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THE PRESENCE OF GOD

17th June 2012 Eltham Baptist Church

No. 379

We used to sing a chorus in London called I love your presence, by Kim Walker of Jesus Culture who hopefully will be ministering at the Life Conference next year. It goes like this;
In the glory of your presence I find rest for my soul In the depths of your love I find peace makes me whole. I love, I love, I love your presence I love, I love, I love your presence I love, I love, I love you Jesus I love, I love, I love your presence

As I sung this chorus I often used to think how you could get the wrong idea and believe she is saying I love your presents instead of His presence. We all love getting presents dont we? The trouble is we Christians often want the presents more than we do the presence. Many Christians go through their whole walk here on earth without really knowing the manifest presence of God. We all know of the omnipresence of God and realise He is everywhere dont we?
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:20

But there is another deeper level which is called the manifest presence of God. This is something that may be missed by many. This is something you have to hunger for Its His manifest presence.
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. John 14:21

We were watching a John Bevere DVD at our Home Group this week and he said that the Church can be divided into 2 groups of people; those who want what they can get out of God and those who want Him more than anything else in the world. Those who want Him more than anything else, end up getting both blessings and a satisfied heart thrown in for good measure. But those who just want the material blessings and manifestations of God and not His presence end up only getting the blessings with an empty heart thrown in. There was a time when I wanted the manifestations and the material blessings more than I wanted the presence of God, in fact it was for over 20 years of my Christian walk. I didnt realise this was the case and just struggled along thinking the emptiness I felt would soon pass. I was saved and filled with the Spirit but my heart was not satisfied. I had an empty heart even when I was lost in the world and had tried all sorts of things to fill the gap. I thought getting high on grass was the answer for a while, but soon realised that it was just a mirage in the desert. In fact it eventually made things worse. Becoming a Christian helped but I still felt an emptiness within. I thought that the answer was for more of a miraculous type of ministry in my life so I diligently sought God for His power to come. I had read of men of God like Oral Roberts and William Branham who had had a visitation from God and afterwards things really started happening. I thought that this was the answer for me, not realising that what I really needed was Him and not the manifestations. I needed the presence more than the presents. (There are many ministers today who have large ministries yet find that it doesnt satisfy the longings of their empty hearts. There are some who fall into sin because of the disappointment that ensues.) I would fast and pray diligently for God to grant me this request for His power, but nothing ever seemed to happen. Time after time I would fast or do something special to try and twist Gods arm but it always ended with a big fat O. After many years in Africa an evangelist came to my town of Gweru where I was based and spoke of the Toronto Blessing. He spoke of the presence of God turning up in His meetings and there being manifestations like laughing and crying etc. I said to God that I wanted this too but after having prayer from the preacher nothing happened - again. I went to all of the meetings and had hands laid on me each night but still nothing happened. The minister spoke to me about the possibility of there being some sin in my life that was hindering me. The only thing that came to mind was the fact that God wanted me to be here in Africa yet I didnt want to be. He said that I needed to repent of this. I did repent that night and said to God that I would stay here in Africa,

and even if I died here, if thats what He wanted. That night when I got up to pray the Lord visited me in the lounge and I was really touched with the presence of God. It was like Holy Ghost Electricity that flowed through my body. This went on night after night for over a month and then it finally stopped. One thing I realised after all this time was that God had caused me to fall in love with Him, really for the first time ever. In the past I wanted the presents more than the presence. I had been treating God in the past like a slot machine to get stuff out of Him. He was my treasure. This wasnt the end of it all, for not long after I was still frustrated that there still wasnt any manifestations in my ministry even after all that I had experienced. I decided to really fast this time for the power to come into my life and said to God that I wouldnt stop until He gave it to me. To cut a long story short I was challenged for 70 days. The last day was on the 25th December and I thought to myself that this was surely a sign from God being our Lords Birthday. Isnt this traditionally a day for giving presents, but alas nothing happened again. I picked myself up and plodded on. While washing the dishes (for I was eating again) a few days later the Lord said to me, Do you love me more than my power? I realised that the right answer was, Yes Lord I love you more than your power. After this I finally stopped pleading with God and concentrated more on learning how to worship Him. I have realised that the answer is to use scripture to bring to mind the glorious attributes of God and use them to worship Him. Its amazing how excited you can get about the Lord, just by thinking about Him with the word. One of my favourite verses is:
God Almighty will be your treasure, more wealth than you can imagine. "You'll take delight in God, the Mighty One, and look to him joyfully, boldly. Job 22:24-30 Message Bible

I have found this to be so true, God can become your treasure. He can become something that you get excited about in your heart. Have you seen how excited people get when they win something like lotto? It soon passes though, but with Jesus you can have an excitement that lasts. You can continually delight yourself in God. God was the treasure and very great reward of Moses and Abraham.
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. Genesis 15:1 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaohs daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. Hebrews 11:24-26

Moses didnt want to go back to Egypt again, for He was looking for his future Reward. The reward for the Children of Israel was Canaan Land but for Moses it was the presence of God. That reward is made apparent in Exodus 33:1-15.
Then the Lord said to Moses, Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised... But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way. Exodus 33:1-3 Then Moses said to him, If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? v15-16

If the Children of Israel had been told that God wasnt going up with them into Canaan Land they would have had a party for they really didnt care. They had been willing to go back to Egypt without God once before. They didnt care less about the presence of God but Moses wanted the presence more than Canaan Land itself. He said, Forget the Promised Land if your presence not going to be there. He would rather have the presence than the promises. Moses said in verse 16 that it was the presence in our lives that make us different from everyone else in the world.
He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: Psalm 103:7

Moses knew God and His ways, Israel only knew of what God did. Moses knew the presence while they only saw His presents. Do you love His presence or His just His presents? http://ghotter.blogspot.com ghotter@live.com

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