Only in His Presence
‘I need to write Lord! It’s chasing a month since the last publication on the blog. My subscribers have begun to ask questions; ‘Grace, we haven’t read from you in a while’. My usual honest explanation of; I’ve been super-bee-busy has been nothing but disappointing to them, their facial expressions betray their niceties of “I understand dear”. I have picked up my notepad more than once, with the utmost urgency, wanting to help their despair, but the words won’t flow! I know there’s so much You’d want me to communicate to the audience You have graciously given me, but the words won’t just flow’
How did I get to this point?
Do our busy schedules drive Him away from us? I dare say; not necessarily…
Genesis 3:8
“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden”
How does one know the sound of the Lord God walking in the Garden, even while hidden among trees and grasses? My immediate assertion is; this was a familiar walk. Adam and Eve recognized the Lord walking by, because they’ve heard it more than once before! Also note that the trees could not hide Adam and his wife from the Lord’s presence. This to me suggests, a presence that permeates barriers, walls and boundaries; certainly, not a physical presence! Permit me to call it; ‘the omnipresent presence’.
But why would the presence of a holy God, who abhors sin and everything evil, be felt by the now sin-laden Adam and Eve? Why did he Still come down this particular day after Adam and Eve willingly introduced sin to earth against the Lord’s stern warning in Genesis 2:16-17?
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die” (And die they did! You may wish to see my previous publication; “Dead Man Walking”, available @: http://www.graceobomanu.com/blogsite/dead-man-walking/ ).
I have more than once taught that the Good Lord came down in the cool of the day to commune or fellowship with Adam and Eve. But does the scripture really tell us that?…….
We are told that Adam and Eve heard Him walking in the Garden in the cool of the day! That’s when they heard Him!!! Could He have been in the Garden all along…..all day but they couldn’t hear Him? Was The Lord always in the Garden?
This is my believe;….. that the Omnipresent One has the intrinsic ability to be everywhere at every time!
So I assert once again, that the walls or trees of the Garden did not constitute a barrier to His presence in the Garden! His presence was all over the Garden all day, all time but Adam and his wife could only hear Him in the cool of the day!
Let me tell you what happened in the Garden in the cool of the day…..
There was calm and quiet. There was no rattling of cutlasses, tractors, etc from Adam’s gardening activities. And because Adam and Eve had heard Him once at about this particular time, they expected to hear Him around this time every day.
To answer our opening question therefore; our busy schedules do not keep Him away from us, rather, they stop us from plugging into His frequency…..the Cool-of-the-day frequency.
The cool of the day is not necessarily in the evening or in the night. No! It is that period (and can be any and every time), we set aside physical, mental, emotional and all sorts of distractions and simply focus on Him (His word, glory, greatness, goodness etc).
I have heard teachings on the role of fasting (waiting on The Lord), to properly situate or locate us in The Lord presence, ensuring an undivided attention on Him. While I agree with this, I must quickly add that a fast without a conscious decision to focus on, and tune into ‘the cool of the day frequency’ seems to me like a physical exercise with little or no spiritual gain. You do not need to fast to hear Him!! But the right fasting sure does help put at bay noise and distractions thereby sharpening our hearing of Him.
So if the songs won’t come; tune in
If the sermon seems too unclear; plug in
It is only in the ‘cool of the day frequency’ that we can hear Him and therefore operate in the spiritual gifting(s) He has bestowed on us.
My Love Always…….
Except otherwise stated, all bible quotations are from the New King James Version.