The Lost art of Practicing His presence Proposition: While the Lord is always with us, we are not

always aware of His presence and the resources that are very much right at hand. The older I get the more I am aware that what I know and what I have experienced in God is just the beginning of what could be. Whether working in banking, or at a mill or as a pastor I have always found myself singing, whistling and being happy no matter what the situation. Half the time I dont even know that I am singing. I just find that as the Scriptures say in the presence of God there is fullness of joy. The thing I have come to realize though is this, the joy that I experience and you experience is really good and we are grateful for it but . Its just a whisper of what could be. Our Father wants us to be aware of His presence 24/7; to live life constantly bringing the realities of His kingdom into this world. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places, we are sons and daughters of the King, but as we do life are those things, just things we know and believe in our heads, or are they things we experience continually in our daily reality. Are we continually aware as we change those nappies, do the dishes, settle that deal, fix that car, that God our Father is tangibly right there with us, closer than hands and feet, wanting to transform that moment with His presence? As we walk into a room, as we get on a bus, as we have a coffee with our neighbours can those around us sense that Gods presence has come into that room, onto that bus, is with us over a coffee? Sometimes?; Often?; Most of the time? I cant help feeling that God is inviting us into so much more than we know and have experienced already. We have had some people walking past the church suddenly, thinking about God and feeling His presence, and they have walked in and joined Gods family. We have had some people visit the church for a course or a budget or a food parcel and they have been gripped by how different it feels in here and they have opened their hearts up to the Lord. I am so grateful for what we have already experienced of Gods presence in us and around us that changes our whole outlook and effectiveness in daily situations, but Father wants to give us so much more. He wants you and I to know that He is right there with us constantly. Carole Soole, our office manager and godly sister has sensed Gods invitation for us to abide in him several times this year. In many ways we know lots of truths, we have lots of information and yet the degree to which God will change our lives and transform the lives of those around us is directly linked to our connectedness, our abiding, and our intimate awareness of His presence. John 15:4-5 (NKJV)
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Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5 (CEV)
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Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me. 5 I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me. God is always with us, He will never leave us or forsake us but we need to abide with him, stay joined to Him. Then the fruit, the evidence of the kingdom of heaven is going to flow through our lives supernaturally. The apostle Paul said that fruit included love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. How do you abide? How do you stay connected with Him throughout the day? I believe we need to reclaim the lost art of practising His presence throughout the day. When John the Baptist was baptizing people Jesus came with the crowd and so John says to the crowd, God is here with us and you dont even recognise Him. I believe that God is always with us but for a whole variety of reasons we dont always recognise His presence. Learning for focus on Jesus in the midst of our daily lives is a challenge that we all face. And its so important that we are joined to him, aware of His presence, otherwise we are good people who are going to heaven but that dynamos that kingdom dimension will not at work through our lives. I want to summarize what anointing means to you and then describe for you how it is connected with the presence of God. Every Christian is to experience two baptisms at conversion: The baptism of water that cleanses you from unconfessed sin and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When people laid hands on you to receive the Holy Spirit God gave you a gift mix. He wired you for a particular ministry or style of ministry. When I first became a Christian I found that I was chasing demons out of people every week and even though I was scared of crowds I had a compelling desire to preach. That was who I became instantly. Over time as I wrestled with life issues, as I prayed and particularly as I got revelations from the Word, God increased that initial anointing. We were so poor yet through that I learnt that God is my provider and so I have had faith for miraculous provisions that have since happened often. I began to get revelations of the power of the spoken word for salvations and so God increased my anointing, my gift mix to include reaching the lost. I got revelation on scriptures that told me that water baptism was an essential part of being saved and so that was added to my anointing. When the Word becomes alive and active in our hearts that changes how we face life, it changes who we are and the anointing we carry. However that doesnt result in fruit and God working supernaturally through us unless we are joined to him, or we can put it this way: unless we are abiding in him, or put it another way unless we are aware of His presence.

