The Bible says that in the Presence of God is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures evermore (Psalms 16:11). Many Christians want to be in the Presence of God and want to learn the practice of the Presence of God. It's a natural desire for anyone who has experienced being in God's Presence to want the bliss, comfort, unspeakable joy, and sense of well-being and love that comes with being in His Presence. Here are some principles about how to learn the practice of the Presence of God.

Complete Surrender

God is a consuming fire, and He burns up any flesh, sin and rebellion in us. For us to walk deeper into His Presence, we must be willing for these things to be burned up. Everyone desires to be in God's Presence, most especially for the overwhelming senses of joy and love, but very few desire the unpleasant feeling of giving up control, or giving up sinful parts of our souls.

If we want to grow closer to Him, we must be willing for God to burn those things up in us. The nice thing about that is we don't have to do it ourselves, we just have to be willing to let them burn up. It's like when you put wood in the fire...you're not the one burning up the wood, but you need to be willing for it to burn. If we surrender all parts of us to burn up that which is unholy, God will burn them up as we grow closer to him.

Consider the following story from Jeremiah 42. The leaders of the remnant in Jerusalem come to Jeremiah asking him to inquire of God on their behalf and this is what they said:

⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us. ⁶ Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the LORD our God."

They to God saying they would be willing to do whatever God asks, whether it was favorable or unfavorable. Although these leaders did not end up fulfilling this vow, this is the prayer that is required for us to enter into the Presence of God.

It's guaranteed: He will burn up those things that are unholy, but it's also guaranteed that He will give us what our hearts most deeply desire - His Presence.

Seek With All Your Heart

Secondly, if you want to find God, you have to seek him with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 says, "You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart." If you want to find God, it can't be a casual, off to the side desire. It must be something that you're desperate for. If you casually desire to be in God's Presence, His Presence will be causally manifested to you. You have to desire it with all your heart, and you have to seek it. And what I found when I started seeking it is that my heart does not want to surrender control. I want to stay in control. Not so I can sin or be in rebellion, but mostly because I'm scared of what God will ask of me. But when you keep seeking Him, you start to realize that the fear comes from a lie that says God is not good and safe. When I kept seeking Him, I began to realize that my fear is irrational and based on a belief that God is different from who He says He is...namely that He is not good and has ill intentions toward me. Once that lie is taken care of, it's easier to surrender.

Something else that I found in my journey is that part of me couldn't surrender, even though I wanted to. It was too difficult. There's a song by a band called Third Day called "Take From Me My Life", and it says, "take from me my life, when I don't have the strength. To give it away to You." We are by nature sinful and rebellious, and in of ourselves, we do not want to give up control to God. But that is when God's grace comes to us to give us the strength to surrender. Surrender is not easy...and generally, surrender is impossible because of our nature. But praise be to God! He is bigger than our impossibilities. His grace is sufficient and he provides us what we need to surrender.

I was 14 years old when I wrestled with giving up Lordship of my life to God. It was mostly because I was afraid that He would ask me to do something I didn't want to do, or something that would be painful or uncomfortable. One specific thing I was afraid of was that He would tell me to be a missionary to Africa. But finally, I gave in and surrendered my life to God, and I have been trying to do it everyday since. But something strange started to happen after I surrendered my life to Him. He started to give me a heart for Africa. He never commanded me to go and I never felt Him telling me to. But in fact, He began to give me such a heart, love and burden for Africa that in one night in particular that I remember, I actually begged Him to let me go there. That is the grace of God to surrender. If we say 'yes' to Him, He will provide the grace to walk it out.

Free From The Love Of Money

Thirdly, if we want to practice the Presence of God, we must be free from the love of money. Jesus said that you can only serve one master, God or money. It's funny to me that Jesus picked money in particular as a competing God. In fact, Jesus was pointing out the realities of life. If you look closely, most idols revolve around money. Even the idols of wood and stone of ancient peoples, what were they? Most of them revolved around good harvest, or prosperity and wealth...i.e. money. If we want to practice the Presence of God, the main thing in it's way will be the love of money.

When Jesus drove out the merchants in the temple, it was a prophetic metaphor of our own temples. Although deep down inside, we long for the holy of holies, the thing that keeps us out is the love of money that resides on the perimeter of our lives. If we want God's Presence, we have to do what Jesus did and drive out the greed and love for money that occupies the largest parts of our temple, i.e. our hearts.

And like Jesus, we must drive it out with passion and fire. It was one of those rare moments where we saw Jesus that angry and upset, to the point of literal violence. He was passionate about the Father's Presence and about His glory. If we want to practice the Presence of God, we must do the same in our own hearts. We must drive out the love of money in our own hearts.

How do you do that? First, again, you have to ask for His grace to do that. I guarantee, you cannot do it without the grace of God. Ask Him to take that love of money out of your heart. God wants that even more than you do. I guarantee, within a short time, you will begin to see freedom from that area of your life. And then He might even test you in that area so that you know what He has done to free you.

I was bound up in the love of money for a very long time. Then I asked God what I shared above. I asked for His grace to be free of it because I couldn't do it on my own. Then I came across a situation where normally, I would have tried to be opportunistic and make money somehow from it. Instead, I laid it down, and I approached that situation without trying to angle for my share, and instead really trying to seek the Wisdom of God for the people involved in that situation. It was then, when I reacted opposite what I normally do by trying to profiteer, that I realized that God had freed me.

If you want to practice the Presence of God, surrender absolutely, seek with all your heart, be free from the love of money, and finally and most importantly, rely on God's grace. And remember, He wants to be with you more than you want to be with Him.

May God bless your journey...

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Also, check out some of the other articles that I've written:

How To Find God's Will For Your Life

How To Find God's Will In Christian Dating And Marriage

Hope For HIV/AIDS Patients