Part 3 Have we Messed up the Whole "Presence of God" Thing?

Part 3 of 3
Have We Messed Up the Whole “Presence of God” Thing?
Am I limiting God with My Limited Expectation?

Part one of this series looked at the issue of the manifest presence of God in our lives and churches.  Part two looked at the issue of God’s “ever-present-ness” in our lives.  In other words, He doesn’t come and go, He lives in and with us.

My third point deals with the question of expectation.  Is “feeling the presence of God” the epitome of our Christian experience?  

I have known many Christians who chased revival.  They were addicted to the excitement and manifest presence of God in a service.  They would drive hours to go to the next meeting.  The only problem was, I never saw their lives change very much.  It was all about “feeling” or seeing some manifestation (real or contrived).  

I must stop and relate a humorous experience I had in a church I was attending one morning.  The pastor was caught up in a movement which emphasized outward manifestations like gold dust, feathers, and other things in services. During the sermon he stopped and fixed his eyes on something.  He followed it down (no one else could see it) and stuck out his finger and claimed to have “caught” a little tiny fluff of feather.  It was so small (if indeed it was there at all) that you couldn’t see it.  But he gave the indication that a feather had fallen in his service: The manifest presence of God and the validation that we were indeed in the right place.  

So my thought was, “you have a very tiny God, if His feathers aren’t any bigger than a tiny piece of down”.  Or perhaps the angel was shedding.  I am not sure what the message was supposed to be, but the intent was clear – God is here and this is proof.  Honestly, it was one (I’ve seen more) of the most ridiculous things I have seen in church. (It is a shame that I feel the urgent need to place this disclaimer – but here it is: I am not saying that God cannot or has not done things like gold dust or feathers, my point here was that we cannot make the stuff up to fit in.  And, if the “manifestations” don’t result in changed lives, what good are they?)

Back to the main point. If the presence of God is really in a place -- either for a visitation or as a habitation – lives will be changed on a regular basis.  The idea that the revival meeting (read that the exciting manifest presence of God) is the epitome of the Christian experience is erroneous.  In fact, I was asked not to come back to a church because of this point. 

I have known pastors and leaders who wanted continual revival meetings, but were not concerned with genuine revival.  The truth is a revival meeting will only last as long as there are people who need to be revived.  Since “vive” is Latin for Life, “revival” means to bring life back to something that was dead – or perhaps -- to resuscitate. Those that are “vived” don’t need “revival.” Once those in need of revival stop coming, those type of meetings will cease for the time being.  A simple look through the history of revival shows that revivals tend to run their course – some sooner than later, and for a variety of reasons. The fact is, once you and I are revived, we need to start living out that revival in our lives – not attend more meetings.

I have also known ministries that were caught up in the “soaking” movement.  This is where Christians gather to “soak in the presence of God” while worshipping or listening to worship music.  Once again, I have observed a two-fold problem.  The first that it is self-focused, and the second: I haven’t seen any real fruit for the Kingdom come out of it.  Those I have personally known to do this still aren’t really accomplishing anything significant for God.

If the “manifest presence of God” is not changing lives, we must question if it is really a spiritual thing or simply an emotional thing.  Emotions, while real and valid – and necessary – cannot produce Spiritual results – only the Spirit of God can.  Spiritual experiences can produce emotional responses, but the reverse is not true.  Jesus said, that which is flesh is flesh and that which is Spirit is Spirit.

The bottom line of this series of articles is simple. 

One: Do I stop at sensing the presence of God through my five senses and calling it good, or must I allow the Holy Spirit to do a deeper work in my life? It is sometimes easier to allow God to work when we sense His presence, but it does not automatically follow that we will let Him or that He isn’t doing anything when we can’t feel Him.

Two:  Am I chasing God, or some experience in God?  There is a difference! Christianity is not a “spectator sport.”  We don’t gather in stadiums to watch God do all the stuff through a limited number of specialized players.  The apostle Paul linked two critical components of Christianity together in three different books.  The two issues were the gifts of the Holy Spirit in relationship to the Body of Christ.  In each passage he emphatically declares that “each one of us” have been given Spiritual gifts for the benefit of all. Christianity should not be “me” centered.  In other words, it should not be about my experience, my blessing, my healing, my ministry, or any other “my” you can name.  It is to be Christ-centered first and people-centered second. 

