How to Practice the Presence of God | Part 2

Why do we sometimes feel I will love Him and will manifest myself to Him?

Don't we? How can we restore that glow? How can we restore that presence of God?

What to do when the glow is gone? Number one, there must be determination. There must be determination. You must say, God, I will not take your blessings without you.

I don't want any angel. I need you. Determination. Number two, preparation. Be ready in the morning. I pray, God, you will be ready in the morning. Now, here's the third thing. Determination, preparation.

Number three, isolation. Look in verse three, chapter 34, verse three. And no man shall come up with thee. That is, Moses is just going to be you and me alone. If you'll study the history of people in the Bible who have been blessed and had therefore been a blessing, these are people who met God in a place of isolation. Abraham was alone when the Lord spoke to Abraham and gave him that great covenant. Daniel was alone when God spoke to him and gave him a prophecy. Paul was alone in Arabia where God gave him the epistles, the great things that he wrote down for us in the book of Romans. Peter was alone on a rooftop when he had a vision and God spoke to Simon Peter up there about Cornelius and opening the door to the Gentiles. John was alone on the Isle of Patmos on the Lord's day when God gave him the book of Revelation. Moses was alone in the wilderness and gave him the Ten Commandments.

Isolation, it must be there. When you pray, enter into your closet and pray. Now, here's the next thing if you want that conscious presence of God and that is expectation. Notice now beginning in verse four. And he, that is Moses, hewed two tables of stone like unto the first. Now, why did he hew two tables of stone? Well, he expected God to give him something to put on them and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up into Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him and he took in his hand the two tables of stone and the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, giving mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation. Now, Moses went up there to find out something from God and he got a revelation.

God spoke to Moses and God said, Now, Moses, I'm going to give you something. I want you to be prepared to take it down, take with you two blank tablets. I wonder, when you have a quiet time, are you expecting God to give you something? I mean, when you open the Word of God, do you expect to learn? Have this expectation that God is going to speak to you. Cue you two tablets of stone. Well, if you don't want to do that, go down to Walgreens and get a notebook and be prepared for God to speak to you. Now, here's the next thing.

After that expectation, there comes that adoration. You see, God spoke to Moses. God gave Moses one of the most incredible, concise revelations of his nature and character. You say, Well, I already knew that.

Do you know why you knew it? Because God gave it to Moses. And Moses recorded it. You didn't think it up.

I mean, this is heavy-duty stuff. But now, when Moses has this revelation, what does he do? Look in verse 8. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped adoration. Now, on the basis of truth, he worships. We worship God how? In spirit and in truth.

Real worship is intelligent worship based on the revealed Word of God. Are you ready to receive the Word of God? You know, James says we're to receive the Word with meekness. And that means we're to humble ourselves and welcome the Word of God. The reason that many of us don't receive more from the Bible than we do is the Bible says Jesus said that God has hidden these things from the wise and the prudent.

He's revealed them unto babes. If you come to the Bible as a know-it-all, you're not going to get much. You just have to receive truth with a humble heart as you adore and worship the Lord.

Now, next, listen to this. After he comes and gets this revelation and he has this adoration, then there comes this intercession. Notice in verse 9, now he's ready to pray for others.

And he says in verse 9, and he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us. For it is a stiff-necked people. When he says, let my Lord go among us, he's saying, Lord, I want your presence.

For it is a stiff-necked people. And pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for thine inheritance. What's he doing? This is called intercession. He's praying for others. But you see, his intercession is based on revelation and adoration. I mean, he comes with expectation, he gets a revelation, he gives an adoration, and then he gives an intercession. He begins to pray for other people. Now, many times we pray for other people, and we really don't know how to pray because we don't pray on the basis of truth. But notice what engendered him to pray this way. Look in verse 6, And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

He said, Okay, I've got it now. I know what kind of God you are. And now, Lord, these folks are in a mess. And, oh, God, they need you. And now he begins to plead for them and pray for them and intercede for them. Let me just stop here and say for a moment, who should you intercede for? Well, don't try to intercede for everybody. If you try to intercede for everybody, you'll end up interceding for nobody. It'll become such an onerous task.

