How to Practice the Presence of God

Sermon OverviewScripture Passage: Exodus 33:1-4In Exodus 33, God shined His glory upon the prophet Moses’ face; yet, Moses lost the glow over time.As Christians, we are temples of God; the Lord lives and dwells in us. But many of us are not aware of the presence of God in our lives and lose our glow. This passage reveals how to restore the glow, by practicing the presence of God.First, there must be a determination to know God intimately.God promised Moses protection and provision, but because of the people’s sins, He would not go with them. In Exodus 33:15, Moses requests, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.”Second, we should prepare our hearts.We cannot casually, haphazardly seek the presence of God. We must embrace isolation: “And no man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain…” (Exodus 34:3).God instructed Moses to get away from the backslidden people he was leading in order to pay attention to what God was doing. There are times we need to get alone with God, away from the demands of others, in order to learn from Him.When we open the Bible, we must do so with an expectant heart and a pen and paper, ready to write down what the Lord reveals. After we humbly receive a word from God, we must respond with adoration: “So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped” (Exodus 34:8).Then may we give our intercession, and pray for others. If we are not sure who to pray for, we can trust God to lay it upon our hearts. After observing what God has revealed, we must be sure to obey. Adrian Rogers says, “We cannot claim the promises of God without obeying the commandments of God.”Finally, there is a transformation.Moses spent so much time with the Lord, face-to-face, that the skin on Moses’s face shone of the glory of God. Likewise, when we spend enough time in the presence of God, the presence of God gets into us, and we reflect His glory to others.Apply it to your lifeWhen you practice the presence of God, remember this formula from Adrian Rogers: open the Bible and read it through, think it out, pray it in, live it out and finally, pass it on.