Genesis 28:16 “When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
Isn’t it interesting that Jacob was sleeping in God’s Presence and was awakened to the awareness of the Lord being in that very place? Yet he wasn’t fully aware of it until he woke up.
When our spiritual faculty is neglected or distracted by the noise of the world, we will be unable to sense or be aware of Presence Himself. We must rely on the work of the Spirit to stir within us a knowing and a recognition of the Presence of Jesus. Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us. He awakens us to sense His movements, His still, small voice and leads us out of the stupor of worldly distractions. We get to hear, see and sense Him – daily!
The word Presence is simply defined as being face to face with someone. When you’re in the presence of someone, it means you’re standing or sitting before them, face to face.
Genesis 3:8 says, “And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise at the afternoon air, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise.”
Adam and Eve heard His voice and they hid from His face. That’s crushing! But how often do we do the same today? This isn’t to condemn ourselves, but to encourage and provoke us to a loyal devotion to His voice and His face. When He speaks, let’s be a company of people who will hear. When He comes, let’s be a company of people who will welcome His face.
Every day is a gift to walk with our Beloved Savior and King. Each day is an opportunity to stay engaged with the most powerful Person on the planet! He is a real Person who loves to laugh, smile, weep and mourn with us. As we become aware of the Presence of Jesus, we find ourselves overcome with His tenderness, kindness and love that strengthens and softens our hearts.
Smith Wigglesworth once said, “There are a thousand parts of our hearts that need softening a thousand times a day.”
The softening, the awareness and the breaking open of our hearts, can only happen in the secret place and by the Spirit awakening our hearts to recognize the undeniable Presence of Jesus!
How do we practice His Presence and stay aware and engaged with Him?
One simple word: adoration
The word “adoration” means: deep love and respect, strong admiration and devotion. The term comes from the Latin adōrātiō, meaning “to give homage or worship to someone or something”.
In essence, with humility, deep respect and admiration of Him, we lavish worship to Him – continually. To humbly bow before the Lord, is an inward posture of the heart, expressed in an outward position of deep devotion to His Presence, His Word and in prayer.
As we simply and humbly begin to adore Him, the sweetness of His Presence begins to fill the room and we can sense our hearts stirring with desire for more of Him, to the point where we find ourselves not wanting to interrupt that special time with the Lord. During those moments in the secret place, where my heart is taken over by His, I’ve often wondered to myself “what took me so long to shut everything off and simply just come and sit with Jesus?”
One of my favorite authors, Eric Gilmour said, “Your itch to move on stems from a desire for something other than just Him.”
Ohhhh! Ouch! As busy men, women, executives, Dads, Moms, students, it’s true that we can’t afford to hide away in a monastery and be recluse. (although on some days it does sound incredibly appealing right?)
God understands we live in a temporal world that has its demands. His desire is for us to thrive in this temporal realm with His supernatural favor and Presence. He desires that we cling and lean into His Presence, continually throughout the day, in the real world we live in.
What does that look like? It is to use every chance you get, every moment you can steal, to let Him know you want Him, you need Him, you long for Him and to allow His burning love to captivate you as you work, drive, shop or chill. It is to live with a consciousness of the Person of Jesus being with me, around me and in me. It is to live with an awareness of His voice, His desires and His Presence.
This is the fellowship, intimacy and genuine relationship that He died for us to encounter. When we savor His Presence, He begins to grow and grow on us and we do all of life, being in that state of supernatural peace that only comes from Him.
This kind of lifestyle of honoring and esteeming Jesus and His Presence might sound extreme and just a little too much for some. But when you think about why we were created, it suddenly all becomes clear and our perspectives shift from “what great things I can do for God” to “What a God who has done great things for me!” This is the one life we get, to experience and fall into the depths of His glory and His heart.
I remember not too long ago, throughout the day I kept hearing the word “crave” in my heart. Later that same day I had a grocery run to do and as I shopped from aisle to aisle and turned around a corner, my eyes caught this and I had the biggest smile on my face. (and it wasn’t because of beef jerky…lol!)
Hilarious right?? Maybe it was God delighting in confirming the longing in my heart and well, maybe it was a bad idea to shop while hungry, because I’m now the proud owner of Aisle 5!!! (Lesson learned: don’t go food shopping when you’re craving for food!!)
Anyway, enough talk about food, let’s read the language David uses in describing his craving for more of God.
Psalm 63: 1-8
¹O God of my life,
I’m love-sick for You in this weary wilderness!
I thirst with the deepest longings to love You more,
With cravings in heart that cannot be described.
Such yearning grips my soul for You, O God!
²I’m energized whenever I enter
Your heavenly sanctuary to seek more of Your power
And to drink in more of Your glory.
³For Your tender mercies to me
Mean more than life itself!
How I love and praise You, God!
⁴Daily I will worship You
Passionately and with all my heart.
My arms will wave to You like banners of praise.
⁵ I overflow with praise when I come before You,
For the anointing of Your presence
Satisfies me like nothing else.
You are such a rich banquet of pleasure to my soul.
⁶¯⁷I lie awake each night thinking of You
And reflecting on how You help me like a Father.
I sing through the night under Your splendor-shadow
Offeringup to You my songs of delight and joy!
⁸With passion I pursue and cling to You,
I keep my soul close to Your heart.
Leonard Ravenhill, (the author, evangelist, close friend to AW Tozer and mentor to Keith Green) said, “We never graduate from dependency on Jesus.”
In craving and thirsting after the Lord, we will become satisfied in Him. Our day and night passion must be to pursue, cling to and crave for His Presence.
We may not ‘feel” like spending time with the Lord and our busy, active minds and hands, want to be productive, useful and active, so it seems like a waste to simply sit at the feet of Jesus. This lifestyle of honoring and valuing His Presence isn’t just for people who have a quiet personality and lead fairly boring lives lol!
This Presence-Driven lifestyle of intimacy is for everyone who is hungry for more of God and who aren’t satisfied with state quo christianity. It’s for a generation of people who long to be possessed by Holy Spirit and are unwilling to settle for anything less than Heaven on earth. It’s for a company of people who want to see greater works and want their shadows to be dangerous.
