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To Whom Does God Talk?

know more about God

God loves to share knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

How can I know more about God?

This is the fourth article in a series on what is required of those who want to know more about God and his ways. In the previous post we saw that he both hides and reveals himself. Let’s look today at what that requires of us.

Jesus said, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Mark 4:23–25)

These enormously important words from Jesus about what we can know about God and his ways come in a chapter about the Word of God and how we need to respond to it.

Jesus is teaching his disciples that when they hear the Word of God they need to pay full attention, and they need to receive wholeheartedly all that God says—and desire more. This is what he means by “the measure you use.”

How hungry are you?

It’s as if God drives a truckload of apples into a farmer’s market. He parks and posts a sign that says, “Free apples—all you can carry.”

And he means it. If someone brings him an empty knapsack, he fills it with apples. If someone brings a paper bag, he fills it. To the one who has no container but wants one apple in each hand, he gives two apples. If someone wants to fill their car’s trunk with apples, they get hundreds of them.

Jesus says whatever container you bring, whatever measure you use, he will fill it. And he tells every person as they leave that if they will come back later with another container, a larger one, he will fill that too.

One woman who filled her car trunk with apples came back later driving a pickup truck and said if the farmer meant what he said she wanted a payload full. He smiled and clapped his hands and got excited. He loved people who loved apples. Gladly he filled her truck for free and told her to come back later for more.

God is willing and generous

The apples are divine knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. And God loves to share them.

He knows some people want all they can get of spiritual truth. Others want a bagful. Others want less because apples are heavy and require work to carry home. Some gladly receive one apple, eat it, and are full. Others want a sample like you get on a toothpick at the grocery store, but decide that’s enough. Others say, “No thanks.”

God is willing to give; what varies is the appetite of those who hear, and whether they wholeheartedly believe God’s Word, and whether they are willing to exert themselves to think about God’s Word until they understand it, and whether they choose to obey it.

Hunger. Belief. Thinking. Obedience.

Do you have ears to hear?

Jesus said, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” In other words, if you are willing to hear what I say, then pay attention and receive my words because I am now revealing God’s truth and ways.

When God chooses to reveal himself and his truth, we are responsible to get as much as we can. Those who have a big appetite, belief, the willingness to persistently exert themselves  to understand, and obedience to what they hear, God gladly gives more knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

Those who prefer other things get what they prefer. In fact, Jesus warns: “from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

We are responsible for what we know, but God ultimately controls the supply of apples. He owns all the trees. He hides and reveals. We are utterly dependent.

God’s Ways and Our Ways

God’s ways: He is super generous with wisdom and knowledge. He approves of those who want more of what he reveals. He faults those who have no interest in it.

Our ways: If we are foolish, we pay little or no attention to what God has revealed in the Bible, nature, and the church. If we are wise, we make every effort to learn, understand, and apply God’s words.

God keeps talking to those who are listening.

More next week on the crucial topic of how we know more about God.

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Humble Learning Required

what you can know given that God hides and reveals

What can we know?

God requires us to make every effort to learn what he has revealed, and to trust him when he keeps secrets.

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever” —Deuteronomy 29:29

You have decisions to make, but you’re not sure what to do.

Things are happening in your life and world that don’t make sense.

You want to understand God, his will, and the Bible, but some things are not adding up.

You really want to know

What you can know is a super important and relevant subject because we need knowledge and we all want to know everything. We are all curious. Literally, if we could, we would be like God and know everything about everything.

We want to know how to do everything with perfect skill and success. How to find perfect happiness, relationships, and peace. How everything works.

And how every event in history actually happened.

We want to know.

The details about how the universe and life began. What the future holds.

When our prayers will be answered. Why something bad happened. How long we will have to wait for that job, marriage, child to be conceived, success on the job, visa approval, breakthrough, healing, baptism in the Spirit, promotion, or answer to our question. Or is our wait in vain?

We want to know what every verse in the Bible means. Why God does what he does.

On and on it goes. So many books, so little time. We want to know.

