His Presence

sbbqb7n16 · Jul 29, 2003

And thus we come upon my College Minister's sermon from this week.... which has already been touched on...

James*1:26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.

the world translated literally means "a worshipper of God" (according to Randal). In other words we see that James is saying... "if you want to worship God but don't live out a life of love (for example you can't keep your toungue in check) then every time your worship is worthless"

So as a word to all of you... if you don't live it out, God says your worship is worthless before Him. Don't mean it to sound bad... you all know that

But it's truth and it needs to be said.

On the reverse side though... if you live it out and worship, your worship becomes as more valuable than gold to God.

Just to think about... have a great day!

JesseB. · Aug 3, 2003

I love to worship. At my Church, we praise the LORD by singing traditional hymns. I prefer those over the CCM stuff.

desper84unity · Aug 5, 2003

Being in God's Presence is a lot of what I am after. Actually, when I think about I am constantly trying to figure what will bring me really, really close, like vibrant close. Howver, I haven't yet been able to OFTEN have his palpable Presence.

Never the less here are the things I do to get close (some better than others):

1) Try to find, understand and obey every command of Christ. The so called "beattitudes" are a good start. God likes obedience. Oswald Chambers called obedience "dynamite"!

2) Thanks, praise, dance (I like instrumental jazz), bible study,praying, quite listening, inviting Jesus to fill me with the Holy Spirit, telling Jesus he may even control my mind, body and tongue, and asking him to give me his worship.

Believe it or not, obedience seems to be the hottest way to get close. I just read my Bible, and ask God to help me obey the stuff he shows me in it.

Fasting food is hard for me, since I am diabetic. However for short times, it's good.

One of the neatest, and coolest Presence experiences I had was just before I took off to serve at this very short once a week volunteer visiting thing I was doing at a local hospital, through their pastoral care office. I was at home just sitting and praising and kinda listening for God, when a little mini vision appeared right before my eyes, with my eyes opened. It looked like a page of paper burning from behind, burning a hole, in which I could see something like a motion picture showing through the hole, lots of activity. I was so caught off guard, and excited, I couldn't make out exactly what was in the hole. Except then beams of golden light came pouring out of the hole towards me. I could see beautiful rays, and with it I felt like streaming Holy joy pouring out towards. It was very refreshing and uplifting. As the light faded to my surprise I could smell what smelled light crushed orchid blossoms streaming out in a very faint...and then it was over. I was very joyful, and I prayed and asked God what it meant...it was just God saying he was with me, that he loved me.

However, when I got to the hospital in the next hour,I was anticipating doing poorly with the patients since I had forgot to pray for God's blessings to perform well. Well, to make a long story short, without saying hardly anything at all, it was the most effective, uplifting visiting I ever experienced. The patients said they saw me as pastor, even though I told them I was not, and profusely confessed, and repented about stuff, and thanked me very gushily. I knew it was God's Presence, not me. I learned something really big about ministering in Christ's name.

--desperate

oneiric · Aug 6, 2003

whats the difference between prayer and worship.

sometimes i just dont know what to say when i want to feel his presense.

:o

SpiritPsalmist · Aug 6, 2003

Prayer and praise are close to each other, yet different.

For me prayer most involves me giving my needs over to the Lord and making requests. But praise. . .well that's me lovin' all over Him and letting Him love on me. Dancing with Him and just basking in His love for me. Telling Him how much I love Him and adore Him. He always shows up pretty strong when we start telling Him how wonderful He is.

oneiric · Aug 6, 2003

how do i get his presense near me though :o

I don't know how to begin. blah. i really want to. i realllllly do.

SavedByGrace3 · Aug 6, 2003

oneiric said:
how do i get his presense near me though :o

I don't know how to begin. blah. i really want to. i realllllly do.

Begin to praise Him. Just lift your hands and begin to thank Him for his goodness. If you know some good praise and worship songs, sing to Him. If there a good Spirit filled chruch around, get in it and join in the praise and worship.
Learn to worship in tongues and prophesy

SpiritPsalmist · Aug 6, 2003

oneiric said:
how do i get his presense near me though :o

I don't know how to begin. blah. i really want to. i realllllly do.

James 4:8 (NKJV)says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded".

In the Amplified it reads like this, "Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soild hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering indifiduals with divided interests, an dpurify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery]".

Get alone. . .where you will not be disturbed. Put on some worship music. Music that is telling God how much you love Him, and thanking Him for His Love, Mercy, Grace, and everything else you can think of.

As you read through scripture, apply it to yourself and begin to thank God for how He has demonstrated that scripture in your life. Such as PS 23,
"The Lord is my Shepherd" . . .God I thank You that you are a good Shepherd. You make sure that I don't fall to the wayside. You come searching for me to get my attention so that I can be molded more into your image, etc. ect.
"I shall not want" . . .Lord I thank You that you promise to meet every single need. You will provide for me my food, my clothing, my housing. I have not need to worry over these things because you are such a Good Shepherd, etc, etc,
"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures" . . .God I can baske in your presense and be safe. I don't need to worry about the enemy hurting me because I put my trust in You", etc, etc.

