THE PRESENCE OF GOD

“If Your Presence does not go with us—do not send us up from here!” Exodus 33:15.

As We look at these very scriptures before us , We discover that we are nothing without the presence Of God in our life .

No one is as weak and powerless like a man who has lost the presence of God or doesn’t have it .

The Presence Of God makes you lively , energises you and beautifies you .

It is important to constantly remind ourselves of the benefits of God’s presence in our life , so that we won’t try to toil with our connection with God .

Having the presence of God with us is worth more than riches or fame or power. We can go anywhere when the presence of God is with us.

 I can go to many places because His presence is with me.

 I don’t care what direction it is, if the presence of God is there. Sleep is dangerous when the presence of God is absent. 

Psalm 51:11: Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

This is a powerful prayer. The Psalmist is trying to say that if God wants to take every other thing from him, He can, but God should allow him to always be in His Presence. 

He says God should not be silent about his matter; even if He wants to discipline him, He can but He should please not remove His Presence from Him.

We need to have the presence of the Lord in our lives; it is a wonderful experience. It is essential in our everyday life.

The closer you are to fire, the hotter you are; the farther you move away from fire, the cooler you become. 

The closer you move to the Lord, the more of His presence you have; the farther you move away from Him, the closer you are to the devil. 

It is a wonderful thing to be in the presence of the Lord and it is a dangerous thing to be far from Him.

Woe betides the person who moves away from the presence of the Almighty God! When God vomits a person, the person’s enemy will be dealt with ruthlessly. 

This is a very serious issue and I would advise that you pray for the presence of God into your life today.

YOUR LIFE IS A BUILDING THAT MUST CARRY GOD.

Target: Building a conducive Environment for the divine presence of God. 

GOD IS LOOKING FOR MEN TO FILL UP 

 God likes to fill things up

a. God fills all things: In Genesis 1, God gave man the cultural mandate—to take dominion over the earth and fill it. 

We see this idea of God’s desire to fill things in other texts as well (see Isaiah 6:1; Habakkuk 2:24). His desire now in Christ is to fill His church (me and you)  with His presence. 

DEEP QUESTION: What occupies your life and time in your thoughts ? God’s will for your life is to be filled with his very presence.

GOD’S DESIRE : God wants us to know Him intimately—to think His thoughts after Him. 

This is done through saturating our minds with His Word. 

Set aside time each day to read and reflect on God’s Word, reflecting on the person and work of Christ and how it applies to your life.

Why you can’t feel Him : 

Sometimes you can’t sense God’s presence because there’s something blocking the communication between the two of you.

 He hasn’t left, but your sensitivity to His presence might be affected by unconfessed sin in your life. 

David, the Psalmist, said, “When I kept silent (about his sin) my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long

(STEPS TO BE FILLED WITH THE MIGHTY PRESENCE OF GOD.)

1. Spiritual hunger. The first key that attracts God’s presence to you is spiritual hunger. 

God promises to fill those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. 

There’s something about a hungry, thirsty heart that will cause God to pour out His glory on you. “Thirst for His fullness”

2. Go Up to Bethel

When Jacob got to Shechem, he fulfilled the first part of his promise to God and set up an altar declaring Yahweh as the one true God.

Build an altar for the Lord 

Jacob knew that this was a place of anointing. He knew that this was a place to encounter God. 

He also knew that preparation was needed to come face to face with a holy God.

So he told his family “Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments.”

a. They needed to put off the old way of life.

b. They needed to leave the past behind them.

c. An encounter with the living God meant a change of heart, attitude, and mind.

3 . An encounter with the living God takes preparation. (Prepare to meet God )

Every time we come to church we should expect an encounter with God, so every time we come to church we need to prepare ourselves to meet Him.

God is concerned with our attitudes.

God is concerned with our thoughts.

If we come to church expecting an encounter with the living God, then we must prepare ourselves by seeing that…

a. Our hearts are right before God

b. Our attitudes are right before God

c. Our thoughts are right before God

4 . Humility. God loves to clothe the humble with His presence. God draws near to the humble heart.

5 . Honour. Honour is another significant key to hosting the glory of God in your life. 

Whatever you honour you attract to yourself. Whatever you honour you receive from. 

When you honour God’s presence, He will draw near to you.

When you honour an anointed person, you will receive from the anointing in their life. 

If you honour the glory of God, you will be saturated consistently with Him.

6 . Consecration. We find the next key to attracting the glory in 2 Chronicles 5:11. Consecration is the process of being set apart as holy unto God. 

A pure heart of devotion and consecration attracts the glory like a magnet. When God feels at home in a vessel, He really fills it. 

The more we allow God to purify our lives, the more we will become a habitation of His manifest presence.

7. Unity. Where there is unity God commands a blessing. 

When we come into unity with other believers we form a corporate habitation in which God can fill. 

8. Magnifying God’s true nature. This is one of the most important keys and one we must learn more about.

9 . Prayer. In Acts 10 we discover two keys that will attract God’s presence. 

Communing with God through private conversation with Him will cultivate His presence in a tangible way.

Follow a consistent programme of prayer.

10 . WALK WITH MEN THAT CARRY HIS PRESENCE.