You will have heard it sooo many times; ‘I just want your presence Lord!’. I bet you have even prayed it before? I have, many times! It was always well meaning and I am not about to say that it is totally wrong, BUT, it’s settling for much LESS than God wants for us.
It is not just our prayers either, you find this theme in worship songs too;
…I'm caught up in Your presence
I just want to sit here at Your feet
I'm caught up in this holy moment
I never wanna leave
Oh, I'm not here for blessings
Jesus, You don't owe me anything
More than anything that You can do
I just want You…
Nothing Else - Cody Carnes
I hope to encourage you to pray more but pray less for His presence but through fresh revelation you will pray bigger bolder prayers.
Unconvinced..? Ok, don’t shoot me yet, take 5 mins to read and let me know what you think!
Let's think about it. God could have created us to live with Him in a vacuum, but He didn't, He created a world. He created a world filled with wonder and abundance. His presence was paramount and a given ‘in the beginning’ but so was His provision… His goodness... His blessings. Think about it for a moment. God did not create a big flat plain where Adam just hung out with Him 24/7. The garden was bursting with life and potential, an opportunity for us to have purpose to create and shape the world around us. This was, and is, part of God’s design and desire for us.
Asking for ‘just His presence‘ is asking too little! God has more for us than ‘just’ His presence!
As a dad I put great emphasis on being present and spending quality time with my daughter. However, she needs more than just my presence. If we were homeless, living in a box and begging for food it would be far from ideal... right?! She needs a house to live in, she needs clothes, food, she benefits from toys to help stimulate her mind and to have fun with. She needs more than my presence..! Think about it from my perspective too, I would be upset if that’s all she had from me. I want to give her more, much more, I want to bless her too.
God is the ultimate Father, the BIG DAWG DAD! (did I really just write that 😆). Yes He wants to enjoy being with us and us with Him. BUT, He also wants to bless us! <-- Read that again!
The big story of the Bible is God getting His family back AND blessing them.
Now I can imagine some maybe thinking, but Joss there are plenty of examples in the Bible of people seeking God's presence!! Yes, your right, in fact there are some wonderful statements from people saying they wouldn't move unless God went with them (Exodus 33:15). There is infinite value and necessity for God's presence. I am not arguing against that at all!!!
Yet, it is not an 'either or'. Moreover, it is not a New Covenant question.
He doesn’t ask us to choose one or the other. In fact one of the HUGE changes from the Old Covenant to the New is that we don't need to ask for His presence. Once we give our lives to Jesus, God takes up residence in us through the Holy Spirit. The amazing crazy turnaround in Jesus is that God is not waiting in a Temple, Tabernacle or a church for us to visit Him, instead He says we are the Temple and He is going to live in us!
If that hasn't made your hair stand on end then read it again!! It should stir the fire in you! God lives in you!🙌🏼
Get this: We no longer go to where God is but we go to the world with God!!!
So, when we say to Jesus that ‘all we want is His presence’ we are asking for too little or, better said, we are asking for something He has already given!! He has promised His followers His presence saying ‘I am with you always, to the very end of the age’. The natural progression we actually see in Jesus' teaching was from His presence to His presents, that is the blessings. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, (this is presence) ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you (blessing/presents).” Jesus (John 15:7). Have a little think about the model given to us for prayer by Jesus, ’the Lords prayer’, does it include asking for Gods presence? Nope! It includes plenty of asking God for other things, provision, protection etc.
So when we say, pray or sing, ‘all we want is your presence' to God firstly, it’s not necessary, because He has already promised us that. But secondly it's, dare I say (yeah of course I will lol), a load of BS! If we are honest, we don’t JUST want His presence, we want His blessings too... and guess what, God knows that and so do we…
None of us just want to know God is there, we long for Him to affect the world around us. This is the blessings bit.
Let me just drive this home so that you can have a healthy desire for MORE THAN JUST HIS PRESENCE...
Think about this; God was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the furnace which was great, they definitely wanted His presence!!! However, they didn't want to burn with God present, they wanted His blessing, the present of protection. They also didn't want to stay there! His presence was in the furnace but I am pretty sure they wanted more than to be forever in a furnace. Wouldn't you?! (Daniel 3)
God was with His people in Egypt, but that wasn't a good place to stay despite His presence. He was present with them as He led them out and in to the wilderness, but God had no intentions of stopping there forever. (book of Exodus) Similarly we don't want to be walking round a metaphorical wilderness with God. He sure doesn’t want us to stay there. Not even if He is there right with us! Like with the Jews coming out of Egypt, He has a destination in mind for each of us. 'I know the intentions and hopes I have for you says the Lord, to prosper/bless..' Jeremiah 29:11 - He has intentions for good things for us NOT just His presence.
You maybe now asking, what's my point with all this? - Glad you asked! 😁
God wants us, and tells us to ask for more, not to settle for His presence but to seek His blessings for our own life AND to bless those around us. If we are only interested in His presence how does that help others? You being a blessing is what the world benefits from and it points to Jesus.
( Small break. Friends as I write I feel God prompting me say that God’s presence and God’s blessings are not always in the same place. He will never leave nor forsake you, but you can be outside of God's blessings because of you are in the wrong place. You may have experienced the blessings there in the past but you are now in the wrong place. I will post an article about this soon. I believe it will release so many to live a blessed life. It is kinda like a pt 2 to this post 👍🏼 anyway back to the post )
Ok so it is important to point out that we don't want a pendulum swing, were we decide we are going to focus only on God's blessings and not be interested in His presence. That is UGGLLLLY!!!! We have all heard of spoilt brats who don’t care about their parents presence, and all they want are the handouts. Sometimes Christians can stray in to this territory too! The prosperity church for example, they name and claim, blab and grab... It gets unhealthy when it becomes overly self focused and about only us. That’s definitely NOT good. Thankfully it is not either or as I have already said. It is simply realising that we always have His presence.
Part of the purpose of being blessed is to be a blessing to others.
When we start to ask for God‘s blessings to flow THROUGH our lives what we are asking is for the norms of heaven to manifest here. In other words, for ‘His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven’ (Lords prayer) YES JESUS!
God’s people have always been blessed to bless others. (Gen 12:2). We are not called to be a reservoir of God’s goodness but a river, the goodness of God is without limit and is made to flow through us to impact the world. Jesus said that we would be 'streams of living water'. It is not wrong to want to enjoy blessings in all the forms they come but it is falling short to think of them as only for us. Hoarding is a poverty mindset. The Bible says it is 'better to give than to receive' (Acts 20:35) and we all experience that when giving gifts to others at Christmas etc when we see the joy in them.
I was so challenged and excited when God spoke to me about this stuff. It took a while for it to really sink in and sometimes I still find myself asking, instead of thanking, Him for His presence. I get more and more excited about asking for His presents in my life and to show me who I can share those with. As you read this I hope you start to get excited about asking God for increased blessings and whom we can bless as a result.
In closing, it is my prayer that you're encouraged in two things. One, that His presence is already promised, that He goes with you everywhere and you don't need to keep asking! Secondly, that your prayer time is transformed by daring prayers for His blessings to flow through you, audacious prayers that supernaturally effect the world around you🙏🏼🙏🏼
Big love
Joss❤️
p.s please do connect on Insta, would be great to connect! @jossnicholas
Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. Exodus 33:15
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
John 15:7
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11
So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
Exodus 3:8
"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
Genesis 12:2
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
John 7:38
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
Acts 20:35
#blessings #Godspresence #presence #blessings #theblessing #godbless #theblessedlife #prayer #theology #jossnicholas #christianmen #christianblog #bibletreaching #blessedtobeablessing
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