all the time—all the time God is good!
My Soul
Longs For You
Words and
Music by Misty Edwards
Verse1
My soul longs for you, my soul longs for you
Nothing else will do, nothing else will do X2
Pre Chorus
I believe, you will come like the rain
I believe, you will come like the rain X2
Chorus1
You’ll come like the rain
You’ll come like the rain X2
Chorus2
So let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain
So let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain
So let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain
So let it rain, let it rain, let it rain
Bridge
Hallelujah, hallelujah
You make all things new
All things new
CCLI
Song No. 5402289 © 2006 Forerunner Worship, Cassandra Campbell | David Brymer |
Misty Edwards | Seth Yate
Thank
you to the website Got Questions.org for insight and inspiration into What does
it mean to be in the presence of God?
The
lyrics above are copyrighted by the respective artists and are utilized here
for educational purposes only and not for profit.
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