On God’s Presence
Some have complained already that my post yesterday was too dark and scary. I still stick to my initial thought that the film presents a reality that we often try to avoid and ignore, but oh well… keep taking that blue pill.
Anyways, on a more hopeful note, I’ve been reflecting on the value of the presence of God. I’ve often said that being in His presence was really important to me. I’ve led worship for years saying that I want to “experience” or “enter” His presence. I’ve prayed time and time again for his presence to fall. And how did I know I was in His presence? Well for most of my Christian journey I knew by feeling an emotional connection or a “spiritual high.” You know the one you get when you go to a fun praise night or a retreat. That emotional feeling of joy, excitement, and conviction. Or perhaps God’s presence means bawling during an intense prayer meeting or feeling “filled with the Spirit” to do ministry. And so certainly when things are depressing and ministry is failing it means that I’ve somehow run away from Him or that His presence has left me right? I mean there has to be more to it, and God has continually been expanding my view of what it means to abide in Him.
In the desert of constantly wondering if God’s presence and favor is even on me, one thing God has continued to challenge me to do is to not have it all figured out or have it all together, but to just push forward day by day. To push forward into my calling. To push forward into obedience to His commandments. To push forward in my ministry or in serving others, even when it feels like there is no fruit. Even when I don’t feel it or want to do it. Little did I know was He teaching me a lesson about His presence. That despite not feeling God through the midsts of most of it, I can look back and constantly see His hand leading me and helping me push through my lowest lows. I was in His presence the whole time.
I mean isn’t this what this means when Jesus teaches that to abide in Him means to obey His commandments? That our experience of His presence goes beyond just what we feel inside, but actually in how we will live our life when our feelings don’t necessarily match what God calls us to do? As I’ve been just pushing forward taking the days one by one, I’ve constantly wondered when my breakthrough would come and felt so distant from God. But I’ve been continuously surprised that through my emotional turmoil and doubt, He has shown me His goodness. I’ve seen time and time again that He is for me and that He cares about the things most precious to me. That the act of faithfully pushing forward step by step through the desert is an experience of His presence in my life.
The other thing I’ve just been learning about being in the presence of God is that sometimes it just requires just sitting with God. Not necessarily for any purpose. Not because it feels so wonderful and great. But just to sit there. Much like Mary who becomes entranced with Jesus in her house that she just sits at His feet all day. There is this Rita Springer CD, “Beautiful You.” It’s just 80 minutes of her leading a live worship set, and is one of the most powerful worship CDs I’ve heard in a long time. Lately I would just play it, listen, and sit. I don’t feel anything different. I still feel the pain, the uncertainty, and the doubt. But as I just am and let the lyrics of truth enter my ears, wash over my soul. As I add my imperfect spontaneous lyrics of brokenness to Rita’s prerecorded worship set, my soul just seems to know. “I am in God’s presence.”
I’m not quite sure how to explain it. His presence in these moments isn’t really an incredible experience of joy or a peace after a storm, but rather a quiet knowledge. Perhaps a deeply rooted trust that God is with me and that I have nothing to worry about. It’s so subtle… so still. Perhaps as one prophet describes it, it is kind of like a gentle whisper in the midsts of craziness. An easy to miss reminder that God sees me and is with me. And for once in a long time, despite still feeling all the crappy things I feel, there’s just a quiet peace that it will be okay. This is His presence.
Honestly, I struggle to even fully articulate my experience with God. All I know is that to be in God’s presence is not just an important idea, but truly our lifeline. And that the experience of His presence goes so much beyond an emotional high, but a steady obedience to His call on our lives and a quiet trust in his faithfulness.
Anyways, with all that said, what do you guys think? What does it mean to be in God’s presence for you? How has God shaped and matured your understanding of what it means to be in His presence?
Posted on April 28, 2009, in Personal, Thoughts on Faith and tagged desert, God's presence, obedience, spiritual disciplines. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
dude that worship cd is just ridic. it IS such a good cd asdjflsdjf!
mmmm dude – one of the most satisfying things to do is just sit in God’s presence just letting worship music sing over you lol. hahaha!
oh yess. God’s presence. being in God’s presence is much more than just feelings. it is just being still and know God. a quiet whisper. a gentle peace. it’s SO important but hard to explain until you open your heart to experience it.
