The Awareness of God's Presence

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, January thirty-first. Jesus comforted His disciples with the following words, I will not leave you as orphans. Today, we'll be reminded of God's activity in everything we do in the awareness of God's presence. Where is God in your life? Now, He's here whether you're aware of Him or not. He's there when you're at work, whether you're aware of Him or not. In other words, your awareness of Him doesn't determine where He is. In fact, the Scripture says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change. And the reason His location doesn't change is because all locations are in His presence.

Why would you want to live without a loving Father who wants the best for you? So, I want to talk about this matter of the awareness of His presence. Not just His presence, but the awareness of His presence. I want you to turn to the most familiar Psalm you know, the twenty-third Psalm. There's one phrase in that I want us to look at primarily. And you remember that David penned this and he was going through difficulty and all kind of hardship in his life many times before we ever became the king and even afterwards.

So, how many times have you read this? The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. What an awesome God who's doing that. Then he says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Why is that? For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me as far as I want to go.

You are with me. And if you'll think about it, all through the Scriptures, that God uses that same phrase in a different way to different people. When you trusted Jesus as your Savior, listen carefully. You had just as much of Jesus in your heart as did the apostle Paul or any of those other apostles.

And Jesus made an issue of this. He says, I'm going away, but I'm not going to leave you as orphans. He said, for example, I'm in the Father, the Father's in me, I in you. He went to all kinds of ways of encouraging them that even though He was going to be gone, He's still going to be with them.

It was the awareness of His presence that He wanted them to understand. So, watch this, Jesus is the same today. And we quote this verse, He's the same yesterday, today, and what?

And forever. So, the Jesus in you is the same Jesus that walked in Palestine hundreds of years ago. It's the same Jesus who said to His apostles, These works that I do, you'll do even greater. Did that single us out that we'll do this, that, and the other?

No. But it meant His followers would do greater work because He was going to indwell them in the person of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. So, we have the Spirit of God within us.

And it doesn't make any difference what happens, where, when, how. The Spirit of God is living within us. What is the desire of God's heart? The desire of God's heart is that you and I would live, listen to this, that we would live in awareness of His presence.

It'll change your life. It makes all the difference in the world if you're living in the awareness of His presence. Every single believer is indwelt by the Spirit of God and says in Ephesians and other places, that when you trusted Christ as your Savior, He sealed you. He sealed you forever as a child of God. And that seal is the presence of the Holy Spirit. So that you and I have no brilliant idea of what God could do in our life if we gave Him everything.

Or maybe you do. But our awareness of His existence, whether it's closed or whether we feel distant. So, what I'd like to do is I'd like to help you be able to identify the evidence of the awareness of His presence in our life.

What's the evidence? Number one, He's continually in our thoughts, conscious or unconscious. He's continually in our thoughts. All of us have a subconscious and a conscious so that God makes it possible for you and I to go about whatever we do in life, openly, speaking, or whatever it might be. And at the same time, there is that Spirit of God in our subconscious that makes us aware of His presence. It's almost like a holy silence within us.

But He's there. And so, the issue is, are you aware of that? Are you aware of the Lord in your life consciously and subconsciously? Secondly, we are continually seeking His guidance.

If I'm aware of His presence, I'm going to be continually seeking His guidance. We all make decisions every day. Many people make decisions totally oblivious to God.

They don't even think about God. They say, well, I don't have to ask God about everything. Well, you may not ask God about whether you wear brown shoes or black, but all of us face decisions every day, whether it's on your job or whether it's in your family or whatever it might be, we face decisions. If I'm aware of His presence in my life, I'm going to be aware that when I have a decision, and for example, you meet somebody and they'll tell you something and the Spirit of God says to you, mm-mm-mm, don't go there. That's the Spirit of God doing what? Giving you guidance in your life.

He's ready to speak to give you guidance because that's His desire, because He loves you absolutely unconditionally. Then, there's another thing. We must view Him as our constant companion.

That is, if I see Him as my constant companion, then I'm always aware of Him. And I'll tell you something that happened to me many years ago and the reason I don't know exactly the year, but I can tell you by this that I know. I used to drive a, when I first came to Atlanta, I used to drive a white, little white VW Bug. And I was on my way to church. And it's like the Lord said to me, I made you for Myself. I heard it that loud. Now, I didn't hear it in a voice.

