TL Osborn used to say that whenever he went to minister before a large crowd, he would practice the presence of Jesus. He would go up on the stage as if Jesus himself was going up the stage and he would minister as though Jesus Himself was ministering.
That gave him the consciousness of Jesus being with him. With
this attitude he ministered to millions of people around the world, healing all manner of diseases.
We should minister with
the same attitude
_
Jesus said in ‘At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in
me, and I in you.’ - John 14:20
_
Now we live in that day. We live in perfect unity with God. We are in him and He is in us. Our consciousness should always be that God is with us and in us.
Consider the lives of the men and women that the bible records that God was with them. What great lives they had. Remember the story of Joseph? The bible records that
‘The LORD was with Joseph, and he was
a prosperous man’ Genesis 39:2
_
The hand of the Lord was upon him, and this was evident even to his masters. His Egyptian master saw that everything that he did prospered and gave him charge over his entire house. What made Joseph different was that God was with him.
The book of Daniel records that the four children of Israel, Daniel, Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishael (Meshach), and Azariah (Abednego) stood before the king, and:
_
‘In all matters of wisdom and
understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better
than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm - Dan 1:20
_
What made them so extraordinary? God was with them!
It is the presence of God that kept them from burning in the fiery furnace. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the furnace they were seen walking in the midst of the fire. But something extraordinary happened while they were in that fire. A fourth man appeared in their midst, one that looked like the Son of God.
It was the presence of this Man that kept them from dying from the fire.
Joseph and Daniel lived in the Old Testament. They didn’t have the Holy Spirit in them.
We are better than any Old Testament man. We have God permanently dwelling in us. We constantly carry the power of God in us.
Remember when the disciples asked Jesus if they should call fire down? Jesus stopped them saying:
‘Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not
come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them’. -Luke9:55-56.
_
Jesus knew that if they commanded it, it would happen. Why? Because of the manner of the Spirit they are of.
Now we have the Spirit that is from God. We are powerful beyond measure. In fact as powerful as God is powerful. We should walk in the light of that knowledge, that we are one with Him.
Whether we are standing before crowds or a single person, we must carry the consciousness that God is with us because He is in us.
Jesus, Who has power over demons, sicknesses and death, is living in us. Wherever we go we must always think that God is there because He really is! Wherever we are, He is.
Something happens when you are conscious of God being with you; there is an impact of the Spirit of God on your mind and on your body. It’s a moment where you are hit with reality.
Practicing the presence of Jesus is being aware of His manifest presence with you, He is with you not necessarily because He is omnipresent, but by virtue of your oneness with Him. He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit with Him.
The Gospel of Christ works by awareness, consciousness! One must awake to the righteousness of God.
Imagine what your life will be like when your consciousness says ‘whenever you are in my presence, you are in the presence of Deity, I don’t care who you are, I am more aware of who He is in me and with me.’
Maturity demands that we have a consciousness of “God is with me” all the time. Until we are conscious of God’s presence with us, God cannot entrust us with much.
Look at the Israelites, God took them out of Egypt, and tried training their consciousness to be aware of His presence with them, hence a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God used symbolic language a lot in the Old Testament as a means to an end, the bigger picture being I am with you always. That’s why He said, “Behold, I am with you.” The onus is upon you to see, to observe, hence He said Behold.
You must bring your faculties to this understanding, your mind must realize the truth of God’s Word, you must not mentally assent God’s Word; the truth must dawn on you.
That you are not alone, you are not just some random per
son walking; you are a powerful being with God on the inside.
We want you to think like this, ‘I don’t think like a mere person, when I walk into a mall I think to myself, ‘God is in this mall’, by virtue of me being here. I am one with God, I carry His presence wherever I go. Where I go, God is there. If you greet me and shake my hand, you are not just shaking my hand.
We have had incidents where just a normal handshake turned into a healing. You find you were just greeting this person, next thing you know they are overjoyed, you ask them why they are so overjoyed, they exclaim, ‘when you shook my hand, the pain I had left me.’
Remember the Lord Jesus, He was just walking, the crowd pressing on Him, and one woman made a demand upon His power and got healed, He was not even focused on healing her, He did not even know that she was sick! That is what consciousness does; it changes everything and everyone around you.
Practice the presence of Jesus; you will never be at a disadvantage.
Comments
Post a Comment