For more
than a month, I have been trying to bring all of us to the point where we can
know for sure that we need personal awakening in our lives. We saw through the
life of Moses the need for an awakening. We established that an awakening is
the ordinary work of the Holy Spirit creating extra-ordinary effects on those
who experience His presence.
We also
saw from the old and new testament that God’s presence is dangerous to those
who disobey and it is essential for us to have His presence. We went further to
look at the honour or privileges of having God’s presence in our lives and in
our corporate body. We need that intimacy with God if we want to do
extra-ordinary service to the glory of God.
Today we
will be looking at the urgency, the determination, the insistence of having
God’s presence.
A. The urgency of God’s presence is that we
cannot function without Him.
You would
think that an angel of God would have been sufficient. The angels are impressive beings with the power to strike the men of
Sodom blind and then bring down brimstone on their city! But Moses was not
satisfied with the angel’s presence. He prays (Exod. 33:15), “If Your presence
does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.” In other words, “Angels
won’t do! Without Your presence, God, we’re finished!”
By praying
that, Moses was acknowledging his own
insufficiency and His need for God’s all-sufficiency.
1.
We need God’s presence for joy (Ps. 16:11): “In Your presence is fullness of joy at your
right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
2.
We need His presence for protection (Ps.
31:20): “You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the
conspiracies of man.” See how he protected Moses even from
the strife of Aaron and Miriam.
3.
We need His presence to deliver us from
despair (misery, anguish, depression) (Ps. 42:5): “Why are you in
despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God,
for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.”
4.
We need His presence for our good (Ps.
73:28): “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good.”
But, it’s
obvious that experiencing God’s presence is not automatic. With Moses, we need to seek God’s presence, both personally and as a
church. Finally,
B. The promise of God’s presence is for
those who find favor in His sight, whom He knows by name.
Just as
God is omnipresent, so He is omniscient: He knows everything and everyone. But
Moses reminds God that He has said (Exod. 33:12), “I have known you by name,
and you have also found favor in My sight.” The Lord affirms (v. 17), “I will also do this thing of which you have
spoken; fo
r you have found favor in My sight and I
have known you by name.”
For God to
know you by name is a special privilege. It
implies a special intimacy with God, unhindered by sin. It’s similar to Paul’s prayer (Eph. 3:16-17), “that He would grant you, according to
the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in
the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Doesn’t
Christ dwell in every believer’s heart? Yes, but
there is a special sense of Christ dwelling in those who find favor in His
sight, whom He knows by name. As Jesus said (John
14:23), “If anyone
loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come
to him and make Our abode with him.” The promise of God’s presence is for those who love and obey Jesus. He
knows them by name.
Conclusion
Experiencing
God’s presence will help you to walk more carefully in this corrupt world. An awareness
of God’s presence will keep you from sin. How can you sin if you are aware that
God is present with you? You don’t want to lose the experience of His presence
(Ps. 51:11). Our Lord has promised (Matt. 28:20), “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” But
experiencing His presence is not automatic. We need to walk in holiness, enjoying daily fellowship with Him. His presence is
dangerous, but essential!
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