“The Presence”  By Jeannette Haley

Memories, facts and feelings, like waves upon the shoreline, come and go. Some are stronger than others, thus, while many are faded or forgotten in the mists of time, there remains those that are grafted into our minds and hearts, as if anchored by an incomprehensible and indestructible power. Such is the unforgettable, manifest, enveloping peace and power of the Presence. The grandest effort to cleverly and artfully craft words to describe the divine Presence will fall short of adequately conveying the awesome, compelling, overwhelming, divine Presence. The seeking soul that encounters the Presence of the “LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments” (Nehemiah 1:5), will never forget the overwhelming, awesome, deeply penetrating power and peace of such an experience.

       In the Presence of God a soul, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, reserves no desire for the carnal things of the flesh or this world. All temporary lusts and attractions have vanished, while a longing heart for God, and God alone joins the Psalmist in singing, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God” Psalm 42:1, 2? The exquisite agony of King David in seeking for the Presence of God is unashamedly expressed in these words, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary” Psalm 63:1, 2. Such heart-cries echo through the ages and resonate in the innermost being of all who long for much more than a controlled, time-constraining, man-centered “worship,” and a  mere routine Sunday morning pep talk.

        The question is, are we truly desiring the Presence in our homes, churches, and daily lives, or do we assume that the manifest presence of God, that awesome, indescribable, holy presence was only for the prophets, priests and kings of the Old Testament, the pilgrim church, and a few heroes and martyrs of the faith in remote places and in times past? Instead of the Presence, are we who live in this harried, post-modern world truly willing to settle for rituals, repetitious religious liturgies, doctrines, traditions, practices and “church” works, while considering them as sufficient “spiritual food” for our languishing souls? After all, just as nutritionally-deficient modern man has been conditioned to believe that processed junk food is real food, we’ve likewise been conditioned to believe that emotional fervor loudly expressing itself in jumping up and down is equivalent to true revival and “worship” in “Spirit and truth”? How can our souls be fed the Living Word with watered-down so-called “versions” of the Bible that are not anointed or true to the principles of truth? How can “relational” messages that “tickle itching ears” rather than “step on toes” inspire and move hurt and lost souls to come and fall at the feet of Jesus Christ?  

       The satanic agenda of a self-serving, relentless conditioning has seemingly erased and replaced what once was the reverent, deep, serious study and personal application of the Holy Bible with the “more relevant” ideas, opinions and conclusions of modernists and New Age progressives, much of which is found in contemporary, so-called “Christian” books, videos, TV, and social media. This insidious conditioning and subtle erosion of biblical truth knows no boundaries from the pulpit to the precious gullible innocents, young children and youth. Gone is the urgency to ensure every child and young person knows the Gospel, knows Jesus Christ, understands and memorizes Bible verses, and learns that a consecrated Christian life consists of faith, obedience, Bible study and prayer. One is left to wonder how many souls in these end days truly hunger and thirst for the awesome Presence amidst all the man-centered busyness, entertainment, social events, time-consuming activities, dead works and frantic church building. What happened to committed discipleship, earnest soul-winning, and dedicated ministry of helps to the poor and needy, to the abused, the forgotten, and the lonely? A better question is, “Where is Jesus Christ in all this?”

       In my mind’s eye, I see a hand pop up. “Yes, Sister Know-So, you have an answer?” At this point, I am aware that there’s an 80% chance that the proposed “solution” will entail the most popular New Age “wave” washing through the post-modern churches. Sure enough, the affirmation is soundly pronounced, and heads nod and bob in agreement. Here it is in a nutshell: All that people need is to experience “the silence, breath prayers, empty your mind, be still and know that YOU are God.” This is the bottom line of the “contemplative prayer” or Eastern mysticism, panentheism (God is in everything), that is flowing through “Christian” books, movies, retreats, conferences, seminars, seminaries, Bible colleges, schools and churches. LOTS of churches—estimated around 80 percent!

