Being in the Presence of God | Pastor Gloria Paul

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

So let's get into today's message, okay. And the title

of today's message is about being in God's presence. Okay.

Can I ask how many of you are actually present here?

Can you give me a wave? Okay? All right? Those

who are not waving your hands, you are thinking of

something else, okay. Sometimes you can be seated in a place,

but our minds can be somewhere else, right, Or we

have very short you know, attention spent. I know that

because I'm a teacher myself. Okay. It takes a lot

of effort to get students' attention. What more, adults even shorter.

You know. Research shows that the most that we can

actually pay attention is fifteen minutes. Okay, So I have

forty minutes with you. I hope you can pay attention,

not because I'm speaking, but because God is moving, all right.

And so let's be present God's word because we're going

to be learning about God's presence today, okay. And when

we speak about presence of God, it just means that

God is present. And how many of you believe that

God is here? Today. Yes, you can feel him true worship.

You can feel him through your fellowship, you can feel

him through the testimony you hurt. Right, even for those

who are serving today, I believe you need to feel

God's presence also. Yeah, so that we do. Don't just

get caught up with Okay, I need to get this done.

But God is first most interested in ministering to his people,

more than anything at all. Okay, And I believe that

each one of you is seated here today. It's not

just a choice we made. Yes, that's good, you made

a choice to wake up this morning to come right.

But more than that, He has a plan and purpose

for you to enter into Prescott Hotel, right into these doors,

to be seated here today because He wants to minister

to you. And so I pray that the word of

God will just reach your hearts and that you'll walk

home feeling blessed and challenge as well, you know, to

grow deeper with God. Right. So, as I was praying

for a message, God has been speaking to me about

the presence of God. You know what it means to

be in the presence of God. I believe all of

us have had an encounter of having a relationship with someone, right,

be the family member, a friend. And in a conversation

that you have with someone, it's either you can be

truly present with the person, meaning you are paying attention

to what they're speaking, or our minds can sometimes fade away, right,

we can go somewhere else. Right. And one of the

things that keeps a relationship going or a conversation to

keep going is when you're truly present there with the person, Okay,

Meaning there's two people that are interested in what's going on.

You know, I'm interested to listen to you. You are

interested to invest in my life, and that is how

we do life beat friendships. Yeah. And so the same

thing is with the presence of God. You know, when

we want to feel more of God, it is to

have a relationship with him. Right do we invest in that? Okay?

And so I believe God wants that for us because

more than anything at all, it's not about him just

meeting our needs. Yes, he does that, right, He answers

our prayers. But most important is to feel Him by yourself.

Meaning it's not just how much songs we sing in

the front, right, or how great the physical atmosphere would

look like, but it's because I can have that one

to one relationship with him. He is my above father.

I can hear him, I can feel him, right, and

so that's a personal encounter. Right. So now, when we

look at presence, the word present comes from a Hebrew term.

It's pronounced aspanim, which is also translated as face right

face like like I always say, you know, when you

read the English Bible, we are very limited with words

because it's just one word and one meaning. But if

we do a translation with it, whether it's the Hebrew

or the Greek. If it's the Old Testament, we look

at the Hebrew language. If it's the New Testament, we

refer to the Greek language, right, And so we know

that presence here is not just about being present with

the person, but actually looking at their face. That is

what it means by the presence of God. And if

you can remember the song that we sang, it's not

one of the worship songs, and I can see you

face to face, am I right? The lyric? Yeah, So

that means you are in the presence of God, Okay,

implying a close and personal encounter with the lot right

when it was the first time in the Bible that

we see the character in the Bible actually experiencing God's presence.

Anyone can recall a bit of a Bible study. What

Truman was there already? Answer is there? I gave you

the answer. Okay, all right, yes, okay. This is the

story of Adam and Eve. Okay, this were the first

two humans who actually had an intimate relationship with God.

You know, they were walking in the garden of Eden.

The way the Bible describes it seems to be a

very beautiful place. Again, they had all the fruits to enjoy,

I mean, the food, the animals. You know, they were

just enjoying God's creation. And I believe they would have

also had you know, constant fellowship with God. Right, So

God would have you know, talked to him and they

will talk to them, and that is how they could

actually recognize his voice. Okay, they could recognize that God

is here, right, And so that went on. But as

we read John Tree eight, of course, not a very

good news. Okay, we see how the two of them

were trying to stay away from the presence of God. Okay,

it says here, let me read the scripture. Here, let's

look at Genesis three eight you have your bibles with you. Yeah,

it's always good to flip your bibles. Okay. We are

in this time of you know, just encouraging our church

to own a Bible. Yeah, you want to take ownership

of your faith, right, So John Tree ate Okay, So

this is the whole passage in Genesis where it talks

about the temptation and how the fall of man happens.

