Dwell in His Presence

11th September
Sit still, my daughter.
Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted. Be still, and know that I am God. Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
Mary ... sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established.
He that believeth shall not make haste.

Ruth 3:18. Isa. 7:8. Ps. 46:10. John 11:40. Isa. 2:17. Luke 10:39. Luke 10:42. Isa. 30:15. Ps. 4:4. Ps. 37:7. Ps. 112:7,8. Isa. 28:16.








5TH september 2008


The second thing of significance is that we are to dwell there! Moses only had a brief time on the mountain really close to God. To dwell means to live in that place. What Glory!! To live next to the Almighty, right in His presence. Our permanent abode is to be in this secret place. Why should we even want to live there?

(Psa 27:5 NASB) For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; in the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock.

In the day of trouble He will conceal me in His secret place. That day could be almost any day. We live in a veil of tears most of the time and trouble is all around. This is a place of supernatural strength for He lifts us up on a rock. Behold I lay in Zion a stone, a tried stone a precious corner stone. Our Rock and our Redeemer has become our salvation and our strength. Oh to live with the Almighty is to plug into the high voltage circuit of the spirit. It is where God can most effectively work with us.

(Psa 31:19 NASB) How great is Thy goodness, Which Thou hast stored up for those who fear Thee, Which Thou hast wrought for those who take refuge in Thee, Before the sons of men!

(Psa 31:20 NASB) Thou dost hide them in the secret place of Thy presence from the conspiracies of man; Thou dost keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.

(Isa 45:2 NASB) "I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze, and cut through their iron bars.

(Isa 45:3 NASB) "And I will give you the treasures of darkness, And hidden wealth of secret places, In order that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.



Look at this! God has stored up GOODNESS in the secret place. He will break all obstacles in our way and GIVE to us the treasures of darkness and the wealth of the secret places. That implies that all the resources that God has for us is there. We can access all the riches in Christ, we can access all God has for us there. Wow! I want to be in that place!!

I was talking with a man who was raised a Catholic but had no relation with His Lord. During our conversation he mentioned his wife as being antagonistic toward things of religion. I had shared Christ with him and so he knew at least something of the possibilities in Christ, and I told him he could pray for his wife once he got his life right with the Lord. He said "You don’t know my wife – she’s Sicilian!" I said "Is she bigger than God?" Oh how we limit God! That man is sitting in a thousand pews in a thousand Churches. He has the form of Godliness but denies its power. We cannot dream big enough for what God will do!!

The Song of Solomon is a beautiful type of the mutual love of the groom and bride or the Lord and His Church. I have read it several times in this light and have been blessed every time. I especially love the second chapter where the Lord speaks to his Bride in endearing terms and finally says.

(Song 2:10 NASB) "My beloved responded and said to me, 'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, And come along.

(Song 2:11 NASB) 'For behold, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone.

(Song 2:12 NASB) 'The flowers have already appeared in the land; The time has arrived for pruning the vines, And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.

(Song 2:13 NASB) 'The fig tree has ripened its figs, And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance. Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, And come along!'"

(Song 2:14 NASB) "O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, In the secret place of the steep pathway, Let me see your form, Let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet, And your form is lovely."

Oh how sweet our Lord speaks to us His bride. This speaks of time of refreshing like the spring after the winter when all is fresh and new. He desires to meet us in the secret place in the steep pathway. He desires to hear our voice and see our form. Oh my heart stirs at His desire and I want to be there too. To hear His wonderful voice and to see His form that is altogether lovely. What believer would not be stirred by such a request from their Lord? To not be moved is to be in deadness of spirit. To be sure sins make us dead to the Lord’s request but so does business. Martha had that problem when Jesus came to their house in Bethany, but Mary knew what was really happening. Jesus had arrived and she was at His feet enjoying His presence. The Church at Ephesus was commended for things that most churches would love to see. They worked diligently and patiently. They faced down false doctrine. They persevered. They were a working Church! But the Living Lord said they had left their first love! They were dead orthodoxy and doctrine. They had doctrine down to a science and their faith was intellectual, but they had no fire in their midst. They had no heat, they were cold. That path is easy to travel and most denominations that started out in the crucible of pure Holy Fire eventually left it for orthodox coldness. Look at Methodism today, look at the Salvation Army today, look at the many denominations that were flaming during the first and second Great Awakening and see where they are today. The Pentecostal and Charismatic Church is going down the same path in many cases. We who make the Fire of God a doctrine are losing the Fire and keeping the doctrine!