Three:  We need to be aware that God does not come and go.  He is ever-present in the life of the believer – and the non-believer for that matter.  It is more of a matter of taking time to be consciously aware of what is already present.  When Paul presented the gospel message to the pagan philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens (Acts 17) he said, “So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us.”

Here Paul indicated God is close enough to a spiritually blinded person that he could “feel around and find Him,” if he wanted to.  It is our job to recognize where God is at work in a person’s life and point them in that direction.

“…And they shall call His name Emmanuel—which, when translated, means, God with us.” God with us -- not, the God that visits on occasion.

I commend you to the presence of God.

Have We Messed up the Whole Presence of God Thing - Part 2

Part 2 of 3
Have We Messed Up the Whole “Presence of God” Thing?
I don’t Feel God, What’s Wrong?

In The first article I looked at the issue of God’s presence as a visitation or a habitation. In the second part we want to look at the issue of being in God’s presence when we don’t feel it.

 Not feeling the presence of God does not mean we are not in the presence of God all the time – Just that we are more aware of it at times, and others, not so much.  Our experience has dictated our theology – which is never good.  Consider the clear word of God. In Psalm 139 (Message Bible), David cries out:

“Is there any place I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground, you're there! If I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon, you’d find me in a minute— you're already there waiting! Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I'm immersed in the light!" It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.”

Paul picks up this thought in Romans 9, when he says we don’t ascend to heaven to bring God down, nor descend to hell to Bring Christ up.  He is near always.  He isn’t somewhere else needing to show up.  In Ephesians 4:6 Paul put it this way.  “Now this, He ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.”

The book of Hebrews says Christ ever lives to make intercession for us according to the will of God.  He doesn’t only do that when we consciously ask Him to – but perhaps especially when we aren’t all that conscious of Him in our lives.

If the universe is filled with Christ, there is no place where you or I could go not to be in His presence. This ought to be a sobering thought for two reasons.  The first is that you and I can’t hide from God – Adam tried it and it didn’t work for him. Sooner or later – if you are a child of God – God will call you out.  “Adam, where are you?” It is a fact that some Christians try to hide from God by not going to church, while others try to hide from God in church.  Are you hiding from God for some reason?  If so, God is calling your name right now.

The second sobering thought is that God really does see all -- bad and good!  He sees your sacrifice and your motives – which might have been ignored or questioned by others.  He sees your heart and soul.  He sees how hard you try, even when you fail. He knows you inside and out – and He still loves you.  Gaining a proper understanding of the absolute presence of God will bring a release in our lives in many ways.  One you understand that the presence of God in your life is not based on your good performance, it frees you to walk with God in a greater measure than ever before.

This is particularly relevant with the power of God in and through our lives. We make the same mistake with the “anointing.”  We tend to believe the “anointing” comes and goes in our lives.  It does not.

“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you….”  I John 2:27

The anointing does not come and go in your life.  It ABIDES!  This is because the anointing is not something you put on and take off- or something that God gives and takes.  The Anointing is the HOLY SPIRIT.  He does not come and go, He lives in you 24/7/365.  This means that when I go to a store, God goes to that store.  When I enter the hospital, God enters the hospital.  You and I are carriers of the Anointing – The Holy Spirit.  That means you can, at any time and in any place, allow the Holy Spirit to move in and through you. 

Most definitely there are times when we can feel the presence of God in more tangible ways.  Most definitely we see God more powerfully at certain times than at others.  However, is it Him not being present or is it us, not being aware of and placing our faith in His presence?

The idea that I somehow must be worthy of that anointing is a mistake we have made for years.  The Gifts of God (Romans 12, I Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4) that manifest His power in and through believers are just that – GIFTS.  Undeserved. Unearned. Unmerited in any way.  For if it is anything other than freely given and freely received it immediately ceases to be a gift.

The significant truth of this article is that God does not come and go in our lives.  The Holy Spirit Abides.  Jesus said, “I will never leave or forsake you.”  Acknowledging God’s ever-present-ness releases us from a performance-based view and causes us to understand that God is at work in and through our lives all the time.  Sometimes we are more aware of it than others, but the more we are aware, the more things get done.

(Keep reading Article three inthe Series: Have We Messed Up the Whole “Presence of God” Thing?)

