Intentionality is to live in the awareness of His presence.
Many believers are of the impression that God is a million miles away and that if they act well or they behave well, that every time they commit a good act, every time they do something that can be considered good behavior, every time they choose a spiritual action, they imagine that they get just a little closer to God when they pray, they get closer.
Or they think that if they go to church, they get a little closer or if they fast, they get a little closer, my friend, that’s not what’s happening.
And if you think that’s what’s happening, then you need some help understanding your connection with the Lord acts chapter 17, verse 27 says his purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find Him though He is not far from any one of us.
We don’t do these things to connect with God. We do these things from connection with God.
And the reason that strengthens our spirit is precisely because we become more aware of Him when we do these things.
So it’s not a performance based relationship.
It’s not as though if I do three good actions in one day and only one bad one that I’m closer to God now by net positivity, it doesn’t work like that.
It’s not mathematic, it’s not systematic.
You cannot systemized that which is spiritual, that is the basis of religion and religion kills, you cannot systemized spirituality.
That is legalism rather, when we approach the Lord, we must remember that He already lives within us, that we are already one with Him.
That connection cannot be undone. That which is born of the spirit is spirit.
You have the Holy Spirit within you.
You can’t get any closer to God than having Him live within you and having Him dwell within your very being.
What? No, ye not that your body is the temple of the holy ghost. You’re not your own.
You’ve been purchased with the price he dwells in you.
And so one of the habits that have to begin to form in your life is intentionality that is to be aware of his nearness.
The scripture very clearly says his purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find Him though He is not far from any one of us.
I want you to do something that may seem strange, take your hand out and I want you to put it in front of your face just, just like this, just right here just like that.
And I want you to look at your hand, I want you to look at how close your hand is to your face.
And I want you to realize that God’s presence is closer to you.
Then your hand is to your face like he’s right here in front of you.
He’s not off a million miles away. He doesn’t abide at some great distance.
His presence and light permeates your very being.
You are a carrier of the glory, a host with the presence of the Holy Spirit.
You are a habitation for God. He dwells in. You. Think about that.
And so if we are to become more consistent in prayer and the word, we absolutely must become aware of the presence of God that dwells with us.
And in order to do that, you have to slow the pace of your life, everything in our culture today, everything that this world has to offer, that’s hyperbole, of course.
But for the most part, what the world has to offer fast pace like this instant convenient on your terms, instant gratification, anything that we desire, we can order it.
I mean, everything online is basically the everything store, anything you want, you can have it and you can have it in a variety of different ways, convenience speed, fast paced.
We’re so used to that. Think about the trajectory of social media and the format of social media.
Think about the fact that they are forming all the major social media platforms are now forming their algorithms and the user experience around a faster pace.
Who has time for a three minute video anymore, who has time for a 10 minute video?
And what’s beginning to happen is we are being conditioned to expect immediate gratification.
And because of that, we neglect prayer because prayer isn’t going to abide by those same terms.
You are not the Lord, you are not the king, you are the servant.
We are the servants, his Children. He is the father, he is the Lord. He is the ruler.
And yet we snap our fingers at God and say God, why didn’t I get an encounter with you?
We get angry with them.
Well, so and so told the story and they encountered you in this way or my brother or my sister or my pastor or my friend, they seem to have encounters with you all the time.
Why won’t you give that to me?
And, and, and we, we, we huff and puff and we become angry and we’re so entitled that we expect God to respond instantly to everything we request and then we fall into self pity saying things like, oh God never listens to me.
Oh, God never comes through for me. Who gave you that breath with which you are complaining?
Was it not God? Don’t you trust his wisdom? Isn’t he sovereign overall?
Don’t you believe he has a plan? Do you not believe that he has good intentions for you.
Do you not believe that he’s working to develop your character even when you can’t see it?
Do you not believe the promise he who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it?
Do you not believe that he is the potter?
We are the clay and that he is forming and fashioning you with the circumstances of life?