What God wants us to know

Unfortunately, at least from our perspective, God doesn’t want us to know everything. That’s what the opening Scripture above from Deuteronomy says. There are “secret things,” and then there are “things that are revealed.” And Moses says the one who controls that is God.

In fact it all begins with what God is willing to reveal about himself. You need to know two things about God: He hides himself, and he reveals himself. The Bible says:

“Truly, you are a God who hides yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior” (Isaiah 45:15).

“He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth—the LORD God Almighty is his name” (Amos 4:13, NIV).

That means he doesn’t completely hide himself. And he doesn’t completely reveal himself.

At this point there are some things he wants us to know about him and his ways, and so he has revealed those things in the Bible, in nature, in the church, and elsewhere. Otherwise, on our own, we could not know them.

That’s because knowing God is not like studying scientific questions such as how trees grow. No matter how hard we explore, humans cannot know anything about God—literally zero—unless he chooses to reveal it.

But there are other things God has actually chosen to hide. He doesn’t want us to know them now. They are divine secrets. They are mysteries. And no one can uncover what God has hidden.

Mysteries

For example, the two most important things for any human now to know were locked up in a vault called mystery until 2,000 years ago: namely, Jesus and the gospel.

The Bible talks about “God’s mystery, which is Christ” (Colossians 2:2).

And, “the mystery hidden for ages in God” (Ephesians 3:9).

And, “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints” (Colossians 1:26).

Let’s continue this crucially relevant subject next week. For now, let’s close with these two foundations:

God’s way: He hides, and he reveals.

Our way: We may or may not pay careful attention to what God reveals. Or we may or may not trust God when he hides himself and his purposes. We want to have control over what we can know. We would like to know everything.

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Faith Required

believe in God_why God does not make it easier to believe

God’s way: Believe in God and his Word.

Our way: Believe only what we understand. Believe only when we know the future. Trust our own mind and human understanding. God must be and do what we think is reasonable.

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” —Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)

Believe in God

Have you ever wished that God would make it easier to believe? That he would do for you and everyone else in the world what he did for Saul, as recorded in Acts 9? Give you a vision of Jesus in dazzling light and speak with you telling you what to do? Even perform a miracle?

Before that vision Saul was an ardent unbeliever, an enemy of Christ, but that vision made it nearly impossible not to believe. So if God wants everyone to be saved, if God wants every Christian to trust and obey his Word, why not just do for everyone what he did for Saul?

The Lord requires faith

The answer: Because God loves our faith. And therefore he relates to us in a way that requires faith. He supplies abundant grounds for our faith, but he almost never does anything that makes it impossible not to believe.

For instance, he spectacularly and unmistakably displays his glory in nature, but unbelievers can choose to explain our world with something like the theory of evolution.

He puts into the heart of every human a moral conscience and an awareness of God, but unbelievers can choose to explain that with theories of sociology, psychology, genes, and DNA.

He inspired men to write his Scriptures. The Bible is the most astounding book in the world, a revelation of truth about life and reality that bears the unmistakable stamp of divine authenticity and authority. But unbelievers can choose to avoid God’s Word, and those who do read can choose to harden their hearts to it.

He sent his Son to the world as a man. Jesus taught the truth and performed astounding miracles. He fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. He predicted his death on the cross and resurrection from the tomb. Then God did indeed raise him from the dead, and Jesus appeared to his followers numerous times. They proclaimed that resurrection throughout their world, and many believed, but many more could choose to dismiss the reports and the evidence.

God still does miracles today. Yet unbelievers can always choose to explain them away as something less than evidence of God’s existence.

As God intends

So God gives more than ample reason to believe, but one thing he does not do is show up visibly, audibly, and indisputably in a way that science and all could verify. That is, not since his appearance to Moses and Israel at Mount Sinai and Jesus’s post-resurrection appearance to the disciples. And not more than occasionally to individuals or a small group, as he did with Saul.

