The Presence of God
The secret of success, victory and unusual exploits that anointed servants of
God’s achievements lie in the fact that God’s presence is always with them.
Do you want to overcome great problems? Do you want to fulfill your divine
destiny? You need the power of His presence.
This eye-opening message tells us how we can have God’s abiding presence
and the innumerable benefits it brings. Read it carefully and pray the prayer
points that accompany it with holy aggression. Expect great results!
Exodus 33:13-15
13Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your
way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider
that this nation is Your people.”
14And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up
from here.
This was Moses asking God to go on the journey with him. I would like us to read
this message with rapt attention and hold it securely in your hands throughout
this year.
Moses did not ask for signs and wonders or miracles; he asked God to show him
His way. God answered by saying that His presence shall go with him.
Many Christians are completely ignorant of the presence of God.
Having the presence of God with us is worth more than riches or fame or power.
The presence of God is the key for our rest -
Matthew 11:28-30
28Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. 30For My yoke is easy and My burden is
light.”
The question I would like to ask us is this: Do we have the presence of God with
us? Or have we lost His presence? More than anything else, ensure that you
have His presence with you always.
Psalms 27:4-5
4One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the
house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to
inquire in His temple.
5For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of
His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.
David understood God’s offer of help for today and hope for the future.
Unwavering confidence in God’s presence is our answer for fear and loneliness.
So we need to have the presence of the Lord in our lives; it is a wonderful
experience. It is essential in our everyday life.
That is, you can have trouble everywhere, fears, and threathenings outside.
Since you have prayed and you know that the secret of knowing the Lord is being
in His presence, nothing will dismay you.
illustration:
The closer you are to fire, the hotter you are; the farther you move away from
fire, the cooler you become.
The closer you move to the Lord, the more of His presence you have; the farther
you move away from Him, the closer you are to the devil. It is a wonderful thing
to be in the presence of the Lord and it is a dangerous thing to be far from Him.
What causes us not to be in the Presence of God? -SIN
Look at what Cain said when he sinned:
Genesis 4:13-14
13And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! 14Surely
You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden
from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will
happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”.
Isaiah 59:2
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden
His face from you, So that He will not hear.
It is a great punishment to be out of God’s presence. It is good to pray that you
will not undergo this kind of punishment. Being struck dead by lightning is better
than to undergo this kind of punishment.
Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and he allowed envy to push him
out of the place of blessing - from the Presence of the Lord.
Genesis 3:8
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.
The Lord God used to go into the garden, in the evenings, to have fellowship with
Adam and Eve but when they sinned against Him, they could no longer behold
His face. They had to hide from His presence. They used to live well but sin
broke their relationship with God. They were pushed out of the garden, from the
presence of the Lord because they disobeyed God and refused to put the blame
where it belonged.
One thing that is common these days in the midst of Christians is the fact they
put blames on others when things go wrong.
Beloved, if you go wrong, it is you that you should be blamed, not the church or
your wife or husband or parents, not even the devil should be blamed for your
mistakes but you.
People say it is the devil that pushed them to do one thing or the other, they
forget that it is the job of the devil to steal, kill and destroy; he does it effectively
when he is given the chance. You are to stay at your own post and do your job
well.
When you find yourself in error, repent, cry unto the Lord and repair the
relationship between you and Him so that God can reestablish the relationship,
and you will be in His Presence again.
Jonah went out of the presence of God and he paid dearly for it.
All men and women, who had ever made progress in the Lord, had at on time or
the other had an encounter with Him.
No other thing should be important if you have not seen the Lord. Groom up your
spiritual life and have an encounter with Him. Drop any other thing that will hinder
you from seeing the Lord. If you had no encounter with Him, and all that
should die are still alive in you, then you must desire to have that
encounter with God.
From our main text - Exodus 33:13-15, Moses got to a point where he wanted to
see God. He saw just the backside and the glory of God shone upon Him and
when he got back to the Israelites, they could not behold his face. It glowed and
they had to put a veil on his face.
When you see the Lord and have His presence with you, no demon or witchcraft
power can harm you. You need to pray to the point of having an encounter with
the Lord so that His presence will always be with you.
When you see the Lord and are continually in His presence, you will not be
bothered about the world or what people say about you or do to you.
Isaiah, David, Jacob, Moses, etc., encountered the Lord and their lives never
remained the same. When you have His presence around you, no power of
darkness can stand before you.
HOW TO EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF HIS PRESENCE
1. Be serious with spending a quiet time with the Lord.
You must plan to have a quiet time with the Lord daily and regularly, it is the time
when you will pray meaningfully, study and memorize the word of God diligently.
The Bible says that Daniel prayed three times a day. You too can. You can
however choose the very early hours of the morning when every where is quiet.
You must plan to follow. You should also decree the word of God throughout the
day from time to time.
2. Do not neglect the fellowship of the saints.
Do not be the Christian who misses services. Do not make this year a year when
you only attend church services when there are special programs. Have a
consistent attendance of God’s fellowship.
3. Always hunger and thirst for God.
Live a clean and yielded life and always seek the things of the Lord. God is by
your side; there is no distance between you and Him and He is always ready to
listen to you and hear your pleas. Worship Him in spirit and in truth; go before
Him the way He wants you to.
Your cry is to be like that of the samaritan woman of John 4, when she
encountered Jesus as the source of true satisfaction,
John 4:13-15
13Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
14but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the
water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into
everlasting life.”
15The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor
come here to draw.”
4. Follow a consistent program of prayer.
5. Learn to be intimate with the Holy Spirit.
Treat Him as a Person reverently, not as a thing. Learn to meet Him and
commune with Him every day.
John 14:23
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.
1 Corinthians 2:10
For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
6. Pray for an encounter with the presence of God
Our God is a consuming fire:
Deuteronomy 4:24
For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Hebrews 12:28-29
28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us
have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly
fear. 29For our God is a consuming fire.
Burning Bush:
Exodus 3:1-4
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian.
And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain
of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the
midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but
the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this
great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the
midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
One of the characterization of God’s presence is FIRE. Moses first encounter
with the presence of God is in the Burning Bush of Exodus 3. His first encounter
with the presence of God is that His Presence is Fire. But as Moses looks closer
he sees that the FIRE does’t consume the bush. And this caused him to draw
more closer and from the Burning Bush he heard the voice of God.
When the fire of God’s presence is with you, it will melt away every wickedness
around you, the way a flame will melt a candle. The little time you spend in His
presence, and when His presence is upon you, will clear away every confusion
from your mind. No matter how confused and confusing a situation is, the
presence of God will bring order into that situation. As Christians, we should carry
His fire about anywhere we go.