It was so loud to me that I almost turned to look. And I realized, God, You've spoken to my heart. He is willing to speak to you in areas of your life that you didn't even, haven't even thought about. That He wants you to think about.

He's ready to reveal Himself to you in ways that no one else, somebody could say, you were just thinking that I wasn't even thinking about anything of the sort. If you and I are living in the awareness of His presence, remember, we say He's our companion. Would you say He's your companion?

Amen? Then how often are you aware of His companionship? Well, let's say you're married. Are you aware of the companionship of your husband or wife?

Yes, you are. You are sensitive to what goes on because there's a oneness between you. And you are aware of her or him all the time. What about your children? They go to school and you are aware that they're in school. And no matter what you're doing around your house or at your job, you are aware of your children because you love them.

And you want to be instantaneously told if something happens. Well, what about Jesus as a companion? Think about this. The most powerful force in the world is in the person of Jesus. He's omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and all-loving. Can you tell me a better companion than that? Anybody?

No, you can't. And you see, here's the reason people can go through difficulty and hardship and pain and sorrow, the loss of loved ones, and still just move on in life, do whatever God calls them to do. Why? Because while they lost a physical companion, the companion is still there. He's still there to guide them and to help them and to be the kind of companion they need. In other words, God knew what was going to happen in this world and so He so framed it and to be our companion that we don't have to say now, oh, everything's over, what am I going to do? We're just going to look to our companion. Then, of course, if we're aware of Him, I believe that prayer will be a priority in your life, that you just won't say some short prayer because you're in trouble, but you're talking to Him all the time.

And I don't like to give myself as an example of some things, but I'm just telling you the way I'll see it. And that is, I'm walking through my house, a lot of times I'm talking to Him, Lord, I talk to Him out loud. There's nothing He can't hear, it's just that, you know what, sometimes I need to hear it. Sometimes I need to hear it, Lord. And once in a while I'll lose something, I'll say, Lord, now I know You know where that is. I don't remember where I put it, but I know that You know where it is and it's amazing how fondly it shows up.

You know why? He's interested in every single aspect of our life. All right? Then, we continue to have hope even when things look really hopeless. And listen, they may turn out to be hopeless as far as what we would change, but they're not hopeless in the eyes of God. No child of God is hopeless.

He is not only our hope, He's our power, our strength, He's our Helper, He's our guide, He's our sustenance, He's our everything. Then, if I'm really aware of Him, what I'm going to do is I'm going to sift every decision through His will. Lord, what is Your will about this?

What is Your will about that? And all of us face things that sometimes people come up and ask us something or they say, What would You do about thus and so? If somebody asked me a question, you know what I instantaneously wanted to say, quietly, Help me, Jesus.

I don't mean to help me, Jesus, casually, I mean it. Lord, whatever that question is, give me the wisdom to give them a right answer, a godly answer, whatever it might be. Because I think if we live with the awareness of His presence, it doesn't make any difference what the decision is.

We want to run it by Him. And somebody may make you a big offer, a good offer, or something that sounds fantastic, run it by Him. Because some things are good, and they're fine. Some things only look good, but they're not good.

Some things look free, but they're not free. And so, God is the one who keeps us from making mistakes. If I'm aware of His presence, when a need arises, I'm going to see that need in light of His presence. Somebody says, Well, I have a need in my life. Well, think about this, I look at that need in the light of the presence of Jesus Christ, who's the same yesterday, today, and forever, who provides the needs for His children. If I'm living in the awareness of His presence, and a need arises, I don't have to worry about it. I may not have an answer at the moment, but I know that He knows all about our needs. And if you'll think about it, He knows about our needs before we do, and because He does, He's already prepared to meet that need, or whatever it might be.

But, I think a lot of people, think about this, a lot of people who are not aware of God don't pay much attention to Him. Here comes a need and they want to go borrow money. Or here comes a need and they want to beg, and this, that, and the other, and so forth. Instead of stopping to say, Lord, what, here's the need, Father, what do You want me to do about it?

Many people are deeply in debt because instead of asking God to provide in whatever way He sees fit, they just go out and borrow the money. And so, if you sift every decision and every need through the awareness of His presence, then what happens? Life becomes more peaceful because we're living in His presence, a presence of Almighty God. Now, if I don't understand who God is, if He's some distant somebody I've shown to, that's a whole different story. Then, our worship is more real and rewarding if I'm aware of His presence.

