His AWESOME Presence

In the Old Testament, the ark of the covenant represented the presence of the Lord. I cannot stress enough how much we need God's presence in our lives. In fact, we need His presence more than we need anything else. 

When God called Moses to tell Pharaoh to let God's people go, Moses was scared and insecure about his lack of abilities. But God said to him, " I will surely be with you" (Exodus 3:10-Fourteen). Later God told Moses, " My presence shall go with you and I will give you rest" (Exodus 33:Fourteen). I love Moses reply: If Your Presence does not go with me, do not carry us up from here!" (Exodus 33:Fifteen) In other words, "God, if You're not going to be there,don't send me!" That's exactly the way I feel when I start to minister to others. 

We have to understand the awesomeness of the presence of  God and the magnitude of what is available to us as believers if only we will take the time to be in His presence! Why in the world would we not want to spend time with God?  We seem to have no problem in investing our time in other pursuits. The truth is this: The devil fights us more in the area of our spending time with God than he does in any other area of our Christian lives. In fact, Satan would much prefer that we get involved in all kinds of religious activity rather than spend time with the Lord. 

There is only one way I know to maintain the anointing on my life and that is by spending time in the presence of God. You may be wondering, but what do I do when I spend time with God? You simply set aside a portion of your time for that purpose. Try not to be legalistic about it, but do try to be as regular with it as you can. During that time period, read the Bible and Christian books that minister to you. Talk to God. Sometimes you may want to listen to Christian music and worship; other times you may want to sit there and enjoy the silence. If you will do that, you will begin t feel and sense the presence of the Lord. 

-Joyce Meyer