Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Privilege of Petition Pt.3

Amen! Richard's doing pretty good there. He didn't try any of Bob Tilton's: "If the Lord hasn't spoken to you, just put your check in blank, God will speak to us." It’s a privilege to be able to be a part of what God's doing. So many good things have already taken place in lives and the ministry that's gone forth. More than just all of the business part, there was a lot of business that was being conducted in the last time over, but a lot more than that, a lot of lives were sown into, lives changed radically already by the gospel in the lives of these pastors. It's a very exciting thing to see what's happening. Strangely through some of the different avenues that have opened up, how Father's been able to really touch many of the people that are in pretty strategic positions in the government there through a lot of this ordeal. It's amazing how Father would open the doors through this opposition that's come forth; God using that as a vehicle for them to see and verbalize, "you all conduct yourselves differently than most of the people that we've worked with before." They are not used to seeing integrity and consistency and an unwillingness to compromise the word of God. They knew up front, "you’re the power, you can do whatever you want, but we’re not going to compromise the word in dealing with you, period. So you do what you have to do, and we're believing God." So it's spoken to them and there's been some great opportunities already. Continue to pray. We're believing Father to open the doors for us. There's nothing hindering us from going back and preaching. The only thing right now that we're dealing with is the registration aspect of it, which would give us the ability not only to own land, but to be able to conduct as far as establishing a ministry, we can go and evangelize and preach, but we can't necessarily establish a church at this juncture. That's what we’re believing God for, to be able to start a home work, a foundation that we can work out of and train, and use it as our central training area for the pastors, etc. So that's what we’re believing God for; so continue to pray in that way.

Let's turn to I John, we're going to take a little detour this evening. As we were teaching this morning that was in my spirit and that I just would really like to take a little time tonight and share on. As we were talking about the most important ingredient of a successful prayer life, and we were talking about the intimacy with the Lord. I want to talk about that a little more and show you the consequences of that intimacy. We see in I John chapter 1, the Spirit of God speaks very clearly to us in verse 3, He says, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." Quite an interesting statement that's being made here, isn't it? Now we know why this epistle was written, to deal with Gnosticism, and John, in writing to deal with the false teaching of the Gnostics, was revealing to them the personal relationship that he's had with the living Word. John speaks with greater credentials than anybody in the Bible on this subject. John is the one referred to as who? The disciple that Jesus loved. Isn't that cool? How many of you would like that title? Would you like that title better than the "prophet of fire," "the one who is able to call fire out of heaven?" How about "the great disciple who is able to speak, and the dead are raised," or "we walk down the street and our shadows fall upon people and they are raised." How about being able to speak and have blindness come upon those who oppose the gospel? Some interesting characters aren't there? A lot of things they were known by. People say, "that dude's a guy of power, man." Or, "that guy, that guy's one of those orators, the guy really has the ability, silver-tongued prophet...," or whatever we want to speak of a particular ministry gift or a personality. There are a lot of phrases in the Bible that stick out to us, you know, "the friend of God," "he walked with God and was not, for the Lord took him." All of these things that are neat that are said about people. How about "the disciple that Jesus loved?" That's big time! This is talking about that intimacy. Here is the guy who when all of the confusion was going on and the conversations, "what is going to happen?" "What's going to become of this Kingdom?" What is taking place here?" Satan's put it in the heart of Judas to go and betray the Lord and John's doing something, what was he doing? He's leaning over on the breast of the Lord in fellowship with Him, hearing the heartbeat of God-intimacy. I wonder if that maybe prepares you to be able to write a book called "The Revelation of Jesus Christ?" I wonder if that opens up an understanding of God's eternal plan? Has anyone recorded, in greater detail, the eternal plan of God than John? We read the great book of Daniel and we read the awesome prophecies that have taken place in Ezekiel, but no one has spoken like John to the real heart of God and the eternal purposes of God and it's because of communion, it's because of that intimacy. If you want to hear from God, it's going to take that spirit that John had. Now John grew into that relationship, because John was one of the sons of thunder-"Lord we'll call fire down...." You don't know what spirit you're of, John. I wonder what changed John from the son of thunder, to the disciple that Jesus loved. I wonder if maybe it was the statement, "you don't know what spirit you're of?" I wonder if he began to understand the need of coming and doing what's so vital, and that's being able to imbibe the Spirit.

