Entering into the presence by Basson Nel
As a church, we are camping around the theme of the presence of God.
We’ve heard how the Israelites literally camped within the cloud, which represented the presence of God with them, while traveling through the desert. (Ex.13:21-22)
And how the cloud and the movement thereof, actually determined their movement, their coming and going, setting up camp and breaking camp. (Num.9:15-23)
We have also heard the New Testament version of this same reality of the continuous presence of God, in the following words of Jesus Himself, in Jn.15:
“Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.” (vs 4-8)
This is really good news, because it means that it is indeed possible to remain in the presence of God!
We know this because Jesus said that we should remain in Him, and He would not give an instruction which He knew would be impossible to obey, and so frustrate us!
The fact that Jesus repeatedly used the words “remain in Me” in this passage tells us that, not only is it possible for us to remain in Him, but also that it is His desire!
Last week, I’ve tried to give a quick and rather broad overview of the aspects of the presence of God, which we would love to touch on, by elaborating on the following statement:
“In the presence of God, we find Him (the nature and character of God), and we find out who we are in Him (identity/position) and what we are called to by Him (calling/purpose), and how to go about it changed, empowered and led by His grace (obedient action), to enjoy sustained fruitfulness while giving the glory to Him (significance/destiny)!”
We definitely all realize, after last week, that we are not talking about a step by step process here, but much rather about different aspects within the presence of God.
It is almost like a person standing on a mountain-top, describing the view in different directions – each picture, view or aspect is different, but he does not have to leave the mountain-top to view or describe the next aspect!
The presence of God is all about Him – about who He is – He is the centerfold, the focal point, the center of attention and attraction.
In His presence, we are awed by who He is and by what He is like, and we bring Him all worship, glory and honour, and in doing so, we are actually transformed into His likeness – we become more and more like Him!
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18) (repeat)
Basically, when we come into the presence of this great, glorious, sovereign, happy God of the Bible, we are not simply mesmerized by His presence, but rather transformed thereby!
We therefore live from within the presence of God the Father with volcanic exuberance, because of a revelation of who He is, and of the eternal worth of His Son, the Lamb who was slain for us; and even this zeal and passion is flamed by the inworking of His Spirit within us!
The point is that the presence of God is where it is at!
It is within His presence that we discover and experience His glorious nature, and here we find our identity and purpose in Him, enabling us to live a life of significance and destiny – a life which exults Him above all else and simultaneously destroys the work of the enemy all around us!
However, there are some for whom this does not come all that naturally.
You might feel that this sounds truly wonderful and that you want in, but you simply don’t know how to get into the presence of God, in the first place!
This is obviously a very relevant question, which I would like to answer by only giving the first two steps – just to get you going!
Firstly, it is impossible to come into the presence of God, unless we enter through the door – and there is only one door/gate – Jesus Christ!
Jesus said: “I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (Jn.10:9-10)
*(Story of the shepherds in Israel, actually sitting in the opening of the wall as the gate!)
Jesus also said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (Jn.14:6)
Have you ever gone into a wrong meeting, or arrived at the wrong wedding, or funeral?
You have gone in by the door, you didn’t climb in via the window, but yet you’ve ended up in the wrong place! (Ashley Bell’s story of staying over for a weekend at the wrong house!)
This is what Jesus is saying – He is saying that there is more than one option, more than one sheep pen, you might have entered through the wrong gate and find yourself in the butcher’s backyard! (Butchery truck with before and after photos on.)
Only through the gate of Jesus do we enter into the Kingdom of Heaven – to life eternal and life abundant!
But what did Jesus mean when He told this parable in Mt.22:8-13?
The guy turned up at the right venue, he was invited and came to the correct wedding, yet he was thrown out, why?
Because he was not wearing the right wedding clothes – when his ticket was checked, it turned out to be fake!
You see, you may be sitting here thinking that all is well, but unless you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, attending a church service will not bring you into the presence of God, not in this life, nor in the next!
This is a fantastic place to be – great people, glorious worship, exceptional preaching, good coffee, etc. and on top of that: here you will come to know how to receive Christ, but up until you do so, you are still standing on the outside looking in – you might be at something resembling the wedding, but you’re still not wearing the wedding clothes!
Growing up in a Christian home is wonderful, but it doesn’t make you a Christian any more than growing up in McDonalds would make you a hamburger!
You have to make the most important, most significant and most radical decision of your life – to repent and to follow Jesus as your only Lord and Saviour – that’s it!
Secondly, Ps.100:4 reads as follows: “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.”
Thanksgiving is a great key that opens the door into the presence of God!
Thanksgiving agrees with heaven by acknowledging that our lives – every aspect of our being – are gifts from God!
God is a good God and the gift of life that He has given us, is not a matter of mere existence or survival, but of blessing and abundance.
But unless we recognize and acknowledge what we have received from Him, we will not experience that life – unless we realize and understand what we have been given, we will not be able to use and enjoy the gift, we will not live life fully!
