Satisfaction.  What is it that produces this condition in a seeking heart? In Psalm 17: 15 David declared: “….I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness”.  After salvation Jesus is our fellow traveller on our on-going, spiritual journey through this life.  We find God’s promise in Hebrews 13:5 “…….I will never leave you nor forsake you”.   This promise is sure and steadfast, but there are times of testing when we have to exercise faith in that word.  In adversity I may have experienced the depths of the slough of despond with all it’s accompanying negative emotions.  The test here is to prove God, let His word of promise be true instead of being governed by feelings that God has left me. Feelings are deceiving.  God cannot lie.  What has happened is that I have lost the awareness of God’s presence.  Why does this happen?  I have allowed some wrong thought or reaction to displace God’s peace within me, causing me to take a wrong route, and thus, I have lost the awareness of God’s presence.  We have all done it, but we can learn from our mistakes and keep short accounts with God, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  The time lapse between making the mistake and repenting, should get shorter and shorter as we mature in our Spirit walk.  If we do not learn from our history of mistakes, then we continue to repeat them.

The Lord Jesus, our Pattern Man, never lost the awareness of God’s presence in His earthly walk.  He only ever did the things that pleased His Father.  He only ever said the words His Father gave Him.  How, in His humanism, could He do that?  His secret was that He ALWAYS chose to do His Father’s will, as opposed to His own.  Thus He was a carrier of His Father’s presence.  This is our calling, our birthright in Jesus.

God is in ALL.  When we begin to look for God in the detail of our every day life, we shall find Him there, waiting to be acknowledged, consulted.  If I don’t consult God, I insult Him!  If I don’t make Him Lord of all, He is not Lord at all!  God is teaching us to see things from His perspective.  As we pursue Him and make right choices, His peace rules our rebel hearts.  As we abandon control of our lives to the Lord we discover true freedom in His abundant life.  That promise of abundant Life is for divine purposes to extend God’s kingdom, not to be trodden roughshod underfoot to promote man’s glory.

The natural man would seek a route to navigate around the storms of life.  God seeks for us to prove Him in the storm and allow Him to carry us through them.  His presence can carry us through.  That resurrection life of Christ is our birthright.  We are not waiting for God, He is waiting for us, (James 5:7).  As we exalt the Lord in every task, be it menial or otherwise, in every crisis, in every decision we will discover the true freedom of not only living in God’s presence, but being carriers of it.  The world will take notice of a demonstration more than words can ever say.  They will question what makes us different when so many are in fear and turmoil. We can carry His presence into their questioning, aching hearts and share Jesus with them.  If our lives are no different to theirs, complaining, fearful, critical and judgemental then where is the testimony of Jesus in us?

Deuteronomy 11 is the record of God’s promises to His people.  Verse 13 declares “…If you hearken diligently to my commandments ……to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul……”  then God promises in verse 21: “That your days…….will be as the days of heaven on earth”.   Heaven on earth…..what a promise!   We do not have to wait to get to heaven to experience it, we can begin to experience it down here by living in God’s presence, carrying His presence.

We began with the Psalmist declaring ‘When I awake in thy likeness then shall I be satisfied’.  When God sees the life of His Son operating in me, then will He be satisfied.  This is our goal. Christ in me, the hope of glory, living in His presence.

Just like Esther, we have come to the kingdom for such a time as this!  (Esther 4:14)

 

Photo by Kalen Emsley on Unsplash