His Presence Abiding!! 2006/01 01/08/06
Happy New Year!! From the Lord and from Alma and I. What a year and what a year we have coming up if all the prophetic is correctly heard. There is a word that I recently read in one of Timothy Snodgrass’s E-Letters and I quote; “As we prepare to go into the New Year, I hear the Holy Spirit saying that it is time to seek the Presence of God with haste. It was not by accident that the three wise men brought the child Jesus gold, frankincense and myrrh during His first coming, because it would be one of the final signs to ‘wise’ men of the last generation that His second coming is quickly approaching. Judgments will increase, but it is not a time to focus on the world that is quickly passing away, but to focus on entering into the presence of God, and hiding ourselves in our prayer chamber for a season to seek wisdom and strategies for the coming year, for our time is short, and the coming of our King draws nigh”.
We will have a lot to share on this year, and I know only that it will be vital information to catch hold of, but don’t ask me at this moment what all of it might be, because I too, would love to know ahead of time, but I do know that there is a bundle out there to pick up.
I believe that our starting point for the beginning of the year would be to concentrate on our “Presence” condition. I know that I hear the Lord speaking that we are to practice His Presence like we never have before, with an emphasis on abiding there with new, aggressive pursuit. There is much power and witness in His Presence abiding and I would not even expect to start with the verse that I now read but that is where I am told we need to go. Turn to John 17:15-23;
“I do not ask that You will take them out of the world, but that You will keep them and protect them from the evil one.
They are not of the world (worldly, belonging to the world), [just] as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.
Just as You have sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
And so for their sake and on their behalf I sanctify (dedicate, consecrate) Myself, that they also may be sanctified, (dedicated, consecrated, made holy) in the Truth.
Neither for these alone do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching.
That they may be one [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me.
I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one:
I in You and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.”
I think that it is interesting to note, that in the bible (Amp) the word ‘world’ is used 21 times, and it is from the root word “Kosmos” [gr]. John did not mean earth here because in verse 4 he penned the word earth instead of world and that is from the word “Ge”, which is the solid land mass, that we walk on, but the world used here denotes the system of adornment, which is the government, academia, society and all other secular pursuits and many “religious” as well. Jesus prayed that we not be taken out of the world, that we might remain, and through our love and unity they might come to know that it was You Father, that sent Me.
I have read that many times and as I thought on it the Lord impressed that the world, the system, the authority, the governing control is actually imploding or falling in on itself, governments around the world, in chaos and confusion, because as Jesus said, in John 17:14; “I have given and delivered to them Your word (message) and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world [do not belong to the world] just as I am not of the world”.
This, in reality has to happen, because the ‘world’ has rejected Jesus and the message and the hatred is building against His people, the Jews and against us, the Christians, because it cannot hold itself together without Him and I want you to again read from Colossians what we had in the last teaching class of 2005. Hear the word of the Lord;
“[Now] He is the exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the Firstborn of all creation.
For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him.
And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist, (cohere, are held together)”.
The world cannot stay together without Jesus to hold it together and they, of the world, continue to reject Him and the word. I believe this is one of the major reasons that there will be, in 2006 a real move of God in us and His people in the world (not of it), to emphasize abiding in Him and in His word.
Lets first look at the word ‘abide’ which means, to dwell in, with a permanence, a continuity, to endure and stay in place, to stand and or to tarry there. It appears that it does not carry the sense of coming into His presence once in a while or in an on again, off again attitude. We are to continually abide in Him and we need to note what Jesus had to say concerning this in John 14:21,23 & 15:10,12;
“The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him…..
Jesus answered, If a person [really] loves Me, he will keep My word [obey My teaching]; and My Father will love him, and We will make Our home (abode, special dwelling place) with him.
If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love.
This is My commandment: that you love one another [just] as I have loved you.
If you have noticed that the emphasis above is all about His love to us and our abiding obedience is to love one another with that same unconditional love. Its all about Him and His call on our lives that is going to surface more clearly in the days ahead that ever before. As we noticed throughout the last lesson here, there was much about the walls being torn down and how Jesus abolished all differences (Gal. 3:28) and in Eph. 1:9-10, well, lets just read those two verses again;
Making known to us the mystery (secret) of His will (of His plan, of His purpose), [And it is this:] In accordance with His good pleasure (His merciful intention) which He had previously purposed and set forth in Him,
[He planned} for the (maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all things and head them up and commsumate them in Christ, [both] things in heaven and on the earth.
