Presence of God III

ByPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 3 minutes

Good morning, dear friends!

I am glad to share the word from the Lord with you.

We have begun talking about the presence of God and about how to experience this presence more and more in our lives. We established that it is God’s presence that actually separates us as God’s people from the other nations. God’s presence makes us stronger and more glorious on the earth; that is why we need it like air. Yesterday we saw that in order to experience God’s presence we need to draw near to God – and do it on purpose. Today we will continue to discuss this Scripture reference.

«Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up» (James, 4:8-10)

From the verses above we see that sin and adultery distance a person from God and block His presence, His power and glory from manifesting. So, besides prayer, there are other things that bring us closer to God and bring His presence into our lives: those are repentance and commitment to live a holy life.

The price of effective prayer is holiness and godliness. That is why James, when he was calling us to draw near to God, also pointed out the importance of cleansing and correcting our hearts and the need to be broken and humbled before God.

In the passage above ‘clean hands’ refer to the outer life: our visible actions, relationships and behaviour. A ‘purified heart’ refers to our inner life, our motives and meditations.

Brokenness and humility in the sight of the Lord testify of God and His Word being in control of our lives. Only this proves that our wills are submitted to God’s will in all areas of life, and it means that we allow God to be the Master and Lord of our lives.

Without clean hands, a purified heart and without brokenness and humility before God we won’t be able to draw near to God.

So, we draw near to God through prayer, which is the primary thing that secures God’s presence in our lives. Nevertheless, in order to draw near to Him we must cleanse our lives. Our willingness to pay the price of a holy and godly life testifies of our true understanding of how desperate our need for God’s presence is.

We will continue tomorrow!

God bless you!

Pastor Rufus Ajiboye

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