So verse eight here it says, and they heard the

sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in

the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife

hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among

the trees of the garden. Okay. So it says here

how they were trying to hide, meaning if they could

hide from someone, meaning they knew or they could actually

feel and sense God's presence. Okay. And as we all know,

the very reason why they were trying to hide from

God's presence was because they sinned. They were feeling shameful. Okay.

God told us not to eat that fruit or you know,

from that particular tree, but we did that, okay. And

so how many of youbes, when you make a mistake,

you try to hide from your parents, Okay, because you

don't cane, you're rottan or you know, hanger Milasians are.

We have parents, you know, with that tool to to

just dicipe, discipline iss And so we hide, okay, we

hide behind in a room or behind the sofa because

you know you made a mistake and you want to hide.

You don't want to face the consequences. Right, and so

the same thing was with Adam. And if this is

the very first encounter, we'll see the Bible, okay, where

there were people hiding from God's presence. And so when

we speak about presence of God facing God, it means

you're coming to a place of intimate knowing you know

the person right intimate. We can see this in Psalm

seventeen fifteen. Right David says, as for me, I will

behold your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when

I awake in your likeness. And that is what it means.

You know that when I face you, I will be satisfied.

And we all know as believers, if you've been a

Christian for some time, that true satisfaction comes from God. Right,

true satisfaction comes from Him. We can have temporary needs

being met in this world but it doesn't last. After

a while, we will again ask what's the meaning of life? Right,

what's next? Because we are made to worship God? Right,

And you may be of a different faith here, you

know a different background, and you may be trying to

chase other things. But ultimately who created you is God.

We are created in his image, meaning we are meant

to go back to Him, right, and so true satisfaction

comes from Him. So we can see different references in

the Bible. I put up a couple of scripturesy on

the screen, so if you have the time, you can

read up about it. Yeah, and there are many occasions

in the Bible where we see people encountering God. Is

either they tried to stay away or they went near

to him, right, And so there were people who actually,

you know, saw God. You know, even even if you

look at the story of Mary and Joseph, when they

saw the angel trying to bring a good a good news,

they feared, they trembled. Right. Of course, fear here doesn't

just bring a negative meaning. But it's just oh, what

is this bright thing? The presence of God is just

so amazing, right, and it just they take a step back.

So we see those people who feared their lives. We

see some of them who are trying to escape from

God's presence because it was just too good. Okay. We

have Zachariah who when when you know the angel was

sent and to give him a word, he just took

a step back. Right. Of course, we have Jonah as well. Okay,

he tried to hide from God, Okay, from his presence. Yeah.

We can even see scriptures in the Bible where it

talks about how false God's become powerless before him. Okay.

So the we can see a lot of examples in

the Bible of how people use idle worship. Okay, but

when God's presence is there, these things tremble. It doesn't

have any meaning. Okay. And so do you know that

when you have God's presence wherever you walk, too, you

bring that same power. Okay. But at the same time,

you can have a different power living in you if

you welcome other things into your life. If you know

what I mean, right, the things we watch, the things

we hear, the choices we make, we can also welcome

those kinds we have. We have a choice the places

we go to, right, And so it's very important that

as believers, we be very intentional with the things we read,

the people we speak to, and the things that we

speak into our lives. Sometimes you can get so negative, right,

we bring ourselves down. But what does the word of

God tell us. It always gives us word of life. Right,

And so let's welcome the presence of God in us. Amen? Yeah,

So false gods can trample. We see how God's presence

is displayed in places of worship. Okay, as we were

worshiping just now, we could feel God's presence when we

play instruments, when we sing songs, you know, and when

believer us come together and when we worship God, his

presence are in this place, okay. And that is why

some of us can can feel, right, God's love. It's

either you you cry, or it's either you receive a

word God ministers to you, right in different ways. Right,

So we can see different different scriptures to to explain that.

And as we know, God's presence provides comfort in times

of trouble. Okay, how many of you have gone through

tough times and in that split moment, God gives you

a wit Okay. We see this in Joshua one five, Okay,

says no man shall be able to stand before you

all the days of your life as I was with Moses.

So I will be with you. I will not leave

you nor forsake you. Right. And if you are here

this morning you're feeling trouble, remember God's presence is able

to help you. Amen. We see how you know, there

are scriptures in the Bible when especially David, if you

read the Book of Sums, there was times when he

was so downcast, he was so discouraged, right, but he

always choose to see God, and in his presence he

found that liberty. Right. So, God's presence and as you

read on different scriptures even in the in the New Testament, okay,

where the Bible describes how heaven is filled with God's presence. Yeah,

that's really beautiful. When you read even the Book of Revelation,

angels worshiping God, right, and you know there are scriptures

that says that it is all we do in heaven.

