I have learned something about the Lord that I would describe in this way. Whenever I realize the presence of the Lord with me, I react so completely to it that sometimes people may think I am putting on something, but I am not.
The most spontaneous reaction I have in all of my personality is exposed in the way I react when I sense the presence of the Lord, or appropriate it. It always excites me. It always hits me as being too overwhelming. The Lord is too much for us.
Every time I stand behind the pulpit I sense that the Lord is there, and I never sense His presence without also feeling a personal unworthiness and inadequacy. At the same time I never sense His presence without also sensing the strength of the Lord laid at my disposal, almost like spiritual muscles that I can use, and a wisdom that I can draw on.
When I minister to people, it is that way. I never have the feeling that I know anything, but I always feel that I can draw on a reservoir of infinite knowledge and wisdom. I sense His presence so strongly and what that presence is truly capable of bringing.
There is something else I feel toward the Lord, and that is an awe. It draws me, and at the same time it repels me, because God is too much for me. But this I have determined: Whether I live, or whether His presence should mean my death, it is better that I live and die in His presence than flee from it. I feel in my heart that no matter what comes or goes, if I can only sense His presence and the awe of it, my own heart is satisfied.
I am always aware of a mystical joy that is a trademark, a signature of the presence of the Lord. When I feel it, something leaps within me. I feel deep things happening within my spirit, like bells ringing out majestic songs of a new day, when I sense the presence of the Lord.
In our services, we are not aware enough of the Lord. We know God is here, but we need to come to know Him—not to know about Him or even to know a blessing. We must know Him. We must come to know Him, to know God, to know the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe for this to become real to you, because I feel deeply within my spirit that it is something you must understand.
There is a freedom that I feel in the presence of the Lord. I cannot accurately describe this, but there are no restraints, no walls or barriers, and nothing is impossible when I sense His presence. Suddenly it seems as if everything has its being in Him. At the same time, paradoxically as it may seem, I have the greatest restraint upon me at a time like that. I feel like something is anchoring me and holding me down. Everything within my nature that would want to vaunt or express itself is suddenly under restraint. Whenever I stand in the presence of the Lord I feel as if I am well-bridled and He holds the reins in His hands.
Not only do I feel the restraint of it and a deep awareness of His Lordship, but I sense something more. Whenever I stand in the presence of the Lord, I sense the demands and the claims that automatically exude from God. It is the most demanding presence. Nothing can be held back from it—it all has to be given. It is something that draws from deep within your spirit more than just a yes to His will. It demands the absolute surrender of your spirit and your will to that demanding presence. The presence of the Lord lays a claim on you, and it seems as if everything concerned with your right to yourself fades away. You have no right to yourself anymore. When you stand before Him, He is Lord. This is the only claim that counts: He has redeemed you unto Himself and you are His. As you stand with all of this awe and restraint, with the wonderful deep mystical joy and sense of surrender, there you sense the claim He has on your life.
Every time you appropriate by faith the reality and realization of His presence, He comes. He never comes to me as the meek and gentle Christ. People talk about Him like that and they have pictures on the wall of a character who looks so meek and mild; but that is the Christ I have never known. Whenever I sense the awesome presence of the Lord, He comes as King of kings and Lord of lords, and the claim and the demands that He makes cannot even be put into words. It is just there. He is God. We must come into a day of worship. We must practice and appropriate the presence of the Lord.
I am aware of two simple things that the people of God need to do. First, because Christ is present at every service—He promised it, even to the end of the age—we need to recognize that presence. And second, we need to appropriate it. I use the word appropriate because no other word in the English language that I am familiar with expresses it. Perhaps someone will discover a better word that is easier to understand and we can have a new terminology. For me to appropriate the presence of the Lord means that I, by faith, demand my deep spiritual senses to open up to what is there. For me to appropriate the presence of the Lord means that I draw upon something so awesome and so wonderful; I realize that it is available and I can enshroud myself with it.
There are those who talk about the crucifixion of the flesh. But I know of no better way for the work of the cross to be done, or for us to go through a real work of death and burial and resurrection, than to be shrouded in God, and to stand worshiping the Lord completely surrounded in Him. There, within that holy atmosphere, little of the old human nature can thrive and grow, so it withers and dies in His presence. The things that stand against the Lord within your heart and your mind have to die at that moment.
Something of self-preservation in our old nature does not want to stand and recognize and appropriate that awesome presence. But if we do it, if we stand there while the consuming fire of God works, we will be aware of how we are changed into something new. The old things are burned away and something fostered and nourished springs forth.
How can I describe the presence of the Lord? In your darkest night—whatever it might be—when you appropriate the presence of the Lord it is a springtime in your spirit, a time of resurrection. When you stand in the presence of the Lord appropriating His presence, words that He has planted within your heart, prophecies and promises that are yours, suddenly flood through your consciousness and you become aware of what is happening. In that awesome presence, in that sunshine of His love and His smile, those words germinate and sprout and come forth. Every living word He has ever said to you, every precious experience, every promise that He ever quickened to your heart becomes alive in that moment. This, to me, is what the presence of the Lord means.
Do you love Him? Recognize His presence and appropriate it. Draw it to yourself because it is right there. How close is He to you? It is impossible to tell because spirit is not restricted to physical barriers. “Is He as close to me as my face? as my nose?” you may ask. That is putting a physical limitation on Him. He is in you, He is about you. Even in His glorified body, Jesus passed through doors and came into the midst of the disciples.
The material world is not a barrier. He comes and you draw His presence. It surrounds you and invades every brain cell. It moves through you, and in every part of your being there is the presence of the Lord. Is it too great a mystery for you to understand? Do you know that He is right there with you?
Draw the presence of the Lord, and open your heart for it to become very real. Surround yourself with it; literally clothe yourself in God. Hide away in it. We have learned the motions which strengthen the aura of His presence round about us, but that could very easily become almost a trivial little practice if the understanding is not there. Then we would just be going through a motion that would never have the richness it should have. All we would receive from the Lord would be only what we were believing to receive, and that is a very small amount. But it is God with whom we surround ourselves. This is our Lord, and in awe and wonder we draw Him round about us. Do it often, draw Him all about you.
Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. We bless You. We draw Thy presence. Break forth upon Thy people, O Lord. Let us tremble in that majestic presence, for You are Lord and You are Master. No fear shall live in our hearts, for the fears shall flee away when Thy love shines forth on the dark places of our spirit and our mind. We draw, O God, the life and the strength that You so graciously cause to flow to us from Your own heart.
We believe for the Spirit of the Lord to inspire the coming forth of hymns of worship in these days. We believe for the songs to be composed by the Spirit and given to our hearts that would express the recognition, the faith, and the adoration of His presence as we sing them. Let us pull down the walls in our thinking. O God, brainwash us from these limitations in our minds of what we think ought to be in a service. Let us come to believe that we can walk with God, that we can see our young men and women move into something of God. We will keep blessing and ministering to our elders, constantly anticipating and expecting great things, because the Lord is in our midst.