When you start doing things like this oneiric, I can guarentee, God WILL show up.

But don't stop there. . .you can make up your own tunes of love and adoration to Him. You can come up with tunes and sing them to Him from the Psalms. You can sit quietly and just meditate on Him and His goodness.

Here's the words to a song I wrote. . .it is comprised of just a few of the names He is known as and the scripture ref:

ALL IN ALL

BREAD OF LIFE (John 6:35) PRINCE OF PEACE (Is 9:6)
ROCK OF AGES (Is 26:4) A DIADEM OF BEAUTY (Is 28:5)
EVERLASTING LIGHT (Is 60:20) EMMANUEL (Matt 1:23)
LAMB OF GOD (John 1:29) SAVIOR OF THE WORLD(I John 4:14)
YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE MORNING (II Sam 23:4)
MY GLORY (Ps 3:3) MY LORD (John 20:28) MY GOD (John 20:28)
AN OINTMENT POURED FORTH (SoS 1:3)
A RESTING PLACE (Jer 50:6)
AND THE HOPE OF YOUR PEOPLE (Joel 3:16)
ALL, IN ALL (Col 3:11) CREATOR OF ALL THINGS (Col 1:16)
MY LAMP (II Sam 22:29) MY STAY ( II Sam 22:19) MY FORTRESS (Ps 18:2)
MY SHIELD (Ps 3:3) THE LIFTER OF MY HEAD (Ps 3:3)
MY SHEPHERD (Ps 23:1) HE IN WHOM I TRUST (Ps 144:1)LORD OF GLORY (I Cor 2:8)
MY SHADOW FROM THE HEAT (Is 25:4)

MY STRENGTH ( Is 12:2) MY SONG (Is 12:2)
MY BELOVED (SoS) MY SAVIOR ( Luke 1:47)
HOLY AND TRUE (Rev 6:10) JEHOVAH SHALOM (Judg 6:24)DELIVERER (Rom 11:26) THE MIGHTY GOD (Is 9:6)
A WALL OF FIRE (Zeck 2:5) KING OF KING’S (Rev 17:14) LORD OF LORD’S (Rev 17:14) LORD OF ALL (Acts 10:36)

You can't emagine how much God is just waiting for you to come to Him.

Go for it. . .it's an adventure of no return. . .you'll never be the same

oneiric · Aug 7, 2003

Thank you so much, Quaffer.

God bless,
Rachel

PrayerMist · Aug 7, 2003

Thanks Quaff.
I'll use that too.

I notice that right after sin, I always feel all guitly. Then of course I would repent. But after that when I try to worship, I hardly get His presence....

WHY!!!!!!!???? lol.......

SpiritPsalmist · Aug 7, 2003

PrayerMist said:
Thanks Quaff.
I'll use that too.

I notice that right after sin, I always feel all guitly. Then of course I would repent. But after that when I try to worship, I hardly get His presence....
WHY!!!!!!!???? lol.......

Because the devils a liar and you're still hearing him tell you that your unacceptable.

Guilty is what we are when we sin. . .and it's His kindness that leads us to repentance. And when we repent our sins are washed away and remembered against us no more. :clap:

When you hear in your spirit, words of condemnation. . . that is clue number 1, it's the enemy's voice you're hearing. God leads us to repentance then calls us to draw nearer to Him so that we can become so close to Him that we won't fall again.

"I am my Beloved's and He is mine. . .His banner over me is LOVE".

sbbqb7n16 · Aug 7, 2003

PrayerMist said:
Thanks Quaff.
I'll use that too.

I notice that right after sin, I always feel all guitly. Then of course I would repent. But after that when I try to worship, I hardly get His presence....
WHY!!!!!!!???? lol.......

To add onto the advice that Quaffer already gave let me share with you some of what I have been learnin about God's grace recently.

You know that you are forgiven past present and future right? If you don't know that already you are

But yeah a ton of people have that as "head knowledge" but not "heart knowledge." If you've already been forgiven, then God is perfectly happy with you just as you are no matter what you do, because you've already been forgiven of it in God's eyes. So since you believe in Jesus Christ, sin is not an issue for you and God anymore... it might be between you and someone else (if you offended them) but between you and God everything is perfectly okay

maybe you already knew this... maybe you just needed to hear it again but yeah here it is: sin can't keep you from God from God already paid for all sin.

Hope this post helped somehow

Have a great day!

SpiritPsalmist · Aug 9, 2003

desper84unity said:
Being in God's Presence is a lot of what I am after. Actually, when I think about I am constantly trying to figure what will bring me really, really close, like vibrant close. Howver, I haven't yet been able to OFTEN have his palpable Presence.