Asaph was in trouble. He was mired in dead orthodoxy in Psalms 73. Dead orthodoxy has no answer for sin. The sinner sees nothing he desired in its coldness and deadness. There is no living Lord, He is either still in the tomb or has escaped and is gone. Asaph didn’t understand why the sinful men didn’t just curl up and die. After all, they were in direct violation of the doctrine. Had he kept his skirts clean and suffered for naught? Why he had suffered poverty and these guys were rich! He suffered privation and they had surplus! Right now that sin looked pretty good! Sin had better answers than dead orthodoxy until something happened.

(Psa 73:16 NASB) When I pondered to understand this, It was troublesome in my sight

(Psa 73:17 NASB) Until I came into the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end.

Asaph went into the sanctuary of God. That is the secret place. His perceptions and priorities were rearranged. Getting close to God has a habit of doing that. It is like waking up from a dream that seemed so real. Asaph then could say:

(Psa 73:25 NASB) Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth.

(Psa 73:26 NASB) My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

He understood that God had been with him all this time but he just had not perceived it. He was revitalized he was set on fire. Fervor had replaced faintheartedness. Perception had replaced poverty. Desire had replaced deadness. Oh how our God wants to change us to move through us! We need to get into that secret place, that sanctuary and let Him have His way! We need to yearn and hunger and thirst for the Living God. He only wants people who look for Him. If we search for Him he promises He will be found. Cry out like David:

(Psa 63:1 NASB) (A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.) O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

(Psa 63:2 NASB) Thus I have beheld Thee in the sanctuary, To see Thy power and Thy glory.

Where do we go? What do we do? Jesus said that is was expedient that He go so that the comforter would come. The promised Holy Spirit. How maligned the Holy Spirit is in our midst. Many know about Him but he is like a vague doctrine to them. He is the silent and invisible part of the Trinity. But Pentecost was something else. This was blaze of Holy Fire, a passion and fervor that led to 3000 being added to the Church. This was no invisible Spirit. There were visible flames, a people speaking strange tongues, power from on High that healed and saved. The people put the sick out so that even the shadows of the apostles might fall on them and they be healed. Jesus said:

(John 14:12 NASB) "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.

(John 14:13 NASB) "And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

There are those in dead orthodoxy who say that the time of miracles is past. The promise of Jesus is taken to mean that the technology of radio and television are what Jesus meant. That one man through this technology can reach far more than Jesus could. What this argument presents is only the arguer’s own paucity of power. I am not arguing that radio and television are not used of God, but Jesus wasn’t talking about them when He said we would do greater works. The Spirit as per Joel 2 that Peter preached at Pentecost said that God would pour is Spirit out on ALL flesh. The works of wonder and power would be part of this great outpouring. Acts is still the blueprint for what the Church is supposed to be. Signs and wonders should still be a part of our work. I was talking to a young Mormon on the plane. I told him about the wonder of God and what great work he was doing in my life. He reacted almost visibly by going into some automatic mode and spoke almost sing song "Wouldn’t you like to be in a church where the twelve apostles are reinstated and the true prophetic office still resides?" I told him: "Get off the automatic response. When has God come to you with fire and power and moved upon you and changed you from glory to glory? When have YOU prophesied? What is God doing in you life this moment?" He looked at me and realized he had no answer. Cold orthodoxy cannot answer sin but sin cannot answer FIRE!!

Paul knew the secret when he said:

(1 Cor 6:19 NASB) Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

We have heard this time and time again so that we have almost been inured to it. But this is the most awesome thing. The Holy Spirit who moved on the waters at creation, the Holy Spirit who was in pillar of fire and cloud, the Holy Spirit who dwelt between the Cherubim in the Holy Place is the same Holy Spirit who indwell us!! Oh what wonder, what glory!! Jesus said that He would be with us until the end of the age. How? By the indwelling Holy Spirit. He is within us. In Colossians 1:27 it is Christ IN you the hope of glory. He is the secret place. He is the sanctuary.

(Eph 3:8 NASB) To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,

So you see all the riches promised in the Old Testament are in Christ and He is in us. And we have died and our life is hidden (in the secret place) in Christ. The secret place is not somewhere out there but in our heart.

