Righteousness of God _ Practical Pointers for Practicing His Presence

Presentation Notes

Previously discussed

the birth pains of the coming kingdom

Trials and tribulations that are to come on the earth

I briefly mentioned that in this time, the most important thing for us to do is to draw near to God - to be listening to His voice, and to be filled with the Spirit.

• • In Matthew Yeshua ends his message about the coming of the son of man with: parable of the faithful and evil servant,
    - Wise and foolish virgins
    - The parable of the talents.
    • Each have something in common. Being watchful and ready when Messiah returns
    • Mark 13:33-37

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. 34It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. 35Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning— 36lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. 37And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

• To me, the idea of being watchful is encompassed by drawing near to God and being useful to Him and His kingdom.
• Whenever I think of this topic of drawing near to God, I am reminded of this little book, Practicing His Presence
• Term: Practicing His Presence
  • Brother Lawrence
  • Frank Laubach
• Not automatic - Not something we have to do.
  • Why wouldn’t you? God is our all.
  • Why shouldn’t you? You’ve been given access to the throne.

Misconceptions

• Not as if I’m doing this perfectly or figured it out, or that I’m going to tell you anything that you haven’t heard.
  • Notes
• Doesn’t mean you’re not already doing this,
  • or that God doesn’t hear your prayers if you aren’t sensing His presence.
    • In fact, when you spend any time praying, you probably are already.
  • However, this state of being is available to us at all times.
  • There isn’t a moment in our normal daily life that we wouldn’t benefit from fixing our mind on the things above.
  • Frank’s quote, bottom page 27.
• Doesn’t mean that He’s not present.
  • In fact, the first pointer I have is to simply

Acknowledge his presence.

He is always with us - He fills all things.

Effort

• • “Practicing” His Presence
    - It is a practice
    • It’s easy to be distracted by everyday, mundane things.
    • But it’s also a little dangerous
      • We are supposed to be God’s ambassadors,

His hands and feet.

• • • We can become so distracted by the necessary things of life that we miss opportunities to show and share the love of God.
      • We can get in our own bubble, especially with the business of modern life.
    • Therefore, we need the peaceful, empowering presence of God now more than ever in our life.
    • And we need to realize that it doesn’t come naturally, but by a conscious effort.
    • However, don’t become discouraged.
      • as Frank says, “It is very simple, so simple that any child could practice it. This simple practice requires only a gentle pressure of the will, not more than a person can exert easily. It grows easier as the habit becomes fixed. Yet it transforms life into heaven.”
• While there is effort, determination, repetition, for this to become a habitual practice, the presence of God

doesn’t come from within.

• • There’s a bit of a dichotomy there.
    - We consciously maintain it, but at the same time, it doesn’t come from us.
    • It isn’t a decision, it’s not something you stir up,

it’s not just a state of mind, or anything like that.

• • It comes from God, but we receive it by responding to his knocking at the door of our hearts.
    • In that way, it’s kind of like a fountain of spring water.
      • The water is free. We do nothing to make it come up out of the ground.
      • It also doesn’t stop flowing, but we have to bring our vessels to the water.
    • We partake of the divine nature through consciously drawing near and trusting in Him.
    • by fixing our attention on Him, believing in the work of Christ (Acknowledging our unworthiness and the power of the blood to bring us into fellowship with Go)
    • And through worship and prayer.
    • Prayers do not need to be elaborate.
      • Simple communication with God is sufficient.
      • Multiple times throughout this book, the authors mention that the heart of this practice is conversation with God.
      • Treat God as if he were a close friend.
        • Not in an irreverent way, ...
    • You do not need to come up with things to ask for or be hyper “spiritual”

to somehow invoke the presence of God

• • Be fixed on the things which are above,
    • It does not come from performing adequately or through rituals, though rituals can help us by creating patterns and rhythms that we can tap into.

Don’t idolize the experience

• God’s presence may manifest differently or not in a tangible way at all.
  • Don’t let the lack of any particular feeling turn you away from pursuing an intimate connection with God.
• Instead, remain listening for the voice, open to His nudging, available for His directing.
• Ask:
  • If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Luke 11:11-13

There can be hurdles in our hearts and minds that keep us at arms length from God.

• One of those things can be condemnation.
• We can look at ourselves and see weakness, wasted time, bad decisions.
• The feeling of failure can make us not feel worthy to approach God.

1 Cor 4:1Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. 3But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. 5Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.

• Battle between critical part of mind and accepting grace and mercy
• The critical voice may be true
  • We do need a righteousness of our own
  • That righteousness does not earn us the right to approach God
  • Knowing what is right doesn’t give us the power to judge ourselves or others, or to compare ourselves to others.
  • We stand and fall before God.
• Sometimes the voice comes from others, or just what we think others expect of us.
  • You’re not doing anyone a favor by letting them be your judge.
    • • By judge, I am referring to your standard.
        - Not someone with the right to point you to Scripture.
        • Rather, a judge being someone that imposes a personal standard and determines punishment or position based on that standard.
    • Other people make bad standards.
      • Everyone is on a different walk and struggles with different things
      • They don’t know your actual struggles
      • You don’t know theirs
      • They might be able to point out some things in your life that aren’t right, and you could do so for them.

