THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD

A week or so ago I was talking with a good friend of mine at the fitness center where Karen and I go (it is on base and free) and we got on the topic of emotions in the church and he made the statement emotions are good in God and made the comparison of the presence of the LORD is our emotions, well I just shuddered and thought if my friend (and I like him a lot) has this thinking then many more Christians are probably confused between the presence of the LORD and their emotions. I asked my good friend if the presence of the LORD is the same feeling he gets when his favorite team is on the verge of scoring a goal, full of excitement, and emotion, and he replied yes. I just shook my head in amazement because the presence of the LORD is something more special in our lives, something far greater than a fleshly emotional response to feelings, situations, circumstances, or a thrill down our backs. After some time of thinking on our conversation the LORD gave me this article. Did you know we pay a price for every last thing we get from God? I pay a price for it and I want to. He is not going to baby us we have to learn that and that is not pleasant. The further we go in God the less He is going to honor our fields of emotion. We will have to learn to walk with the LORD without His conscious presence at times which can be terrifying, but never the less this is what God expects from mature developed children. Less and less are we dependent on our old devotional patterns, our emotional approach to God, or getting tickled or thrilled (what many Christians call blessed) by God that serve our living. How can faith, trust, and rest develop in us if God is going to honor us along our emotional life? In those difficult places of life we will never be able to synchronize with what God is doing in our lives with our fluctuating emotions it just cannot happen. Our emotions must be dealt a death blow by God and never be allowed to run parallel with our experiences and learning in God. We must grow up and emotional Christians have not. I think another reason why we are confused about the presence of the LORD today in the church is because of the deliberate decision, by many denominations and religions, NOT to make disciples as Jesus told us to do. Jesus did not command us to make converts, oh no Jesus told us to make disciples, but this my friend takes many years of hard, one-on-one work, it is far easier to make a convert than a disciple. Less time spent, no real money invested, and you get to tally them on your people saved tally sheet. They say if all of the people the missionaries say were saved each year the world would be saved twice over each year. Who cares how many people get saved? We are NOT to make converts, but disciples! Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach (Strong’s #3100, to disciple, to follow His precepts and instructions, to teach, instruct) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Mathew 28:18-20) Jesus was given “ALL” power (to make disciples) from the Father and Jesus gave us the power NOT to make converts, but make disciples. We are to be making disciples from all nations not converts, but that is not what we see. The focus in most churches and overseas ministry is salvation; now this is important, but not the focus of God. God’s focus is making disciples. God has a divine spiritual principle – seed after seed. If an apple seed is planted then an apple tree will grow and the tree will reproduce like seed again and again. Whatsoever is planted in our lives will reproduce. Spiritually this is why it is better to be a tree eater than a fruit eater and this is why it matters who your teacher is. This too is why we have so many evangelists and preachers and not so many teachers. It is easier to be an evangelist or preacher, but is much tougher in God to be a teacher, especially if they teach by the Spirit. Evangelists and preachers proclaim, but teachers explain. Acquiring the knowledge and wisdom from God to be able to explain the word of God will exact a heavy toll on relationships and is far more costly to our flesh. So the more converts you have (and not mature men and woman of God) the more emotionalism you will see. Many evangelists, pastors, and preachers measure the response by the people to the message by how many people run down to the altar, well there are few things we need to learn here. An emotional response to the word of God is not a move of God. I hear many evangelists, pastors, and preachers say the Spirit moved today in church, but if you press then on what is “moved” you will find a few folks walked down to the altar and had a time of prayer, well this is not a move of God. A response to the word of God is not seen in a tearful run to the altar, but in change to one’s character. I can remember growing up as a child in church when suddenly an unsolicited the power of the LORD (not the presence of the LORD, but His power) would drop like a ton of bricks, no piano playing softly, no one twisting arms or hearts to come forward to be converted just POW it was on us and we knew it was power of God; not an emotional approach to God with music, pleading, or our feelings just the power of God. It has been many years since something like that has happened. God’s presence comes to us we cannot go to it. His presence is a thing of the Spirit. We cannot pray it up, work it up by singing, dancing, or listening to our favorite Christian CD or DVD, or even preach it up, it is a thing of the Spirit and if we do not get it by the Spirit our flesh can never produce or conger it up. Moses asked God, “Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people. 14And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. 15And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. 16For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.” (Exodus 3:14-16) Here in these verses are some requirements and intents of God with regards to the presence of the LORD in our lives. The intent of the presence of the LORD is for knowing what God wants in any given situation or circumstance, not to make us feel good. God is not trying to make us happy or feel good. God started something in the Book of Genesis and He has NOT changed His mind. God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26) God is still in the process of making man (God’s grand goal in our lives) in His own image and righteous living (where we just live right without having to think or pray about being right) is the requirement to have the presence of the LORD abide continually and does not come and go like an endless ebb and flow of victory and defeat that is in most Christians lives. I wonder what life would be like if we walked continually in the presence of the LORD? The progression in God is faith, trust, rest. We come to God by faith, but as we walk with Him we must progress far beyond faith and move into a place of trust. Job said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” (Job 13:15). Esther said, “ . . . if I perish I perish,” (Esther 4:16), but there is a greater place than faith and trust in God where we can be at rest no matter what is moving around us. It would be like we are on the sea of glass before the throne of God 24/7. This place is far beyond the halls of the heroes of the faith, far beyond our sense of truth, and is a place in the Spirit realm that only rest is found. Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29) Verse 28 said, “I will give you rest” and verse 29 says, “ye shall find rest” I wonder which one is it; we will be given rest or we will have to find it? Can you believe both at the same time? When we come to the LORD in faith He gives us rest from sin (salvation) and our fleshly sins (sanctification) if we allow Him to work in our lives, but when we grow in the grace and knowledge of our LORD Jesus Christ and we start maturing in Him we discover the many depths of God (as waterspouts of glory) that establishes and settles us in His presence. Lastly the presence of God is the road we walk on back to the heart of the Father where we all came from. When we compromise our belief of the word of God no matter the goodness involved, we lose our integrity and who we are before God and man. Most people today know a phony when they see him/her and when they see a phony in church they really stick out. I would suggest to you there are four ways we can lose the presence of the LORD in our lives and in some cases our salvation: 