You know, we worship God. His presence is so powerful

him and we know that God's presence is when prayers

are hat you know that, Yeah, when God's presence is

there when you bring your prayer, you bring your petition

to him, he answers those prayers.

Ye.

Reading from one scripture that we have here in Second

Samuel twenty one Pint one. Now, there was a famine

in the days of David for three years, year after year,

and David in quiet of the Lord, meaning he prayed,

he seek God, and the Lord answered, it is because

of Saul and it's blood thirsty house because he killed

the Gabonites, right, And so he was looking for an answer.

He seek the Lord, and God gave him the answer. Yeah,

so prayers answered. And we also see how forgiveness happens

in the presence of God. As we know, forgiving is

not always the easiest, right when someone has heard you,

when you go through a very painful thing in your heart,

who can give you the grace to forgive? Well, when

you're in God's presence, when you say, God, you've got

to help me to forgive sometimes myself or others, and

He does that right. And you know what, in God's

presence it's also a place of judgment. We've heard all

the good things, right, we heard you know, God heals,

God delivers, But I think sometimes we don't want to

hear this. But merely is a place of judgment because

every action has its own consequences. I can't remember we

are all answerable when we go into you know, the heaven,

and then when it comes, God's gonna ask what are you?

What do you do with your life that I've given

to you? Right? And I think it's a good reminder.

Sometimes you don't speak much about it because we just

want to focus on all this earth and you know,

blessings and what it got to do and pursue. But yet, well,

in reality, all this are temporary. Yeah, life is temporary.

At the end of the day, we give our best,

we worship God, but there's gonna be a time that

we need to be unswerable to our actions. So I

hope that can be a wake up call for all

of us to remember that every action has its consequences.

We serve a God who is forgiving, There's no doubt

about that, right is. We serve a God who is

always there to pick us up and we fall, Right,

He's always present. By the same time, remember, he gives

us a choice, you know, and we've got to choose

what pleases him. Yeah, So we see a couple of

scriptures on that. You can go through it in your time. Yeah,

So what I'm trying to say here is that the

Bible is full of stories, full of examples of how

God's presence is evident, and that just means that it

is for us too in the times that we're living in. Right.

But it's said, but sometimes, you know, I don't know

if you have fell this. You know, when you walk

into a place, whether it's in a church or an event,

and there's so many people who are saying, oh, God's

presence is here, I can feel him. And then there

are some who maybe may not feel the presence of God. Right,

it's something missing? Then why am I not feeling God's presence?

And We're going to talk about that today, okay, And

I pray and that all of us will catch something

today that will desire to have God's presence. Sometimes, you know,

we are so caught up to ask for signs God.

I want this sign, then I will go to this place,

or God, can you answer this prayer? Then I will

do this. Right. But wouldn't it be even better if

God's presence follows us, right, because we know that in

God's presence he makes things possible. Right, And we're going

to look at a couple of scriptures here you understand that.

Let's read Psalms one hundred and thirty nine, verse seven

to ten. I just want to encourage you with this

scripture that God's presence for all of us. Okay. It's

not about whether you are being a Christian for a

long time you know, or just because and you know

that sometimes people who do not know God may experience

God's presence. Do you know that? Okay? Because that is

who God is. He's a God for everyone. Yeah, so

God can minister to anyone. Right, So God's presence is

accessible to us. Let's read this. It says in Psums

one hundred and thirty nine, verse seven. Okay, thank you Richard.

It says, where can I go from your spirit? Where

can I flee from your presence? If I go up

to the heavens, you are there. If I make my

bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise

on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on

the far side of the sea, there your hand will

guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. So

this just means we can't escape from the presence of God. Yeah.

God is just there. He's everywhere we know. We know

that it's omnipresent. It can be there any time. Yeah,

it's not just defined by how we see. We are

so fixated with Okay, there's twenty four hours this morning,

this night, and there are seven days in a week.

But God doesn't work in that way. Right, He's an

everlasting God, and he's possible to be everywhere all the time. Yeah,

And how encouraging to know that we self a God

was like that. Right, He's there all the time for us.

