You abide within the secret places.
You captivate our private spaces.
You are revealed amongst the weak.
You are discovered wherever we seek.
You are always within the minutes.
You are between our souls and our spirits.
You are among the heavens and the earth.
Your signature is seen at our birth.
You are located within our love.
You are presented as a dove.
You are unearthed within your word.
You are recognized within our work.
You can be sighted within the stillness.
On Your throne, you are nested.
You reside amongst the blessed.
You are the Peace that keeps us rested.
You abide within our faith.
You are discovered within our days.
Over all, you can be seen in love.
Over all, you abide amongst us, not just above.
Devotional: Seek the Face of God: Post 4
In the first post of this series, we ended with four questions that can guide us through how we seek the manifest presence of God. When we have explored throughout this series, what we need to prepare and what we need to bring with us when we are seeking the face of God. We know we need to prepare our temples, our bodies, to ensure that His spirit has a holy place to dwell. We can do this by renewing of our minds and hearts with His word, and by guarding the entrances to our hearts, souls, and spirits. We know we need to bring with us a surrendering heart when we are seeking the manifest presence of God. A heart that is totally surrendered to God and His will can fully experience the joy, peace, and power of His presence. Today, we are going to explore where His manifest presence lives.
He lives on His throne.
Often, I forget that God is the King of all. Recently, in my women’s bible study on Wednesday nights at my church, I was speaking to another woman about the reverence of God. In the five minutes that I spoke with this fellow woman of faith, I gained five times the wealth of remembering that we need to be in a constant state of “awe” of God. He is WORTHY above all to be praised. He is the King, creator of the universe. All exists because He exists. She comes from a Catholic background, and during the time she has spent at our church, she has observed how “relaxed” our view of God is. This hit home BIG time because she is right, to some degree. The protestant faith has moved God into a place that anyone can approach Him, He is everyone’s friend, and to come to Him as you are. While these are all true and God is all of these things, I think we tend to forget that He is also mighty, all powerful, all knowing, the ultimate judge, the ultimate king, the alpha, omega, beginning, and end. He lives on HIS throne above the Heavens within His kingdom. He is divine, three in one, and omnipresent. In Isaiah 37:16, it talks about who God is and where He dwells. “Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms on earth. You have made heaven and earth.” (AMP) What really stuck out to me is that He is “enthroned above the cherubim.” The word“enthroned” means to “install (a monarch) on a throne, especially during a ceremony to mark the beginning of their rule.” The word enthroned specifically applies to a “monarch”, a king, and He is seen to be sitting on His throne in ceremony which tells me that we should be in a constant state of praise for our King who sits on His throne. This is a ceremonial truth for our lives. What better understanding can we gain than knowing that the God of everything, the God of power and kingship loves us deeply enough to send His son so that we will never be separated from Him. It is important for us to remember that He must be praised and respected because He is the one who sits on the throne of all–not us.
He abides within His word.
The Holy Bible is alive and well today. It is the living word of God, and it holds a significant amount of power in our lives if we will study it, meditate on it, and apply it to our lives. When we study the word and start to write the words of the Lord on our hearts, then we are able to experience the beautiful face of God. The Word became flesh, and His blood painted the door post of our hearts so that He could shield our bodies to withstand the manifest presence of God. The Word is God. In John 1:1-2, the apostle John clarifies the divinity of Jesus. “In the beginning [before all time] was the Word [Christ], and the Word was with God. He was [continually existing] in the beginning [co-eternally] with God.” (AMP) If we are struggling to find Him, all we need to do is to open the word, and He will be found. His presence will manifest within His word. Also, when we are studying the Word, we are drawing closer to Christ, and the closer we are to Christ the more of His presence is then seen within our life. We will start to see the fruits of the spirit emerge and flow from having Christ within us.
He lives within others.
We know that at the point of salvation Jesus enters our lives and takes up residence within our heart. We need to keep in mind that Jesus’ mission was, is, and has always been about others and not of himself. He sees the value and potential of every person those who are believers and those who are not. His mission is to train us to love God and to love others by serving the kingdom of God. When we are taking a warm dinner to a struggling new mom, when we hold the door for someone else, when we are holding conversations with our friends, co-workers, and family, when we pass the homeless person on the street, when we disregard the lost and hurting people around us, we need to be reminded that Jesus loves these people–all people. Just as Jesus has taken up residence in your heart, He could also be within their hearts, or He longs to be within their hearts and you may be the only entrance they have for Him to enter their hearts. What a neat and powerful responsibility we have to be the example of Jesus and to love just as he loves us.
He also abides where other followers of Christ are gathered. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus declares, “where two or three are gathered in My name [meeting together as My followers], I am there among them.” (AMP) Just as their is strength in numbers, God’s manifest presence also has more resonant when we are gathered together as the body of Christ. It is so important to have our weekly or continual fellowship with other believers so that we can support one another, strengthen one another, learn from one another, and love one another. The Christian community needs each other, to stand in agreement, to be the hands and feet of Jesus, to house His anointing, and to share His love with the world.
He lives within our faith.
Lastly, Jesus lives within our faith (belief in Him) and our faithfulness (application of His word) to Him, His will, and His word. He can move in our lives because we trust in Him, abide in His peace, and live in the spirit and not in the flesh. It is His spirit within us that frees us from the bondage of sin, and our simple act of faith invites Him in to do the works he so longs to do for us. In Galatians 2:20, Paul states, “I have been crucified with Christ [that is, in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (AMP) If we are searching for God’s face (manifest presence) then we need not look further than our heart. In our hearts, He resides.
The Crimson Robe 