This sentence right here, actually blew me away.
That the act of faithfully pushing forward step by step through the desert is an experience of His presence in my life.
Yesterday in bible study we were speaking about what God meant by “abide” in me and I will abide in you, and being in Gods presence, and these words truly sums up so much for me, I thank you!
My friends, he speaks to us every second of our lives. Let me align you with a simple question:
Have any of you ever had a dream that you felt was of significance and throughout your entire day, it puzzled you and left your teeth in you lips, puzzled at it’s importance, for does it not remain within your mind? Surely everything and every action in this universe has a meaning, for God so whispers to his children not with distinct and clear words, but instead symbols. And with all of this in mind, has the answer to why your dream ever crossed your mind over the course of the following day, week, month and actually been ANSWERED such that you feel you’re returning to a revelatory understanding of your own perception and intention for making the inquiry in this first place? Ask your question in your thoughts, speak it, it doesn’t matter. God will answer you fractions of minutes after each question by directly associating a particular image you see with what it may symbolize and thus answer that question through his ability of perfectly showing you with his universe the answer at the time you asked. Coincidence? That is but a word, and the only one who knows the true name of every single spectacle is he who created it. Who are we to define anything if we found the words and need not create them, but instead stumbled upon them? The one true entity that creates only truly knows it’s purpose, therefore it has many purposes, and as such, a symbol is indeed something so artfully crafted into our very spirits. And yet the question remains, why do we see such chaos in this world and turn from our God who created us, via a twisted form of reasoning in which we blame all the hate and anger and corruption and he who put us here? It sounds to me like men have accountability issues, and to actually expect we have free will and yet God planned the whole thing? My friends these are not contradictions, but instead symbolically intertwined! As a good friend of mine has stated:
“We are forced onto a spectrum of absolute “potent” freewill, on one side, and a completely scripted fate on the other. Most live in this spectrum sliding up and down as the situation dictates. We do not possess “potent” free will. Our lives are also not scripted. But that seems enigmatic because we have many false perceptions about where we are, what we are and how this place works. We do not have the power to move a finger. The finger is moved for us. We mistakenly believe that our thoughts, desire, wants and emotions originate from us but we seldom recognize that they are given to us. “We only feel free as we mistakenly believe we are the one making the choices for ourselves.” It only “feels” to us like freedom of choice. Our lives are not scripted either, they are customized around educational purposes. If it serves the educational purpose then our finger is moved for us. We think we are in charge of actually manifesting the power but we are simply observers here. We have our hand on the joystick of life but the joystick is not connected. It only “appears” connected. We have the “appearance” of “potent” free will. Our free will is mental only. Power in this universe is manifest for us by proxy not as a direct function of our will. When you start looking for the source of your motivations and emotions you will find it does not usually originate from within us. It is given to us to teach us a lesson. It is a lesson unfortunately that most have not learned. There was never such a thing called luck, chance, accident, probability or chaos. All things happen for a perfectly logical reason. When one realized the Truth then one can know those reasons. Most willingly place themselves at the mercy of this fallacy called luck. Einstein had it correct when he made two critical observations he said that the most important question facing man is: “Is the universe a friendly place?” His answer comes in the form of another famous quote: “He [God] does not play dice with the universe.” This does not refer to quantum mechanics it simply states what exists. What we see is all we can see. We do not have senses or tools to see beyond the limits of what our sense tell us and our primitive tools built out of the stuff within the universe can measure. Our minds and intuition is the tool for transcending our primitive senses. If one is not exploring the power of their own minds and practicing to utilize their intuition then they will remain blind to the true nature of this wonderful game we find ourselves within. Why would a logical God waste all those resources building a universe if all he had to do is make us all think he built a universe. How could we in our limited sensory capacity ever tell the difference?
We are made to do what we damn well please in accordance with a specific set of individually tailored objectives.
Omnipotence is indeed omnipotence, always, now and forever.
You have bought a lie and allowed to make yourself a powerless slave.
Know thyself!
Are we learning yet?
If anyone is interested in unlocking the secret to the holy grail and receiving the gift of divine grace and protection then you will find it on my site.
It does not suck to be me. Wish you were here…”
Roage