It'll become so big that you just say, Well, I'm frustrated. I don't know who to pray for or what to pray for. God will give you an assignment in prayer if you're walking in the Spirit.

God will speak to you. Moses said, Lord, forgive this people. He didn't pray for all the people on earth.

He had those people that were around him. These were his responsibility. Your children are your responsibility.

My children are my responsibility. You remember that parable that Jesus gave about the man who wanted some bread and he woke up his neighbor and he said, A friend is come to me in his journey. I have nothing to set before him. And what our Lord was talking about there was intercession and he was not talking about physical bread and the meaning of the parable, but I need truth for this man. I need the Holy Spirit. He says, How much more shall God give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

That's the purpose of that parable. And what I'm trying to say to you is this, that when you are in the Spirit, when God is speaking to you, God will lay upon your heart and nobody else can do this, but God will do this. And sometimes I say this and I feel funny when I say it because people will sometimes glibly say to me, sometimes perfect strangers. I'll be preaching sometimes, standing down at the front, maybe in a Bible conference, shaking hands and somebody will come by and say, I'm so and so and so and so, put me on your prayer list. I don't say it out loud, but I say fat chance. You say, oh boy, you're so unspiritual.

No, I'm not. I mean, if I were to put everybody on my prayer list that glibly asked me to get on the prayer list, I wouldn't be able to pray for those assignments that God gives me to pray. Now generally if a man says, put me on your prayer list, I'll say, hey, let's just pray right now, just stop right now and I'll pray for him. Not that I'm against prayer.

But folks, I want to tell you something. If you're on anybody's prayer list, you're blessed. Did you know that?

Did you know that? There are times people meet me and they say to me, and I know they mean it, Pastor, I pray for you every day. If it brings tears to my eyes right now, think about it. I pray for you every day.

Listen, there are about six billion people on this earth. If somebody is praying for you regularly, you're blessed. You are blessed. God gives us assignments, people and things that we're to pray for. These were Moses' people. He was the commander in chief, and now he is having that time where he intercedes for them.

But it's not finished yet. You want the presence of God? Moses said, I'm not going into Canaan without it.

Adoration, intercession. And then look in verses 10 and 11, observation. Look, if you will, now. And he said, behold, I make a covenant before all thy people. I will do marvels such as I've not done in all the earth, nor for any nation, and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord, for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.

Now, when he says a terrible thing, what he means is it is going to be terrifying to those around about you when they see the mighty hand that I have for you and the power over you. And then look in verse 11. Observe thou that which I command thee this day. Now, when he says observe, he doesn't mean to look. He means to obey. Observation here means to obey, to keep the commandments. Notice, observe thou that which I command thee this day.

Behold, I will drive out before thee the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, you expect him to say, and the termite. And I'm going to drive all of these out if you will obey me. Now, folks, this is one of the most important points right here that I have to say to you, and I'm almost finished. This really gets down to the crux of the matter, and all of the rest of it will kind of unravel if you don't understand this part.

When God speaks to you, when you have this determination, when you have this preparation, when you have this isolation, when you have this expectation, when you have this adoration, when you have this intercession, if you do not then begin to live what God shows you, none of the rest of it works. You've got to obey. Sorry about that, folks, but it's true.

I'm not really sorry about it, but I just kind of hate to see you disillusioned. Don't get the idea that you can claim the promises without obeying the commandments. It just does not work that way. Do you know why God is not real to many of you, to many of us? Let me give it to you. John 14, verse 21, put it down, and listen to it. Here's what Jesus, our master, said, listen to it. He that hath my commandments and, anybody know that next word?

And keepeth them. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, that's observation. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. Now, friend, if you're not obeying the commandments of Jesus, you ought to shut your mouth when the church stands up and sings, oh, how I love Jesus, because you're telling a lie. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, now watch this, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, now wait, listen, and will manifest myself to him.

That's very, very important. We're talking about the manifest presence of Jesus. The Lord says, you want me to be real to you? You want to know why I'm not real to you?

