Last week, we stated that to experience the Power of God’s Presence, we must first be aware of His Presence.
This awareness should not be fleeting, it must be cultivated, which means to (develop, acquire, devote oneself to, sought, seek friendship with).
One may ask, but Pastor, why do we need to be aware of—and cultivate God’s presence, when we often use the big word, omnipresent, to say that God is present everywhere? This is even buttressed by the Psalmist in 139:7-12 which states that God is everywhere; and, also, why do we sometimes feel God is far away?
To answer these very relevant questions, it is helpful to know and understand the difference between God’s Omnipresence and the Manifest Presence of God.
God’s omnipresence means He is always there, everywhere, as indicated by the Psalmist, even when our awareness is not there; the Holy Spirit, for instance, scriptures say always indwells believers, Rom 8:11.
God’s Manifest Presence, on the other hand, is something that occurs in our lives whenever God Almighty chooses to reveal Himself to us. It’s something that is experienced, though not frequently.
Examples: Jacob at Bethel, Gen 28:15-16—Moses at the burning bush, Ex 3:2-6—-Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego, Dan 3:24-25—The Disciples, Matthew 14:22-27 when Jesus walked on water amongst may other instances.
Brethren, the take home info here is that we should work to cultivate the Manifest Presence of God, so as to have an experiential knowledge of His Power.
HOW?
By Quieting Your Soul: We really need to create time and space to hear God clearly (reason for Shillow, Conventions, Cruise Evangelism, WIM program etc)… The essence is that when we are always on the go, moving to and from work, task to task, dealing with tons of emails, the TV blasting with our favorite shows, hands firmly on social media, etc, we tend to leave God in the background.
Remember, last Sunday, we pointed out that we cannot find God with putting in casual interest, scanning through His words—“Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual.” God does not want to be treated as a last resort.
Even Jesus, had to seek for a place to quiet His soul, Mark 1:35-37—-He had to remove Himself from distractions, so that He could focus on His God—once in a while, you and I need to do the same, so as to cultivate His Presence, remember, they that seek their God shall do exploits.
Norman Vncent in his book, “The Power of Positive Thinking,” advised that we should read the bible at least twice in a workday, we should look for a quiet place and prayerfully meditate on the word. Jesus did so severally, if nothing else, it purifies the soul, James 1:21 AMP.
Go outside: Gen 1, story of creation, God created everything, not just human being, nature as well, — and they help us to be more aware of God and cultivate His presence. Ps 19:1-2, His creation is always speaking to us about who He is and how glorious and powerful and creative God is, (Ants, Prov 6:6, Lion, Eagle etc)
Obedience: Last week we considered studying the word to know Him, today, we go a step further to say, obey what you study. Obedience is a key spiritual principle to cultivate God’s Presence, because God reveals Himself to those who CHOOSE to obey His word, John 14:21. God’s friends, for example, Abraham believed God like a fool. Believe precedes obedience.
Converse with God: Turn your inner conversations, self-talk into a conversation with God (prayer). When we turn our inner conversations into a conversation with God, we cultivate His Presence, cos it brings God into our lives like nothing else.
Know that you can literally talk to God about everything and anything that is going on with you, and as you get better at this, you begin to hear Him speak back to you—brethren God is still speaking, but you need to cultivate His Presence to hear from Him.
Rise up now and speak to Him concerning you
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