The Love, The Presence and The Word

For some out there what I am about to write here may be difficult to read at times because of your own journey and before we go any further I want to assure you that I love to be in the tangible presence of God and carry His tangible presence and I love all the wonderful encounters with our Father that He gives us.

My attempt here is to simply highlight the need for us to be anchored in the Word of God and by the Spirit of God and to let our experiences of God be amazing additional adventures into closer intimacy with Him.

Some popular Christian books have passionately declared the need to “chase after” the presence of God.

Well God is not running away from us that we have a need to ‘chase after Him’, and the cloud of glory in Solomon’s temple now resides in the temple of God on earth that is the people who make up the Body of Christ.

There is however a great power in the action of corporate praise

Why?

Praise means speaking or singing God’s creative word under the Anointing of the Holy Spirit. There is a manifestation when His people praise Him with faith-based praise. Songs birthed from intimacy with God and from revelation of His nature and purpose, anointed by the Holy Spirit when sung will produce a substance of manifested Word. This is the glory of God, people can get healed, delivered, convicted of their need for a Lord and a Saviuor, whole cities and nations can be covered with a glorious presence as God’s people move in the power of praise and prayer. You only have to read the accounts of this happening in the lives of Charles Finney, Sadhu Sundar Singh, John G. Lake and other heroes of faith to be inspired that it is possible in our day and even in our nation.

God’s response to His people in praise is not based on the emotion of the people or the numbers of people there. His response is based upon Anointed faith-filled words being sung out of the overflow of hearts filled with His glory. God longs to touch us in our emotions and is touched by ours but He acts upon faith expressed in Him and in His Word

What does praise accomplish?

Well, firstly, it stills, silences the enemy according to Psalm 8: 2. It puts him in a stupor. A great deal of what passes for praise and worship today seems to be guitar driven entertainment where the congregation remains in a stupor rather than engaging with God and participating in high praise.

According to Psalm 149: 6 - 9 Word based prayer and praise when in the mouths of believers – ‘inflicts vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings in fetters their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them this is the glory (goodness) of all His saints’.  The glory of the saints is to praise and manifest God’s glory in spiritual government over nations, and principalities and powers.

   

Psalm 22:3 (KJV) “ But thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel”

Psalm 22:3(NRSV) “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel”

An interpretation of this verse could describe how God does not come down to honour the praises of His people but he actually inhabits, lives in the very praises themselves, because praise is prophetic speaking, God-kind of speaking, and you cannot separate God from His Word.

The New Revised Standard Version gives the idea of God being enthroned through the prophetic speaking of His people. Perhaps through our praise God’s rule is made more prominent in our lives and in our sphere of influence and beyond that’s why the Psalmist says “I will praise the Lord at all times I will constantly speak His praise” Psalm 34: 1 (NLT)

The prophet Moses in one of his epic conversations with God raises some interesting questions about the importance of presence.

Exodus 33:14-19 (NIV)

“ The Lord said ‘My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.’ 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 (individual) and with Your people (corporate) unless You go with us? What else will distinguish me and Your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? … Then Moses said ‘Now show me Your glory’ And the Lord said ‘I will cause all My goodness to pass before you.”

What does this passage really tell us about the need for the presence of God?

What was Moses really asking for when he asked for the presence?

The word presence there in Hebrew means face or favor. Moses was not requiring to feel the sensation of God’s tangible presence wherever he goes, but was asking God to distinguish between the people of Israel and all the other peoples on the face of the earth by favor. Now favor is recognized when God’s goodness is seen in the visible realm. Interestingly enough in chapter 34 God enables Moses to receive the new stone tablets upon which were written the very words of God. This Word was carried in the Ark of the Covenant by the priests and went in front of the people on all their journeys. The Word that went before them produced favor wherever they went. We as priests of God need to carry His Word to our generation and manifest His glorious favor. When Joshua took over from Moses, the people had to mature quickly and simply follow the Ark containing the Word of God and not the cloud of smoke or pillar of fire. (See Joshua Chpt 3). In chapter 6 of the book of Joshua it can be clearly seen that the people’s obedience to shout the Word of the Lord was rewarded in the glorious manifestation of the walls of Jericho falling down. A sovereign presence of God did not bring about this miracle but a people in obedient partnership with the Almighty, together brought down the walls of Jericho. God’s instruction to Joshua as the new leader was not to wait for the ‘felt presence of God’ before you do anything. But the instruction was to ‘not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it then you will be prosperous and successful.’ (Joshua 1:8)

God said this to a man who knew what it was to be in the tangible presence of God.

Ex 33:11 (NIV)

‘The Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.’

Obviously Joshua loved the presence of God.

Joshua served the man of God for forty years.

Feeling the presence of God and being available to serve are two great characteristics of leadership, but to be face to face with God is to be in His Word and be communing with His Spirit and to be intimate with our Father is the first priority. In that place we not only feel God but we hear him and the ‘eyes of our heart’ see Him. It is an intimacy deeper than only touching our emotions. (But our emotions will be deeply touched too which is wonderful!)

Clearly from Joshua 1:8 we see God is looking for leaders who speak and action out what they see and hear from Him. Surely at the end of the day to be intimate with the Father and carry out the Lord’s instructions and His will as a leader, shepherds the people and is more beneficial to the people than only putting out chairs and letting them enjoy their own agendas. The correct image of God is created by the living Word of God, if this is not in first place in the lives of believers then what image of God are we worshipping in our gatherings? The Spirit of God and the Word of God give us the real image in our hearts of what Jesus is like. An image that is not fully built upon the Love of God and the Word of grace and the Spirit of Jesus is perverse and creates a religious deception or an illusion instead of a clear image of God. Perhaps the reason why many Christians have become disillusioned and have fallen away is due to the fact that God did not meet up to the illusionary image they had of Him. People do not get disillusioned if they have no illusions! The truth, what is real, reality is found in relationship with the Father and in the Word. Jesus said this; ‘… if ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth and the shall make you free’ (John 8:31-32 KJV)

The writer to the Hebrews put it this way; “We must pay careful attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away.” (Heb 2:1 NIV) Notice he doesn’t say ‘pay careful attention to what we have felt or to our experience or to our circumstances or sufferings, not even to what we have seen with our physical eyes’ but he tells us the way to not drift away is simply to give close attention to what we have heard from our Father through His word living in our hearts. Please don’t simply desire to be in the presence of God for feelings sake or to jump on the latest bandwagon of conferencing. I have nothing against conferences – I speak at some and go to a few myself at one particular conference a church leader came up to me who I had never met before and asked me the usual insecure question that some church leaders ask - “how many people are in your church” and when I responded 350,000 which is the size of the city I live in he wasn’t best pleased but upon leaving the conversation said – “anyway, its great to be in the Father’s Love isn’t it?” I asked God for more love for him right there otherwise in my own strength I probably would have got into a ‘heated debate!” You see the Father’s love is not a brand or a tag line it is not a corporate identity. The Presence of God is not for us simply to consume but to be consumed by. His presence and His love are for us to receive so that we are forever changed. Please when you gather as the church which is important and go about everyday of your life simply desire to meet with Your heavenly Father face to face – to live in that place of knowing His face shining upon you, giving you peace and therefore becoming a peace maker and peace giver (nothing missing, nothing broken and everything completely put back together)– seeing yourself no longer an orphan but a dearly loved child and being seen as a son of God.