We talked beloved, about being vexed by the world last week sometime. I don't remember what session it was, but we talked about the aspect of being vexed by the world's system. Now I want to talk a little bit about not being vexed by the world, but being purified by the presence of God. Just as Lot was vexed, you and I can be spiritually energized through the communion and fellowship with God. We understand that very clearly in the scriptures-that intimacy will change your life, it will take you from being a dumb fisherman, to people saying, "these men have been with Jesus." Wouldn't you like to be able to be out in the community or on the job or whatever and you're conducting yourself in a way that when you walk away, people say, "that guy's been with Jesus, this guy is hanging out with Jesus?" Lot was vexed, and we've been hanging out with Jesus. What a testimony! People's presence will influence our lives won't they, the people that we hang out with? We all know that we're all able to be influenced to a degree by people that we put value upon. The only way you can be vexed by the world is you putting the same value on these things that the world puts on them. They can't vex you if you don't have the same price tag on it, okay? And it's because-and idealistically of course we're going to speak from the Lord's perspective in His total innocence. You and I have a degree against us in the fact that all of us being humans have sin in our members and so there is that natural appetite for those things. But what we want to see tonight is that that intimacy beloved will change your value system. The intimacy will change what the treasures are in your life.

You know we talked about it before, whether it's kind of hanging around somebody that's rich or…most of us don't have that opportunity, but we can do it to a lesser degree as we talked about before you know, when you walk into a certain store like the one-is it Brookstone? Or one of those that's over here that has all the neat stuff that you didn't ever know people made, and you think, "that's cool man, I need one of those." And there are certain things that you need. I saw a TV set that I needed the other day, it was about $9,000.00. They just came out with this big TV and....Chuck and I were walking through the store, we were looking for a stove to replace the one that was stolen from the property. We were walking through the store and we saw that thing, and I said, "I need one of those." I didn't even know they were out there, but as soon as I saw it, I said, "I need one of those." I'm being facetious, it's not a number one need in my life, number two, maybe. So you're looking and you realize you’re influenced by what you see and what you put value upon. When you are in the presence of the Lord, your treasures are different, what you value is different, because of the honor you give Him. You begin to then value what He values. The people that are in your lives that are important is where you put your value, and so.... The other day, I can't remember exactly how the conversation went.... There was a football game coming on, and not wanting to be a grandparent that is evil or causing divisiveness, I asked Hailey, I said, "what's your favorite football team?" She didn't really have a favorite team at that time, and so I figured since she didn't have a preference, that I would let her know that there was a team called the 49ers. Then I told her, I said, "but your Daddy likes the Redskins." Her little wheels were turning, and I was talking to her and I said, "your Daddy likes the Redskins, so it would be good if you liked the Redskins." She said, "I like the Redskins." I said, "okay, good, you like the Redskins." Now her Dad had been trying to brainwash her prior to that, I don't know if it's just that she hadn't committed yet, or if she didn't understand the importance of the issue. So as I was discussing this with her and encouraging her, she then.... I was telling some of the parents here that they've really fallen down on their jobs. It's very obvious to me those that are able to really minister properly to their kids or not, because I said, "your children are going to like the team you like, you know, that's all there is to it." Some of you haven't done a very good job. Now we do have to realize there's flesh involved, because young people are fickle, and they'll choose the hot team of that era, and then they'll think well that's my favorite team, and it will be until like everybody does eventually, they go south, and they become then a fickle fan. Instead of taking on the faithfulness of father's losing team and standing with that all the days of their lives. I'm not talking about the Redskins, I didn't mention any names, they're doing great. I'm talking about.…the Saints? Who said that? Oh, the person with the bag on their head over here. Do you remember when they used to go to the game, they would all sit around with the bags on their heads in the games.

