Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser
God’s presence will shift everything, but that will not happen in your case if you are not aware of His presence. For those of us who trust God, we must have an awareness of Him that others do not have. Let me ask you a question. Why do you want to live your life independent of a loving, sovereign God who knows all? He’s omniscient: He knows all things, He’s omnipotent: He has all power, and He’s omnipresent, He is everywhere.
“God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1). His presence shifts everything. You have this present Helper with you constantly, night and day, twenty-four hours a day, every day of your life. But the question is, are you aware of His presence? He’s here whether you’re aware of Him or not because He says He will never leave you nor forsake you. He’s there when you’re at work, whether you’re aware of Him or not. In other words, your awareness of Him doesn’t determine where He is. In fact, the scripture says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He doesn’t change. And the reason His location doesn’t change is because all locations are in His presence (see Psalm 139).
Why would you want to live without a loving Father who wants the best for you? So, it’s vital to deal with this matter of not just His Presence, but the awareness of His Presence. We all know He’s present, but are you aware of His presence? Many of us know Psalm 23. Verse 1 says “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want”. God works in the lives of His children. He provides their needs based on His love and kindness toward us. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
In verse 4, David says, ‘You are with me’. The good shepherd is with me. You cannot live any meaningful life without the awareness of God’s presence. Don’t forget that a meaningful life is a life that pleases God. A life that serves the purposes of God on this planet earth. A life that at the end of it all, God can say ‘well done, you good and faithful servant’. If you look at scriptures, it’s evident that our awareness of His presence is vital to whatever God wants to do in our lives.
“Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11). The stories given in the scriptures about how people related to God, and the accompanying positive or negative results, are recorded for our benefit. The Bible offers us the opportunity to learn valuable lessons so we can apply to our lives. God has given us a wealth of wisdom in His word. You need to resolve to live a life worth living, and that means learning and applying the stories of Biblical characters to your life.
So, let’s start with the Old Testament. For example, the Bible says that Enoch walked with God, and he was not, because God took him. What a sense of awareness of God he had. And if you think about Noah, God told him to build an ark. And the one thing He said to him was, I’m going to be with you. Even in those times when he was persecuted for what he was doing because they didn’t understand. They thought he was embarking on a foolish construction project, building a boat on a dry land, but God said, I’m with you.
Following Noah, let’s take Abraham, for example. God said to him, get up and leave your family and go into a land that I’ll show you. He didn’t even tell him exactly where he was going at first. He said, but I’m going with you. I’ll be with you. And if you’ll remember when God spoke to Moses, and He gave him that challenge to go and talk to Pharaoh about letting His people go.
" You cannot live any meaningful life without the awareness of God’s presence. "
He said, I’m going with you. And on one occasion Moses said to the Lord, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here” (Exo. 33:15). He was saying, we’re going but we’re not going without You. Have you ever thought about that in your life? You’ve had things that you needed to do, but you certainly don’t want to do without God. You need to be aware of His abiding presence with you.
When God began to speak to Joshua, He told him to take over Moses’ place, an absolutely impossible task. And He said, I’ll be with you. And then when He talked to Gideon, for example, and Gideon said, Lord, my family is the lowest in the whole city; and why are You asking me? God said to him, here’s what I want you to do, and I’ll be with you. If you’ll recall when David was fighting Goliath, he said, My God will deliver you into my hands. He had a sense of oneness. When He called Isaiah and Jeremiah to be prophesying in a very difficult time in the nation of Israel; He said to Isaiah, do not be afraid, I will be with you. And to Jeremiah, He said, I will be with you.
Then in the New Testament, you remember what Jesus said to His apostles when He sent them out? He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And lo, I’ll be with you even to the end of this age. Jesus spent time talking to His disciples about the fact He was going to leave them, but He wasn’t going to leave them as orphans. He said, I’ll come back to you.
And at Pentecost, the Lord came in a very special way to inhabit the life of every single believer; so that when you and I got saved, the Spirit of God inhabited our lives at that very moment in order to enable us to live a godly life in an ungodly world. Let’s think about the Apostle Paul, for example, how many times he had to rely upon the presence of God in his life. The Apostle Paul was aware of His presence when in one prison after the other. Then he came to the end of his life, and said, I’ve fought a good fight. I’ve kept the course, and I’m coming to the end now. There was this sense of peace and awareness in his heart that he’d given his best. ‘I have fought a good fight; I’ve kept the faith; I have finished my race’.
Jesus said in John 8:29 that, “And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.” All these people whom God used were people who were aware of the presence of God in their lives and God hasn’t changed. In other words, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. When you trusted Jesus as your Saviour, you had just as much of Jesus in your heart as did the Apostle Paul or any of those other Apostles. Jesus made an issue of this. He said, I’m going away, but I’m not going to leave you as orphans. He encouraged them in many ways, that even though He was going away, He would still be with them. It was the awareness of His presence that He wanted them to understand. And remember this. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He hasn’t changed. In other words, He hasn’t changed locations or ways. Nothing about Him has changed.
So, you and I have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us just as the apostles of old and the early believers had. For those of us who trust God, we have an awareness of Him that others do not have. But you can live your life even as a believer and oftentimes not be aware of the presence of God in your life. Ensure that’s not so with you.
