LETTER 21 – A DISCIPLE LIVES LIFE IN THE PRESENCE
OF GOD
Dear Redeemer Family,
I wish I was with you as I share this next part
of being a disciple. For it would be better to be in your presence, than apart.
Linda and I love gathering with you on Sundays.
To see you, to speak with many of you,
to hear your voices as we worship together – how beautiful
this is to us!
Better is a Sunday morning in the house of the
Lord than a thousand mornings elsewhere!
My Jesus-following life began in 1970, when I
heard God tell me, “John, I love you.” Let me repeat: I heard this. It
astonished me! I would never make something like this up. I felt God close to
me, like nothing I’d ever experienced before. Good-bye, religion. Welcome,
relationship.
This began what has become a love affair with
God, in His presence. As one of Jesus’s disciples, He has made it clear to me
that He is with me. And, that He will never abandon me.
I understand “He is with me” to mean, I am in His presence. (How weird to have someone be with you, and not with you at the same time.)
I understand “He is with me” to mean, I am in His presence. (How weird to have someone be with you, and not with you at the same time.)
My Teacher has taught me that all that is of
value and worth is found in His presence.
Soon I will be seventy-one years old. I feel the
things of this world dripping off me as my desire for His presence increases.
To know Him. In experience.
To experience God, knowing and searching me out.
The reason the psalmist declares “Better is
one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere” is because of the
earth-shattering, loving, presence of God in the Temple.
I resonate with the plea of Moses in Exodus 33 – “Lord,
if Your presence does not go with us, we’re not going!”
Me either.
This is the disciple’s distinctive: the presence
of God.
My dear brothers and sisters, I want you to exist
for His presence.
Love,
PJ
DECLARATIONS
I desire nothing more
than to be in the Lord’s presence.
I sense God-with-me
several times each day.
Because I dwell in God’s
presence I am an empowered person.
Sometimes the presence
of God overwhelms me.
I’m not making a move
without being in His presence!
(You can read more on God's presence in my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church.)
