The Presence of the Lord

The Presence of the Lord is Power!
The Presence of the Lord is Life!
The Presence of the Lord is Holiness!

We turn to the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter four, verse one through three.

"Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, as I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world."

Chapter six, verse one through three,

"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit."

In our first series of special meetings, the Lord led us to be occupied with the matter of His Presence with His people. I think everyone here will agree that the most important thing for us is the presence of the Lord. I expect, when we gather together like this, our prayer in the first place is the the Presence of the Lord. And probably those of you who prayed at the beginning of the day, will always pray for the Lord's Presence. We realize that the all-important thing in our lives and in the lives of God's people is His Presence with us. We should all be afraid to go on unless the Lord is  with us. We cannot think of life without the Presence of the Lord. The Lord's Presence means everything to us.

Now you will remember that we pointed out that this is the greatest desire of the Lord Himself. He said to Moses, "Let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them." The greatest desire of the Lord is to be among His people. But there are some conditions upon which the Lord is with His people. The Lord has His own terms upon which He will be with us. You will notice that this letter to the Hebrews from which we have read is all the time referring back to the life of Israel in the wilderness, that period which was covered by those words to Moses, "Let them build Me a sanctuary." It was the period from the Red Sea to the border of the land to the river Jordan.

Now during that period of forty years, although there were many difficulties, and the Lord had much trouble with the people, the Lord was with them. There were, as I have said, many difficulties during those forty years. There were many very serious times. We read of Amalek coming out to fight against Israel. We remember the story of Balaam, the false prophet who was hired by Balak to curse Israel. There were some of the very critical times during that journey. There was the crisis of bread and the crisis of water. There were the crisis of enemies. But through all that time the Lord was with His people. He did not allow Amalek to succeed in their war against Israel. He turned the curse of Balaam into a blessing. The Lord was with them. That meant victory, that meant support, that meant the supplying of all their needs, that meant that the Lord helped them in spite of their own weakness, the Lord was with them.

There was one reason why the Lord was with them through all their troubles and difficulties. The Lord was with them because of one thing: They were a people who were going on. They had set out to go to a certain goal, and in spite of many hindrances, they were a people going on. Sometimes their troubles just stopped their progress for a little while, but then they went on again. And the Lord was with them, because they went on. When they went on with the Lord, the Lord went on with them. And that is one of the fundamental terms upon which God is with His people. They had started out with a vision. Perhaps you will remember that when they had crossed the Red Sea, and Pharaoh's army had been drowned in the sea, then Moses and Aaron and the people of Israel sang a song. And in that song, the vision arose. They said, "The Lord has brought us out in order to take us in." The Lord has brought us out, not to let us die in the wilderness, that is not the Lord's idea for us. The Lord has brought us out of Egypt in order to take us into the land. They put it this way - "to bring us unto His holy hill" (Psalm 43:3). That was the vision with which they started. And while they kept that vision before them and went on, the Lord was with them.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 2)