And so what can we learned from this is that

God's presence is always available to us. But sometimes as humans,

just like how Adam and I was in the Bible,

we can kind of drift away. You can take a

wrong turn. Okay, we can take a wrong t or

we might miss out because our minds are just occupied

with other things, other voices. Right, and we're gonna look

at an example here from Exodus, study tree thirteen to

fifteen from Moses. I believe most of us know about

this character, right, and Moses was the chosen man to

actually deliver the Istraelites from slavery. Right. And so if

you can, if you know the scriptures familiar enough, or

if not, you can read the book of Exodus. You'll

see how Moses had it all battle with God as well, like,

why me, can I do this? Which is like some

of us? Right when sometimes we had chosen to do something?

Can I actually do this? Am I good enough? Right?

And guess what? If God chose Moses, you can choose

any of us, right. God doesn't just choose the ones

that are all perfect anyway, There's no one that's perfect right,

all great or confident, at least in the eyes of man.

God would usually choose the ones who need who depends

on him, right, And that was Moses. And so as

Moses was in this journey of you know, leading the people,

and as we know, it was not an easy journey.

The Israelites are not the easiest people. Okay, they had

their doubts. They complained all the time, even after seeing

God providing. And so there's a portion in the scripture

here we can see how Moses was not just caught

up about asking for signs, saying God, you show me something,

then I will do this. He did not say God,

could you give us this? But he asked for his presence. Right.

Let's look at verse thirteen. It says, now, therefore I pray,

if I have found grace in your side, show me

now your way that I may know you, and that

I may find grace in your side, and consider that

this nation is your people. And he said, my presence

will go with you, and I will give you rest.

Then he said to him, if your presence does not

go with us, do not bring us up from here. Yeah,

there's a lot that we can lean on from this scripture.

He first, of course, would ask God for grace to

show us to lead us. And then God says, my

presence is with you. And what does God's presence do?

He gives you rest and rest in this particular scripture

here means not just rest as in physical rest, but

do not worry because I am with you. Okay, do

not fear because you are looking for answers, right, Moses, Now,

my presence is with you, meaning you don't have to

be fearful. You don't have to worry because I am

going with you. How many of you need that assurance? Right?

I just need your presence lot, I just need your presence. Yeah.

And most this was very confident to say this that Lord,

if your presence is not with us, then do not

bring us from here and so God, if your presence

is not with me for this promotion that I'm praying

for in my work, then let it not happen. Okay,

if this pray that I'm praying for this need and

if your presence is not there, then I don't want it.

How many of us are willing to say those kind

of prayers because everything that happens doesn't mean God is there? Yeah,

because remember we have a choice. We have a choice

in life, God me open the door. Or you may

be good in what you're doing and you get there,

But the question is is God with you? You see

walking with you? Are you feeling Him there? Because as

true of God, we must remember that when God leads

us to a place, it is not just for ourselves,

but it's for the people there as well. Right, we

must always remember that there's always a bigger purpose. Our

lives are not men to just leave for ourselves. It's

men to leave for those who are around as well.

As we pursue His work. He blesses, he leads, he

brings right. And that's when I love the testimony that

Serene chad. Okay, she's just so caught up, of course

with her studies right, didn't have enough rest. And then

God is saying, start a prayer group. How can I

do that? How can I, you know, do something extra

on my calendid is already full. But she did it.

And God's presence is with her, okay. And we can

see that evident in the results that she received. Right.

And that is what it means, God's presence not because

I am capable, not because I have all the strength, okay,

but because I am weak. Lord, lead me and be

with me. Amen. Right. And so he did not ask

for wonders or miracles. He just asked God to show

him the way. Right. So my question for all of

us this morning, and I hope it's a personal reflection. Right.

It's not to make us feel Remember, God's word doesn't

condemn us. It convicts our hearts. Right the moment you

feel condemned, then you know it's not from God, Okay,

it is from the enemy. The enemy always likes to

make us feel bad, but the word of God convictes.

When conviction happens. We want to change, right. We want

to say, yes, God, I need to change my lifestyle

so I can do something about it. I can seek you,

I can have more time with you. Right, So for

us to just reflect is do I actually have the

presence of God in my life in the places that

you're at, in your home, in your workplace, in your school.

Do you have God's presence with you? Or have you

lost your his presence along the way? That could happen sometimes, right,

we feel it, but we get so caught up with

our worlds, with our needs that we don't feel God's presence. Right,

Having the presence of God with you is more than

richest fame or power. And in fact, we can go anywhere,

We can do it thing with God's presence. Yeah, And

I've experienced this many times. Sometimes I feel I can't

do it. I'm not capable. But when God's presence is

with you, he enables you to do it, right, enables

you to do it. And you know, I've been a

teacher for a while now and I deal with foundation

students of course, right, these are my students, teenagers, you know.

