Walking with Him

Living in His presence

Walking humbly with your God

“‘With what shall I come before the Lord, 
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic.6:6-8)
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,” (Deut.10:12)
Since the beginning (see e.g. Enoch and Noah) this was the one thing that God wanted – that we would walk (live) mindful of his presence. It is important to realise that it is not about the actual presence of the God who fills heaven and earth (Jer.23:24), but about our awareness of his holy presence.

And this has become reality in the New Covenant when we not only livebefore Him, but He lives in us and we in Him. From Romans to 2 Peter the words “in Christ” are found 89 times! Jesus Himself expresses this clearly in John 14:17-18, 20, 15:1-14, 17:21-23, 26. The Scripture in 1 Thess.5:17 says, “pray without ceasing,”. How is this possible? Don’t we have jobs and work to do?

The secret is to live a life in the presence of God, a life of dependence on Him and his power working in us.

• I have very early on in my walk with the Lord learned that I cannot do any “spiritual” work in my own strength… Because of my natural personality as an introvert, I simply could not talk to people about Jesus and what God has done for us through Him. That was why I prayed so desperately for God to fill me with his Holy Spirit, because I knew from experience that I could never be a witness to Him by myself (not that I didn’t try at first). But He could (and did!) use me as an instrument in his hand after filling me with his Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8).
• However, until very recently, my secular work, my studies, etc. I simply did in my own strength. Yes, I did my best because I did it “for Him”, but I relied on my own wisdom and intelligence to do it. Being healthy and loving to learn, I thought that I could do this well enough on my own. But I recently learned that as a follower of Jesus, I cannot. A little book by brother Lawrence, “the practice of the presence of God”, as well as a number of personal circumstances, suddenly brought it home to me… walking in the presence of the Lord includes a life of total dependence on Him, a life of faith (trust) in Him. In our secular jobs we are serving Him(this I knew), and therefore, just like we need his Spirit for serving Him in “spiritual matters”, we need Him to serve Him in our daily work (this I learned).
• Even more so, I learned that even when we relax, rest, or go on holiday (which we all need), we should do it in dependence on Him. Jesus rested (e.g. sleeping in the boat on the Sea of Gallilee), but even his time of rest, was a time of teaching and of being useful to God (Matt.8:23-27, Matt.14:13). I realised that we can trust the Father to lead us to rest as we need it (Matt.11:28-30, Mark 6:31). He will not allow us to burn out serving Him… burn-out is all too often the evidence that we have been serving Him in our own strength. But similarly, considering my “down time” as my own, opens me to all kinds of temptations. It was while David was relaxing in Jerusalem with his army fighting in Rabba, that he sinned with Bathsheba (2 Sam.11). I also found that I was most vulnerable to sin when relaxing, “doing my own thing”. Even our “off” time we are to spend in his presence.

All good and well, but how do we live (walk) in the presence of God? A few practical things I have learned:

• Make sure there are no unconfessed sins that can break your intimacy with the Holy God. Go to Him in prayer and ask Him to show you any and all sin that is in your life that may separate you from Him (Isa.59:1-2). Then know that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin when we acknowledge and confess them to Him one-by-one by name (1 John 1:5-10) – He even forgets about them (think about that! – Isa.43:25).
• During the day, talk to God about what you are doing. Ask his help and ask Him to lead you to do it to his glory, out of love for Him because of his great love for you. Thank Him for his help and praise Him for all that He has done for us continually (Eph.5:18-20).
• If you sin against your brother (or even a non-believer), immediately go to him or her and make peace (reconcile) if possible – Matt.5:24– then you can continue to walk in His presence with a clear conscience.
• Quiet prayer, also about your daily chores, is how you come into the presence of God. However, after that you remain in his presence simply by an inner awareness that He is there… and as soon as you loose this awareness, you return to Him in quiet prayer.

This all is part of how we follow the promised good Shepherd in his coming Kingdom.