So we're talking about influence. A child will be influenced by their parents. They won't even know what football is, but they are a Redskins fan. Why? Because my Daddy is and he's cool man. This is my Dad and he's cool. He can do anything. He knows everything, and he's the strongest guy in the world-this is my Dad. That influences the life of the children, and that's the way it should be. That's what the intimacy with our Father will begin to do on our eternal perspective.

So John says, he said, we've declared to you these truths: "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly [you need to understand clearly that] our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." Now there's probably no clearer evidence of this than when we look at the life of Moses. Let's turn over to Exodus chapter 24 for just a second. In Exodus 24 we begin to look a little bit at Moses and the servant of the Lord -Abraham, the friend of God, John the disciple that Jesus loved-the intimacy. In Exodus 24 we see the admonition that's being given in verse 12, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God. And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them." Now some very interesting things that are taking place-you have to remember the context right, what had happened. God was coming to visit them, they were preparing themselves for the visit of God, God's presence comes upon the mountain, scares the tar out of everybody, they say we don't want anything to do with this, you go up, you talk to God, you come down, tell us what He has to say, we'll do it. What was it about God's presence that frightened them? Here's an opportunity, you have to understand that God's visitation, His first admonition to them was for each of them to ready themselves for His presence. Isn't that what they were doing? They were preparing themselves for the presence of God and then something about the visitation of God put them off. Now we know the story. We know how this dark cloud began to come in. We don't know exactly what this scene might have been, but we know the terror that's come upon people at different times of a total eclipse, we don't have any indication that something like that was happening, but we do know that on this mountain became this horrible, awesome display of power. Dark cloud, lightning, the voice that was proceeding from it-the Bible says was like a trumpet blast-can you imagine, just piercing their ears, the sound of God speaking? You remember the Bible says that when He spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus, the people thought it thundered, they heard this rumble, but they couldn't understand. Here's this trumpet blasting announcing the presence of God, we don't know what was being proclaimed at that time, but it was frightening these people.

Do you know a lot of people today are frightened by a true visitation of God? A genuine visitation. I've experienced in my own life a number of times the hand of God touching me and I can remember one time being overcome by the presence of God to where I was slain in the Spirit, you can use whatever term you want-fall under the power. That was in the days before they pushed everybody down, and somewhere... I think it was back '69 maybe, somewhere in that particular time. I remember praying and being in the presence of God. We were in the altars praying and seeking the Lord after the service, after the word of God had been preached. I can remember standing there and with my hands raised and worshipping the Lord. I felt these hands touch my wrists and begin to push me backwards. I was standing just worshipping, and I felt these hands beginning to push me, and I opened my eyes to see who was pushing me, and there wasn't anybody there and people were just going on about their own business and seeking God. I closed my eyes and began to pray again and just worship the Lord, I felt these hands on me, pushing me again-I opened my eyes and there was nobody there. You say, "man, you're simple, you should have figured... how long does it take?" Well I'm thick it takes a little bit. So finally I began to pray again. It was kind of like Samuel going and Eli telling him that's the Lord talking to you; now just say Lord, here's your servant, what do you want me to do? So it happened again, this time I didn't... I figured it out after two, at the voice of two or three witnesses let every word be established. So I felt that again and as I began to push, it was so great, because the presence of God was so real and I felt myself falling, just floated to the ground, just laying there before the Lord. I was probably there for about an hour or so just worshipping God, just taken totally by His presence. As I was there I remember very distinctly that Janet was sitting there and singing and worshipping the Lord. As finally I came up, I told Janet, "that was neat, just a visitation from God, the Lord was dealing with my heart in these areas..." I was sharing with her about her being there, she said, "I wasn't there." It's interesting how many times when God speaks to you it's in a familiar voice. I remember the only time that I think I might have heard the voice of the Lord was when we were in the parsonage in Herndon, and again I thought it was Janet's voice. So many of you wives would love your husbands to think that your voice was the voice of the Lord. It was one of those things, and I went in there and I said, "what did you say?" She said, "I didn't say anything." I said, "okay." I heard pretty clearly what I thought she said, and I went into the other room, and I came back again and I said "did you say...?" "No, I didn't say anything." Okay, so I realized something that was being spoken at that time concerning ministry and what direction we were going, it was a familiar voice. These are things that happened. She says, "I wasn't there." I said, "that's neat, it was cool man, the way the Lord just kind of laid me down and you know just so soft." She said, "Soft? You almost tore the building down when you fell!" The presence of God, and a lot of people are afraid of that, the presence, the supernatural part of the presence of God. A lot of people think you know that they're into the-so often you'll see that people will move into the occult part of the supernatural and some of the weird things that go on. I've seen a lot of that, well not a lot of it, I've seen enough to be interesting over the years.

