Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, June 12th. Today's lesson continues Dr. Stanley's Life Principle series with a reminder about the privilege of getting to know God.
Here's part two of Energized by His Presence. Can you think of a time in your life where you can look back and say, you know what? That day, at that moment, I had this awesome sense of awareness of God in my life that I have never had before. Well, what did you do? Did you say, well, I don't know what that meant? Or did you say, God, speak to my heart? Lord, what are you saying to me?
Think about this. God doesn't do anything out of habit. He doesn't do anything by accident.
He doesn't make mistakes. And He doesn't do anything without a purpose. When God speaks to your heart, that is to your spirit, when He reveals something to you, manifests Himself to you, just shows up in your life, He has something in mind. And what He's looking for are people who are willing to listen to Him, to be quiet enough, to be obedient enough that He can say, listen, God isn't going to say to you, now here's what I want you to do, knowing that you're not going to do it, knowing that you're living in rebellion. He wants to get you to a position where you can listen to Him and say, yes, Lord, whatever you want in my life is what I want. Now, what does that mean in your life and my life? It means we have to get ourselves in a position to hear Him.
Think about this. Let's get to the New Testament, for example. You remember when Peter and the disciples were out on the ship, storms brewing, waves tossing them. And all of a sudden, here comes Jesus walking on the water. Well, what happens? Peter saw Him and when he saw it was Jesus, he said, Jesus, call me to You.
If that's who You are, then I'll come. It was in the presence of Jesus that he had enough faith to walk on the water. And so he did.
But now watch this. So, in the garden when they were coming to take Jesus and crucify Him, you remember what happened? Peter pulled out his sword. He was going to take on the whole Roman guard by himself, if necessary, to protect Jesus. He was in the presence of Jesus. Then you remember what happened. A few hours later, this young lady said, I think you're one of His.
He said, I don't even know Him. Then, for example, after you look at Peter's life and see what happened to him, you think about the apostle Paul, for example. What about him?
Think about this. If he had not been living in the awareness of God's presence, would he have been beaten, as he said, thirty-nine times, three times, shipwrecked, stoned, left for dead, imprisoned over and over and over again, and then standing before Festus, Felix, and Agrippa? What happened? Every single time, stalwart, immovable, absolutely unafraid.
Why? Because he knew he was in the presence of the living God. When you think about all the things he went through, out there on the seas for three days, bailing for his life. Could you ever convince the apostle Paul that the presence of God was not with him?
Never. He was aware of his presence. In each of these cases, it was the awareness of the presence of God, whether it's Moses at the burning bush or whether it's Peter.
But notice what happens to Peter. In the presence of Jesus, man, he could walk on water. When Jesus wasn't there, he did not even know Him.
Now here's the difference. You and I have God living on the inside of us. You may get lonely, but you can't ever be alone from the moment you received Him as your Savior.
You could never, never, never be alone. Why does He love us that much? We just know that He does, and we just know that somehow, in some way, He's chosen to work in every single one of our lives in a way that's totally beyond us. Unless we are willing to acknowledge that He has the right to work in our life, He sees you as one of His children for whom He has a purpose, a will, and a plan for your life, and that He is willing, let's think about this, He is willing to get involved in your life to fulfill that plan.
And He's willing to the point to make Himself very, very known to you. And I would challenge you this. Before you go to sleep tonight, let's say you live alone, for example.
Let's just take the folks who live alone first. You live alone and you really and truly want God to show Himself in your life. Lord, I'm available for you to show yourself. I'm available for you to reveal yourself to me in a way that I've never known it before. So, Lord, first of all, I want to ask you to show me whatever sin there is in my life that doesn't fit what you've got in mind.
Secondly, I want you to point out anything that I'm holding on to that I need to surrender. Lord, I want you to bring anything to my mind that you know is the stumbling block between your perfect control of my life and what you want to do in my life. And Lord, I'm available for you to speak to me.
I'm available for you to make yourself known to me any way you choose. You may be shocked at what God's willing to do. You see, the presence of God is not a mystery. The presence of God is real. The presence of God is real. The presence of God is real. The presence of God is real.
Is it almost indefinable? Yes, because we're dealing with the Spirit of God. Is that a mystery? No, because He lives within your heart. And more than likely, if you've been a Christian for a while, you've prayed and asked God to give you clear direction about some things, and you know that He has given you specific direction at times in your life. He has given you a purpose. He has given you a purpose. He has given you a purpose. He has given you a purpose. He has given you a purpose. He wants us to get answers. He wants us to be satisfied being in His presence.
The answers will come. Remember this, God has a purpose for everything, and He has a purpose for everything. So, think about how does He make His presence known to us? This awareness of His presence. That is, we say the awareness of His presence energizes us.
Well, think about this. When I think about the awareness of His presence, what comes to my mind is first of all is who He is. This is the sovereign of the universe, the God of this world.
He is the God of the universe. Why does He want to give you that kind of message? He's going to care about you, He's going to give you a chance to want to keep your way, totally.
How could He get any better than that? And He loves you enough to just make His presence known. The awareness of His presence energizes us for the work to which He's called us. And in each of those cases, and there are lots more in the You're motivated to do what God wants them to do. You say, well, but here's my job and you could give me, let's say, for example, you're a secretary or let's say that you work in electronics or maybe you're a plumber or a doctor, whatever you might be. The truth is God wants to make Himself known to you where you are doing what you do.
Don't put yourself over here in somebody else's category. You are precious in God's eyes. You have potential in God's eyes. He wants to be so real, you and I don't question Him, but we obey Him. Now, the question might be sometimes, well, God, I want to be sure that I understand what You're saying and that I'm doing the thing that You want me to do. But it's the awareness of His presence.
