Flow in God’s Glory Currents: 2 Keys to Practice His Presence

The foundation for practicing the presence is communion with the Holy Spirit.

Neither I nor anyone else can practice the presence of God for you. You are the steward of your own journey. I can, however, give you some biblical insight as well as practical steps to creating space for you to grow in the art of practicing the presence. The Bible says,

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen (Revelation 1:6 NKJV).

For the sake of discussion, I want to take a moment to focus on what I believe to be our highest priority as New Testament believers—our priestly role. The New Testament priesthood that we are called to must never be secondary but must remain primary in order for us to know what it is to practice the presence practically.

There are two things about our priestly assignment that we must know in order to learn how to practice the presence of the Lord. Knowing these two things gives us insight into positioning ourselves in preparation for the glory resting on us.

The first thing we need to understand is that only the priesthood carries the presence of the Lord. According to God’s design, only the priests were set apart to carry the presence—the ark of the covenant (see Numbers 4:15; Deuteronomy 31:9).

When King David wanted to bring the ark of the presence (covenant) back to Jerusalem, he first made a grave mistake by putting the ark on a cart. As a result, a man by the name of Uzzah died. When the ox pulling the ark stumbled, he reached out to steady it on the cart. David went back to the drawing board and understood that the ark of the covenant was never meant to rest on a cart but only on the shoulders of the priesthood (see 2 Samuel 6:1-15). It’s the same for us today. Only those whose hearts are postured as priests to the Lord will be the ones who will carry the manifest presence of God.

I believe wholeheartedly that the Old Covenant was a shadow of what was to come through the New Covenant found in Jesus Christ. With this being said, the Old Covenant reveals God’s design for the priesthood to carry the manifest presence. The main job of the priesthood was to minister directly to the Lord and carry the ark of the covenant. We make a huge mistake by making our ministries all about ministering to people. The priority of ministry must never be people or the needs around us. The focus of our ministries must always be unto the Lord. From this place of ministering to the Lord, all other ministry flows. This is the heart posture of a New Testament priest.

The second thing that we need to understand about our priesthood is that as priests we are called to be keepers of the flame of God. It is the fire of God that prepares us for glory. The fire of God purifies and refines us, consecrating us to carry the manifest presence of God. The fire of His presence keeps our hearts tender and responsive before Him. It is the very thing that ignites a deep passion for Jesus and keeps us in pursuit of ongoing encounters with Him.

This holy fire was so important to God that He gave Moses further instructions concerning it:

And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be put out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order on it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out (Leviticus 6:12-13).

If you study this passage, you will see that it was God who sent this supernatural fire, but it was the priests who had been commanded to keep it burning. This, to me, is a perfect example of co-laboring with God for revival glory. God is always faithful to send His fire, His glory, and revival for that matter, but we must learn to steward it well by keeping it going.

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the church in Thessalonica, exhorted these believers to make sure to not “put out” the fire of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Thessalonians 5:19). Practicing the presence is what we do to keep the fire of God burning in our heart.

Again, to practice something is to carry out an activity habitually or regularly.

Two Keys that Will Position Your Heart to Practice the Presence

1. Decide to Die Daily

[Jesus said,] “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-24 NKJV).

[The apostle Paul said,] “I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31 NKJV).

This is a daily decision. We as people of God must learn to harness the power of decision. Every decision that we make will manifest a result, whether it be good or bad. There are decisions we can make today that will either positively or negatively affect our lives. The priests in Leviticus had to make a decision to obey God and to keep the fire of God burning daily (see Leviticus 6:12-13). The fire on the altar required daily attendance. It is the absolute same in practicing the presence of the Lord through ongoing fellowship. Any deep relationship will always come at a cost. I believe it is time to “buy oil,” according to the parable of the ten virgins that Jesus talked about in Matthew 25:

Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight a cry was heard: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!” Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise answered, saying, “No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves” (Matthew 25:1-9 NKJV).

The gospel is absolutely free, but maturity will cost you everything. We will never carry the manifest presence of God in our lives by only living a “Sunday morning church service relationship” with Jesus. In other words, those who reduce their Christian life to Sunday mornings instead of living a life laid down daily will miss out on the life that Jesus paid for. Dying daily looks like you rearranging your schedule to be with Him. It looks like getting up an hour early so you can be intentional about being still and hearing His voice. Dying daily looks like living unoffended and forgiving quickly when others betray you. It looks like being fully yielded to Him and obeying no matter what the cost might be. A life laid down for the Lord will produce within us the “oil of intimacy,” which will produce eternal fruit that remains. When you and I decide to die daily, we make room for the life and power of God to enter in. When we decide to lose our life for His sake, it is then that we truly find it!

Kathryn Kuhlman understood what it meant to die to herself:

If you think it’s easy to go to the cross, it’s simply because you’ve never been there. I’ve been there. I know. And I had to go alone. I knew nothing of the power of the mighty third person of the Trinity which was available to all. I just knew it was four o’clock on Saturday afternoon and I had come to the place in my life where I was ready to give up everything—even Mister—and die. I said it out loud, “Dear Jesus, I surrender all. I give it all to you. Take my body. Take my heart. All I am is yours. I place it in your wonderful hands.” In that moment, I yielded to God in body, soul, and spirit. I gave him everything…. That afternoon, Kathryn Kuhlman died. And when I died, God came in, the Holy Spirit came in. There, for the first time, I realized what it meant to have power.

Deciding to die daily looks like making a decision to prioritize connecting with the Holy Spirit every single day. It looks like setting aside time just to be with Him. It’s time to put down the distractions and just be with the One who is worthy of our affection.

I love what God told John and Carol Arnott, pastors of the Toronto Outpouring, as they sought the “more” of God:

As we cried out to the Lord that night, He answered us. He said, “If you’re serious, I’ll give you two things to do. Number one, I want your mornings. And number two, I want you to hang around people who are anointed.”

Let’s just decide right now that we are going to give God our mornings! After all, He is altogether worth it!

2. Decide to Drink Deeply through Praise and Worship

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38 NKJV).

We must learn to be heavy drinkers if we are going to carry glory. Jesus has made His water well available, but we must come to Him and drink deeply through praise and worship. It is high time to draw near to the Lord! As we draw near to Him, it’s then that He draws nearer to us (see James 4:8). Be intentional today and draw near to Him. He’s waiting for you! As you do this, He will fill you up to overflowing!

When writing to a church who had already experienced a measure of revival, Paul the apostle said, “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine [intoxicated, under the influence] … but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:17-18 NKJV).

The will of God for you and me is to be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit. To be absolutely immersed, filled, and flooded with the manifest presence of the living God. You know you are full when you live a life of overflow. This, to me, is a sign that you are drinking deeply. The good news is that the Bible is clear that we have all been privileged to drink from the same Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 12:13). Let’s get to drinking!