That is God’s deliberate way of doing things. He always leaves those who do not want to believe an open back door to escape the truth. And he always gives those willing to believe more than enough reason to believe. (See Romans 1:16–23; John 3:14–21; John 18:37)

He always conducts our relationship with him in a way that requires faith.

Romans 1:17 says, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

So, obviously he must love our faith. Hebrews 11:6 (the Scripture that opened this post) shows he is indeed pleased by our faith and dislikes our unbelief so much that we cannot please him without faith. Jesus always commended people who had faith and chided those who did not believe. He talked about it regularly because it matters so much to him.

Unfortunately, if we had it our way, we would never need faith in God. We would always know what the future holds and have full control of it. And everything God does would make sense to us ahead of time. What faith requires is actually offensive to our pride, to our proud minds. It takes us out of the driver’s seat. It makes us dependent, like children. We won’t understand everything. “Unless you turn and become like children,” said Jesus, “you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).

God’s Ways: He loves our faith and so relates to us in a way that requires us to believe him.

Implications

For all who want to know God and walk and work closely with him, this means five things:

  1. We must never be okay with our own doubt and unbelief. (But we are to be merciful toward others who See Jude 1:22) (See John 20:27; James 1:6–8)
  2. We must choose to believe what the Bible says and resist our Western scientific training that has left a bias in our mind against the supernatural. This is a choice based on who we think is more reliable. (See Luke 1:37; Matthew 22:29; 1 Corinthians 1:17–31; Proverbs 28:26)
  3. We must believe in Jesus Christ. (See John 3:16; John 6:27–35)
  4. We must do the things that strengthen faith. Read and memorize the Bible daily. Attend a church weekly that believes that the Bible is inerrant and that God still does supernatural miracles such as healings. And pray continually. (See Romans 10:17)
  5. We must understand that for all our lives, growing in faith is God’s spiritual curriculum for us as much as growing in love, holiness, and knowledge. Therefore God will allow situations in your life to draw out more faith. So you need to respond to those situations as God intends—with faith in him and his Word. (See Hebrews 12:2)

Question: In the comments area, tell us: What would you add to this list?

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When God’s Ways Are Way Not Our Ways

what does God require

You’ll never know God better if you don’t recognize how different he is from you.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” —Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV)

God’s ways are not our ways. Think about that. Fix it in your mind. Let it sink in deeply because knowing and believing that is critical for anyone who wants to know God and his ways.

God’s ways are not your ways. That is the default human condition according to God.

It is critical to recognize that because most people assume the opposite. People think they know what God is like, so they don’t press in to know more about him. They don’t exert themselves to learn if they have wrong beliefs about him. They are satisfied with what they already believe.

Our default beliefs come from our own reasonings about what we have grown up seeing, hearing, and reading from family, movies and shows and music lyrics, ads, school, friends, religious background, teachers, writers.

These are influences that may or may not be right. But how can we know? There are thousands of various, contradictory beliefs on God and his ways. How can you confirm your beliefs are correct or discover your beliefs are wrong?

I believe that the only authoritative source for knowing God and his ways is the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. I’ll explain why in a future article. But my starting point is the belief that I cannot figure out God and his ways on my own, nor can humanity, and that in love God has revealed the inspired, inerrant words of the Bible so we can know and walk with him.

How to close the gap between your ways and God’s ways

Since the Bible says, as we saw above, that the default human condition is ignorance about God and his ways, how should that shape our pursuit of God?

  1. We should read the Bible daily with an open, curious mind. Regular reading of the Bible is necessary because the influences we experience most tend to shape our thinking most.
  2. We should read the whole Bible, both Old and New Testaments, because we need to form our beliefs on everything the Bible says on a subject, not on isolated verses. This is necessary because we can find an isolated phrase in the Bible, take it out of context, and adopt almost any wrong belief or practice.
  3. When we read something that contradicts our beliefs, we should confirm it with the full context of the Bible, and then believe the correct interpretation of the Bible instead of ourselves. For Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” And Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”
  4. We should be humble, teachable, and obedient to God. The uniform testimony of the Bible is that pride and stubbornness lead us astray. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
  5. We should know that God relates to us on his terms, not ours. God is infinitely merciful and kind to reach down to us and meet us where we are, but when we turn to him, he never leaves us as we are, and he never changes. He says, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).
  6. We should know that the more we have been submerged in our world’s way of thinking, and the less we have been exposed to the full message of the Bible, the more foreign and shocking God’s words in the Bible will seem to us. Western culture has veered farther and farther from its Judeo-Christian roots. The verses from Isaiah above are becoming increasingly true. To paraphrase: Your ways are way not my ways.