One of the incidences we've seen in numerous times, I've seen people who were demonized that would actually slither like a snake along the ground. This woman, right along the baseboard of the house-I've shared that story with you where her boys had gotten saved, and she tried to kill them that night. The Lord woke him as she was coming down on him with a knife to kill him, and he was able to fight her off. We came up to cast the devils out of her one time-that was an interesting visit. It's some of those kinds of things. So you realize the presence of Satan and what it's able to do, how it can strike fear into people, how superstitions, through that fear, can begin to dominate people's lives. We've confronted that on a couple of our trips into Haiti. You just have to understand the reality of the spirit realm and that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

To have that comfort, to go into the battle with principalities and powers, you don't dare go without the presence, without the knowledge of the indwelling Spirit. I don't mean just, well, I know I'm born-again and so therefore the Spirit of God, biblically, intellectually I understand that the Spirit of God dwells in me. You better know who you believe. You better have been in the presence of God, because the response of principalities and powers will be, "Jesus we know, Paul we know, who are you?" So the only way you are going to be able to speak authoritatively is to have been in the presence and to have been sent from the presence of God. "I give you power over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm you." Now that's not something we just take as a carte blanche commitment to God backing everything we do. Those men that had that mandate given them were sent specifically for a purpose of ministry. They had been in the presence of God, they went to represent the heart of God, and He confirmed the word with signs following. Let's not get into an intellectual representation of the Lord let's represent Him not in word, but in power. The power being the ability to demonstrate His presence, for people to take note that we've been with Jesus, by our attitudes, by our peace, by the trust that we have, the assurance that if God is for us nobody can be against us. No need to go and try to in the natural to impress or intimidate anybody, but just to be able to walk in the assurance of the promise of God.

I don't want to...I'm digressing too far from the mount here and the visit of God, but something scared those guys. Now, I think I know what it was. The reason for that dark cloud was because of the brilliance of the presence of God that it shrouded. It had to shroud that eternal presence, that brightness for people to even be able to contain the visitation without falling dead. The reason I believe they were repelled is given to us by the new covenant, that men prefer, what? Darkness because their deeds are evil. Now how do we know that? We know that by the consequence. Rather than choosing to come into the presence of God and die, they chose to separate and go play. "And they rose up and, [what?], played." So you are either praying or you're playing. It's the presence of God, or it's pitching your tent toward Sodom. This was the decision that was made that day at the mountain. Do we press in knowing this will kill us? They had no question that to enter into God's presence meant death to self. Now these guys were literally, I believe, physically thinking they were going to die. None of us have ever experienced a sight like that. There's no question in my mind that to someone who didn't really know what was coming down, that it would terrify them. We have a tendency so often to make excuses for people, but you know what, there were people there that weren't terrified. There were people there who wanted to move into that. There were men like Moses and Joshua that were ready to enter in and embrace the presence of God at any cost. The treasure of God's presence was more dear to them than their own lives, and so they were ready to go, the others wanting to flee. Because of the rejection of the presence of God they were left at the foot of the mountain; Moses and Joshua we know began to ascend.