Thankfulness honours our relationship with God, because it expresses trust in Him and in His nature as the giver of all good things: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (Eph.1:3)
Thankfulness carries with it an attitude of humility!
It is not possible be be grateful and thankful from a place of arrogance, simply because in giving thanks, we acknowledge the other person, we acknowledge that something was given to us, or done for us, that we were not in a position to do for ourselves.
Humbly recognizing God’s provision in our lives, ushers us into His presence - Pr. 3:34 “He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble.”
Thanksgiving creates an awareness of God.
As we give thanks to God, our attention is obviously turned towards Him.
Through thanksgiving we become aware of His greatness as we acknowledge Him – aware of His supernatural nature as provider and protector!
Giving thanks for His supernatural provision or His supernatural protection, not only creates an atmosphere of awareness, but also of awe and of worship!
Thanksgiving gives testimony of God’s goodness.
A grateful person always has a testimony to share – a story of God’s goodness.
Testimonies are powerful, because saved and unsaved people alike, love to hear first hand accounts, real life stories, and a testimony is exactly that!
*A testimony is a reality TV episode, in which God turns up as the hero!
Listen to how the author of Ps 136 gets stuck on thanksgiving in the first 3 verses:
“Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. <His love endures forever.> Give thanks to the God of gods. <His love endures forever.> Give thanks to the Lord of lords: <His love endures forever.>”
Thanksgiving cements the very basic nature of God, i.e. that He is good, always good!
Thanksgiving acts as a reminder.
As someone else testifies by giving thanks, we are reminded of what God has done for us in the past, and we are thereby reminded of His kindness and goodness over us.
Thanksgiving is contagious in the way in which it acts to remind others of their stories, leading to more thanksgiving, creating an atmosphere of the presence of God.
The author of Ps 107 was so struck by the fact that thanksgiving reminds us of God’s deeds, that he repeated one verse 4 times in that psalm: vs 8;15;21 and 31 all read:
“Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men,” (repeat)
Our ability to give thanks for what God is doing in the midst of difficult circumstances, often depends on our ability to remember – to remember who God is, and to remember what He has already done in our lives in the past!
Thanksgiving corrects our focus.
The presence of God and the practice thereof, has a great deal to do with where we choose to focus our attention.
The enemy knows this and is constantly busy distracting our focus, using all sorts of difficult and adverse circumstances to get us to focus on the natural.
But thanksgiving brings our focus and with it our agreement back to God, it enables us to see things form His perspective, and to bring our thoughts and emotions in line with Him.
*We can only release the Kingdom of heaven into our circumstances to the degree in which we are living in agreement with, and in submission to Kingdom realities.
Thanksgiving brings our focus back to the truth and realities of heaven – a new focus bringing with it a new agreement – agreeing with the Father of heaven and not the father of lies!
Thanksgiving brings our emotions onto the same frequency as our spirit.
We have said last week that Christ is in us (Col.1:27); and that we are in Him (Phil.3:8-9).
Therefore, our spirits are in fact in contact and in tune with the Spirit of God.
However, even though this is true, it is possible for our emotions to be in turmoil, and such turmoil can actually cause feelings of anxiety, or depression, or a host of other negative emotions which block and numb our spirits.
Thanksgiving lists the incredible and unending blessings, privileges, favour, grace, mercy, kindness, etc of God towards each individual; and brings our emotions back into agreement with our spirit.
Just as things like unforgiveness, bitterness and disunity evaporates the presence of God, thanksgiving brings an end to unforgiveness, bitterness and disunity – bringing emotions in tune with our spirit, inviting communion with God – His presence.
Thanksgiving sanctifies – this is our great grand finale!
Paul said that: “everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.”
(1 Tim. 4:4-5) – the context here being food sacrificed to idols.
He says that although something was sacrificed and dedicated to an idol; combining thanksgiving to faith in the word of God and prayer, is much more powerful than the original dedication, creating a dedication to the Lord – thus thanksgiving sanctifies!
In the Old Testament, objects were sanctified for use in the temple by being sprinkled with blood from the altar – in the New Testament, believers are sanctified by the blood of Jesus!
To be sanctified, means to be made holy and to be set apart for specific godly use.
So Paul said that thanksgiving actually sanctifies unclean food – it sets it apart for God and His purposes.
This truth extends way beyond food – into every situation and circumstance we face.
Giving thanks amidst difficult circumstances intended by the enemy to undermine our faith, enables us to reposition the situation, setting it apart to God and His purposes!
*When you give thanks, the weapon which the enemy intended to use against you is wrenched from his hand and placed in yours, to enable you to overcome!
Thanksgiving destroys the enemy, using the very thing he intended to use against us!
This is best illustrated by saying that thanksgiving is represented by “the chair” in professional wrestling! (Illustrate)
Now we know why thanksgiving is in fact commanded: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1Th 5:18)
