Dwelling in God's Presence

Dwelling in God's Presence

The greatest thing that God has done for us is to give us the Holy Spirit. It is for Him to pour out the Holy Spirit upon us and make it possible in our day to have the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Holy Spirit is the Almighty Spirit of God. He's the One Who communicates the presence of God. So many Christians have never really known the importance of that. That's what made Jesus `the Christ.' It was the Spirit's indwelling that made Him who He was. That's the Spirit that makes us children of God today.

The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity revealed to the Christian. He is one with the Father and the Son (1 John 5:7). He is neither less important nor less powerful. He is God and co-equal with the Father and the Son.

The first thing the Holy Spirit does in your life. He brings you God's presence, and when He does, you will no longer be in the dark. The Holy Spirit has a beautiful identity. He is called `The Angel of God's presence.' He is the One Who brings us the presence of God and makes it real to us. Isaiah 63: 9,10a: "In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled, and vexed HIS HOLY SPIRIT..." Can you see that? That Holy Spirit mentioned in verse 10 is called in verse 9 `The Angel of His presence.'

In the Old Testament, He represented the Father and the Bible calls Him `The Angel of His presence.' The word `angel' is translated from the word that also means `messenger.' In other words, He is the Messenger or the Conveyor of God's presence. He is the One Who carries the presence of God from place to place all over the world, and He brings that presence to you now. That's the reason we can know Jesus is real; that's the reason we can believe in the Word of God. You may not have known this, but it's the truth.

When we pray, it's the Holy Spirit Who makes the divine presence real to our spirits, and then we seem to `feel close' to a living God. We are spiritually overwhelmed by divine glory. God is omnipresent, but His manifested presence is not everywhere. The Holy Spirit is the One Who manifests God's presence. He brings to us an awareness of the power of God, and makes God's presence real to us; and that reality of His presence stirs up faith in us, which is the necessary spark for the miraculous.

God's presence in the life of the believer is very important. David understood the importance of that presence in his life. This is why he cried out to God not to take His Spirit away from him, after he had sinned with Bathsheba. He said in Psalm 51:11 - "Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me" (NKJV).

From this Scripture, we see that there's a connection between the presence of God and the Holy Spirit. However, no Christian need pray this prayer now, even when they happen to fall into sin, because the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in every believer, and the Lord Jesus said He shall abide with us forever (John 14:16). Moses also recognized the importance of the divine presence. He never wanted to move without an assurance of God's presence. "And he (Moses) said unto him (God), If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence" (Exodus 33:15).

This is what our lives ought to be like. We must always have an assurance of God's presence with us in everything we do, because in Him we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17: 28a).

The Holy Spirit is the Angel of God's presence, and God's presence brings joy to the heart of the believer. The Bible says in Psalms 16:11, "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."
Joy is the fruit of the human spirit and it is independent of circumstances. You may have heard some news or experienced some events that should make you melancholic, but when you allow yourself to be filled with the Holy Spirit, He'll bring you God's presence where you'll experience the fullness of joy and pleasures evermore.

The Bible says, "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Romans 14:17). The Holy Spirit brings to us the joy of God's presence.