Rogelio L. Acas Jr.

Chapter 5 The Measure of Awareness for God's Presence “We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him.” C.S. Lewis “The Lord replied, “I (My presence) will go with you. And I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14 NIRV THE PROMISED PRESENCE OF GOD The presence of god is not merely energy or force but a real and a life changing presence that will live in us and dwells among us. Moses, the great man of god, had experienced god’s presence at the burning bush and it had changed his life. As he led god's people, he asked god's presence to go with him. Moses understood that god's presence will distinguish them from others. We must also have a passion to lead people into that presence. We must have a hunger for his presence and believe it is important to experience the presence of god in our personal life as well as to others. ________________________ C.S. Lewis, “Presence of God quotes.”azquotes.com/quotes/topics/presence-ofgod.html (accessed September 14, 2017) This presence is a promised and completely available for us for he fills the heaven and earth. his presence also looks for available vessels to dwell and show its power for our benefit and for the body of Christ. PRESENCE OF GOD BUILDS FAITH The presence of god is a source of all good things that are prepared and ready for His children. As it is written, “He doesn’t hold back anything good from those whose lives are without blame” (Psa. 84:11). One of these good things being offered is what we call “Faith.” According to the book of Romans, faith comes from hearing the message. When we hear god, it gives birth and develops faith. Just like the people who followed Jesus as he preached during His time on earth. Many people followed him because they wanted to hear his messages and through hearing him, it builds faith in their hearts as they listened. As it is written “My sheep listen to my voice and they follow me” (Jn. 10:27). In order to listen to god, we need to draw near and be still in his presence. LISTEN WITHIN HIS PRESENCE We cannot hear god without His presence. This happened in the life of Saul when he was about to go to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9). Saul heard the voice of the lord saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He hears god’s voice within his presence. And god’s presence manifested as a light shone around him from heaven. As the result, he called Jesus as Lord and it became evidence of his faith. From this, the word he heard from god enter his heart and it gave birth to faith. The presence of god that surrounds him convinced and brought Saul’s heart in the state of faith. Faith that able his heart believe that Jesus was the lord and savior that was prophesied by the prophets. This presence of god was always in his heart and it also gives him boldness to witness about his faith. WHAT ARE THE WAYS TO EXPERIENCE GOD’S PRESENCE? Seeking God through Prayer “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you” (Jer. 29:12). There are a lot of promises from god that are reserved for you when you pray. As Jeremiah said, when we call to god, he will surely listen to us and answer us. In the life of Jeremiah, he experienced god’s presence through prayer. As it was written in Isaiah chapter 6 verses 1-8, he experienced it in a face to face level. God is an approaching god. When we draw near to him, he will certainly draw near to us. “Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded,” (James 4:8). But when we pray, we must first clean our hearts from sin’s filthiness which can hinder our prayer. “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that he will not hear,” (Isaiah 59:2). God’s presence is holy; it will not to come or abide in a person that is unclean. We must ask Jesus’ blood to cleanse us and have his forgiveness. Prayer with Fasting We must pay the price. If we want to experience god’s presence, we must be willing to pay or sacrifice in order to experience it. One way to experience it is through fasting. Fasting must be partnered with prayer. As some say, fasting without prayer is diet. Fasting is a powerful tool to release god’s presence in our lives. In the Old Testament, it was one way of god’s servants to be humble and be cleansed from their sins and for spiritual edification (Ps. 35:13). When we do fasting it grabs the compassion of god to response. From this He will make known to you his presence and help you experience it even in tangible ways. Read His WORD “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge spiritual edification (Hosea 4:6).To experience god’s presence, we need to be knowledgeable about god’s word because it has his ways on how he manifest or reveal his presence to his people. Reading the bible gives us the information needed to experience god. It will not only give principles on how to encounter his presence but also tell us testimonies of great men and