You are as near to God as you want to be. God is not far off unless you are. Your experience with God depends on your nearness to God and all that would happen in His presence. Don’t wait for God’s presence to happen, and simply fall to your knees and go to Him.
You have to get into His presence to feel His presence. You have to make the first move. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…” (James 4:8 NKJV).
The problem we have is we don’t understand prayer. We think prayer only a task with the sole purpose of asking for things without considering who we are approaching. Prayer should be nothing less than stepping into the throne room of heaven and drawing near to a holy and majestic God.
When your life is a prayer, the Lord will always be near you. “Make your life a prayer” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 TPT).
We are meant to be near to the Lord, and prayer is how we get there. “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth” (Psalm 145:18 NKJV).
When God called for His children Adam and Eve in the garden, asking them where they were, never think that He didn’t know. They hid from Him because of their shame. But they came to Him in their nakedness, and then He clothed them. Stop hiding from God and let His grace cover you.
You have to come clean to get clean. “Therefore, repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be erased; so that times of refreshing may come from the Lord’s presence; and he may send the Messiah appointed in advance for you, that is, Yeshua” (Acts 3:19-20 CJB).
You learn about the things of God through your adult intellect, but you must come to Christ as a child. You can go far in your knowledge of the truth but still be distant from the Lord Jesus, who is truth. You don’t get nearer to God through your intellect but through your heart.
Drawing near to the Lord is an act of the heart and not of the mind, because intimacy is founded on love. “Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart” (Jeremiah 24:7 NKJV).
The darkness avoids the light lest it be ruined. In the same way, your sin separates you from God so long as you choose to hold onto it. It is not that God cannot forgive you, but you must be willing to let Him. Don’t squander the treasures of heaven by holding onto the filth of this world.
When you are standing in the light, darkness cannot come near you. “But if we are living in the light of God’s presence, just as Christ does, then we have wonderful fellowship and joy with each other, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin” (1 John 1:7 TLB).
You have to turn to God before you can draw near to God. “Come close to the one true God, and He will draw close to you. Wash your hands; you have dirtied them in sin. Cleanse your heart, because your mind is split down the middle, your love for God on one side and selfish pursuits on the other” (James 4:8 Voice).
We can get into His presence in private better than in public because it is there where our pride has no purpose. We get nearer to our God on high by bowing lower before Him. Pride is the barrier to His presence because it has no place in the throne room of heaven.
In the kingdom, your stature is determined by how low you will kneel. “Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant]” (James 4:10 AMPC).
Being in the presence of God is a privilege for His children. How much we squander all His blessings when we don’t draw near to receive them. We were meant to be in the presence of God, and it is only there where we will find peace and completeness.
I want to be so hidden in Your presence that trouble can’t even find me. “You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues” (Psalm 31:20 NKJV).
You get into the presence of God through the practice of prayer. You stay in the presence of God through the practice of righteousness. You will have a life lived out in His presence when once you decide you can’t have your life any other way.
The path to God is through prayer. “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:12-13 NKJV).
Blessings to you,
Paul Balius
Paul, You are such a blessing for all of us, your readers. I always pay so much attention to your posts because -I know- it’s Jesus talking directly to me, every single time over and over again.. I’m speechless right now. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Luly
Luly, thank you so much! I am so blessed by words, more than you know. It is my greatest desire to be useful as a servant in even the smallest of ways. I know that God can use you in the same way. My prayer is that His favor will pour out over you and through you to those that are around you. Blessings to you! Paul