       Why didn’t Jesus teach His disciples to pray this way? Because He knew that as soon as a human being “empties his or her mind” it’s wide open for familiar spirits and demons. And, yes, that means Christians! It’s kind of like a nation that is unwise enough to leave its borders wide open, or the king of a castle who leaves the drawbridge down, or a negligent home owner who leaves the doors unlocked when he or she is asleep or away, or when a cowboy leaves the barn door open and expects to find his horse inside. Has the church become so “advanced,” “wise” and “educated” that she has forgotten what God’s Word tells us concerning our enemy? Think about this, “And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it” Job 1:7 and again in Job 2:2. One might ask, “Why is Satan walking back and forth, and up and down on the earth?” The Apostle Peter said, “Be sober, be vigilent; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” 1 Peter 5:8,” “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” 2 Peter 2:1.  

       Therefore, when Christians eagerly embrace and practice unbiblical, esoteric or mystical teachings and beliefs, such as New Age contemplative prayer simply because they are endorsed by books purchased from Christian bookstores, or by enthusiastic friends, or leaders in churches, they are foolishly opening themselves up to familiar spirits, demons, and deadly delusion. This type of “silence” is the key to suspending the mind into a thoughtless, empty state which causes a person to enter into a trance, or altered state of consciousness. Instead of “finding the ‘divine’ or ‘god’ or ‘true self’ within,” what will be encountered will be demonic entities, or familiar spirits such as, a religious spirit, a spirit of insanity, an unclean spirit, a mocking spirit, a lying spirit, or a spirit of pride, to name a few.

       God has not changed, and He never will. Therefore, His admonitions to the children of Israel concerning learning the practices and ways of the heathen still stand for His people today. Deuteronomy 18:9 says, “When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy GOD giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.” The following verses list some of the things that are an abomination to Him such as “a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.” (See Deuteronomy 18:9-14.) Jeremiah 10:2a, “Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen….” This unbiblical “eastern wind” blowing through churches across the land is blurring the line between true Christianity and all other religions and beliefs. There is no doubt, given the magnitude of this tsunami of eastern mysticism and demonic practices in the American churches, that God’s judgment is soon to follow, for mysticism will be the religion of the “son of perdition,” or the antichrist. All believers should be strongly warned that interspirituality, the belief that all the world’s religions are identical at the mystical level and therefore there should be solidarity among them, will dull down, doom and destroy all who embrace it.  

       Nowhere in Scripture are we told to “empty our minds of all thoughts” in order to come into God’s presence, or to pray to Him. As for meditation, we are to meditate on the Word of God in order to have the “mind of Christ!” 1 Corinthians 2:16, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. Romans 12:2,  “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” God tells us what to think on in Philippians 4:8; Concerning the thoughts of the righteous, Proverbs 12:5 says “The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.” Psalm 94:19 tells us, “In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.”

       The Bible tells us that the LORD walked and communed with Adam and Eve in the Garden, before their fall which caused them to hide themselves from His presence (Genesis 3:8). We can only wonder if the absence of GOD’s presence after that brought an overwhelming sense of lostness, loneliness, shame and regret. We read of King David’s longing for God as the one thing he desired the most from the LORD. In Psalm 27:4, he expressed his heart, “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.” The prophet Isaiah yearned for the LORD’s presence to come into the world. He wrote, “With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”

       Moses knew the presence of God well, and said to Him, “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence” Exodus 33:15, and he begged God to show him His glory. Joshua, the young servant of Moses, longed to be in the presence of God so much so that he lingered in the tabernacle after Moses had finished speaking face to face with God and had returned to the camp. The entire Bible is alive with the Presence of the Living God whether it is His manifest presence speaking to His prophets, or in a burning bush, or within the cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night, or upon the Holy Mount, within the Holy of Holies, or filling the temple, or on the Mount of Transfiguration, just to give a few examples. Emmanuel, “God with us”; “God was in Christ”; “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” (See Matthew 1:23; 2 Corinthians 2:19; James 4:8.)

       How can a soul who has experienced the Presence, even if for only a very short period of time, return to the bleak darkness of this world in order to aimlessly drift on a gray sea of man-centered, traditional, luke-warm religion?  God is indeed omnipresent as He declared in Jeremiah 23:23, 24, “Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.” “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon him while he is near” Isaiah 55:6; “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth” John 4:24; “O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth” Psalm 96:9.

       Perhaps the Presence is rarely found, felt or experienced in our programmed gatherings these days because the Holy Spirit, having been often vexed, grieved, and quenched, has withdrawn. (See Isaiah 63:10; Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19.) If so, we need to repent, and pray that we never hear these words, “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost” Acts 7:51a.