Have We Messed up the Whole "Presence of God" Thing? Part 1

Part 1/3 - Understanding Visitation and Habitation -

I stood on the platform of the small, midwestern church I was pastoring.  It was during our worship time in the service.  I was struggling because I could not feel the presence of God.  I prayed, “Father, please come and be with us.”  A few minutes later, I “felt” the presence of God come into the service.  As I stood there I said, “Thank you God for coming.”  God said, “Now that I am here, what are you going to do with me?”  This is a true story.

A few years later I was working for a friend of mine who was a Christian attending an old line denominational church.  Our Office manager was a Spirit-filled Christian. On Friday mornings the three of us would have an office prayer meeting.  One morning as we prayed, the presence of God was very strong. No one said a word for about 10-15 minutes.  We just sat in the awesome silence.  My friend broke the silence.  “So that’s what that feels like!”  He had “felt” the presence of God for the first time in his Christian life.

I have had many more powerful experiences with what I call the “manifest presence of God,” but these will suffice for this series of articles.  I want to make three points about the presence of God.

Point one: There are times when we sense the presence of God in more significant ways than others.

Point two:  This does not mean we are not in the presence of God when we don’t feel Him at all.

Point three: Should “feeling the presence of God” be the epitome of our experience?  Or is there something more we should be after?

Point one

My experience from the first story taught me two important things.  First, that my assumption was wrong.  I thought God was only there when I felt Him.  The second was that I limited what God wanted to do by limiting my expectation.  I was content to “feel the presence of God” (whether anyone else could wasn’t even a consideration at that point.) My expectation was fulfilled.  I had my experience.  I could cross my arms and say, “okay, we had a good service.”  I was very naive in the past.

However, God pulled me up short with His challenge.  “What are you going to do with me now that I am here?”  Do with you?  I hadn’t even considered that. My expectation never went beyond feeling His presence.  I had always stopped there.  I assumed if He was there -- and I could feel it -- that others could too, and that was enough.  We would know we were the chosen people of God because God showed up.  It validated us. We felt good that we had invited God and He came. However, God’s manifest presence in our individual or congregational lives isn’t a badge of approval.  It is a sign that He wants to work, and God works in very unlikely and unholy people at times.

The Bible speaks of a visitation of God and a habitation of God.  Visitations were times when God would “visit” His people for the specific purpose of either for blessing or judgment. A visitation is relatively brief compared to habitation.  In the first, someone visits and leaves; the other is where you live.   If you are having visitors over, you might clean the house and prepare some special things. Then the visit will end and things will be back to normal. However, in a dwelling, things are much more casual. You let your hair down. You get real.  You walk around in your underwear – something you probably wouldn’t do with visitors present. Life happens in dwellings – the good, the bad and the ugly.

Christianity is a daily lifestyle not a weekly service. I believe we have settled for visitations when God wants a habitation.   In Exodus 25 we find God challenging the Israelites to, “Build me a sanctuary, that I might dwell among you.”  This was the beginning.  We find the conclusion of God’s desire in Revelation 21:3, “And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”

I find it difficult to think His desire changed in the middle. The very concept of the indwelling Spirit is that we are never apart from God – as if God and Jesus were somewhere in outer space and had to be called down to where we are.

While we would never minimize the presence of God, we need ask the question: should “feeling the presence of God” be the end goal of our experience with God, or is it the doorway to a greater work of God in our lives? Christian singers and songwriters Steve and Annie Chapman wrote a song which, in part, said, “To come into the presence of the living God is to be changed.  You cannot come into His high and Holy Place and stay the same.  So, change me Lord, remake me Lord, conform me to the image of your son.”

When the Bible relates stories of people who encountered God there was always a significant reaction.  It was not a ho-hum experience.  However today, some people can come to church and nothing ever changes.  In fact for many, church is a necessary evil to be endured, at least on occasion, with no thought that something life-changing is going to happen. (If there were some life-changing expectation, our churches would be full!)  What is wrong with this picture?

God wants to work in and through us.  It takes a genuine understanding of His ever-present-ness in our lives and churches for this to happen on a consistent basis.  Are you settling for visitations, or are you building a habitation for God?

(Keep reading part two "I don't Feel God's Presence, What's WRong?" in theSeries: Have We Messed Up the Whole “Presence of God” Thing?)