Living in His Presence
(week 02/04)
Olubi Johnson
Hosea 6:2-3 (NIV): After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” (from The Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984, by International Bible Society)
We are living in the time of the fulfillment of the scriptures quoted above because we are in the 3rd. day: the third millennium from the birth of Christ.
So at this time we are to live in the presence of God.
God is three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Each of them is a person with a definite shape, a mind, will and emotions.
John 5:37 KJV: And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
In particular, we see the person of the Holy Spirit described in:
Ezekiel 8:2-4 NKJV: Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire--from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color of amber. He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy.
From the Person of the Holy Spirit, His presence is transmitted by the light and power of God to everywhere in the universe, so God’s presence is everywhere making Him omnipresent.
We will use the natural illustration of mobile phones to understand the spiritual truth of living in God’s presence based on:
Romans 1:20 NKJV: For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made‚
So God’s presence is similar to satellite mobile phone waves being present everywhere as they are transmitted from their operators.
However, unlike mobile phone operators, God does not have any ‘dead spots’ or ‘down times’: the ‘signals’ of His presence are present and strong everywhere all the time:
Psalms 139:7-10 NKJV: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.
By His light and power God’s presence transmits His wisdom, love and power everywhere all the time: so God is omnipotent.
However, even though God’s presence is everywhere it is only manifest to people who have a spiritual ‘mobile phone’ with an active ‘sim card’ which is ‘charged’ and has ‘credit’.
This is similar to the fact that if you do not have a mobile with a ‘sim card’ that is charged with some credit you cannot access the signals and services of mobile phone operators.
What are the spiritual equivalents of these things?
The ‘mobile phone with an active sim card’ is a born-again human spirit in fellowship with God (John 14.17).
‘Charging’ your mobile phone is equivalent to ‘conduct’ prayers: prayers made in the middle of daily physical activities or conduct by praying in the spirit with the life of God:
1 Corinthians 14:3-4 NKJV: He who speaks in a tongue edifies (or charges up) himself,
Jude 20-21 NKJV: But you, beloved, building yourselves up (or charging up) on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
1 Corinthians 14:18 NKJV: I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all;
Ephesians 6:18b NKJV: being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints–
1 Thessalonians 5:17 NKJV: pray without ceasing
One other advantage of speaking in tongues is that it is the supernatural physical evidence of the presence of the invisible God that establishes your faith in the reality of His presence.
So when you speak in tongues visualize the presence of the person of the Holy Spirit and and thank him for the reality of His presence as evidenced by the supernatural tongues you are speaking.
Credit is having an ‘open heaven’ created by concentrated ‘closet’ (Mt. 6.6) prayer:
Ephesians 6:18a NKJV: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
Furthermore, if your ‘credit’ runs out you can get ‘credit’ from the prayers of your Pastor or those in spiritual authority under whose covering you are operating.
So when your ‘phone’ is ‘charged’ and you have ‘credit’ then you can enjoy communion with God’s manifest presence by full ‘multimedia’ service in your mind by:
Text- scripture
Picture- revelation
Voice- thoughts.
So by maintaining a daily consistent prayer life, using the life of God to practice the love and fear of God and balanced Bible reading, you can literally live in the presence of God and enjoy communion with Him.