And I know there's two from Sunway, right an he's

still in Sunway, Yeah, okay, Yeah, And you know it's

not the easiest job as a teacher. Sometimes I ask myself,

what did I sign up for this? Okay. It's not

the easiest to handle students, especially in the times that

we are in. It is a challenge, and I've seen

a lot of my colleagues we are actually leaving the

job because it's getting tougher. Yeah, it's getting getting tougher

because of the kind of demands. Beat the school or

beat sometimes. I guess there's challenges that teenagers themselves struggle with,

and then we are handling it in the classroom. And

so there were times that I enter into the class

and I get really overwhelmed. Okay, but I need to

I mean, I'm not the type who shouts in the class,

but I would have the conversation if students you know

what I mean. You know when a teacher says I

need to talk to you, okay, and then right she

or he says something about a change of attitude. Yeah,

we got a chig good year, so Edlin. So, because

in a classroom, there's a lot of emotions, okay, and

we know that you're dealing with lives, right, And I've

always seen teaching as not just an occupation for me,

but it is also a calling because you're dealing with lives.

You know, at the end of the day. It's not

just getting them graduated, but it's also having a relationship

with them. And over my years of teaching, I've had

the opportunity to even pray for students, you know, when

they come to me, say are you open for a prayer,

and to pray with them, Yeah, and so as I should.

This past few weeks, it's been very tough because maybe

it's just a batch of students that I'm having and

constant conversations emotions, right, and so you know, I know

what I said, God, your presence, could you just follow

me to the classroom, could you help me? Yeah? And

you know, every time I see those prayers, things are

much more easier. It's either students are a little bit better,

I know what to say, I have the grace to

deal with them, right, and to students, be kind to

your teachers also, Okay, it's always good to just sometimes

check in with your students, with your teachers, right, to

talk to them, to greet them, right. And I've always

been ever since I've thought now I'm in this whole

passion of helping teachers as well. Right, Teachers go through

a lot of burnout, and so I've been also ministering

to my colleagues, to teachers in different schools, right, and

so that's a ministry because teachers play a very big

part to build the next generation. Right. And so that

is what it means by the presence of God. Situations

don't change immediately, but when God follows you, he shows

you what to do. Right, it gives you an idea.

He opens up doors that might have been closed previously, right,

and it gives you the grace and the strength to

do it as well. Yeah, so that is what God's

presence does, Okay, if you can just hold on to him.

In Pst. Sixteen eleven, it says in the presence of

God there is fullness of joy. Okay, there is fullness

and of joy, meaning if you know the meaning of

joy here doesn't mean you're just going hahaha, laughing all

the time, but it just means you are You're come,

you know, you are settled, you are just you're satisfied,

you are filled with gratitude. You can smile even in

your storms, right, even in your storms at the back

of your mind, you know there are things that you've

got to have to solve, and you know, but I

can still go on and that is what the presence

of God does. He brings joy. Yeah, it is essential.

In Psalms fifty one eleven, David says, cast me not

away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy spirit

from me. That is how much it meant to David.

You know, that is saying God, just don't cast me

out of your presence, because all that matters. As we know,

David was a king. He had all the riches of

the world, but yet he recognized what was very important,

which is the presence of God. Right, the presence of God.

Welcome Edward came from the run, okay running, yes, good,

still there for children, that's important, very good, okay, yes,

So to not miss out God's presence. So it's very simple. Okay,

the closer you are to the fire, the more you

can feel the fire. Right. But the further you are,

the more coal you feel. And let us not be

a lukewarm church. Right. Lukewarm just means it's not neither

hot neither coal. I'm just in between. I don't feel anything,

and I don't really enjoy lukewarm water. If you drink it,

it just what is it? Anyway? If it's hot, then yes, good,

I'm awake. If it's cold, then on a hot weather

you drink it, Okay, but lukewarm? What is it? Yeah,

so let's not be that kind of a person. When

someone sees you, like what Serene said, just now, I

see God in you. I'm quating a lot of you.

I see God in you. Right. That means you are hot.

You're hot in God. Right, Your God's fire is burning

in you, Okay, and it's flaming. And while this person

is really a child of God. Right, and let's let's

expect that. Yeah, when you see the Lord and you

are continually in his presence, you'll not be bothered about

the world or what they even say about you. Okay.

If we see this in Isaiah, Moses, Jacob. You know,

they all had callings in their life. It was not

easy callings, right, even Joseph, who were you know, down

outcast by his brothers, and then how God raised him up. Okay,

if he was bothered of all these things, he wouldn't

be where he was. Right. But when God's presence is

with you, and Joseph was a great example of how

God's presence followed him all the way. Yeah, so you'll

not be bothered. You know, you'll be remaining in God's

presence and no power of darkness can stand before you.

