God’s presence is essential for a successful prayer life. Wherever God’s presence leads you, His Spirit is always there with you.
As Christians we need to be paying closer attention to what the Spirit of God is leading us to do during intercession. Our postures during prayer and intercession, including our utterances in the spirit, our physical surroundings and bodily movements are all closely related to what God may be leading us into as we are praying.
The Lord works through us to establish His will on the earth as it is in heaven through prayer and intercession.
Therefore, being cognizant of the fact that we are in the presence of the Lord God helps us to prepare our hearts, so as to receive from Him. And wherever you go and whatever you do as a child of God, His presence is there with you.
The Prophet Ezekiel once described what God’s presence looks like to him, during his first encounter with the Lord God. The illustration in the picture image above is an artist’s impression of what Ezekiel actually described, in his vision of God’s glory in Ezekiel chapter one.
What he saw in the spirit changed his life permanently. His vivid description in Ezekiel chapter one is the closest, that we have in the scriptures about the presence of God and the move of His Spirit.
Our prayer lives changes us first, before we are transformed in His presence to change our world.
A good understanding of the movements of “a wheel in the middle of a wheel” (Ezekiel 1:15-21) will help you to know, that God has millions of ways of answering your prayers and petitions before Him.
So, stop trying to figure things out as you’re praying. All that you need is to activate your faith in Him and His scriptural promises.
The Prophet Ezekiel went further to describe what he had seen in this manner:
“I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.”
Ezekiel 1:27-28 NIV
Such was the appearance of the glory of The Lord to the Prophet Ezekiel. God’s glory is His presence, just as His glory in us is His presence within us today by indwelling of His Holy Spirit (Colossians 1:27).
His glory is there within us; but we do have the Christian duty during intercession to become more and more effective in prayer, until our faith is fully tested before Him. He will manifest Himself to you. God only reveals Himself to those He wants to and it’s always for a purpose.
And to be qualified to stand in His presence, be sure that you’re living by faith in His written word. The written word of God in your heart, positions you to receive His spoken words for correction, instruction and direction.
He’s searching through your heart.
There is absolutely nothing impure in God’s presence. When we are standing before Him, God is searching through to see the intents of our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7).
He is weighing every word that you’re saying before Him, by looking through your heart for the intent of your heart. He is looking to see your faith. He is waiting for you to put your heart in the right position of faith in Him, before responding to your prayer.
Yet as you’re standing before Him, it may seem to you that you are not getting His attention. That is the moment to be praising and worshipping Him.
The truth is that your praise and worship of Him in His presence moves Him closer to you than all the things you may be saying in prayer before Him. There is nothing hidden before the Lord as you praise and worship Him in Spirit and truth (John 4:24).
Everything within your heart is exposed before Him.
Jesus taught us never to harbor unforgiveness towards others (which is a major hindrance among Christians today to answered prayers), in our hearts as we stand before God in prayer (Mark 11:25).
We must always come with a clear heart before the Lord in prayer.
Secondly, prayer has a lot to do with our spoken words. Our words therefore do need to come from the heart that’s full of faith and not doubt.
Have faith in God!
There are many born again Spirit filled believers today, who cannot differentiate between what’s coming out of their spirit-man and what’s coming out of their head.
The reason for this is their inability to be able to pray in the spirit, or in other tongues on a regular basis. They have never been training themselves in the holy scriptures. And neither have they been listening to their spirit-man, while being comfortable living the Christian life with their unrenewed mindset.
They are therefore not being transformed, as they have not been renewing their minds (Romans 12:2).
Many of them do pray in other tongues only when they are in the gathering of fellow believers. The result is their inability to bear spiritual fruit to the glory of God.
The most common excuse that they often give for not praying in other tongues, is that they are in a hurry to do something else. What else can be more important than being in the presence of the God of heaven and earth?
Some will even procrastinate about praying; but they have forgotten that we don’t procrastinate about praying. Jesus taught us to always pray (see Luke 18:1) and not give room to ludicrousness.
Such Christians are always missing out of their miracles and breakthroughs, due to the slothfulness of their hearts.
It is often at the moment when we are led by the Holy Spirit to be praying, that the He is expecting us to fellowship and have communion with Him.
King Solomon once wrote in the wisdom of God that:
“Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?” Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.”
Ecclesiastes 8:3-5 NIV
There is always a proper time and procedure into the presence of Jesus (the Great King), in getting whatever we are asking for in prayer.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to always lead us and guide us into that moment of intimacy with God, the Father. But if you are not aligning yourself with Him by faith, you will miss that moment of intimacy during prayer and intercession. And the moment or procedure in prayer is never determined by us, but by Him.
The Apostle Paul shared something with us from his personal understanding of this that:
“So, what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.”
1 Corinthians 14:15 NIV
The moment to pray in the spirit or understanding is determined by the Holy Spirit who’s living inside of us. Sometimes He may lead us into singing in the spirit, or in the understanding.
There is no formal timing or procedure into God’s presence.
Now, just because a child approaches his father for anything, does not mean that the father has to respond to the child immediately. A father wants to spend quality time with his child; and that is the way our heavenly Father responds with us in prayer also.
That is why we do not ever want to be in a hurry concerning the things of God. We must learn to spend more time in His presence. And a wise man knows the right time and way to tarry in the presence of God.
Spend more time with Him in prayer.
