A Loving Presence

For some who have been Christians for a while, God may have become more of a deduction from evidence they feel is adequate, an inference. These people attend church and may even consider themselves pillars in the church. Their ideas of God are brain-deep, not life-deep.

By contrast, a loving Personality dominates the Bible, walking in the Garden and breathing fragrance over every event. We can know these Three-Persons with at least the same degree of immediacy as we know any other person. God designed us as image-bearers, so as born again Christians we have in our hearts what is necessary to know God through our five senses.

 

God’s presence surrounds us, embracing us, within our reach, waiting for us to recognize Him. The divide between a nominal Christian life and a life radiating God’s light, life and love occurs at the point of spiritual awareness as we acquire the lifelong habit of willing response. Are we aware of a presence surrounding us? Do we respond?

The Bible calls this lifelong spiritual response faith. Christians are often called “believers” because faith (belief) is at the core of our responses. As you read the Bible, keep a sharp lookout for faith in Scripture. Let these few sample verses below whet your appetite.

• Hebrews 11:6a: Without faith, it’s impossible to please God.
• Romans 10:17: True faith must be based solely on Scriptural truth, Reality, or else it’s merely conjecture or presumption.
• 2 Corinthians 5:7: Faith is contrasted to sight, and therefore calls us away from self-dependence to God-dependence.
• Hebrews 11:1: Essentially, faith is having the confidence (“the assurance”) that things yet future and unseen (“hoped for”) happen just as God has revealed them. Faith anchored in God’s Word substantiates and gives evidence of things not yet seen.
• James 2:17-20: Faith always calls for a response. Without a response, our faith is dormant. This is the active faith by which we are to stand firm (1 Cor. 16:13) and live (Galatians 2:20b).

A song invites us to turn our eyes upon Jesus and the “things of this world will become strangely dim.” Paul encourages us to set our hearts and minds on things above (Col. 3:1-2). Shift our initial focus from the seen to the unseen. As we begin to focus upon God, He will come alive all around us, in creation, in people, in events. We will experience this loving presence (John 14:21-23).

 

“A new God-consciousness will seize upon us and we shall begin [to] hear and inwardly feel God, who is our life and our all….God will become to us the great All, and His presence the glory and wonder of our lives” (A.W. Tozer, “The Pursuit of God”).   

 

What is your response?  

“Take my life, Lord, and use it!”

This is Reflection #20 in my book, Foundation Stones. I also have a web-site with tools, books and "more than Bible studies" that have helped me to live out of this spiritual DNA, www.JimFredericks.com