As Moses went into the presence of God, God began to speak to him concerning the care of the people of God, etc., and I'd said, the longer he was gone, those who really didn't understand the spiritual or the supernatural, began to have the true idols rise in their hearts, the true promised land within them began to emerge, and eventually the people said, make us a god that will lead us back to Egypt. Now the one thing that we have to understand is this, if you refuse the presence you’re going to head back toward Egypt period. You love Him, or you hate Him is what the scripture tells us. You cannot serve God and mammon. I want to tell you something, the presence of God can be undoing. I don't know about you, but when I get into the presence of God I'm undone. There is always something that God will show me that needs to change, because my whole life, and yours, is going to be a continual process of being conformed into the image of Jesus. We were deformed into the image of the first Adam, and we're being conformed into the image of Jesus as this spiritual metamorphosis is taking place. You'll always find spiritual leaders that will accommodate you to build you a golden calf. There will always be those that will side with you, in fact the majority. The only thing that can ever shake someone out of this stupor is the sovereign visitation from God. And God is merciful, and He's not willing that any should perish.

We see then that the issue here is that God had called them to be separated to Himself, to His presence. What does the Bible tell us in the New Testament in Corinthians? The Bible says, "come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." God is always calling us to intimacy and into separation to Himself-come out. It's not so much a coming out it's being separate. The separation or the sanctification, and we understand clearly all of us the meaning of sanctification, it means being set apart for what? Service to God. The intimacy has to do with who we're serving, and how we're delighting in that service. The intimacy is in the fact that He alone satisfies us and so there's that call into the presence of God. Look over at chapter 32 and you see the tragedy of the separation of the people from the presence of God back to the world. "And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us, for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him." There's nobody that can go up into that mountain and live. The awesomeness of God! If they had listened very closely, they would have heard this voice coming off the top of the mountain: "Our God is an awesome God, He reigns..." but they didn't, they were playing some oldies song, one of Egypt's golden oldies.

Hailey, she get's a kick out of those things. I'll come up with phrases-for instance, I can't remember what one of the first ones was, but we'll be doing something and a phrase will come to my mind. I was telling her something about putting her shoes on. I said, "you know there's a song about shoes?" "No, what?" "These shoes are made for walking." So I'll tell her, and she laughs, and we'll get her shoes on. She made another comment, something about, "look at that green door!" I said, "you know there's a song about a green door?" "Really?" "Yeah, green door, what's that secret you're keeping." She'll laugh. One of the-what's the newest one she did, can you remember? Yeah, "Splish! Splash! I was takin' a bath." So you know now she's always waiting for some song. The point I'm making is once that stuff is in your mind, it never gets out. So we need to be careful, don't we, what we're putting in there, because you never know when it's going to manifest itself. You know like in a teaching on the presence of God. And so everything that we're putting into ourselves becomes a part of us. We can use it, or it can use us.

They are wanting to head back to Egypt. We all know the story how Aaron is so quick to respond to the people's needs, and I don't want to emphasize that part of it. But Moses now, in the presence of God, is informed of God of the defection. And the people then rising up and playing, Moses comes and speaks the judgment of God to them. We understand that "the Lord repented [verse 14 says] of the evil which He thought..." because of Moses' intercession. He says, Lord don't let the nations think that you couldn't bring these people in; that you brought them out here to destroy them. "And the Lord [verse 14] repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people." And he asked the question in verse 26, "Who is on the Lord's side?" And the tribe of Levi, as we know, came. He then said each man rise up and "slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor." The judgment of God begins to manifest itself in their midst, and God begins to purge out the evil among them. Then the scripture says that Moses ascended into the presence of God again.