women of god who experienced god’s presence personally. HOW DO WE KNOW THAT WE ARE IN GOD’S PRESENCE AND HOW IT FEELS LIKE? If we are in god’s presence, we will feel a lot of great and amazing things. We will be satisfied as we abide in him. These are the following things that god’s presence can bring us: You will find rest: The more we dwell in the presence of god, the more our souls can rest and relax (Mt. 11:28). Whenever I have problems and I don’t understand things in life, I will simply lean in his presence and suddenly fell comforted (Matthew 5:4). You will experience joy: The presence of god brings an unexplainable joy in us that whenever we face problems, we can face it with confidence and a smile. “You will fill me with joy when I am with you. (Psa. 16:11). You feel secure: When you are in his presence, you are being surrounded by light and no piece of darkness will be able to reach you (Psa. 91). The very presence of god manifests in unique tangible ways. These tangible ways can be experienced and can be very real. These ways include, but are not limited, to these: It feels like a fire: This happened in the day of Pentecost when the disciples saw and felt the tongue of fire as it fell upon them (Acts. 2:3). Whenever I’m in focus in prayer, I sometimes feel heat surround my mouth and in other parts of my body. It gives me confidence that god surely heard me. It feels like water: As the scripture said that JESUS is the living water (John 4:1314). As an example I remember one man who attended the service of one of god’s great servant named Kathryn Kuhlman. He said that when he was there he felt the presence of god like a thick jelly. It’s like water a liquid love that comes from god. You will feel oil being poured out: One of the Holy Spirit’s symbols is the oil. Oil is being used to anoint a person. Sometimes when I am in church and even in my workplace I feel god’s presence like thick water then suddenly some oil will be poured out in my head, eyes, hand and in different part of my body. I would suddenly understand that god will be going to use me to bear fruit (John 15:16). Speak in New tongues: This is the first evidence seen on the disciples in the day of Pentecost when they are filled with god’s presence, his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has the control of your tongue and he directs it to speak his will (Rom. 8:25). It was also happen to me when I was in my room alone. I really asked god for my healing then later I spoke in new tongues. It helps me to deliver and express well my feeling through this heavenly language he put in my mouth. HOW DO WE KNOW THAT A PERSON IS ALWAYS AWARE OF GOD’S PRESENCE? God’s presence is everywhere for he is all present but not all of us are aware of it (Jer.23:24). It is also a good thing to measure or be knowledgeable on how far our awareness is in order to evaluate and examine ourselves. These are the things that need to be considered in order to measure the level of our awareness of god’s presence. Believer’s Fruit If a believer is always aware of god’s presence he will bear much fruit. The fruit refers to the people that the believer draws to god. The more we abide in his presence the more we can influence and attract people to follow Jesus (John 12:32). One example for this is the life of Pastor Paul Yonggi Chu. His awareness of god’s presence brings a lot of unbelievers to follow JESUS. Because of this he builds his church the Yoido Full Gospel Church (Assemblies of GOD) and it became the world’s largest congregation. Believer’s Lifestyle The more Christ-like character we seen on a believers lifestyle the more we can say that He really in constant awareness of god’s presence (2 Cor.5:17). God’s presence will affect the way we talk, think, and handle our life. The more we stay and aware in the presence of god the more we become self controlled and watchful (Gal.5:22-23). We will become careful on words that we will use to speak because we are always aware of the presence of god. And it will remind us that he is looking and listening. All believer’s works and lifestyle will be filled wisdom and word of knowledge from god (Proverbs 2:6). Believer’s Relationship with the Lord When we are always in god’s presence it develops intimacy and it will bring us more closely to god (Heb.13:5). The more hunger for god in our heart will exist and also mysteries will be revealed to us. The greater spiritual experiences that will be experienced (Jeremiah 33:3). One example is John one of the disciples, who was so intimate with the lord because of his intimacy God shown to Him the heaven, throne of god and even the end time events. There are a lot of great man and women of god like Smith Wigglesworth, Kathryn Kuhlman, Kenneth Hagins, John G. Lake and a lot more who had a remarkable relationship with the lord. Their lives serve as evident examples of what can awareness can do in the completion of our ministry.