No, but that’s demonstrated in the fact that we want everything like that.
They, that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Not those who rushed the Lord.
We don’t wait upon the Lord anymore. We rush him. We don’t like to wait.
I want the encounter now and I want it on my terms and I wanna feel this and I wanna experience that.
And if you don’t do that, then I’m not gonna believe I’m free.
And if you don’t do that, then I’m not gonna believe your word that tells me I’m victorious.
And if you don’t do that, then I’m not gonna believe the scripture that tells me that you are not far from any one of us.
We lack that awareness of what he’s doing. We lack that awareness of his presence in our lives.
And because of this, we cease in the area of intentionality and when you’re intentional, you become more consistent and prayer on the word.
But that’s a principle. We lack why?
Because of the pace of life because everything revolves around our convenience because everything revolves around our timing.
You know, the world has changed. God has not, culture has changed.
God has not everything around. You may be speeding up but God still works on his own time.
Do we really expect that we should receive of God in the same way that we consume all other things?
Do we really expect that God should respond to us the way that some company that’s trying to earn and keep our business responds to us.
I mean, some of you, if you were leaving God a yelp review, you’d give him 3.5 stars because he took too long.
Well, the service was great but it just took too long or it would have been wonderful, but I had to go, I had things to do.
You know, you think of these old revivals from times past and the church would spend hours in church, morning to night would go to work, come home, grab a quick dinner, rush off to a revival.
They’d spend hours in church. No one complained about the time. Why?
Because they were so hungry for the things of God.
People will travel long distances just to experience a move of God.
Some of us won’t even turn around and open the Bible.
I’m not saying this to condemn you.
I’m saying this to challenge you because where there is correction, there is hope for a new direction where there is correction.
There is hope of transformation. God would not be bringing correction to you right now if it weren’t possible that you change.
But the very fact that it is possible that you change is why he’s bringing correction in the first place.
We must learn to slow down the pace of mind, slow down the pace of life, slow down the pace of our expectations, and we must learn to become aware of God in every moment, not just in a church service, not just when we go to the prayer room, though, you should pray.
And though you should as Matthew 66 says, sometimes lock yourself away and pray.
But rather we must learn to also be aware of the abiding nearness of God.
Listen to me. He’s in the room with you right now.
And if you’ll just slow down, I know you’re on the internet right now and there are 1000 things you could click on right at this very moment.
I know there are many different forms of entertainment that are pulling for your attention in this very moment.
But if you with a heart filled with faith will just allow yourself to slow down and become aware of his abiding presence.
You would know that he’s in the room with you.
He’s there with you now and not only is he there with you right now, he’s closer than you could ever possibly know.
He dwells within you.
You are one with the Holy Spirit.
You are one with the Holy Spirit that is the abiding presence of God, His love, his peace, his joy.
It’s yours for the taking. If only you would slow down, slow down.
He’s looking at you right now.
He’s in the room with you right now.
He’s listening to you right now. The abiding presence of almighty God.
Stop waiting, listen to me, stop waiting for an emotional experience to confirm what you should already know by the scripture and by the spirit of God that He is near.
You want to be consistent in prayer. On the word. You need intentionality.
A holy spirit be their constant reminder, be their constant reminder.
I want you to lift your hands and even write this in the comment section and say this and write it.
Help me Holy Spirit. Don’t be ashamed to pray that I’ll say it 1000 times a day if I have to.
And sometimes I do need to say it 1000 times a day. Help me Holy Spirit.
A father. I pray that they would be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Give them the grace, strengthen that desire that they might implement these habits in their lives.
Father, I thank you that your mercies are new every morning.
Thank you for being so patient with us. Even when we don’t deserve it.
I bless your people and I pray father that this would be a great season.
Of transformation. Let this be the time. Then it finally sticks in jesus’ name.
We pray, want you to say it because you believe it. Say amen.
I wanna challenge you today to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit to respond in obedience to what God is putting on your heart.
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