Never the less here are the things I do to get close (some better than others):

1) Try to find, understand and obey every command of Christ. The so called "beattitudes" are a good start. God likes obedience. Oswald Chambers called obedience "dynamite"!

2) Thanks, praise, dance (I like instrumental jazz), bible study,praying, quite listening, inviting Jesus to fill me with the Holy Spirit, telling Jesus he may even control my mind, body and tongue, and asking him to give me his worship.

Believe it or not, obedience seems to be the hottest way to get close. I just read my Bible, and ask God to help me obey the stuff he shows me in it.

Fasting food is hard for me, since I am diabetic. However for short times, it's good.

One of the neatest, and coolest Presence experiences I had was just before I took off to serve at this very short once a week volunteer visiting thing I was doing at a local hospital, through their pastoral care office. I was at home just sitting and praising and kinda listening for God, when a little mini vision appeared right before my eyes, with my eyes opened. It looked like a page of paper burning from behind, burning a hole, in which I could see something like a motion picture showing through the hole, lots of activity. I was so caught off guard, and excited, I couldn't make out exactly what was in the hole. Except then beams of golden light came pouring out of the hole towards me. I could see beautiful rays, and with it I felt like streaming Holy joy pouring out towards. It was very refreshing and uplifting. As the light faded to my surprise I could smell what smelled light crushed orchid blossoms streaming out in a very faint...and then it was over. I was very joyful, and I prayed and asked God what it meant...it was just God saying he was with me, that he loved me.

However, when I got to the hospital in the next hour,I was anticipating doing poorly with the patients since I had forgot to pray for God's blessings to perform well. Well, to make a long story short, without saying hardly anything at all, it was the most effective, uplifting visiting I ever experienced. The patients said they saw me as pastor, even though I told them I was not, and profusely confessed, and repented about stuff, and thanked me very gushily. I knew it was God's Presence, not me. I learned something really big about ministering in Christ's name.

--desperate

Thanks for sharing this, I especially enjoyed your experience of being in His presense. I know many times in our worship services the worship becomes so intense that a sweet fragrance has filled the room.

When I first started moving in the gift of prophetic psalming, one time I heard the sound of many voices singing with me. . .at the time I did not realize it was in the spirit rhelm and thought that people from the worship team were singing with me. I was concerned that they were so loud that what the Lord was saying could not be heard. But when I asked later, I was told nobody from the platform was singing.

Going after God with all our being is the main issue. . .I desire to get as closse to him as possible.

Also, I wanted to comment on your last paragraph. . .I believe that when we do what God has instructed us to do it is already blessed. It is Ok to ask for Him to bless but if we're doing what He's told us then we can know that He is already preceding us and leading the way.

It's when we plan our own way and activities that we need to ask His blessing but then I don't know that we should be doing it anyway. . .since He did not tell us to do it.

Of course that would not apply to everything. . .but I do think many find themselves involved in ministries God did not call them too.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say,

Blessings to you,

Quaffer

admtaylor · Aug 10, 2003

PrayerMist said:
I've been thinking that maybe I am more gifted at worship than prayer, but I always have sooo much time to pray and maybe only like an hour to worship.
And I was thinking maybe the reason I dont get His presence when I pray was becase I dont pray right or something.
I always pray to God as if He was a friend, I even joke around with Him. Does He like that??

I think, and this is the opinion of man of course, that there should be a sort of reverence in prayer. I totally believe that we can talk to God about anything, but we need to remember that this is the being that turned Moses' hair white when Moses looked upon Him. He is loving and is our friend, but also an awesome powerful God. :bow:

admtaylor · Aug 10, 2003

sbbqb7n16 said:
To add onto the advice that Quaffer already gave let me share with you some of what I have been learnin about God's grace recently.

You know that you are forgiven past present and future right? If you don't know that already you are But yeah a ton of people have that as "head knowledge" but not "heart knowledge." If you've already been forgiven, then God is perfectly happy with you just as you are no matter what you do, because you've already been forgiven of it in God's eyes. So since you believe in Jesus Christ, sin is not an issue for you and God anymore... it might be between you and someone else (if you offended them) but between you and God everything is perfectly okay

maybe you already knew this... maybe you just needed to hear it again but yeah here it is: sin can't keep you from God from God already paid for all sin.

Hope this post helped somehow Have a great day!

This of course doesn't lead to a free ride attitude though. We should still repent for our sins. Like baptism, repenting for sin is something expected of Christians. I dare not say anymore, this is fragile ground.

sbbqb7n16 · Aug 11, 2003

admtaylor said:
. . . I dare not say anymore, this is fragile ground.

Yeah it definitely is

Good idea in not discussin that more here... if you wanted to discuss it over in General Theology I'd be glad to

Just for future reference.

JesseB. · Aug 11, 2003

I like to worship sitting down with my head bowed.

His Presence

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