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.