One of the things I've learned over my life as a Christian is that when you hear lots of different messages from different speakers and the underlying tone of them all is the same, God is trying to say something to His people. This past weekend I had the privilege to sit under 5 different sermons by 5 different speakers (even at different places), and without any of the speakers knowing it (except for by guidance from God) they were all speaking around the same topic...And that topic was being in the presence of God.
I was able to take something different away from each speaker, yet collectively put it all together to come up with the one conclusion that God is desperately trying to get people to understand. And that is this.....without getting in His presence, everything we do as a "follower of Christ" is really for nothing. By that I simply mean, if we are saying we are a follower, if we are attending church, if we are listening to the "right kind of music" and only allowing in the kind of media (movies and tv) that "good Christians" should, but we are not spending time in the presence of God, then our lives are probably never going to be more than "morally good". When we spend time in the presence of God as our first priority, the rest of those things will just naturally fall into place as they should. Your heart will not be for things of this world, but will be for the things of the Lord, the will of the Lord and the work of the Lord. This doesn't mean trials won't come your way and there won't be hard times to make it through. In fact, if you spend so much time in the presence of God you may become such a threat to the enemy that he will try even harder to "derail you". But again the beauty in that is this... if you are already spending time in God's presence, deepening your relation with Him, becoming more intimate with our creator, then when the enemy does come your way, fighting the battle against him will be even easier because of the power you will possess through Christ. It is not by accident that God designed it this way. More time with Him means more strength and more power through Him.....He does this because He knows we will need to fight the enemy off even more and go up against the enemy even more in the spirit realm.
If we see in Matthew that even Jesus took time to go alone before the presence of God to pray then why would we feel like this should not be a huge part of our relationship with God? It should be! In fact I would argue that it should be the MOST important part of your relationship with God. Getting before Him, soaking in His presence and then taking that with you out into the world. Don't expect to move mountains in your life, help others with their mountains, operate in the gifts of the spirit or even get to new and deeper levels with Christ if you are not going to your secret place and getting before Him requesting Him to reveal Himself to you.
God, help us to make You THE priority in our lives...not just another thing on our list of priorities. Show us the power that we can possess when we spend time in Your presence. Show us the deeper level of intimacy our relationship with You can have when we give You the time You deserve in our everyday lives. Line our hearts up with Your heart God so this isn't something we have to think about doing, but instead it is something our spirits crave....let us have a feeling of lack when we aren't in Your presence as often as we need to be. In Jesus name, Amen.
If you haven't heard the song "In Your Presence" by Jason Upton then I highly suggest listening to it here...amazing song! In Your Presence by Jason Upton
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