You and I can do life well based on our own skills and ability, but when we are moving in His presence that anointing that God has placed on you takes on a whole new dimension and it begins to flow out from you and affect those around you including the unbeliever. When I am tuned in, conscious of Gods presence I find that people around me randomly have more faith for miraculous provision, randomly they want to talk about getting right with God, randomly they will raise with me the issue of baptism even though I may have said nothing about these things to those people. You have received a unique anointing when people laid hands on you to receive the Holy Spirit, your anointing has grown as you have had revelations of the Word and it has become alive and active you, sharper than a two edged sword. You get it You read your Bible and it says that you are the head and not the tail you are not a victim. You read that you are seated with Christ in heavenly places; you get the revelation that you have access to heavenly revelation and resources. You change, your anointing increases, and your particular anointing will flow out of you, bearing kingdom fruit as you live and move in His presence. Over the past couple of months I have been thinking about our family at RBC and wondering; Lord what if, we are fully tuned into your presence when we hand out food parcels, what if we are fully tuned into your presence as we run mainly music or do a budget or sell clothing. What if we were fully tuned into the reality of your presence when we pray for people and when we do our jobs or when we face lifes challenges. What if we were fully tuned into your presence when those things happen? Then I feel God saying, then the Ranui Baptist Missionary family will all be even more fruitful, even happier, much less stressed, and very confident in my support all the time. My kingdom would come and my will be done even more dynamically in your midst. I want us to live in His presence! Where there is joy, peace, no stress, confidence in God and the kingdom flows through our anointings continually. I am not there but I want to be, and I believe the Lord desires, for us all to live in that place. God is with us and even some of His angels will be with us this morning and most of us will know it in our heads but not all of you will experience the reality, will be aware of His presence. Why is it that sometimes we are aware of the presence of God being with us but that doesnt happen consistently all the time? I mean the Bible says I will never leave you or forsake you, when two or three of you meet in my name, there I will be in the midst of you. So God is with us always, especially in those times when we meet collectively, so why dont we always feel Him with us, why are we not always conscious of His presence? Picture this if you would. God is here, His presence, His resources; being connected to Him 24/7 is what every heart really desires even if they dont know it. But its possible for us as Christians let things block out our awareness of His presence. Busyness, worry about a bill, concern about a relationship, fear of something bad happening, a desire to please people, laziness of faith. These kinds of things just cloud our ability to perceive and know the
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presence of God in our midst and when these barriers are there, we still do good, and we help people but its on a much more common, human level than what could be if the barriers were removed. Next week I want to share with you a smorgasbord of things you can do to practice the presence of God, things that can help you tune in, be connected to God, to abide in Him more effectively, to break through those barriers. This week though I just want to share with you two life attitudes that will help you live in the presence of God. The first one is worship and the second one is service as unto Jesus. Worship that is turning to God with a thankful heart, taking time to think of how good He is and how awesome He is will always break through the barriers and draw you into His presence. Worship is a real act of faith. You may be facing a large challenge or going through a hard time but when you worship you are saying to God I trust you because of who you are. Where can you worship? You can worship anywhere and anytime and it possible in the midst of a busy day to focus your thoughts on God. Bill Johnstone when he wants to tune into the presence of God and the heavenly realm all around him simply says; I turn my affections towards God. He just begins to think about how much he loves the Lord and all this stuff gets brushed aside and he can experience the Lords company. There is a conversation that comes from his soul that no one but God can hear which, he might be driving a car, meeting with folk, fixing something and deep within his spirit he chooses to think of God and his goodness and the blocks are removed and he can feel the presence of God and hear his still quiet voice. Praying in your prayer language is worship. Its like fine tuning your soul to hear Gods voice. The most famous man ever for teaching people how to practice living in the presence of God was a monk, a man by the name of Brother Lawrence. Brother Lawrence had tried all the monkish stuff for getting close to God, they would spend hours meditating on Scripture or they would walk barefoot in the snow, they would use symbolism and images to focus their thoughts on Jesus but all the regular monkish stuff didnt work for Brother Lawrence. Instead he found that these two attitudes were the keys to getting rid of the clutter in our hearts and experiencing and enjoying His presence. To have a heart full of worship constantly and to do whatever you did as an act of service for Jesus. Let me read to you a few things that he wrote in letters to friends. 1st letter I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the world I took charge of my memory when I found my mind wandering from Him. This was a demanding exercise. When you are faithful to keeping ourselves in His holy Presence and set Him always before us, this limits our offending Him and keeps us from doing anything that may displease Him, at lease wilfully. It also creates in us a holy freedom an intimacy with God so that we can successfully ask for the blessings we stand in need of.
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In his second letter he wrote of a time when he realized that life will always be full of challenges and trial but that he could trust God through them all, with that revelation there was a profound sense of inner peace and rest. ..Ever since that time I have simply walked before God, in faith, with humility and with love. I apply myself diligently to do nothing and think nothing about antyh8ing that might displease Him. I attempt to accomplish His will in all things I would not take up a straw from the ground against His order or from any other motive but purely that of love to Him. I have ceased from all forms of devotion and set prayers but those to which my condition motivates me. I make it my business only to continue in this Holy presence. By a simple attention I keep myself focused on the presence of God and a tender affection toward God. I may call this the actual presence of God or more appropriately, it is a habitual and secret conversation of the soul with God. It often causes in me joys and great delight inwardly and sometimes also manifests itself outwardly. Brother Lawrence was and Bill Johnston is a busy man and yet they found this ability to have an inner conversation with God anywhere. Brother Lawrence and Bill found they could discipline their minds to think about God any time and so become very aware of the presence of God. Brother Lawrences letters describe a second dimension, not just an attitude of worship but one of service as well. He would say that he determined to do whatever he had to do as if he was doing it as an act of service to Jesus. How many of you love doing dishes? One of the things that other people noticed about Brother Lawrence was that even as he did the big pile of monastery dishes as was his job, he would do the dishes as an act of service for Jesus and he would become ridiculously happy and full of joy and have to try to moderate his happiness. Family we are all only on this earth for a very brief period of time. God has put a unique anointing on you that will grow and expand as you get revelations from the Word of God. Ultimately he is hanging out to do life with you. He wants you to take down the barriers that will cloud your experience of Him. Two ways that you can live more fully aware of His presence this week is to cultivate an attitude of worship towards Him constantly and to choose to do whatever you have to do; mow the lawn, settle the deal, sell those appliances, change the nappies, wash the dishes, choose to do whatever you need to do this week, do it well, as an act of service to him. John 15:4-5 (CEV)
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Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me. 5 I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me. This week, may you and I push through the barriers with worship and service and walk in His presence. Amen