In The Presence of God

1 Corinthians 2:14 – “The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things.”

A young man called into a radio talk show discussing the topic of our National Motto (In God We Trust) and the Pledge of Allegiance words (One Nation Under God) and asked, “Isn’t it time that America quit pretending to believe in an imaginary, invisible God?” It is time for those who do not know the Lord God to earnestly seek his manifest presence through the gospel of Jesus Christ that they may have eyes to see and ears to hear what they are missing. Don’t pretend to believe the imaginary, but believe in the reality of true life; in a holy body, soul and spirit, as we were created by our Maker to experience this wonderful gift of life in loving relationship is always present. A godly, balanced, full and satisfying life lived in the presence of our glorious Father God. And it is time for the redeemed child of God, setting apart Christ as Lord, to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have, speak the truth in love, with gentleness and respect, that they may seek and find both salvation and life eternal at the foot of the cross; that they may see and know the life in Christ & the love of Christ.

Matthew – 28:18-20 Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age”. Jesus opened the door.

American Christian Author A.W. Tozer wrote, The veil in the Jerusalem Temple that separated the Holy of Holies, where above the mercy seat dwelt God Himself in glorious manifestation, which was rent when our Lord Jesus gave up the ghost on Calvary, and opened the way for every Believer in the world to come by the new and living way straight into the divine Presence. Ransomed and redeemed men need no longer pause in fear to enter the Holy of Holies. God wills that we, His redeemed children, should push on into His presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience and at the heart of the Christian message. It is more than doctrine to be held; it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day in the conscious awareness in the Flame of the Presence. Spiritual life, divinely given by the Spirit of God alone, is distinctively of God in Christ and distinguishes the Believer, the child of God, the saints from those who are not sanctified, the natural and carnal, unregenerate heart that is void the Spirit.

John 3:3, 5–6 Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God, unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

Tozer adds that the pseudo-Christianity that is popular today knows this Presence of God only in theory. It fails to stress the Christian’s privilege of presence reality. According to its teachings, we are in the presence of God positionally, and nothing is said about the need to spiritually experience that Presence actually. The fiery urge to walk in communion and present relationship is wholly missing. And the present generation of Christians measures itself by this imperfect rule. Ignoble contentment takes the place of burning zeal. We are satisfied to rest in our judicial possession and, for the most part, we bother ourselves little about the absence of personal experience.

Matthew 13:13-16 Jesus replied, “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will ever be hearing but never understand; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart have become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.”

Tozer states the obvious, that the world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God, famishing for want of His presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and God is in us. The highest love of God is not intellectual, it is spiritual. God is Spirit and only the spirit of man can know Him really. In the deep spirit of a man the fire must glow, whose soul pants with a thirst after God, as a deer after the water brook, or his love is not true love of God. God is so vastly, utterly and completely delightful that He can, without anything other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, which can never come from a mere doctrinal knowledge of God, but the heart with pure love for the Godhead are those who have been in the Presence and have looked with open eyes upon the majesty of Deity. The world waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil and has gazed with the inward spiritual eye of their heart upon the wonder of God. And yet, thus to penetrate, to push in sensitive living experience into the holy Presence, is a privilege open to every child of God. By the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, we now have direct access to the presence of our Heaven Father, so why stand any longer outside the Holy of Hollies? Child of God, come in and abide in the Presence of the Lord God Almighty, that your joy may be complete. Read John 15:1-11 with this access in mind.

Matthew 5:8-9 & 13-16 Jesus began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Blessing in Christ, from somewhere in the middle of the Carribean. Brian