Look over at chapter 34. "And the Lord [in verse 5] descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord." Now these people were afraid of the presence of God, they just saw the righteousness, the holiness, the judgment of God, and the slaying of the people because of their defection and because of their idolatry. And the Lord begins to reveal more about Himself. In verse 6 the scripture says, "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, [His name] The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." And so we begin to see this visitation. He said I want you to make a covenant now, and in this covenant verse 12, you need to realize that there's going to be the destruction of those into whose presence you come, because this world's system is going to be a snare to you, and their gods are going to stumble you; "But ye shall destroy their altars [verse 13], break their images, and cut down their groves: For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." Now we're talking about intimacy and we need to understand the jealousy of God. God will not share your intimacy with any other gods, that's why it's an abomination for you to have inordinate affection toward your child, toward a spouse, toward any other god that may be erected in our hearts. God is a jealous God, and the more time you spend in intimate communion with Him, the more you understand His jealousy, and the more you will fear Him. You cannot fear God and sin against Him at the same time. When you and I sin, and we all do, when we sin, it's because of a lack of fear of God. Not a lack of love, a lack of fear, a lack of reverence. Oh we still love Him, we appreciate the death of Jesus, we thank Him that He sought us while we were sinners, all of these things, but because of the lack of intimacy there's been a lack of fear, and where there is not fear there will be self-indulgence. We'll make insane decisions and be able to sin right in His presence; because just being aware of His presence doesn't mean there is a pure relationship or an intimacy. So we can come into a worship service and sin when there isn't the intimacy. The presence, the tangible presence, the awareness of God in our midst, and we're able to still be jealous, fearful, slothful, lustful, whatever it might be because we've not imbibed the Spirit of His majesty, of His holiness through intimacy. We've become familiar with Him. In a husband and wife relationship, how many times, in a marriage, how many times can there be a relationship without intimacy? And it's because of a commonness, and it's because of a taking for granted and all of these different things when each has forgotten the reason of the relationship. Father's called us into that intimacy with Himself. The Bible makes it very clear that we are the bride of Christ. He loves us, He wants us with Him, He treasures us, we are the inheritance. That's a mind-blower! And here we are, beloved of God. From the analogy of a husband and wife relationship again, how many times are we frigid in this relationship, as the lover of our souls is wanting to impart to us His love, and His wisdom, and His peace, and His joy? But we have to go play golf, run an errand to the mall, all of these important things in life, and we expect Him to understand that we really love Him, but we want to schedule Him into our lives. There is nothing worse for a relationship than for these advances to be put off, it's not convenient, time, place, whatever it might be. It's not healthy for this intimacy and for these times that the lover of your life is wanting to embrace and show His love for you, and how many times is God reaching out to embrace us and we're just frankly too busy with the cares of this world? The word of God begins to be choked out of our lives.

So we realize then that He says that He is a jealous God. That He is going to expect something to be done about these idols that we contact as we go possess this land. The Bible tells us that after Moses had been there in the presence of God and this covenant's being cut, and the understanding of the ministry that's at hand. It says in verse 28, "And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water." Now that is one of the great miracles in all of the Bible. People go, "wow man, forty day fast, no food, no water; oh man awesome. What a spiritual...." If you try it, you'll die. You can't go forty days without water unless you're in the presence of God. I'm not talking about some concocted presence, I'm not talking about a presumptuous understanding of the presence of God. The point that I'm making is this, that God's presence satisfies every need in our lives. The unadulterated presence of God. Beloved, I want to tell you something, you can be in God's presence for forty days and not breathe and be alive. That's what's being spoken to us here, the fact that He didn't eat, the fact that He didn't drink, God was sustaining Him. The presence of the Lord was the source of his life, "in Him we live and move and have our being." That grafting into the true vine from which we receive our life's sustenance, for me to live being Christ is what's spoken of. So we realize that he's there for forty days and this communion is taking place. "It came to pass [verse 29], when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were [what? There it is again] afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him." They were boogying man. These guys were booking out of there. They said, "Whoa!" Not only were they afraid to come nigh, they were running! Moses said, "wait a minute, you guys." They turned and they came back, and Moses talked with them, and afterwards all the children came near and he gave them the commandments of the Lord. Verse 34, "But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel." The glory of God, the presence of the Lord became so real, that it was tangible, it saturated him. Beloved, if the world can vex us, the presence can so absolutely infuse us with His presence, that it will be seen on our countenance. We may not necessarily radiate beams of light, but people will be able to look at us and say, "they've been with Jesus, these people have been with Jesus." There's a joy there, there's a peace there, there's an assurance there that we'll never be left. He will never forsake us. Wouldn't you want that to be one of the testimonies of your life? "There's somebody that's been with Jesus. There's a friend of God. That's the disciple that Jesus loves." Now how are we ever going to have that kind of an epitaph if we don't pay the price of ascending the mountain ourselves? If we're always ready to send someone else up-send my wife up, send my husband up, send the pastor up, send the deacon up. You've got to climb your own mountain, you've got to die your own death, that you can take your life up again. What's the testimony of your life? That dude's a shrewd businessman! That guy's one of the best salesman I've ever seen! That guy builds the best cabinets of anybody I know! They live in the nicest home I've ever seen! Or, it's been taken note that they've been Jesus. What's said about us?

