Part 1 The secret of His presence

Part 1 The secret of His presence

One of the most influential books in the Christian arena is a book called; The Practice of the Presence of God, by Bother Lawrence.

Brother Lawrence (c. 1610 - February 12, 1691) was a Carmelite monk, who is today most commonly remembered for the closeness of his relationship to God as recorded in the classic Christian Book, The Practice of the Presence of God.

Brother Lawrence left the gift of a way of life available to anyone who seeks to know God and live in His peace and presence; that anyone, regardless of age or circumstance, can practice -anywhere, anytime. This simple Carmelite monk came into a profound understanding of the presence of God as it applies to daily life; his writings have impacted millions down through the years.

Bother Lawrence understood the absolute indispensable importance of living in the presence of God in daily life.

After the fall of Adam the first thing that changed was the relationship Adam had with God, he hid from the presence of the Lord.

Genesis 3:8

And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

This loss of daily walking with God would prove to be a loss of inestimable magnitude.  To walk with God in daily life was Gods expected norm for His children. To hear His voice, to feel His emotions was part of the relationship that God intended for His children.

Everything but His presence.

Most of Christianity today has fallen far from what God intended for His people, we have much theology and much Christian activity without His presence, with many their daily lives are devoid of a continuing reality of the presence of the Lord.

When the Ark of the Covenant (the presence of God) was lost to Israel it was a disaster of enormous proportions, yet today so often we can get along without His presence in our daily lives.

When David moved the Ark of the Covenant (The presence of God) into a tent on MountZion, the priests in Shiloh where the tabernacle of Moses was, continued with their offerings and tabernacle ministry for many years as usual, but the presence of God was gone. They got along without it continuing with their religious procedures.

Many attend church, do the right thing go through the normal procedures without the Manifest Presence of God. Pentecostal ritual can easily replace the presence of God.

That which we do outside of the presence of God, before long becomes only ritual.

Even the scripture can become dead and lifeless.

We must never forget the Jesus is the WORD, and the Pharisees were rebuked by the Lord because they new, studied and revered the scriptures but never came to Him who is the life and reality of the scriptures

John 5:39	Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
40	And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

The scripture without the presence is lifeless. Quoting the scripture without the reality of the presence of God becomes a ministry of death.

2 Corinthians 3:6	Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
John 6:63	It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
John 14:10	Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

A lamp unto your feet

Psalm 119:105

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

While this is true we must remember that here is no true light without His presence

The bible makes it clear that we can only have true light when He the Lord manifests His presence. 

Psalm 36:9

For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

His voice is heard out of His presence

So often we are seeking the will of God or seeking to hear His voice in our hearts, however we must realize that we can only hear His voice in His presence. We must wait for His presence to be manifest in order to hear His voice and if we are to walk daily with Him we must continuously cultivate the and reality of His presence.

 Bother Lawrence learned the secret of turning to and conversing with the Lord in all maters of his daily life, in other words the Lord became His friend whom he shared everything with. This continual turning to the Lord in his heart brought a constant awareness of the presence of the Lord into his life and in this awareness he existed.

Isaiah 41:8

But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.

It is interesting that God would not destroy Sodom and Gomorra until He first talked it over with Abraham His friend;

Genesis 18:16	And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.
17	And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;

In this incident Abraham talked with God about the righteous people that could be in those cities and how that He could not destroy those cities if there were enough righteous people there. This is an extraordinary situation where God come down and talked with Abraham about this situation, and God would not do what He had purpose to do without talking it over with Abraham His friend.

The thing that God is after in your life is that of becoming your friend

Becoming friend with an invisible spirit is only possible when
you enter His realm which starts with developing awareness,
awareness of His presence

God Bless youN. Johnson © July 19^th.  2007