Prayer therefore has nothing to do with the number of scripture texts, that we are able to quote before God as we are praying (Mark 12:38-40).
God is searching through our hearts as we are tarrying and waiting before Him. He is looking deeply into the intents of our hearts for saying the words, that we are saying before Him in prayer.
He sees through our hearts, and He weighs the heart’s intent always. That is why we must always be clear before Him in prayer and intercession. You cannot afford to be double minded in God’s presence.
Solomon once again said:
“Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven, and you are on earth, so let your words be few. A dream comes when there are many cares, and many words mark the speech of a fool…Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore, fear God.”
Ecclesiastes 5:2-3, 6-7 NIV
That is why it is more effective to be pouring out of our heart before Him, by praying in other tongues until the Holy Spirit gives us utterances to say anything else before Him in our natural human language.
When we are praying in other tongues, we are praying in the spirit and in accordance with the will of God. We are praying and speaking in the tongues of men and of the angels.
But better still is that moment of silence in His presence. God wants us to enjoy the goodness of His presence with Him. And in most cases, it is at that moment of stillness and silence in His presence, as we are enjoying it that He ministers directly to us.
Solomon said in the above scripture text not to behave like a fool before God. A fool does not know how to conduct himself in the presence of God. A fool will say whatever comes out of his head and not necessarily listen to his heart.
Jesus spent time always with the Father. It was a lifestyle pattern for Him while He was on the earth.
He, therefore, decided one day to take His closest three disciples with Him, to the mountain of His transfiguration: for them to have a glimpse into what He was experiencing on the earth in God’s presence (Mark 9:1-9).
Firstly, He wanted them to learn how to get into God’s presence; knowing fully well that they would have to depend on Him after His ascension to the Father.
Secondly, He wanted them to enjoy His fellowship and the communion moment with Him of the goodness of God.
On that mount of transfiguration Christ was transformed into glory right before their eyes.
For us as believers in Christ Jesus who are spending time in the word of God daily, this is what people around us often observe when we are tarrying, so as to fellowship before God in His Word.
Paul explained this to the Corinthians in this way:
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV
For Peter, James and John the very Word of God, who they had read about in the law and the prophets, was being transformed before their very eyes.
John later wrote of this experience on the mountain:
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.”
1 John 1:1-4 NIV
When you are spending quality time in the Word of life, you are being transformed in His presence as you wait on Him to minister and commune with you.
God does not want to just minister to you. He wants to have intimate fellowship with you. He wants to have communion with you.
Paul again highlighted this to the Philippians when he said:
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”
Philippians 1:21-24 NIV
When we are spending quality time with God, our physical body or human feelings becomes irrelevant. God’s presence separates us from all of that, so that we can share in His glory with Him.
We are able to experience and enjoy His goodness while still in the spirit, as we are waiting before Him.
The goodness from the presence of God, that was lost by Adam and Eve due to the nature of sin, becomes real to us here on earth as we’re waiting on Him.
You can enjoy what Adam and Eve lost to sin once again by fellowshipping with God in Spirit and truth. Jesus had opened the way for us into God’s presence.
Therefore, we must come boldly into His presence by the blood of Jesus Christ.
We must however be careful not to get so carried away by His presence to the extent, that we forget after that experience; that we are still living on this planet earth.
What we are experiencing in His presence is a glimpse into His glory. That was what Paul struggled with as he explained his personal encounter with God to the Philippians (see Philippians 1:21-24).
The moment after the transfiguration of Jesus, Moses and Elijah disappeared; but Jesus was still physically present with Peter, James and John (Mark 9:1-9).
They ate with Him, traveled with Him and prayed with Him. But as they continued eating and drinking while listening to the word of life from His mouth; their encounter on that mountain of transfiguration became more vivid to them. They not only knew Him physically; but they had caught a glimpse of glory with Him.
Even though we may tarry in God’s presence, our transfiguration from glory to glory is permanent with those around us every day. It becomes permanent in the lives of those who sees us being transformed daily into the image of Christ.
Our personal encounter with the Lord God transforms us also, just as it transformed Peter, James and John as they lived and walked with Jesus. They were transformed to change their world with what they had witnessed and handled – Jesus, the Word of Life.
This was also what Joshua encountered as he witnessed God speaking directly with Moses inside the tent of the tabernacle. He saw Moses’ face being transformed.
And even after Moses had departed from the tabernacle, Joshua could not leave the presence of that glory which he had seen:
The scriptures say:
“Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.”
Exodus 33:10-11 NIV
Joshua refused to leave the presence of God. He was captivated or enthralled by the glory of God’s presence. Those usual encounters of Moses with God transformed Joshua and positioned him to take over the leadership position from Moses.
Making disciples of all nations, requires us to practice God’s presence before the eyes of those we are discipling. As they see you being transformed with that glory of God, they will be transformed also.
You need to be spending more quality time praying together with them, because you want them to catch the anointing of God that they are seeing in you.
That was what Elijah did with Elisha before he was taken away by the hosts of heaven. Moses practiced it with Joshua before going into the mountain to meet with the Lord.
Jesus did it with His twelve most trusted disciples, before His ascension into heaven. There is no reason why you cannot do it also.
Begin today by building a relationship with the people around you based on prayer and intercession in the presence of God.
Have fellowship together with them in the presence of God, the Father by studying God’s word with them daily. Let them see and observe you communicating with God.
Then your transformation together with them in God’s presence will change the world around you.