Luke 24 says something really neat here concerning the presence of God. In Luke 24, following the resurrection of the Lord and on the road to Emmaus, there's times when we can be in God's presence and not even know it. Jacob said, "the Spirit of the Lord was here and I didn't even know it." They were walking with the resurrected Jesus, and didn't even know it. Check it out. They're talking with Him and, "Then he said unto them [verse 25], O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us," we want to hear more of what the prophets have to say. Stay here and teach us some more. What you are saying is profound, this is what we need to hear, we've been confused with what's happened to our Master, and this is beginning to shed some light on.... No they said, "Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." They were more interested in His physical needs, they were being good Samaritans. But I want to tell you something, we're going to look at it in Luke 10 in just a moment, there's some more important things than that, and it's sitting at the feet of Jesus. It's one thing to care for one another, and serve one another, but I want you to understand there is no more important service than sitting at the feet of Jesus.

Now we know that serving the body is serving Him if it's being done in a biblical manner, and He speaks that to us, and He says that if we've visited those in prison, we've visited Him, and so we understand how that correlates. What I'm wanting you to know is the searching of your heart as to who is being served, why we're involved in that service, and is it for the glory of God, and is it in response to the communion of God? Are we doing what we want to do, or are we doing what we've been sent to do? So in this particular passage in Luke 24, as he speaks to us, it says, "And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight." Interesting isn't it? Man, He vanishes just when I wanted to ask Him some questions! How did you do that? He had already told them everything they needed to hear by the prophets. The word had already spoken concerning Himself. So many of us want supernatural visitations, and we have the more sure word of prophecy. Beloved, this is the presence of God, this is the communion that we have with Him as we fellowship and hear what He has to say to us on a daily basis. "And their eyes were opened, and they knew him.... And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" Does your heart burn when you read the word of God or is it just words, philosophy, good principles by which to live? Or do we understand it for what it is, the presence of God? Our hearts burn within us. Can I ask you how the communion that you're having with the Father and the Son affects you? Are you coming into His presence in prayer and staying in that presence until your heart burns within you and you know God's spoken to you, and you know that you've been anointed to go out and represent Him? I'm concerned that some of us rise too quickly to go work for Him, instead of commune with Him.

