The same scenario can play out in the life of a Christian. Some dwell on days gone by when God’s presence was so thick and wonderful they refer to it as the high water mark in their experience with God. It may have been fifteen or twenty years ago when they were captivated with the presence of God and so overwhelmed that it defies definition. A past experience like that can lead us to believe anything less is not God. Longing for the former days tends to draw one’s attention away from the present. Just as those mentioned above who strive to live in the past, we as believers can easily get drawn to a past experience in hopes of living it again.
Please don’t misunderstand I
am not suggesting a desire to have awesome experiences with God is somehow
wrong. The problem is we can only
experience God’s presence in the present.
Though yesterday may have been wonderful, a time to honor and speak
fondly of, we must not let it detour us from what God is doing now. There are many good things that can distract
us from the present, not only a former experience in the glory of God but even dreaming
of His glorious return. We must live in
the present to experience His presence.
God’s desire is to take us to higher levels, from faith to faith and
from glory to glory, but what we think is higher or greater may be different
from God’s point of view.
For some it may not be the former days of glory that draw them to the past but times of defeat and loss. Remembering the injustices of our past and the emotions connected to them are often enough to reactivate the pain that draws us away from the present. I can personally identify with loosing the sense of God’s presence just by allowing my meditations to drift and to become swallowed up by a painful past experience. These are enemy tactics to interrupt our awareness of God’s presence and distort our vision.
God is at work in the present tense, He is not
the “I was” or the “I will be” but the ever present great “I Am”. When God called Moses into Egypt
Jesus lived out of the
present. He only did what He saw His
Father doing, and only said what He heard His Father saying. He also said that man cannot live by bread
alone but by every word that proceeds (present) out of the mouth of God. Yesterday’s experience though it may have
been glorious, will not meet the needs of today. Jesus was and is the bread of life that came
down from heaven. The Israelites ate of
that bread in the form of manna in the wilderness but it could not be stored for
use the next day but had to be collected fresh every morning. What was good yesterday is spoiled today, in
a sense it becomes a petrified stone good only as a marker of remembrance.
Thus far I haven’t said much
about the future but it can also be a distraction from the present presence of
God. Jesus taught that we should not
worry about having enough for tomorrow, be it food, clothing or shelter, but to
seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness which includes everything needed
for this life. The Kingdom of God
Jesus’ own disciples expected
Him to restore the Kingdom to Israel
Knowing how to study and
apply end time prophesy is critical to remaining in the present. Some years ago
I received a mental picture of people studying the bible looking through binoculars. I understood the binoculars signified they were looking to the
distant future studying the end times along with the charts and time lines
developed by well known bible teachers.
The charts were developed to help the students determine their position in the unfolding of God's plan and usually pointed to Christ's imminent return. Others I noticed in this picture were viewing
the scripture through microscopes doing in depth word studies. Both of these are good and valid methods of
study but the thought occurred to me that you would never want to go about your
daily activities looking through either one of those lenses. It would greatly distort your perception of
the path in front of you.
The Pharisees were great
students of the scripture, but totally missed the very One they pointed to. Though they were very familiar with God’s
word they didn’t recognize His presence when He came into their midst but
thought Him to be an imposter. Study of
the scripture is very important and all methods of learning, preaching and
teaching have their place but we must walk out our lives in the present while
peering through the lens of His presence.
Our knowledge of what was and what is to come can only be properly
applied if we see clearly what God is doing in the present.
Though the disciples were
present in the boat with Jesus they were not really in His presence. To say it another way, His presence was not
inside of them. When the storm blew in
Jesus was not alarmed but continued at rest.
Fear came upon the others and caused them to think He didn’t care if
they all sank to the bottom. As they
cried out fear was released into the atmosphere making matters even worse, but
Jesus released peace from within Himself calming the atmosphere around
them. For greater is He that is within
us than he that is in the world. From
within His presence we will see things differently. When the lens of fear is replaced with faith and
trust the substance of faith within us has power to change the atmosphere around us.
We all carry what this world really needs now more than anything else, His peace, presence and glory. I like what Bill Johnson says, “We owe everyone we meet an encounter with God.” It is important that we not portray Him as the God of wrath and vengeance from either the past or the future, but as a savior who desires to draw all men unto Himself, and as a father running to cover the shame of those sons and daughters returning home. If someone is to encounter God through my life I must walk in an awareness of what He is doing in the present. If my mind is captivated with the past or the future be it my own stuff or an overemphasis on the end time events, I loose awareness of His present desires and will likely misrepresent Him.
In His presence is fullness of joy not anger. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. God’s present agenda is revealed as we have heavens perspective. As we see through the lens of His presence we will see what He is presently doing and properly apply our knowledge of both the past as well as the future.
