This week Pastor Paula speaks about basking in His presence and wanting more of Him in our lives on a daily basis, not just Sundays. The bible tells us the most important commandment in Mark 12:30 (NLT) “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength”. Sometimes we are rather lackadaisical over this or focus more on God’s love for us than our love for Him. After all, it is so important how much God loves us….it’s central to the Gospel message. But, we also need to love God….as the scripture says.
The Greek translations here tell us we must take pleasure in The Lord, praising Him above all other things, abandoning all other things in His favour and be willing to long for Him. Psalm 42:1 (NIV) states “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God”. This is the love God wants us to have for Him, a love which is greater than anything we have ever known. God is calling us. Nothing else has this level of significance in our lives.
Often, life gets in the way, we have excuses, we are busy, or distractions come our way. But God wants us to experience His goodness and His faithfulness. When we love the Lord with our whole heart, we long to be with him, to spend time with him, and to know him. His presence is literally everything. It is the presence of God that will change us and witness to those around us. If we do not carry the presence of God, we have nothing. We cannot live without the Spirit of God.
Moses is one example of a person in the scriptures who knew the presence of God. The story unfolds in Exodus 33. Moses did not want to lead the people to the Promised Land without the presence of the Lord. He actually asked God not to send them away from the place they were in unless He was personally with them – otherwise they would be no different from any other people on earth! This applies equally to us now as it did in Old Testament times.
As we ‘run our race’ this year, God is calling us for more. He wants us to be people who pursue Him and who are passionate about Him. Even though we are so undeserving, we get things wrong so often, He still chooses us. He is desperate for each of us to put down our distractions and focus our attention on Him. God does not wish to compete for our time. We need to want the presence of God more than any other thing in our lives, which means that we intend to lay things down and push things to the side.
Joel 2:28 speaks of God pouring out His Spirit on all people, prophesying, dreaming dreams, seeing visions. This is for every single person, not a favourite few. We now live in the days that everyone hoped for during Old Testament times. Back then, there was just one day, the Day of Atonement, when the high priest could enter the presence of God. Fast forward to the New Testament and God himself dwells among His people (Jesus comes, dwells amongst us, witnesses throughout the gospels, and the people who encountered Jesus couldn't get enough of his presence). His presence changes lives. This is why Mary wanted to be with Jesus in the Mary and Martha story (Luke 10).
Now we have the Holy Spirit within us. God is longing to be with us. However, we can have the Holy Spirit but seem as if we are constantly searching because we do not use that which we already have. James 4:8 tells us to draw near to God and He will draw near to us. This must be our prayer, to earnestly seek and desire His presence.
