I was working on it before the 24-7 conference, the whole thing of being in the Presence of God, but after that weekend I have been more aware of things and, not working harder at it but desiring it more and more.
I am also reading my way through Richard Foster's Celebration on Disciplines which again is all about practically how we can learn to be in the presence of God; spiritual disciplines which help to get us there. Amazing how it is when God brings things together like that :)
One of the big things I've noticed, that helps to cut through the whole procrastinating, is having a desire to be in the presence of God. Its like God honors that desire but also having that desire moves one closer, or to more of an awareness of being in the presence of God.
One of the big things I have noticed is I have gone back to how I was in Ywam days when the things of God would just flow from me. Like I wouldn't have to wonder how to drop God into a conversation I was just hanging out with Him so much that He was a friend I talked about. I have been noticing again that I just drop Him into conversation, not in a "I hope people here this and want to follow Jesus" sort of way but just because I can't help talking about Him or the things we've been up to together. I have even been being able to drop in Bible verses to friends who aren't Christians, again not from a wanting them to know Him place but because what they have emailed me, a quote or something, has triggered in me something God and I have been looking at and so I just share it back, like I would anything I got from one friend to share with another.
It is like God has become more real to me as I have desired more and more to get into that special place with Him
and also as Richard Foster says in the discipline of simplicity that we need to be seeing God, experiencing God in everything, so I have able to see Him today in a guy who was selling his stuff to move to US and to hear his story, a little girl and her dad in the local shop, and in our postman and listening to his story of concerns about this latest postal dispute.
Desiring and working towards being in the Presence of God has really made my world bigger and deeper and richer
yes I believe that God does honour your desire to move closer to him. A friend once wrote: when we move closer to God, God moves closer to us, and when we move away, God becomes harder and harder to discern. Could it be that this great energy is the quintessence of selflessness, as well as of love and truth and the force for good? Well yes, I think so. That has certainly been my experience. God became a reality for me only because I asked him to. And you are right too about the need for simplicity.In the simplicity of silence we must wait for God. The hard part is that sometimes the empty space we create in stillness, while we wait on knowing Gods will sometimes be filled with sadness, or doubt, or worry. Which is probably why we try to fill our lives with so much in the first place!
ReplyDeleteLove, J