The one thing I ask of the Lord—
    the thing I seek most—
is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
    delighting in the Lord’s perfections
    and meditating in his Temple. Psalm 27:4 NLT

Our Natural Habitat

The Presence of God is the natural habitat of man. God created man with the capacity to live in relationship with Himself, and man is restless until he learns to live in that place (I have written more about this here). The question is, how can we actually live in the active Presence of God?

Four Steps

One of the devotionals I use included a quote from Pastor Albert Edward Day’s book The Captivating Presence. This quote included four steps by Pastor Day (he called them conditions) for living in the Lord’s active Presence. The steps (or conditions) given were otherness, openness, obedience, and obsession. Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Otherness

The entire focus of our lives must shift from ourselves to God if we want to live in and enjoy His daily Presence in our lives. The focus, however, must not simply be on what He is doing in our lives, but also in the lives of others.

Openness

Complete openness to what God has to say, or to what He is doing in every situation that concerns us is essential. To close off in any regard is to cause the whole process to break down completely.

Obedience

Whatever we receive from the Lord must be translated into the flow of our lives. Failure to do so is put ourselves back on the throne and shut the door in His activity in our lives.

Obsession

God’s manifest Presence must be our chief priority. Obsession is the only thing that will cause us to focus on the Lord, remain completely open to Him, and continue in the walk of obedience. None of the other conditions will remain very long without this one.

A Year of God’s Active Presence

How about we strive to make 2017 a year of God’s active Presence? How about we strive to actively include these four elements in our lives? If we do, 2017 will see us experiencing a whole new level of living in the Reign!

M