Hi how are you all today? I am well but haven’t been over the last few days. That is the reason this post is late. I blogged last time about disappointments and those disappointments piled up around me so that I became unwell. But all good now.
In this post I want to explore walking in the presence of God. I don’t know if we realise what an amazing privilege we have as New Testament Christians that we can continuously walk in the presence of God.
When we give our lives to Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes and takes residence in us. He is not only our comforter, our guide, our friend, our teacher but it means we carry with us everywhere the presence of God.
When we read the story of Abraham in Genesis, God only appeared to him a few times but we have God living within us continually. How amazing is that really! This is the mystery that all the Old Testament prophets were looking forward to and never received. It is all because of Jesus.
In the time of Moses, God would appear in the tabernacle in the Holy of Holies. The high priest was the only one that could go in there and then only once a year. When Jesus died the curtain that prevented anyone from going into the presence of God was torn down, allowing anyone who was Gods child to enter.
I love what King David said in Psalm 23:6 in the NKJV:
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.
David wanted to dwell in the house of God forever which is where Gods presence was. But we have the privilege of God dwelling within us.
This is amazing!
So how do we continually walk in the presence of God and know it.
John 15 is a good place to start. Verses 9 to 10 in the Message Bible state:
9-10 “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.
We need to remain intimately connected to God to ensure we are walking in His presence. Just like the branches need to stay connected to the vine for life, fruit and harvest, we must remain connected to Jesus.
We need to keep Gods commands to remain intimately connected in His love. In other words maintain and grow our relationship with God by obeying Him. It is when we disobey that we can find ourselves drifting from the presence of God.
Jesus always walked in the presence of God. It states in John that He only said and did what God told Him to say and do.
Further when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, there was obviously something about the way Jesus prayed that was different. Jesus prayed from a position of relationship whereas the religious leaders prayed out of habit. Relationship only comes from walking in the presence of someone.
So this week, consider your walk with God. Are you walking in the presence of God or in your own strength. We need to remind ourselves often of the privilege we get to experience of God dwelling in us.
Bless you and keep living the life God intended for you.
Karen
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