One Sentence And The All Holy Presence Of God
The presence of God is extreme and loving, but also the immediate desire to both praise and submit in reverence as you would a king.
God has rarely had to intervene in these very personal experiences but it was this experience that turned my life in a 360°. It was an experience after years of agonizing back pain, uncontrolled anxiety/panic attacks, and depression from the identity that I felt I had lost.
One sentence: “Son, are you going to follow me or not?”
Immediately, His Words from Revelation 3:15-16 come to mind.
Revelation 3:15-16
New International Version
15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
1. He took ownership of me, He called me Son.
2. He knows all my sinful thoughts, deeds, and the millionth attempts to work myself into holiness.
3. Lukewarm is just as bad as being cold, just as useless.
4. I had a choice.
His Words returned,
Matthew 16:24 ESV
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
If I were to follow Him, it would require ultimate surrender. All in or nothing at all. I was left with 3 choices.
1. Follow
2. Deny
3. Follow lukewarmly and live as a hypocrite
To deny would have been to ignore this very real experience.
To live as a hypocrite while knowing the truth is agonizing and centered on legalism.
To follow and surrender would be to rest in the completed work of Christ and allow Him to work through me versus me being the cart before the horse.
After this experience, how could one deny God? I surrendered and everything changed. This doesn't mean that spiritual warfare has ended, that the flesh is no longer weak, and that sin is no longer a struggle. But it does mean, that I now have the right armor and weapons to fight against it.
Honestly, if you are standing up against the cliff of life, no longer able to see the path ahead, and struggling just to survive, I desperately urge you to pray to your Father the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, the same God in the incarnation who took on flesh to die for your sins. Pray and surrender, don't be cold, don't be lukewarm, be on fire for God.
People will call it crazy but that is only because they have not experienced the living God. They have not truly sought Him out. Scriptures says, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
How much of your heart? Some? Absolutely not. It says to seek Him with ALL of your heart.
I pray you do this today.
The presence of God is extreme and loving, but also the immediate desire to both praise and submit in reverence as you would a king.
God has rarely had to intervene in these very personal experiences but it was this experience that turned my life in a 360°. It was an experience after years of agonizing back pain, uncontrolled anxiety/panic attacks, and depression from the identity that I felt I had lost.
One sentence: “Son, are you going to follow me or not?”
Immediately, His Words from Revelation 3:15-16 come to mind.
Revelation 3:15-16
New International Version
15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
1. He took ownership of me, He called me Son.
2. He knows all my sinful thoughts, deeds, and the millionth attempts to work myself into holiness.
3. Lukewarm is just as bad as being cold, just as useless.
4. I had a choice.
His Words returned,
Matthew 16:24 ESV
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
If I were to follow Him, it would require ultimate surrender. All in or nothing at all. I was left with 3 choices.
1. Follow
2. Deny
3. Follow lukewarmly and live as a hypocrite
To deny would have been to ignore this very real experience.
To live as a hypocrite while knowing the truth is agonizing and centered on legalism.
To follow and surrender would be to rest in the completed work of Christ and allow Him to work through me versus me being the cart before the horse.
After this experience, how could one deny God? I surrendered and everything changed. This doesn't mean that spiritual warfare has ended, that the flesh is no longer weak, and that sin is no longer a struggle. But it does mean, that I now have the right armor and weapons to fight against it.
Honestly, if you are standing up against the cliff of life, no longer able to see the path ahead, and struggling just to survive, I desperately urge you to pray to your Father the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, the same God in the incarnation who took on flesh to die for your sins. Pray and surrender, don't be cold, don't be lukewarm, be on fire for God.
People will call it crazy but that is only because they have not experienced the living God. They have not truly sought Him out. Scriptures says, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
How much of your heart? Some? Absolutely not. It says to seek Him with ALL of your heart.
I pray you do this today.