Let's say, for example, when you read the Bible, do you have an awareness of His presence when you're reading the Bible that you don't have when you're reading something else? This is why I read the Bible with two pencils, a red one and a normal pencil, because most of the time I'm going to hear something or see something or read something that I may have read a thousand times before, but it says something very special to me today. God makes Himself known. And all I'm saying to you is this, I'm really pleading with you, just surrender your life to Him and watch what He does. He will make Himself known in a way, listen, not the way He reveals to somebody else, but the way that fits you perfectly. In fact, think about this, your relationship to Him is tailor-made. That is, it's made by God for you in your circumstances, who you are at this point in your life, where you are, whether you're a student or whether you're nine years of age, God has something going on for you in your life. It's a matter of are you listening? Do you care?
In other words, do you care to have this kind of relationship to Him? And once, listen, once you experience that, you can count everything else as almost nothing when you begin to realize that God loves you enough just to show up. And He's not going to show up in the same way to everybody. But what I want you to see is He is a personal God.
And He will be there. Think about David, for example, and you remember in this seventeenth chapter of First Samuel, you remember what's happening here that he's facing Goliath, and you've got the nation of Israel on one side of the valley, and you've got the Philistines on the other. And here's this shepherd boy, and look what he's looking at. He's looking at this almost nine-foot tall soldier who has a shield and a sword and all this armor covering him up. And here he is out here in his shepherd boy pants, and he's got a sling and some rocks, and that's all it is.
And that's the most ridiculous combination you've ever seen. In other words, what's this boy think he's going to do against this nine-foot giant over here who's covered almost totally in metal, and he has an armor-bearer besides that, says two to one, number one. All this armor, and they've been jabbing the nation of Israel, and Saul the king, he's scared, everybody's scared. And he has this shepherd boy, and he walks up, and listen, you're talking about being aware of the presence of God. Listen to what he says to Goliath. He says, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin. I'm coming to you in the name of, in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you've taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you.
I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hands. Now, one thing for certain, David is speaking as one who is aware of the presence of God. Because, look at this, humanly speaking, covered in armor, shield, big sword, javelin, all that. And here is that here, and you can see it, you can see his flesh, and all it has is a sling. How could he be so bold, confident, assured, strong, energized? How could he be so energized to face this giant? One thing, he was aware of the presence of God in his life at that moment to defend the name of Jehovah, the Lord God.
Now, you and I probably have had, I'm sure I have, and you have some Goliaths in our life. They weren't dressed in armor. They didn't have a sword and a shield and a javelin. It was worse than that. Maybe you were petrified, and maybe you just gave up and quit. You just walked away from the battle. Well, what about the presence of God?
Let me ask you a question. If you believe what the Bible says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. If you believe that, would you ever have any real legitimate reason from walking away from the battle when you have God on your side? Remember what He said to Joshua?
Be strong enough of good courage. Fear not, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord your God is what? With you wherever you go. The awareness of His presence reminds us of who He is. The awareness of His presence reminds us of what He's done in the past and how He's worked in the lives of all these men in the past. And I think about times in my own life, difficult times, situations that I would never have wanted to deal with, and yet, He was there every time. You see, a believer has no reason to be afraid. Think about this. If you were in the military and you had a thousand, a thousand tanks, a hundred thousand men, and a whole squadron of jet bombers at your disposal, and you were facing a hundred soldiers out there, would you be scared?
It wouldn't even cross your mind. So, I want to show you something. I want you to turn to 2 Kings for a moment, because you see, it's the way we look at things and what we see and what we don't see. And I want you to turn to 2 Kings chapter six.
Give you a little idea of what's happening. The king of Aram is warring against Israel, and what he can't figure out is he can't figure out why the nation of Israel and the king knows everything. In fact, the king said, will you tell me which of us is for the king of Israel? One of his servants said, no, my Lord, O king, but Elisha the prophet who is in Israel, he tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.
They ought to know what's going on. Listen, so he said, go and see where he is that I may send and take him. And he was told him, saying, behold, he's in Dothan. Now, that's not Dothan, Alabama.
That's Dothan somewhere else. He sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. Now, when the attendant of the man of God, his servant, had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city, and his servant said to him, alas, my master, what shall we do?
Scared to death. Now, that's looking through the eyes of flesh. Listen to what the prophet said, Elisha. Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Then Elisha prayed and said, O Lord, I pray, open the eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Here's what happens. When you are aware of the presence of God in your life, here's what happens. You are able to see things from God's perspective. And everything usually changes when you look at it from His perspective.
It's the way you look, through the eyes of your spirit or through the flesh. And it's my prayer that whoever you are, wherever you are, don't live out your life and miss one of God's choicest blessings. And that's learning to live in the presence of God. Learning to live aware that at any moment He can manifest Himself to you in ways that you could never imagine.
Can't manufacture it, can't predict it, and you can't do anything to make it happen. It's just something that He chooses to do in your life because He knows who you are, where you are, and what He wants to accomplish in your life. If you've never trusted Him as your Savior, you may say, well, all of this is just beyond me. I don't get all this. Well, naturally you don't.
You know why? Because you can't even communicate with Him. You must communicate with God through the Spirit of God. And if you're not a believer, you don't have the Spirit of God within you, so you can't. You can talk about it, but the truth is you cannot.
And I want to challenge you to ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins on the basis of what He did at Calvary. Ask Him to forgive you. Surrender your life to Him. Let the Spirit of God come into your life and begin to work His awesome work.
Your life will never be the same, and it's yours for the asking. Thank you for listening to part two of Energized by His 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.