This is what the Bible says about human standards:

Col 2:20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— 21“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

• • You aren’t even wise by judging yourself.
    - Who are you to condemn yourself?
    - For one if you’re unjust, how can you judge yourself justly?
    - This is not the same as examining yourself in light of Scripture, which I will get to.
    - I’m referring to is condemning yourself. These are two different things.
    - Self condemnation is nothing less than trampling on the mercy and grace of God.
    - Now, don’t condemn yourself for being self-condemning either.
    - Again, I will get to the proper place for these things.
• Other people:
  • While other people make bad judges, they can make fine helpers. This includes bringing correction at times.
    • if what other people are saying aligns with the Word of God, it is the Word that is your judge, not that person.
  • They will also come alongside you and encourage you to do the right thing
    • in a spirit of humility,
    • That is, they will model proper action without exalting themselves, because they acknowledge their own weaknesses.
• Your self
  • Don’t have to let it defeat you
  • Instead, let it
    • Humble you
      • Humility is not beating yourself up.
      • It’s not dwelling on your weaknesses and failures.
      • It’s acknowledging that you have them.
    • Cause you to think about what you can do better
• For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. (1 John 3:20-21)
  • The latter is always better.
• Here-in is a dichotomy and a dilemma
  • • Dichotomy: A division into two contrasting things or parts.
      • Dilemma (one def.): a difficult or persistent problem
  • God is righteous.
  • We are sinners
  • Sin separates us from God
  • We need to draw near to God.
  • We are right to examine our lives to identify sin.
  • We are not right to condemn ourselves and allow our sinful past to prevent us from approaching God.
• The most astonishing dichotomy of all
  • God cannot behold sin.
  • God in human flesh took on sin by becoming a sin offering.
• And that will always and forever be the only answer to our dilemma.
  • It’s in the gospel that we once believed.
  • Do we still believe it?
• Yes, we need to be right with God. We need to strive for perfection
• Our answer is not in getting right with God.
  • It’s not in being perfect or trying to be perfect
  • It’s in the grace and mercy of God.
• We love Him because we come to Him broken and still receive His love.
• When he looks at us He sees Christ,
  • Of whom He said “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
• We love Him because he first loved us.
• This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.
  • There are times as Christians that we need to preach the gospel to ourselves.
  • Maybe we should even do this every day.
• Look to Christ, His work on the cross, His victory in resurrection, His Holy Spirit leading you and helping you to be more like Him.
• Depend on God’s grace (empowering)

If you’ve ever tried to hear the voice of God, or just sense His presence, you might have noticed that it doesn’t happen immediately.

• In fact, the longer it’s been since you did so, the longer it will probably take for that state of spiritual awareness to return.
• The best way to ensure that you experience the presence of God is to have already begun to.

Music Analogy

• • If you play a string instrument - guitar, bass, piano, etc. you know that the instrument has to be tuned.
    • The longer it’s been since the instrument was tuned,

and the more environments it’s been through (temperature/humidity),

or the more it has been jostled and tossed around,

The more it will need to be tuned.

• • • If it’s bad enough, there might be a bit of a process to it.
      - Otherwise, adjusting the strings will throw off the ones that you’ve already tuned.
      • First you need to tune each of the strings to the approximate tuning,

Then you fine tune them each one by one.

• • • • On the other hand, if it was recently tuned, you may not need to do anything.
        - Or, it might need only slight tuning on a few strings to get it back into harmony
    • Which is to say, that the more frequently you tune your heart and mind to God, the easier it will be to return to harmony with God.
• A tune life encompasses everything.
  • You do not need to have a perfect life to experience God’s presence.
    • Jesus is enough. - That’s the good news.
  • Just like with an instrument, it’s not one string
  • Forgiveness, love, zeal, passion, love of truth, courage, holiness
  • A tuned life is not just being on track in one or two things.
    • It’s not even being on track in most things.
  • To sound decent, all strings need to be at least close
    • Not going to be perfect

One string way off

• Not chasing a feeling
• Stillness
• Eyes off self and onto Christ.
  • John 10:9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
  • John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
• Partnering with God to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth
  • Through prayer,
  • Love
  • Word
  • Action
• Doing the work
• How does God want us to approach Him?
• What do I need to do to experience and sense His presence
  • Flow in the gifts
• Enoch
• Believe that you can.
• Troy Black. Symbols of wind and fire
  • • Wind - Spirit. Fire - tongues of fire. God manifesting in cloud and fire in the wilderness.
  • Spirit goes where it listeth
  • Fire purges and burns up what is not of God
  • Cherish his word so much that you can’t doubt.

Righteousness of God

• Mark 1:11 “You are my beloved son…:
• The righteousness of God condemns us (due to our unrighteousness)
• The righteousness of Christ saves us, because it is transferred
• How can it be transferred?
• “My grace is sufficient”
  • What if he asks me to do something I can’t do?
  • What if I fail?