The Need for God’s People to Seek the Lord’s Direction and Have the Lord’s Presence to Display His Victory
for the Building Up of His Body and the Spreading of His Kingdom– Week 4
Related Verses
Exodus 33:14
14 And He said, My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.
Psa. 27:8
8 When You say, Seek My face, To You my heart says, Your face, O Jehovah, will I seek.
Matt. 1:23
23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel” (which is translated, God with us).
2 Tim. 4:22
22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
Psa. 27:4, 8
4 One thing I have asked from Jehovah; That do I seek: To dwell in the house of Jehovah All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of Jehovah, And to inquire in His temple.
8 When You say, Seek My face, To You my heart says, Your face, O Jehovah, will I seek.
Psa. 105:4
4 Seek Jehovah and His strength; Seek His face continually.
Jer. 29:12-13
12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you;
13 And you will seek Me and find Me if you search for Me with all your heart;
Luke 10:39, 42
39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to His word.
42 But there is need of one thing, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
2 Cor. 3:18
18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.
Related Reading
In my youth I was taught various ways to overcome, to be victorious, to be holy, and to be spiritual. However, not any of these ways worked. Eventually, through more than sixty-eight years of experience, I have found out that nothing works but the Lord’s presence. His being with us is everything. (Life-study of Joshua, p. 48)
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If we would go on to possess the land, we must do so by the presence of the Lord. If the presence of the Lord goes with us, we can enter and enjoy the land. You remember how the Lord promised Moses, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exo. 33: 14). This means that He would bring the people into the possession of the land by His presence. So Moses said to the Lord, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here” (v. 15). Moses demanded that the Lord’s presence must go with them; otherwise, he would not go.
One time, four or five of us who were serving the Lord together were going to a certain place…. One brother at that time, however, was not happy with us, yet he had no choice but to go. We all traveled on the same train: all but this one brother sat in car number one, and he sat by himself in car number two…. He left with us, he traveled with us, and he arrived with us, but his presence was not with us.
Some Christian workers have said to me, “… Do you not believe that the Lord has blessed us?” “Undoubtedly,” I have answered, “the Lord has helped you and blessed you, but let us be silent for a little while before the Lord.” After a while I have asked, “Brother, do you feel in your deepest sense that you have the presence of the Lord with you? I know that you have done something for the Lord; I know that the Lord has helped you and blessed you. But I wish to know, in the innermost part of your being, do you feel that the Lord is so present with you? Do you always sense His face smiling upon you, and has the very smile of the Lord entered into you?”… Eventually, such brothers have said, “I must tell you, for some time I have lost my fellowship with the Lord.” Then I asked, “Brother,… are you governed by the help of the Lord or by His presence? Are you governed by His blessing or by His smile?”
Although it may be with tears in our eyes, we must say day by day, “Lord, nothing but Your smiling presence will satisfy me. I do not want anything but the smile of Your glorious face. As long as I have this, I care not whether the heaven comes down or the earth falls apart. The whole world may rise against me, but as long as I have Your smile upon me, I can praise You, and everything is well.” The Lord said, “My presence shall go with you.” What a treasure! The presence, the smile, of the Lord is the governing principle. We must be fearful of receiving anything from the Lord yet losing His presence…. The Lord Himself may very well give you something, and yet that very thing will rob you of His presence…. We must learn to be kept, to be ruled, to be governed, to be guided simply by the presence of the Lord…. We do not want His presence secondhand…. Try to be governed by the direct, firsthand presence of the Lord.
This is not only a requirement and a qualification but also a power for you to go on to possess the land. The firsthand presence of the Lord will strengthen you with might to obtain the fullness, the all-inclusiveness of Christ. What a strength, what a power, is in the direct presence of the Lord! (CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” pp. 294-296)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” ch. 11; Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 175-177
Corporate Reading of “The History of God in His Union with Man” Chapter 6 – Sections: The Priest of God,; Speaking in a Vision to Abraham That He Was His Shield and His Exceedingly Great Reward
(c) Living Stream Ministry, 2016, used by permission