Turn to Luke 10. I tell you one thing it's a lot easier to work for God than it is to commune with Him. Verse 38 says of chapter 10, Jesus coming off of trying to be tricked by the temptation of the lawyers and gives the parable of the good Samaritan, "and then they enter into the village, [verse 38 says], and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me [to do the dishes? Lord, aren't you concerned that you know I could use a little help down here in getting all of these clothes sorted out and getting them ready for the next exchange, we need some help here and we could use some help with this, Lord don't you care] to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things." He didn't say at all that those things that she was doing didn't need to be done, He said you're careful about it, you're anxious, you're troubled about this, you're uptight, you need to become mellow Martha. "But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Beloved, if you're too busy to sit at the feet of Jesus, you are too busy. If something else has priority over the presence of God, you've been vexed in your mind. Maybe your heart has not been vexed yet, but your mind has been, you're making bad decisions, and we need to seek the better part, the good part. And just separating ourselves from the world isn't adequate, we have to separate ourselves unto God until our hearts will burn within us. And we'll hear what the word of God has to say, and in that intimacy we will embrace the understanding that we serve a jealous God and it will strike a fear in our heart, and the fear of the Lord gives us the great understanding, the wisdom to do good, to obey. He's calling out for this intimate communion with us, do we reject Him and say, well you know, when I get back from my real treasure?

Father, speak to our hearts tonight, and help us to see the love that you have for us and the desire you have to be intimate with us. How can we refuse your advance and say we love you? Make it real Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord.

Just take this opportunity and just minister to the Lord, and thank Him for His love. Allow His Spirit even now to stir our hearts toward Him and to be able to express the love we have for Him. It's not a right to come into His presence, it's a privilege, purchased with a great price, that precious blood. Are you more comfortable in the Martha mode, running and serving than you are sitting at His feet? Does it give you more pleasure, does it kind of satisfy your ego and your self-worth? You know people can see you doing that, you get a good reputation of a servant and a worker for God. I'd rather be known as the lazy guy, just leaning over on His breast. That guy's a lazy dude man, just up there just lying over and we're working and He's lying there on the Master. Now we all know that once you've been in the presence of God you can't be lazy, you just serve in a spiritual capacity. It affects people differently because their treasures are different. As He speaks tonight, let's embrace Him and desire Him like we never have before. To be drunken with His presence, with His beauty, with His majesty; and to hunger and thirst for His righteousness, He will fill us.

As Gary plays, just worship Him now and allow Him to speak to your heart. Draw upon the fellowship of the Father and of the Son. Hallelujah, hallelujah! I love you Jesus. Lord, there is not another thing that can satisfy me like your presence. Lord, without that relationship in order I'm discontent, fearful, my life is out of control until I can lay in Your arms and be at peace. When I'm being caressed by Your presence Lord, I know it's all right and that You'll speak the right things in my ears, and I'll go in the right way, I'll make the right decisions, I'll be satisfied and not have to fulfill a lust to be recognized by men, to be satisfied with some fleshly appetite, because you are all in all. When I'm in Your presence, I don't have a natural hunger, I can go forty days. In your presence I don't have to have new trinkets and baubles and titles and more zeros on a bank account, because that is not the treasures that come from the throne of God. That's where we are living folks, this is the real understanding of what His presence is about. It's not just some goose bumps…knock you down. It's a change of affection and treasures, when you've been embraced by the jealous God, there's room for no other. Oh we love You, Lord! Let's sing it together, just worship Him tonight. Decree His (can't decipher).

Hallelujah! Just let Him love you now, just let the Lord speak into your heart tonight, knowing that He has a name for you that no one else knows. How well He knows your heart. He knows what you are going to do tomorrow. He knows every detail, every thought of our hearts of the past, and He loves us. We have trouble loving ourselves, and He loves us. How can we not desire Him? How can we not be wooed by a love like that? Lord, we've taken You for granted, and we ask You to forgive us. We've been so busy working for You, that we've not spent time with You, we ask You to forgive us. Lord, we've been caught up with all of the secular activities, the cares of this world and we've sought other gods and we ask You to forgive us. In Your presence is fullness of joy and at Your right hand are pleasures evermore. If we're not satisfied, then we've not tasted of you. Satisfy us tonight, Lord, as we hunger and thirst. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Lord, You're altogether lovely. Your beauty and Your presence is the source of my breath and my life, and we declare your majesty, for there is none like our God. Be glorified, be exalted, oh Holy One. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank You, Father. Amen. Before you go, turn to somebody, say, "I'm heading up the mountain."

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