Presumption – Thinking we know right, but in reality we are wrong. The direction of presumption is always up the opposite direction God takes. Presumption always moves without really knowing (guessing at God’s will) what God wants and always leads to loss and death. Now God will not stop someone in presumption He expects them to love Him enough (Christians not sinners get into presumption) to stop and repent of their waywardness. You know it is bad not to know the truth in any given situation, but it is worse not knowing you do not know. The longer one goes in presumption the greater the loss. The loss that is experienced is from what God had originally purposed and planned in our lives during our time in presumption. I have a friend (I have been there before so I know) who is over in presumption (in ministry) not really knowing what God wants for their life. They are working hard and even some good things for God are happening, but this is not God’s will they have left His original purpose for their life and struggle needlessly. God’s will is not hard to find just ask Him and then be brave enough to follow His Spirit. 

Disobedience – Disobedience is the rejection of the throne rights of God. I think disobedience is probably the greatest of all sins. By the disobedience of one man (Adam), all of human race fell; by the obedience of one Christ, the whole human race (Romans 5:19) was saved, that is to say, provision was at least made, but salvation in obedience to God’s word is our choice. If you can picture God sitting on the throne: disobedience is pushing God off His throne and seating ourselves on His throne in His place. Disobedience is the rejection of the throne rights of God. Consequently, God cannot tolerate disobedience, rebellion against His sovereignty. As in the case of Saul, persistence in disobedience will surely rob us of the presence of the LORD and end us in death. 

Substitution – Allowing other things to creep into our lives. How careful we have to be not to let things to creep in that are out of harmony to the purpose of the will of God, even Christian things. Substitution leads to temptation. James warns us, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:14-15) When we start substituting Godly principles for the principles of the world we end in death. God rarely changes His mind with regards to our lives. If God starts us in one direction in ministry we must be very careful not to change direction (even with other ministry) and if God gives us an opportunity to choose we better choose right, if not there will be hell to pay in our family and our life. 

Neglect – Neglecting our devotion and commitment, neglecting the LORD, simply being so preoccupied with things that we pay little attention to the LORD and allow the work of God done in our lives be replaced with carnal things, fleshly things through lusts and hungers for the things of the world and our selfish ambition. The writer to the Hebrews says, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;” (Hebrews 2:3) The answer is we will not, we cannot escape God’s judgment and wrath if we neglect His salvation and turn our back on the presence of the LORD. How precious is the presence of God? It is life or death to us. Written by David Stahl