The Importance of the Presence

Hello friends!

I pray this blog post finds you well.

This blog post today is a lesson I taught to my wonderful worship teams at World Outreach Church. Recently The Lord put it on my heart to teach our kids at WOC about the presence of God. It is something we always hear, but yet so hard to understand.

Let me explain.

We always hear about the presence of God and how amazing things happen while in His presence. We always hear about how God's presence is holy and unique and set apart. Those are all very true statements. Here was my dilemma in the matter. We say those things all the time and are always telling the kids we led worship for about it, but did they ever understand it?

There is a strong difference in hearing something and understanding something. Take that statement to heart. You can hear a lot of different things throughout your life, but never understand how or why they do what they do. For example, I can hear a machine working, but because of my training and knowledge I usually have no idea how that machine works. I can hear my car speeding up, but because of my knowledge, I do not know how it speeds up and what parts work together to make it happen.

That is exactly why I wanted our team to teach our kids about the presence. Here is the funny thing though... We will never fully understand the presence of God. Mind blown, right? God is so infinite and all knowing, that we as humans will never fully understand all the things that happen in the presence of God. Here is the good news though, we can teach about what we do know.

What we do know is that in God's presence people get healed. In God's presence people get set free from addiction and lies. In God's presence people are made new. In God's presence people who have previously been broken and depressed are filled with joy before your very eyes. In God's presence we have a connection to the throne room of Jesus Christ and in the presence of Jesus, life change occurs. That is what happens in God's presence.

Now, for some biblical story time!

I took this story from the teachings that the 4th through 6th graders are getting at WOC (and also from the bible). They are going through a lesson about positioning yourself in the light. They are talking about how it is important to position yourself in Godly things so Godly outcomes happen. I read this and immediately thought about worship. I thought about how it is so important for us as believers to position ourselves in the presence of God. When we seek the presence and ask for more of the presence, we get it. God says seek me and you will find me (Jeremiah 29:13). The notion here for us is the seeking part. We have to chase after God. Jenn Johnson, a Bethel Music artist, once said in a video I watched that our relationship with God can sometimes be like hide and seek. God does not hide from us to punish us, no, God hides so we can seek Him. Wow. God desires for us to run after Him, to chase Him, to look for Him in every aspect of our lives. He desires for us to seek Him.

Mind blowing. Now, does God always hide and wait to be sought? No! Some of my most amazing experiences with God happen when I am least expecting them too, but it is because I try and seek him each day, he will just drop blessings in whenever he feels like it. Know this, He is a gentlemen and He will never go where He is not wanted. Therefore, you have to seek His presence and invite it into your life for life change to happen.

Now, to the bible story. In Mark 2 we meet a man who is paralyzed. You probably know the story. Jesus was preaching in a house and there was no room inside. People were crammed into every crevice and part they could cram into. So much, in fact, that they were spilling outside of the house. So, the paralyzed man needed life change and he knew Jesus could provide it (his friends also knew this). The men dug a hole in the roof of the house and lowered the man on a mat right in front of Jesus. The man was healed because of his faith and the faith of his friends.

We all love that story! Thank you Jesus for how you heal us when we are most undeserving. This story is one I could tell you backwards and forwards, I even had hand motions to it from the time when I worked as a camp staff member at New Frontiers. In all the years I had heard that story though, I had never thought of it like this. I never looked at it from the presence of God point of you. This ties directly into the lesson the children are getting on the weekend, so I just had to share it. That man who was healed, and his friends, knew that the presence of God was powerful and important. It was not enough to set the man outside of the house and hope that he would get healed, there was something about putting the man right in front of Jesus. They knew that if that man got right in the presence of God, he would get what he needed. Once I read that from their lesson, I was wrecked.

Here is why...

While that man had to dig a hole in the roof to get to the presence of God, all we have to do is accept Jesus and His presence goes with us! The presence and power that made this paralyzed man walk lives in US.

The point I am wanting to make is this... Whenever you walk into a time of worship, you are entering the presence of Almighty God. When we enter that presence is when life change occurs. You can get life change by bowing down in worship and surrendering to Jesus. Because of the work that Jesus did on the cross we have access to the presence that heals, renews, refreshes, and makes new. We have access to that whenever we need it! All the time, everyday! So why are more people not getting healed, set free, and made new? Because we as believers usually do not understand (back to this word again) the power that lives in us!

When we understand this power and this presence, the enemy has NO power over us. The work on the cross made sure that we will never go without our Jesus. We will never be alone in times of trouble. All we have to do is understand that the presence of God is powerful and that it is with us always.

I am praying for you and the work you are doing for the King. May this strengthen you and empower you to chase after him!

-Austin