As the Scriptures reminds us in the Book of Romans,

we're not fighting against flesh or blood, but against principalities.

Let's not forget that. Sometimes we don't see these things,

but they're all around us. But when you have God's

present within you, you're covered by the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can harm you, nothing can come near you and

cause you trouble, right because God is with you. Hey man,

So I'm going to share with you just four points

today about how can you experience God's presence and to

not lose the presence of God. And I pray that

you can take this on and apply it in your lives.

The first one is to come clean with him. Yeah,

to come clean with him. In some study two verse

three to five, it says here, when I kept silent,

my bones grew all though my groaning all the day long,

for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me.

My vitality was turned into draft of summer. I acknowledge

my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,

and you forgive the iniquity of my sin. So if

you're feeling like, why is it that I can't feel God?

Is this something that could be bordering me, a mistake

that I made, or maybe I am occupied in my mind,

I'm worrying too much, I'm fearful. Bring that all to God.

Just confess it. Go down to your knees and say, God,

this is pulling me down. It's robbing my peace, and

I know that I'm not meant to leave like this.

God wants me to leave a fulfilled life. Remember that's

what God wants for you. Bring that to Him and

you'll feel surrendered. And that's when you can hear him.

You can feel him. Right. If you carry about your

heavy luggage with you, you won't enjoy the right. But

if you put that luggage down, you will enjoy the right.

You can run faster. Yeah, So what is it that

could be bordering you today? Just bring it unto him today. Yeah.

If you feel that God isn't around because you haven't

talked in a while, or because you avoided the thought

of him, then bring that to him, like like it

says you know as a code that says, if you

don't feel like praying, just talk to him. Okay. Well,

that is a conversation you're having with him, right, and

that's when you can feel his presence. And most of

the time you don't feel God's presence all in all,

just big events. Yes, God moves in those moments as well,

but most importantly in your own quiet room with God.

God meets you there as well. Yeah, between you and him.

So what is it that you just have to bring

to God today? Bring it to him, confess to him,

and he will come and deliver you. Amen. So let's

have a reflection, a heart check, we call it. Yeah,

coming clean before him. Number two is your quiet time

with the Lord. Okay, that is so important. In in fact,

it's one of the most basic things that we always

teach a new believer and everyone needs that. Yeah, you

must have a regular quiet time with the Lord, meaningful

time studying, memorizing the word of God diligently. You know,

when we read the story about Daniel, you know this,

maybe we can see from the Book of Daniel. You'll

see that he prayed three times when the world turned

the other side, you know, looking at the king and

what the other things that they were worshiping. Daniel choose

to bow down and worship God to pray, right, and

are we doing that? Sometimes when we are caught up

in different situations or struggles, the first thing we choose

to do is we call someone and talk to them. Well,

it's good that you have someone to look up to,

but maybe the first hotline you should call is God. Right, God,

this is what I'm going through. Speak to him, Speak

to him. There is nothing more intimate than prayer, than

communicating any good given relationship. They tell you communication is important, right,

What more, our relationship with God, Your communication is very

important with each other. Build that intimacy. In fact, we

can see this in the scriptures. How Jesus knew his

quiet time. You know, we know that he did a

lot of ministry people. There were crowds of people who

followed him. He was performing miracles and healing people, ministering

to people. But there were times where he chose to

just walk aside, all by himself, early in the morning,

and he prayed. He had his quiet time. So I

believe Jesus needed to fill his cup before he can

actually pray and to minister to others. And what more,

is human, right, wouldn't we need more of God as well? Okay?

Sometimes we can keep going and going, but yet keep

feeling so dry and then wonder what's going on? Well,

because God is saying I need to fill you fresh, right,

I need to feel you afresh, you know, and wake

and and as believers, we have to also recognize the

power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is like

our helper, okay, and it's just always there. But if

you don't welcome the Holy Spirit, then you don't get

to feel him. Right. It's simple as that. Sometimes we

tend to complicate things so much like oh, how do

I feel God? Well? Is to just welcome him Holy Spirit?

I need you? Could you walk with me? Could you

go before me? Could you help me make this this decision?

Could you help me handle what I'm doing, what I'm facing?

