Hungry for His Presence
Although God's presence is everywhere on the earth, there are times when it is more noticeable than others. Most Christians have experienced those occasional "goosebump experiences," but I believe that it is possible to have a knowledge of God's presence all the time. But how?
God says that He will "never leave us nor forsake us" but he also says to "seek and you will find." I believe that the first key is knowing that he is always with us. If we realize that nothing we do will push Him away, we can keep the eyes of our heart fixed on Him. I do not believe that it is possible to get "out of fellowship with God." This puts too much emphasis on what we have done in order to "get into fellowship" with God. Saying that we have to read our Bible so much or pray this much turns us into religious Pharisees.
The second key to knowing God's presence is to get hungry for it. It is one of those strange paradoxes that while God is always present, we may not experience His presence. I have been reading the book, The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer, which says "Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted." Desire, or hunger for something is how I believe that we will be able to find and live in the presence of God.
So how does one get hungry for something?
There are several ways in the natural. One can simply go without eating for long enough and eventually they will get hungry. Personally I don't want to experience this with God because I believe that losing hunger (and not getting out of fellowship with God!) is what produces the frequent ups and downs of the Christian life. While there are going to be times of trials for Christians, it does not mean that I have to go through them without the presence of God!
A second way is to meditate on something. Meditate is just a fancy word for thinking about something and putting all your focus on it. This happens when you turn on the cooking channel. Even if you were not hungry to start with, after watching a few minutes your mouth begins to water! Before going on a vacation, I love to look up where I am going to go. Half the fun for me is going through all the travel guides and looking at pictures of the places. I sometimes have overly high expectations when the pictures in the travel book turn out to be better than the actual place. With God though, our highest expectations are not high enough. So I encourage you, if you dont feel hungry for God, do whatever it takes to start salivating for Him. If we as a country were able to become truly desperate for God, imagine what could happen. Picture what your life would be like if you truly knew the father's love. Imagine what you could do if He was your focus and all your strength came from Him. Let yourself dream big dreams!
God says that He will "never leave us nor forsake us" but he also says to "seek and you will find." I believe that the first key is knowing that he is always with us. If we realize that nothing we do will push Him away, we can keep the eyes of our heart fixed on Him. I do not believe that it is possible to get "out of fellowship with God." This puts too much emphasis on what we have done in order to "get into fellowship" with God. Saying that we have to read our Bible so much or pray this much turns us into religious Pharisees.
The second key to knowing God's presence is to get hungry for it. It is one of those strange paradoxes that while God is always present, we may not experience His presence. I have been reading the book, The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer, which says "Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted." Desire, or hunger for something is how I believe that we will be able to find and live in the presence of God.
So how does one get hungry for something?
There are several ways in the natural. One can simply go without eating for long enough and eventually they will get hungry. Personally I don't want to experience this with God because I believe that losing hunger (and not getting out of fellowship with God!) is what produces the frequent ups and downs of the Christian life. While there are going to be times of trials for Christians, it does not mean that I have to go through them without the presence of God!
A second way is to meditate on something. Meditate is just a fancy word for thinking about something and putting all your focus on it. This happens when you turn on the cooking channel. Even if you were not hungry to start with, after watching a few minutes your mouth begins to water! Before going on a vacation, I love to look up where I am going to go. Half the fun for me is going through all the travel guides and looking at pictures of the places. I sometimes have overly high expectations when the pictures in the travel book turn out to be better than the actual place. With God though, our highest expectations are not high enough. So I encourage you, if you dont feel hungry for God, do whatever it takes to start salivating for Him. If we as a country were able to become truly desperate for God, imagine what could happen. Picture what your life would be like if you truly knew the father's love. Imagine what you could do if He was your focus and all your strength came from Him. Let yourself dream big dreams!
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