Some would label this approach to faith fundamentalism, using the word in its pejorative sense. But anyone who believes that a document has divine authority and takes it seriously will be labeled a fundamentalist by those who do not agree.

But this is the only rational approach given what the Bible says and what human experience shows.

Not to take this approach is relativism in its full, pejorative sense. It is putting trust in limited human perspective and experience and even majority opinion, all of which the Bible says are deeply flawed. It is putting our trust in contemporary trends in thinking, which history shows always change and thus cannot be absolutely true and reliable.

Life principle: If you want to grow in your knowledge of God, you begin by recognizing that your ways are not God’s ways.

What does God require?

This post is the beginning of a series on what God requires of us if we are to know him and walk according to his ways. Don’t miss the next post, which is on the necessity of faith.

Let’s conclude with a typically spicy and forthright assessment of the situation from God’s perspective: Proverbs 28:26 says, “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool.”

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The Cover of God’s Presence

In threatening situations God's presence can cover you

God’s covering may not prevent threatening situations, but his presence keeps them from defeating us.

“Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind! In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.”

—Psalm 31:19–20

Threatening situations

In Psalm 31 King David describes another great benefit of practicing God’s presence.

His situation is, he is under attack. He speaks of the plots of men and the strife of tongues. Earlier in the psalm he speaks of his enemies and persecutors and that people are trying to catch him with hidden nets.

He writes, “I hear the whispering of many—terror on every side!—as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life” (Psalm 31:13).

The response

David’s response is to take refuge in God, and what he experiences there he calls “the cover of your presence.”

God’s presence covers, protects, and shields us.

God’s covering did not prevent the attacks from happening to David, but it protected him from being defeated by them.

The relevance

We can experience the cover of God’s presence not only in situations where others are attacking us, but in any situation where we feel threatened by something that can harm us.

The threat could be financial. It could be a threat to our physical health or our family’s welfare. In any situation that causes us to fear what something or someone will do to us, we can take refuge in God and experience the cover of his presence.

How to take refuge

Of course, God is not a literal building in which we can hide, so how do we take refuge in him?

Through prayer and faith in his Word. We follow David’s example in Psalm 31 and cry out to God for his protection. We describe to him what is happening to us. And we let him know how we feel.

Then we put our trust in who God is and what his Word says. In the last six verses of the psalm David declares his confidence in what God will do to protect him. He writes, “The LORD preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride” (v. 23).

Taking refuge in God means bring him to the forefront of our minds and putting threats in their place. We meditate on his greatness, faithfulness, and promises. These thoughts and truths are God’s presence to our minds.

Divine cover

Moreover, as we think in this way, God’s Holy Spirit manifests the peace of God in our hearts in a way that transcends understanding. In other words, the cover of God’s presence is more than thinking the right thoughts; it is the very supernatural presence of God.

As the apostle Paul writes: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7).

Furthermore, we experience God’s actual defense, as he works in the situation in the way he chooses to protect us from harm. This too is the cover of God’s presence.

As Paul wrote from a Roman prison: “The Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.” (2 Timothy 4:17–18)

So, you’re covered.

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When You Long for Happiness

Lasting happiness

All people want lasting happiness. But we find sustained joy in the place least expected.

In this series on practicing God’s presence we have seen the recurring idea of joy. There is a deep connection between practicing God’s presence and joy.