You can come on a Sunday morning and not worship God at all. It's the awareness of His presence. But some of these songs we sing, for example, what happens? Everything in you just wants to fly out.

Why? Because you're aware of His presence. Well, that's the way God wants us to live our life. And He wants us to worship Him, aware of His presence, not just the things that are going on around us. And you think about this, there are people who come to church and go to churches every single Sunday with problems, heart aches, burdens, hopeless situations, and they go to church or come to the church or listen to the television or listen to the radio, hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping they'll hear something that encourages their heart. And so, when we live aware of His presence, God is going to give that hope wherever it's needed. Then, if I'm going to walk in obedience to God as a way of life, just think about it, if I'm going to walk in obedience to God as a way of life, which we all should do, I have to be aware of His presence.

Listen carefully. You do not have to sin. You remember people say, I'm just a sinner saved by grace. Well, suppose you get up every morning and say that.

You know what you're saying? You are programming your mind to sin against God. The right thing is I'm a saint saved by the grace of God. I may falter, I may sin, but listen to this. Think about this, if we're walking in obedience to Him and that's the will of God, then when do I have to sin?

And you say, well, do you say you don't? I didn't say that. I'm just saying I don't have to sin. You don't have to sin. We just accept sin as just normal. Sin is a choice. If we're living in His awareness of His presence and love and goodness and mercy and kindness and all the other adjectives we could use, if we're living in the presence of that, why do you want to disobey God?

Let me ask you a question. What does disobedience gain you? Oh, you may have an immediate gain, you think, but the longer you look at it, it'll turn absolutely rotten. Because it doesn't fit you. And any more than you'd want to wear a shoe that's six sizes too big, you don't want disobedience in your life. The more aware you are of Jesus Christ in your life, the less you will tolerate sin in your life. Because you know it doesn't fit you, it doesn't even feel good no matter what it is. Listen, people can explain away sin.

I hear the most crazy stories. People just say, well, you know, listen to this, nobody's perfect. We all know nobody is, don't you?

That's not information. You don't have to tell us that. Nobody's perfect. And God knows we're not perfect. But we shouldn't get up in the morning saying, I'm just a sinner saved by grace. No, I'm a saint walking in the presence of the Son of God in His strength and His power. If I stumble, if I falter today, He'll forgive me and I keep walking in His presence.

It's a decision we make. And the more aware I am, listen, the more aware I am of the holy presence of Jesus, the less I'm going to be tempted by anything. It's the lack of awareness that makes the difference.

Then, of course, I just say one last thing. All of these contribute to what? If I'm aware of all of these things, I'm going to have a stronger, intimate relationship with Jesus. Now, every husband and wife, if you really love each other, you want to have a strong, intimate relationship. Now, people want to take the word intimacy and always make it sex.

It has nothing to do with it. It has to do with relationship, how you feel towards someone, what, the way you see them as your husband or your wife. You cherish them, you love them, you adore them, you want the best for them. And so, what happens, the more aware you are of Him and of her, and the more you love them, the more aware you are. And the more intense your sensitivity to each other is. And what happens, it makes for a wonderful, joyful relationship. The Lord wants us to have that kind of relationship with Him.

Intensely in love with Him. Aware of His presence, no matter what's going on in life. So, if you're one of those persons who said in the very beginning, God is not in my life. Do you realize what you're missing? What you're going to miss is the gift of eternal life. What you're going to miss is heaven. What you're going to miss is all the joy and the wonderful things that God provides. You say, well, I look around, I don't see much joy.

It depends on where you look. There are difficult times. These are very difficult times. But what I want you to see is that Jesus in your life, He changes your viewpoint. Because you begin to see everything in light of His presence, that means we're safe. Somehow, He'll work the things out according to His great will. If you've never trusted Him as your Savior, you're living a fool's life.

I know you don't like that. That's the truth. You will reap what you sow, more than you sow, later than you sow. If you sow a life without God, a life that absolutely denies Jesus in your life, and you sow a life of worldliness and wickedness and all kinds of moral immoralities, then you're going to get what that brings. When you trust Jesus as your Savior and give your life to Him to live a godly life, you get what that brings.

And that is awesome. Thank you for listening to the awareness of God's presence. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.