Jesus had overshadowed my life numerous times. One of those times He said to me that the prime reason the Holy Spirit came was not just to quicken and save us but that He could have intimate relations with us. That astounded me. He is the source of fire and zeal in my life and he dwell within. Oh that we would cling to that. Seek Him in the secret place, seek His fire and presence. Seek Him for His love and presence alone. Seek Him in humbleness and brokeness. You will not be disappointed. Let revival start with you








July 2008
A friend recently confirmed with a word God laid on her heart to give to me at an unexpected time, however it was an answer to my prayer as well as for the following day.

For the past year I believed and knew in my heart whom my husband to be is, though it seemed he was still asleep. Suppose at some point, we get impatient as things does not always work according our plan. Dwelling in His presence has become my main focus and it is not always about what we want but what He desires are for us.

As I am spending more time with Him, things are happening. For a few months I have been praying that someone will confirm that the man God has send in my life, is my husband to be. I also prayed that God will be the chemistry and the connection between us, and that we will look at each other with the eyes of God's spirit and not of the flesh.

About two weeks ago, I applied for jobs and got two offers, one as Lingerie Designer in Sydney and the other one in Durban...but luckily His timing was perfect. The previous day, my best friend and her husband, also our cell leaders from Church confirmed what I have know for a while is from God. So, I turned the offers down. Spending more and more time in His presence, has capture my heart in such a remarkable way...as well as taught me patience.
Also the beauty of this journey is that this lovely man, is gradually waking up, and seeing God in me....and it is about God's glory -dwelling with Him.

I decided to create this group, let us Dwell in His Presence more...so that our husbands will have to seek God to find our hearts...

Any one is welcome to join me on Monday evenings, to Dwell in His presence - a date with God.

Dwelling in the secret place - i article I found and would love to share it.
Having found the place of rest, we then need to dwell in that secret place, under the shadow of the Almighty. The secret place - an intimate unrestrained communion - a place where you can make known your heart, with its needs and wishes, its thoughts and feelings, its doubts and anxieties, its sorrows and its joys, to God as to a loving, perfect friend. A place of refuge from the storms of the world where we can cleave, cling to him. This almighty Friend has admitted me, you, his chosen ones, to his secret place. It's almost too wonderful to be true.
He desires it because he wants to commune with us, to reveal his mind to us, his plans, his ways and his thoughts. He wants us to know him. It's not his fault we don't know him - he's provided the way - we often don't take it.
This dwelling in God's secret place - we must make it our rest, not just coming as guests to a hotel, but as inhabitants to their own dwellings - like coming home. The Hebrew word for "shall abide" signifies "he shall pass the night" - denotes security and rest in times of darkness, temptations and crises.
We don't all dwell in the most holy place - we run to it at times and enjoy occasional approaches, but do we dwell? Do we habitually reside in his presence? If we dwell with him, we shall remain under his care - he shields us. We are safe with him - his outstretched wings of power and love cover us. This protection is ours if we abide constantly in him. The Almighty himself is where his shadow is - this suggests such a closeness - an inseparableness - you can't be closer.
He is our refuge - we can fly to him. He is our fortress - the Lord of Hosts stands between us and our enemies - we're secure, unafraid - the Lord is an impregnable fortress.
How do we do it - come to dwell in this secret place and rest there? We make it ours by faith, "I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress." I cast myself on him, throw myself on him, pitch myself, make him my dwelling place, my habitation. When we are dwelling in this way, no harm can befall us.
In times of trial and temptation, difficulties and problems, we're wise if we fly into the secret place of God - to rest in the shadow of the Almighty. My strength is to sit still there. When we're weak and struggling, striving against sin and sorrow, hurting from the attacks of man, he is our safe, quiet resting place.
If we can reach that place we are blessed indeed because having reached it, no harm will befall us. If you reach that place, the holy of holies, all you can do is worship Jesus - nothing else matters - everything else falls away - problems disappear. As we come into his presence, his radiance, everything else becomes unimportant, caught up with Jesus into a place where all we want to do is worship him. Very often we never get to that place - when we do, we don't want to leave it - it's a wrench to come away.
Jesus says, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
Finally
Where are you on the journey into God's presence? What obstacles do you still need to remove? With clean hands and a pure heart, you can dwell in his presence and find rest for your soul.