The pursuit of lasting happiness

This is an important subject to explore further because happiness is what we’re all after. We pursue joy in innumerable ways, but in the end that is what we’re seeking. We do things because they make us happy.

So what we need to be convinced of is that practicing God’s presence leads to the ultimate experience of joy. The people on earth who practice God’s presence best are the ones who have the most happiness.

In particular if you struggle with sadness or depression, learning to practice God’s presence better is crucial for you.

What King David learned

David, speaking of himself in the third person, says in Psalm 21:6–7, “You make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence. For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.”

David here refers to “the joy of your presence.” He says God’s presence makes him glad. And then he explains further: “For the king trusts in the LORD.” There is a connection between God’s presence and our trust in him. When we practice God’s presence we trust him more.

Security

One of the strongest drives most people have is the pursuit of security. We live in a dangerous world. We can lose anything and everything we value in a moment. Our health, job, money to pay for housing and food and other needs, family, friendships and so on—all are terribly vulnerable. And we know it, so we worry, fear, and feel insecure.

But notice David’s sense of security: “through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.” David says with perfect confidence that he shall not be moved.

And he bases that confidence in God’s steadfast love. Ultimately your sense of security can only come from knowing God’s steadfast love, his covenant-based love, for you. It comes from knowing that steadfast love not just with your head, but with your heart, because trust is a heart thing.

And you know God’s steadfast love with your heart when you practice his presence.

Try it today. Practice God’s presence faithfully throughout the day and see if by the end of the day you do not have more trust in God’s steadfast love, a greater sense of security, and ultimately more joy.

Those who walk closest to God are the happiest people in the world.

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The Bread of the Presence

Find spiritual satisfactionYour soul has a big appetite. A filling meal is on the table. You can find spiritual satisfaction.

We all know what it’s like for life to crowd out the practice of God’s presence. We get busy. Distractions are everywhere. We face problems and crises.

But God invites us to a better way.

He told Moses, “You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me regularly” (Exodus 25:30).

This was a regulation for the Tabernacle, the transportable tent where Israel worshiped during their desert wanderings. It became the model for the permanent Temple.

So, what does this have to do with practicing God’s presence? The Temple is a metaphor for body and soul. First Corinthians 6:19 says to Christians, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”

The bread of the presence

The temple had three sections: the courtyard, the holy place, and the most holy place.

The most holy place, containing the ark of the covenant, had the very presence of God. This corresponds to God’s presence in you that never leaves. He has united with you, and that’s that. You can’t practice it; he’s there.

The area outside the most holy place was the holy place and had three pieces of furniture: a table for burning incense, a lampstand, and a table for the Bread of the Presence.

The priests put twelve fresh loaves of bread on that table weekly to replace the stale bread of the previous week. The fresh bread of God’s presence was not in the holy place unless the priest did something.

So it is with us. Normally we need to attend to God’s presence in order to experience it. We can’t rely on old bread. We need to keep presenting fresh bread through prayer, worship, turning our thoughts to God, and so on.

Soul food

Bread is an important metaphor. It was the daily food staple of the Israelites. God uses this metaphor to teach that his presence is the daily food of our souls. Nothing is more satisfying or delicious to our spirit than God’s presence.

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35).

If you truly experience God’s presence, it is more satisfying than media entertainment, smart phone activity, human conversation, food, pleasure, or work.

Find spiritual satisfaction even in a crisis

Moreover, God’s presence is available at the hardest times. David said, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (Psalm 23:5).

He literally experienced that when fleeing from King Saul’s assassins. David went to the temple and asked the priest for something to eat. The priest gave him the Bread of the Presence. (Mark 2:25–26; 1 Samuel 21:1–6)

The lesson for you is, the satisfying bread of God’s presence is available if you have assassins at your heels.

If you feel everything is going wrong.

If you feel worse has come to worst.

When you are tired, alone, afraid, stressed, worried, sick, hungry, bankrupt, unemployed, rejected, persecuted, homeless, hospitalized.

God’s presence is available to you.

So eat the bread of heaven. Every hour of every day. He wants to be with you even in terrible times.