And he helps you? Right, it helps you. It's simple

as that. Okay. So if you want to feel God,

just call unto Him. Amen. Right, So let's be intimate

with God. Yeah, And I feel sometimes we need constant

remind us no matter how long we are a believer,

the this is the part that you neglect the most

because sometimes we take it for granted that God is

going to be there. Yeah, but I think it's important

for us to keep recognizing who God is in our lives, okay,

and to never neglect that. Yeah man, Right, So that's

one thing to remember, and of course importantly is to

not neglect your fellowship with believer us in Christ. Okay,

there's a time and place to have friends and you know,

hanging out with people around. But the Bible teaches us,

even read the Book of Acts, how people come together

in fellowship. You're reading of the Word and in X

we have our homes, right, we have our prayer service,

we believe in discipleship. Right. All these things are there

to grow your feet. And you need another believer brother

or sister to say, hey, you can do this. So

I'm praying with you, you know, and just being able

to encourage each other. Yeah. And I'm all is blessed

to have Elaine Ellen is someone like work I serve

together all these years and we always have this thing,

glor glory. Can you pray for me? Eleen? Can you

pray for me? Right? And they just have someone you

can turn to makes a big difference. Do we have

that one person who we can say, hey, I'm going

through this hard time. Can you just pray for me? Yeah?

And that's the reason why Improvs. Twenty seven seventeen, it

says Iron Shoppens Iron. Yeah. There's so much of truths

in the world of God, and let's lean on what

God has given to us. Tell it the person next

to you and give them a smile, say thank you

for being here with me. Okay, I hope you mean that.

All right, We've got to do life together. Okay, We've

got to do life together. And you know, unity is

a very big thing in the eyes of God. He

wants the church to be united. He wants people to

come together, okay, and that is why. And you know

the enemy tries to always take that away from us

because he likes to make us feel isolated all by ourselves.

If you feel down, what's the first thing we like

to do it better? Just be by ourselves, right, Okay,

I don't talk to anyone. But that's not what God

wants for us, right. He wants us to be with others.

Even if you don't feel like coming to church, just come,

just come. God will meet you where you are a man.

So there is growth in such spaces. Never neglect that. Yeah,

and the last one is to always always have a

hunger enters for God. Right, it's a constant thing. You

can't see that I was filled yesterday and pray. We

all came together, we prayed, I went to the altar call.

Well that was yesterday. God filled you. But what are

you doing for today and for tomorrow. It's a constant

relationship that we should never take for granted. Yeah, living

a yielded life unto God and always seeking the things

of the Lord. And this can come in different forms,

whether it's the reading of your Bible, whether it's the

things that you listen to. How do you start your

day in the morning? Is it the first thing that

we do is we scroll into our Instagram and check

what's the next post by a celebrity that we follow.

Imagine if you start your day with that compared to

if you, let's say, open the Word of God, and God,

what is it that you're telling me today? Oh? God,

I need you to help me get through this day.

That's a big difference. Yeah, it doesn't seem harmless. Well

it's only Instagram, it's only social media. But that's what

you're feeding your mind. Right, But if you feed with

God's truth. When you go to the day and something

hits you, your boss gives you a tough day, you'll say, well,

God's word reminded me this morning that I'm not alone. Okay,

but if you read some celebrities posts in the morning,

how is that going to help you? You're all going

to feel said, oh, I wish I was this guy

or this girl is having a good life, right, and

you'll feel down even more. Okay, So what are we

feeding into our minds? Right? God is by your side.

There is no distance between you and him, and it's

always ready to listen to you and hear your Please.

Yeah it Matthew five six. What does it say, blessed

are those who hunger and tst for righteousness, for they

shall be filled. You are blessed if you have that

hunger and ters? And what is the Bible say hunger

and tears? Because if you remember that the last time

you're feeling hungry or maybe some of you, you can

feel your some monks growling. Now, what would be the

first thing that you do. You're gon't get food to

feel it right away? Okay, you don't wait, you know,

if you're thirsty, you drink water immediately. That's the immediate

thing that we do. What more, when our spirit, our

soul is hungry and thirsty, what do we do to

feel it? If you just leave it that way, if

it's the usual physical we'll have you'll have gas streak

with fall's sake. Feel said, there's no food. But if

you're not feeling our spirit, our inner man, our soul,

can you imagine the kind of damage you're doing to ourselves.

We are feeling empty. And the longer it's empty, guess

what other things will start coming in, other kind of

thoughts negative, right, and then it might be harder to

remove it if you sit longer on it. Okay, So

before all that could happen, why don't you fill it

with the solid word of God, the food that God gives,

the living water that you'll never go thirsty, you never

grow dry. Right, that is what we need. In us

Amen Psalm sixty three, verse one, it says, Oh God,

you are my God, Early, will I seek you. My

soul tursts for you. My flesh longs for you in

a dry and thirsty land when there is no water

in psums for it too too, It says, my soldiers

for God for the Living God, When shall I come

and appear before God? And in Psalms one hundred and

for Tree, verse six, he says, I spread out my

hands to you. My soul longs for you like a

thirsty lend. And these are all the prayers that David

has been uttering to God because he knew where he

could get that full filling, the full satisfaction from Amen. Right.

