The Power of Awakening to His Presence
Awake!
It’s all about awakening. This is what Jesus did for me. Tenderly and progressively, His presence drew me closer to Him until I was changed. The greatness of the change in my life that came from sitting with Him truly can’t be put into words. Instead of trying to put the whole of my experience in front of you, I invite you to enter His presence where you can experience Him for yourself. He’s waiting for you!
After completing the 30 encounters of guided moments in my book, Awaken to His Presence, I sat down to write to you from my heart. I wanted to tell you how Jesus has given me promises, help and insight into the Kingdom. There was so much I wanted to say that it overwhelmed me. I heard the Lord’s heart as He said, “It’s too much,” and I agreed.
Clarity came as I spent time with Him. He said, “Keep it simple. Our most amazing interactions occur when you are simply in My presence, knowing Me as Emmanuel.”
Keeping it simple requires us to acknowledge that Jesus is the Shepherd, the One with the complicated, multi-dimensional role to play in our lives. He’s the One who planned our existence long ago. He knows our heart, and He’s always aware of our condition.
Psalm 139:1-18 (TPT)
Lord, you know everything there is to know about me.
You perceive every movement of my heart and soul,
and you understand my every thought
before it even enters my mind.
You are so intimately aware of me, Lord.
You read my heart like an open book
and you know all the words I’m about to speak
before I even start a sentence!
You know every step I will take before my journey even begins.
You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way,
and in kindness you follow behind me to
spare me from the harm of my past.
You have laid your hand on me!
This is just too wonderful, deep, and incomprehensible!
Your understanding of me brings me wonder and strength.
Where could I go from your Spirit?
Where could I run and hide from your face?
If I go up to heaven, you’re there!
If I go down to the realm of the dead, you’re there too!
If I fly with wings into the shining dawn, you’re there!
If I fly into the radiant sunset, you’re there waiting!
Wherever I go, your hand will guide me;
your strength will empower me.
It’s impossible to disappear from you or
to ask the darkness to hide me,
for your presence is everywhere, bringing light into my night.
There is no such thing as darkness with you.
the night, to you, is as bright as the day;
there’s no difference between the two.
You formed my innermost being, shaping my
delicate inside and my intricate outside,
and wove them all together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex!
Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking.
It simply amazes me to think about it!
How thoroughly you know me, Lord!
You even formed every bone in my body when
you created me in the secret place;
carefully, skillfully you shaped me from nothing to something.
You saw who you created me to be before I became me
Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the
number of days you planned for me
were already recorded in your book.
Every single moment you are thinking of me!
How precious and wonderful to consider that you
cherish me constantly in your every thought!
O God, your desires toward me are more than
the grains of sand on every shore!
When I awake each morning, you’re still with me.
The simple beauty of life with Jesus becomes more evident and real when we keep our part simple. Though it seems like we would experience more if we work harder, the opposite is true. So, remember to give Him your KISS (keep it so simple) as you sit with Him.
Allure
I have found the power to be simple also comes from Him! There is a secret process in Hosea 2:14-16 that expresses His powerful part of our ability to come to Him.
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her. I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt. When that day comes,” says the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’, instead of ‘my master’” (Hosea 2:14-16 (verse 14 NASB1995, verses 15-16 TPT)).
The word allure as used in verse 14 means “to be wide open, spacious, especially in a mental sense, to cause to be simple.” That is eye opening! The meaning of the word wilderness surprised me too. It means “a pasture or open field for feeding flocks.” And, it also means “a mouth, as an organ of speech.”
God is calling you to a wide-open place with Him where you will simply follow and feed on the words of the Shepherd, face to face. His very breath, ruach in Hebrew, means to infuse strength as He speaks. The deeper into His wilderness experience you go, the more His Words and His presence take on a new importance in your life. They become louder than any circumstance you may be walking through. You will begin to know Him as intimately as a spouse instead of just religiously following orders.
Remember, when Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit in Luke 4:1-16? Why would the Holy Spirit do that? Jesus needed to be in that place of open pasture in the Spirit, being fed words from the Father that would carry Him into His destiny and ultimate victory. When Satan came to tempt Him, all that Word came pouring out in power and sent the enemy running as Jesus repeatedly said, “It is written!” It really wasn’t Jesus being tested but the power of the Word being proven as Jesus held fast to God’s words. Mark 4:15 exposes the device Satan used on Jesus in the wilderness, which is the root of every device the enemy uses on us too.
Mark 4:15 (NKJV) says:
And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.
Luke 4:14 (AMPC) tells us the rest of the story as Jesus defeated Satan with the Word of God:
Then Jesus went back full of and under the power of the [Holy] Spirit into Galilee….
Jesus came out of that experience full of power and led by the Spirit, knowing that the Word of God has the power to defeat the enemy and bring the comfort and help needed in His soul and body. This was not just a theory of words but had become His experience! In this important encounter, Jesus’ authority over the enemy and His future victory over death were established forever.
Friend, you and I need to be grounded and established in God’s words as well. And Jesus is here to help us. He will feed us words from the heart of the Father that will carry us into our destiny and victory, giving us hope and healing along the way.
A Royal Invitation
The King of Heaven has issued an official invitation into His presence. He literally invites you in His Word to come to Him. You will find these moments of invitation all over the Bible, so why would He not invite you to come to Him now?
How simple is it to accept an invitation! You need only to show up to experience what has been prepared for you, and here you are. If simple has not been your experience in the past when you tried to hear from the Lord, consider these possible roadblocks.
First, as we have seen with Jesus’ experience, Satan is a liar and comes to steal the Word immediately. Stealing the Word is how he kills and destroys. The Word is his number-one target—not your life, family or health or finances. If he can steal the Word that the Lord is speaking to you, he can take anything Jesus promised you out of your hands.
Satan is the enemy of our souls, and he has deceived us into thinking it’s hard to hear from the Lord. We’ve made hearing about our goodness and abilities, not the goodness and full capability of our Shepherd. We’ve made it about our faithfulness and level of spiritual maturity—not His.
When you read those statements, they sound ridiculous, don’t they?
Since when is the immaturity of a child and his or her inability to hear more important than the wisdom and mature ability of the adult to speak in a manner the child understands?
It’s not our desire to make His job harder. We love Him, and we believe Him. So, what’s the disconnect between this love and hearing Him express His love? We’ve distrusted ourselves and what we are hearing, thinking it’s just our own random thoughts.