Here, God chose to reveal the mystery of His will, and we have just read it, to unify, to head up and to commsumate them in Christ, all things in heaven and on the earth and, that apparently means there is going to be a big change in the ‘world’.
I must go back to the word that is focused on in this lesson and that is abiding and we need to stay there because it is in abiding that we can start to have an awareness of His Presence on an ongoing basis. I think that the best way to get settled into the position of being in His Presence is to be abiding in the Word of God.
We need to get a deeper understanding what it means to abide in the word. It means to dwell in and allow the word to have its residence in our hearts. Reading the bible is a beginning, but there is more to it than just reading. I know that if I really want the Word to produce the power and prosperity in spirit, soul and body in my life, I need never be content to just “know” the word. I have to come to the place where I get alone and meditate, and have a true belief in the word to the point that whatever situation I encounter in the world, the word is my response, an out of the depths of a heart filled to the overflow with His word. The word of God has self fulfilling power within itself, and as we have all read from the pen of the prophet Isaiah; “the word will prosper for that in which it was sent”. The more we abide in His word the closer we are to His presence. The closer we are to His Presence, the more we are a living display of Him, His Character, His Presence and Love in the world. One of the key reasons that we were created by God was to be the reflection of Him to the world.
We are moving into days unlike any the world has ever seen and they are prophesied to be so. I love to read Tozer and as Paul told Timothy; “…the [instructions] which you have heard from me along with many witnesses, transmit and entrust [as a deposit] to reliable and faithful men, who will be competent and qualified to teach others also”, and that is why I quote the following;
The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of our weaknesses and ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware (really acutely aware) that we are in God and that God is in us.
The above is from Mr. Tozer’s book, ‘The Pursuit of God”.
It is God’s will that we press into His Presence and truly live our whole lives there. At the very heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push in to continual, conscious awareness of His Presence. He never leaves us nor forsakes us and that is His Presence. He has His Residence within us, and that residence is His Kingdom and Jesus told us that the kingdom is within.
The spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God is there, awaiting our response to His Presence. This eternal Kingdom will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its realty. [Move like our reckoning is truly believed] A word from December 21, 2005;
Note: ‘Reckoning’ [gr.- logizomai] A conscious pursuit of truth set before us and that pursuit will not be distracted nor held back.
My people know, from their reading of My word, that I have a purpose and plan intimately planned for their lives, but, they only know that I have one…but…they do not know what My plan is, and rather than seeking My face for My plan, set about establishing their own pattern and get so set in it that they become inflexible to accommodate My plan. Many times, because of their pattern, they reject Mine, and I have to give it over to one who is receptive to Me and the one who rejected My plan will live an unfulfilled life, saved, but unfulfilled. Stop! Listen and become a vessel, totally, wholly, completely open to My plan for you. Seek My face for My plan. It is easy, it is light, it is glory on the move and it is not hidden from you. You have looked at your own limitations, your own weaknesses and lack of ability and in so doing you rejected My power, provision, purpose and plan, designed by Me for each of My children. It is never too late until the hour is complete. Stop! Listen! Listen for My voice and you will be strengthened to do all that I have purposed for you. This is kingdom life. Let go of your pattern to make room for My pattern, and let Me move you into this realm of the Spirit. Always seek to understand that My manifest Presence is but a breath away, closer than your finite imagination can handle.
If you would like, we can put all this in simpler terms. God’s desire for us, as His children is that we have a deeper relationship with Him. Relationship means, a connection, kinship or involvement. God made us to be connected to Him. A number of times in the New Testament, we read “full personal knowledge of Him” and “full, personal, precise and correct knowledge of God” and sometimes the word intimate is included. These are all from the heart as He dictated the word through the men He chose to write it.
God wants each of us to know Him better than we do. None of us know Him well enough. In beginning, Genesis 1:26 where God said, “Let us make man in Our image”. No other in all creation was described in that manner. In His image, we, as His creation can talk with Him, and we can truly have relationship with Him and man is the only miracle of creation that has an indwelling consciousness of God’s existence and personality. He did all this so that we would have an intimate relationship with Him daily. He revealed this part of His Nature when we read that He walked and talked with Adam in the garden in the cool of the day. I am hungry for relationship that is that intimate.
When we have a truly close and intimate relationship with God, He character traits will surface and be displayed in our lives and as we were even called in Ephesians 5:1; “to be imitators of God – copy Him and follow His example” and this is not possible without a close union with Him.
I am coming to know, that the call on the body of Christ is emphasized this year, to love with unconditional love. One of the prophets recently wrote the following for 2006.