And so let's have that kind of a hunger and

terst for God. Okay. And imagine if you because it's

only when you create that space the feeling comes in. Okay,

if you have an empty pleat the food fills in. Right.

And the same thing is with our souls. If we

are empty and we say God, you come in and

fill me, He does that all right. So at the

end of the day, it's simple as just us. The

word of God tells us, right, ask and it shall

be given. Knock and the doors shall be open. Right,

And that is what he wants. Promise, my child asks,

just ask, I am here, right, I am here. And

I believe he's speaking to some of us this morning.

If you're in a place and you're saying, thinking, I

can't feel God for a while now it's been a while, Okay,

I'm riding on. Sometimes we can just ride on on

God's press, other people's feeling of God's presence, you know that, Okay,

just because the worship team is leading, Okay, yes, I'm

just riding on with that, and I'm feeling good for

that moment. But what about your own time with God?

Are you feeling God? Are you feeling his presence? And

remember this feeling, it's not just like an emotion feeling,

you know, for the moment I feel like and cry,

I feel feeled. Okay, well that's good, But let's not

just caught up with the whole emotion. Because when life

hits you, would you still feel God's presence? Okay? Because

God's presence is there all the time, through good times

or true bad times. Okay, and it's just us the

need to activate that. Yeah, So wherever you are, okay,

even for our students who are here. You know we

have two new future teachers as well, who's here with

us IPG. Yeah, you can invite God's presence in the classroom,

right and imagine if you are there with God's presence,

all your classmates can feel that. Right, everyone is going

to feel that goodness because you are there, and then

you'll realize, oh, it's good to be a friend with

this person. With Terry, right, you can carry God's presence

for those of you are working every time you enter

into your office. God, let your presence go with me.

When I'm entering into the room of my boss and

I find it difficult to speak to her, God your

presence go before me, and guess what, it makes it easier. Yeah,

it makes it easier. When you're in the traffic and

you're saying, God, this is just hard. Well, just maybe

take that time. You can't do anything in the one

hour you're stuck in the traffic, Why don't just cultivate

God's presence, pray, listen to his songs. So don't just

have a sad time like only this time that I

can experience God. It's all the time. God's presence is

there all the time, and we need that. Okay, And

when you feel it, you will know for yourself how

good it is. Someone can just keep on telling you,

you know, it's so good, it's so good to feel

God's presence. But until you taste the word God says,

taste and know that I am God. So you've got

to taste it for yourself. Right, then you know how

good God is. Amen? Right, invite the worship team forward. Right.

So my question for all of us this morning is

how hungry are you for the presence of God? Because

if you are hungry for God's presence, you'll do something

about it. Right, You'll raise your hands, you will speak

with God. You will choose to maybe sacrifice something in

your life, whether it's time, whether it's something that is

taking up too much space in your minds. It could

be something that God may be challenging you today, whatever

it takes, so that I can feel God's presence. Yeah,

feel God's presence. In the end, it comes down to

our desire to know Him. This is something that we

can ever force God. It can be something that God

cannot force us, but it comes with a relationship. Yeah.

Is there something that you haven't told God today or

something that may be holding you back? You know that

you want to worship, but you're just holding back. Sometimes

it could be you're just upset with something in your

life or regrets, confusion. Yeah, what is it? Are we

giving the time that he deserves? Because remember He gave us.

It's all, he gave us his one and only son,

which no one can, no one would, but he did

it for us. So are we giving what he deserves? Yeah?

And I just want to remind you that He is

with you even when you can't feel it. Even when

you can't feel it, God is with you all the time,

sometimes working in ways that we can't imagine or can't

expect or can't see. And you're saying, God, where are you?

But He is there? Right, He is there. And as

we even you know, close this time, and we're going

to spend some time praying, can I just encourage you

church to come and truly seek His face. You know,

we learned that presence just means to see him, to

face him. And you know, when you see someone face

to face, it just means that there's no judgment. Right,

someone hides away because your idem, Yeah, you have something

going on, you're feeling judged, you're feeling that's something holding

you back. But when you can face God just means

you are all of Him. I love you lot. Whatever

mistakes in the past, I am laying out, laying it aside,

and I just want you, I want to experience you.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit as church dot org.

We are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing

that this week is going to be a good week.

I hit for you. God bless