Carrying the Presence

Carrying the Presence

I have written a few times about carrying the presence of God. It doesn’t matter what else our ‘job’  as Christians may be, we need above all things to carry the presence of God with us wherever we go. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, pastors, or congregant - any person in the Body of Christ should carry His presence with them. Not a few don’t of course, but why?

They do not spend time in the presence of God, therefore they cannot carry the presence of God. To be a carrier of His presence, one must first be a dweller in His presence. To be a dweller in His presence, one must first, and continually, seek Him. Jesus instruction to His disciples “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33

This is one of the places we go wrong. We seek His hand and not His face. We seek what He can give us rather than seeking His company as a friend. If you are one such, may I urge you to start seeking Him for Himself, for who He is, rather than for what He can do for you. So many of our prayers are more like a shopping list. It seems almost like we are sending God out, with His great big shopping cart, with a list of our wants. His Word doesn’t promise us our wants, but it does promise us our needs. It is too often “all about me.”

A person like this doesn’t carry very much of God’s presence with him at all. In fact, he is more likely to enjoy his own presence rather than God’s presence. When we carry God’s presence, people will notice a certain “something” different about us. With God’s presence, many of our hang-ups and foibles simply disappear, they don’t seem to matter any more. We offer to pray with people more, we help them more willingly, we actually listen to them and get to know them better. We may even learn to love them a little bit.

Carrying God’s presence opens up all sorts of opportunities for us to just be Christian. Whether it is a smile and a cheerful greeting, or a prayer, or a gift of groceries whatever we carry of God’s presence goes with it. It is a seed that we plant in another persons life. Once they have been touched by the presence of God, they cannot ever be the same again.

That is what carrying God’s presence is all about. It’s not about us and how ‘good’ or ‘holy’ we are. It is solely about God and how much He loves everyone and how He can touch their lives through us.

What an honour and privilege to think that we can carry a little bit of our wonderful Saviour into the lives of others who, perhaps, don’t yet know Him.

Seek Him afresh today?