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Four Benefits of Practicing God’s Presence

Text art "Sound Mind"

How do we experience well-being as a result of keeping the Lord in view?

Practicing God’s presence requires effort and self-control, and therefore we need to know why we are doing it. King David describes four benefits in Psalm 16:7–11.

Why Practice God’s Presence?

1. To receive God’s counsel

Psalm 16:7 says, “I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.”

David says this happens to him day and night. As he goes through his day doing his work and thinking about God regularly, wisdom comes to his mind. As he considers his way, he knows what to do. As he lays in bed thinking about his life, still practicing God’s presence, God directs his thoughts, emotions, and will.

2. To have confidence

Psalm 16:8 says, “I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”

As David faced the challenges of life, he kept God in view. As a result, God was bigger in his mind than his problems.

We fall into fear and worry only when our problems loom larger in our thoughts than God’s ability and control.

3. To hope in ultimate salvation

Psalm 16:9–11 says, “9 my flesh also dwells secure. 10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. 11 You make known to me the path of life”

David speaks here about what will happen to him after he dies. He is confident God will not leave him in “Sheol,” which is the Hebrew word for where the soul goes after death. He is confident the ultimate destiny of his “flesh” is not “corruption,” that is, his body left in the grave.

Instead, because David walks with God, God shows him “the path of life.” David knows his ultimate destiny is life. He is walking in God’s ways, so God will give him life after death.

Those who practice God’s presence do not fear death. His presence brings confidence in his promises and a constant awareness of the reality of God and heaven.

4. To know fulness of joy

Psalm 16:9, 11 says, “Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices…. in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Many think happiness ends when you walk with God. But the reality is, those who practice God’s presence have the most joy.

Believers who do not practice God’s presence suffer many of the same torments as unbelievers: fear, worry, anger, despair, discouragement, and so on. They have not learned to trust and love God fully.

Joy and pleasure are God’s idea and his creation. So the closer we get to him, the happier we are and the more pleasurable life is.

There are many more benefits to practicing God’s presence—the greatest of course being God’s presence—but just these four show how worthwhile it is.

What benefits do you experience from practicing God’s presence? Share them with the rest of us in the comments area below.

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After God’s Heart

Word art "After God's heart"

God’s heart is important for those who want to experience his presence. God has heart. If we are to practice God’s presence, he must have our hearts.

God said, “I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.” (Acts 13:22)

What does it mean that David was after God’s heart?

It means David pleased him and thereby inspired his affection. The direction of David’s heart pleased God’s heart. David was directed toward God in love, trust, and obedience.

Examples

Here are some of the things David wrote that demonstrate this:

“How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psalm 84:1–2)

“I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (Psalm 18:1–2)

“O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You” (Psalm 63:1)

“I trust in You, O LORD, I say, ‘You are my God.’” (Psalm 31:14)

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.” (Psalm 103:1)

David came as close to obeying the great commandment as anyone ever has: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)

As a result, he moved God’s heart.

God’s heart

That God would speak in this way reveals something ultra-important about him. He has heart. He feels. God has affections. He is love. He cares what we do and think and say and seek and love.

This explains why he describes himself as a jealous God (see Exo. 20:5), because he wants our love and responds to our love or lack of it.

He delights in those who love, trust, and obey him.

Our obedience

Obedience is crucial to being a person after God’s heart. Immediately following God’s statement of affection for David, he added the explanation: David “will do all my will.”

That was not incidental because the situation that prompted God to commend David was King Saul’s disobedience. God had told Saul what to do and how to do it, and Saul had violated the commandment. He had not been careful to obey.

The prophet Samuel rebuked him, “Now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.” (1 Samuel 13:14)

Our hearts

Those who successfully practice God’s presence understand the central importance of the heart. They understand God’s heart. They understand God wants their heart. It’s all about the heart.

So to practice God’s presence is to monitor our hearts. Whom do we love supremely? Trust and obey supremely? Desire supremely? Delight in supremely? To whom do we ascribe ultimate value and surrender what we most value? For whom do we live?