Because you don't love me. How do you know, Lord, I don't love you, because you don't keep my word? Well, if I did love you, would I keep your word?

Yes, you would. And what would happen if I kept your word? I'd be very real to you. I would manifest myself to you. If Jesus Christ is not real to you, get his word, keep his word, and see what happens. See what happens. He will manifest himself to you. Observation.

And then last of all, transformation. Look, if you will, now, let's just fast forward to verses 29 through 35 and see what happened. And it came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, Moses wished not, that is, he did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him, and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And until Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. His face was so bright they couldn't look on it.

It was frightening to them. Verse 34, and when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came out. And he came out and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. And Moses put the veil upon his face again until he went in to speak with him.

That's very interesting. What had happened is that Moses is spending so much time with the Lord face to face that Moses' face begins to shine as a reflection of the Shekinah glory of God. You know, in my fireplace, I have a poker. I can take that poker and just kind of poke around in the fire and put it back, and it will hardly be hot. But I can take that poker, if there's a roaring fire, and put that poker in the fireplace and leave it in there long enough, and you know what will happen?

It will begin to glow. Because not only will the poker be in the fire, the fire will be in the poker. And when you spend enough time in the presence of God, the presence of God gets into you. Not only are you there in the presence of God, but the presence of God gets into you. And as Moses is there beholding the glory of the Lord, the glory of the Lord is infusing itself into Moses, and Moses is transformed. We say, pastor, that's all Old Testament.

Yep, that's true. So I want you to turn to the New Testament, and I'm finished now in just a moment. But turn, if you will, to 2 Corinthians 3. This is worth looking at because I want you to see how what we're talking about applies to you in New Testament times.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 3, let's look in verses 7 and 8. But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious, he's saying if when God gave Moses the Old Testament Ten Commandments, if that was glorious, those Ten Commandments that really brought death if we didn't keep them, so the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance. Which glory was to be done away is that it ultimately faded, is what he says. How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?

That means more glorious. I mean, what he's saying is, look, if Moses going up there on Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments, which only ministered death, if his face shone, what about us who now have the ministration of the Spirit? Shall that not be rather more glorious? And now skip on down to verses 17 and 18. Now the Lord is that Spirit.

And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, now he's talking about us, not Moses, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Why does God want us to worship him? Is God a little insecure?

I mean, does he have to be constantly pumped up? Is God a celestial egotist? Does he have to keep telling him how great he is? Listen, friend, all of your praise put together doesn't make him one ounce more glorious. His glory doesn't depend upon us.

He had that glory before the world ever began. We don't add to his glory. Why does he want us to worship him? Because of what worship does for us. Because when we behold him, we're changed into the same image from glory to glory. And the way to be like him is to see him and to worship him and praise him. And then you're changed. You are made like him. You know, you become like what you spend time with. My precious wife is down here. People say when husband and wife live together for a long enough time, they begin to look like one another.

Frankly, Joyce is getting concerned. Friend, listen, when you spend time with him, you're looking into the mirror of God's word and you see in that mirror, you see yourself and you see Jesus in there at the same time. And then you and Jesus begin to be alike. You're changed from glory to glory. And what he's saying is if Moses in the Old Testament spent time going up there on Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments, how much more will we be changed as we look into the face of our Lord through his word.

That's the presence of the Lord. Folks, be ready in the morning. Father, I pray that you will help us to learn how to practice your presence. Lord, not to be satisfied with eternal life and eternal security, not to be satisfied with the care of angels, not to be satisfied with homes and clothes and food and friends, not to be satisfied with a great church or anything else if we don't have your conscious presence in our lives. Lord, may there be that determination in our hearts. In the name of Jesus, I pray. And I pray, Lord, before these people, for myself and speak and work in my heart and in our hearts. In the name of Jesus.

Amen. Well, if you have questions regarding your faith in Jesus or you want to learn more about how to follow him fully with a whole heart, we'd love to offer an insightful resource on the website. It's our Discover Jesus page. You'll find answers there you may need about your faith.

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