A Sense of His Presence, Part 3

A Sense of His Presence
Part 3: Loving God and Relying on Him
The Practice of the Presence of God
I have put aside all set procedures for devotion and seek only to continue in his presence. I keep myself there by giving heed to what I pay attention to and by my fond regard of God.
This brings a sense of God's actual presence that is constant and silent but at the same time a secret conversation of my soul with God. This brings me great joy and inner rapture.
Sometimes I feel such an overflowing sense of God's presence that I have to deliberately find a way to restrain and subdue myself when others are nearby.
The Universal Presence
Psalms 139:7-10 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there …

The Heart of God
Luke 15:20 "And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
Emotion and Knowledge
Both are necessary to understand and pursue God
Greatest Commands
Mark 12:29-31 "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment.31 And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Easier to Love Those we can See
1 John 4:20-21 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
How Can We Love God?
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'
We Love Inner Qualities
Our friendships with each other are based not on the outward as much as the invisible qualities – sincerity, virtue, wisdom.
Love Sees Beyond Physical
“Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind”
God and Christ with Us
John 14:21-23 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him…If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
God’s Spiriutal Temple
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
God’s Spiriutal Temple
2 Corinthians 6:16 For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people."
God’s Presence with Israel
Exodus 40:34 Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
Solomon’s Temple
I Kings 8:27 "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!
We Know God Spiritually
Ephesians 2:19-22 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
We Know God Spiritually
Our Most Important Duty
Mark 12:29-31 "30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment.
The Danger of Outward Rituals
Psalms 51:16-17 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart -- These, O God, You will not despise.
The Danger of Outward Rituals
Joel 2:13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
Don’t Hide in the Husks
Luke 15:16-17 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
A Charge to the Rich
1 Timothy 6:17-19 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
Relying on God
Acts 17:27-28 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;28 for in Him we live and move and have our being…
Recognize Your Personal Weakness
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
Recognize Your Personal Weakness
9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Acknowledge God’s Grace in Your Life
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Rely on His Strength
Ephesians 3:17-19 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height --19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Rely on His Strength
Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.
Give Thanks for our Food
1 Timothy 4:3-5 For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving;5 for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Find Grace in Trials
James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
God Can Work Even in those who oppose Him
John 11:49-51 And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all,50 nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish."51 Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,
Call on Him
Jeremiah 33:3 'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.'
A Sense of His Presence
Part 3: Loving God and Relying on Him
A Sense of His Presence
Part 2: Increasing our Awareness of God
German Rationalists
1802 – Hegel declared God was culturally dead; man must throw off God to progress to man’s potential state
1880 – Nietzsche announced God (man’s greatest danger) in the grave – man was now liberated
The Pace of Life
Are we travelling through life too fast to read the signs and get our directions?
Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

A Sense of His Presence
Part 1: Living With God in the Center
A Sense of His Presence
Part 1: Living With God in the Center