All this rests on a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, for no one can please God apart from his beloved Son (John 14:6; 1 John 2:23). The most important and necessary way we walk after God’s heart is to believe and love his Son, of whom the Father spoke the ultimate words of affection: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

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Not Going without God

Needing God's presence

Moses said to God,
“If your presence will not go with me,
do not bring us up from here”
—Exodus 33:15

These words from Moses raise an important question. Are you content without God’s presence? Are you willing to head into your daily situations without it?

The story in Exodus 33 that brought forth Moses’ words provides important principles for us about having God’s presence.

The situation was this. Israel had just sinned grievously by worshiping the golden calf made by Aaron, and they had been rebuked and punished. God then told them to depart and head into the Promised Land—with one all-important change in their situation. That is, God would not manifest his presence with them as he had done since delivering them out of Egypt.

He would give them an angel to guide them, but no longer would they have God’s presence.

Moses tells God what he thinks of that: “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.” I don’t want to go without you. The Promised Land is not the Promised Land without you. I must have your presence.

In this story we see four principles.

1.   Sin disrupts our experience of God’s presence.

When we sin, we grieve the Lord and our sense of walking in communion with him is broken. Our awareness of him and his holiness is broken or disrupted. The attitude of honoring him is broken. Our worship is broken. And the manifestation of God’s presence is disrupted or broken.

What takes its place is a sense of guilt, shame, uncertainty, tentativeness, loneliness.

What is at stake for Christians is different from what was at stake for Moses and the Israelites. Jesus will not leave or forsake us as long as we keep sincere faith in him. Neither does the Holy Spirit come and go, living in us and then not living in us depending on whether we sin.

What changes is our mental state, as described above, and God’s willingness to manifest his presence.

God does not manifest his presence in a constant way.

For example, I can be in a room full of people and manifest my presence in different ways and varied degrees. I may say and do nothing but sit in a chair and observe. At other times I may talk softly or loudly, moving around the room, doing things like working, moving furniture, serving food, washing dishes. Consequently others in the room will notice my presence more or less.

In the same way, the Holy Spirit manifests his presence differently.

2.   We should not be content to go through our day without God’s presence.

The feeling that God is absent should not be acceptable to us.

If we do not regard God’s presence as essential, if we are willing to go without it, we can, for God gives us the desires of our hearts. But when we charge ahead without his presence, we do so to our loss.

For God himself is the great reward of life. If you have him, you have all. If you do not have him, you ultimately have nothing but ashes.

3.   We should ask for God’s presence.

In one important sense, we can assume that if we are Christian we have his presence. The Holy Spirit lives in every true believer.

But we cannot assume we have the fullest measure of his presence that is possible and available. That is the implication of Ephesians 5:18: “Be filled with the Spirit.” That admonition is meaningless if the full measure of the presence of God is constant and something we can assume to be true.

Asking is especially important if we have lost the sense of his presence through sin. After we have confessed and repented, we should sincerely ask for the renewal of his presence.

4.   God has favor toward our request for his presence.

This story shows the willingness of God to have mercy and dwell among his people, even when they are unworthy. Even when they have failed egregiously.

This favor drives the story of the Bible. It begins with God walking in the garden with Adam and Eve, and it ends with God bringing the temple to earth and living with his people forever in the New Heavens and New Earth. Being present with his people is the heart of God.

In his sovereign time and way, God responds to our request for his presence. We do not have because we do not ask.

I want to be like Moses, to have the attitude that I don’t do life without God. I want every moment of every day to be as filled with God’s presence as he is willing to give me. Anything less is unacceptable.

Would you like to read more on the subject of God’s presence? I invite you to read my free weekly email on Knowing God and His Ways. Sign up here.

And see my other posts on practicing God’s presence starting here.

Practicing God's PresenceYou can also get my Kindle ebooklet Practicing God’s Presence here. This 47-page booklet is a revised collection of my blog posts on this life-changing subject.