Touré Roberts - The Presence

I want to talk about the presence, and when I say «the presence,» I’m specifically referring to the presence of God. It is extremely important that every believer—I’m going to teach today, by the way; you’ve got the preaching now, but I’m going to teach—has a healthy relationship with the presence of God. You need to have a healthy understanding of the presence of God so that you can not only know what it is—and we’re going to talk about that—but also value it in such a way that you seek it. There are many things that actually keep you from approaching the presence of God, which we’re going to look at. However, I want to emphasize that you’re going to need to take notes today or record something because you have to get this. You must understand; it is imperative that if you want to be everything God has called you to be, you have to have a healthy and vibrant relationship with the presence of God. In this series, which I hope to wrap up next week on Easter—if not, we’ll go a little further—we’re going to unpack what the presence of God is. I don’t want to assume that everyone understands what it is. We’re also going to discuss where it is, where the presence of God is, and maybe even address some misconceptions about its primary benefits to you. We’ll talk about how you «access» the presence of God and what you can expect as a result. I’m going to break this down by teaching you seven thoughts or ideas about the presence of God that I believe will bless you. So let’s jump right into those seven thoughts. The first of the seven thoughts about the presence is this: the presence of God doesn’t come to us; we come into the consciousness of it. You’ve heard people say, «I was in that room, and the moment the worship started, the presence of God came in,» or you might hear someone say, «When PT started preaching, his preaching brought the presence of God.» I understand what you’re saying, but it’s false. We don’t have anything to do with the presence of God; we were not there when the presence of God established itself. In fact, the presence of God was there before we got here. When it says in the Word, «In the beginning, God,» the self-existent one—if we go all the way back to the beginning, we find the presence of God. What happens is that the reason we feel like the presence came in is that we came into the awareness of it. Can I teach today? There’s a passage in one of the prophetic books, I believe it’s the prophet Haggai, that states that at a certain time, the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. It doesn’t say that the whole earth will be filled with the glory of God; that’s not what it says. It says it will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. That same thought and idea appear in the passage that says, «You shall know the truth, and the truth you know shall set you free.» It doesn’t mean that the truth sets you free. I feel like speaking in tongues—that there is truth over all our lives right now. If we became conscious of it, we would live completely different lives with our shoulders squared and our chests out. There would be things that bother us that no longer would, not because of the truth over our lives but because of our knowledge of it. The Word says, «My people perish for lack of knowledge,» not for lack of truth. So ignorance is not bliss—it is not bliss. So, the worship team doesn’t bring the presence; what they do is sing songs that awaken you to the reality of the presence that is already there. Are you tracking with me? Just turn to your neighbor and say, «The presence is here. The presence is here.» It has everything to do with the presence of God that the Hebrew word translated as «presence» in relation to God literally means «face.» So, the presence of God is the face of God. We know that God’s face is not simply pointed in one direction; His face encompasses all. He is an all-seeing and all-knowing God. Understanding that the presence of God represents the face of God is important when we consider why we struggle with the awareness of God. When you think about intimacy, the greatest form of intimacy occurs when two people are looking at each other face to face. So, it’s not that He is not facing you; that’s not the reason we don’t «experience» the presence of God. The reality is that often we are not facing God. I wish I could…