In a world where our faith can sometimes become routine, it’s so important to reflect on the depth of our connection with the divine. Let’s explore the transformative power of accessing the life-changing presence of God. Shall we?

I have a question for you…

When was the last time you had what you would consider a deep, supernatural, life changing experience with God?

For some of you, the answer may be this morning. Some of you may say “I’ve never had that.” For a lot of us, it’s going to be somewhere in between. I would say I fall into the in between. The definition of what a deep, supernatural, life changing experience with God? It is really going to look different for everybody.

Some people really connect with the Lord deeply through reading His word. Others connect really deeply with the Lord in prayer and meditation. Still others connect really deeply with the Lord, in worship through song and music, I fall into that category. Music is a big, big part of my life. I was a worship leader for over 20 years, so the Lord really speaks to me, not only through His Word and prayer, but through music.

The truth is, though, that most of us if we’re honest, can’t say that we really, truly access the powerful life changing presence of God on a regular basis.

Let me say that again.

The truth is that most of us if we’re really honest, cannot say that we really, truly access the power and presence of God on a regular basis. We have a quiet time in the morning, maybe every morning, probably most of us not. If, again, we’re being honest. We may be read the Bible at verse of the day, check off that box. Okay, good. I feel good about myself today. Maybe throw up a quick prayer. Especially if something is tumultuous or you’re going through some sort of challenge in your life. We’re more apt to pray in the bad times in the good, right?

We maybe go to church for an hour every week sometimes watch online, check that box. Okay, feeling good about myself. Yep. Maybe even would say we study the Bible a little bit. And that makes us feel even better. But that there’s a difference between digging into those things, which are all good. None of those are bad and we should be doing those on a regular basis. But there’s a difference between doing that. And what I’m talking about.

There is so much more than that.

It’s more than just had more knowledge It’s more than just a surface level, it’s more than just giving your faith lip service.

In Exodus chapter 33:7-11, we find a story about the Israelites when they are in the desert. They are wandering for 40 years if you know the story, and Moses set up something that he calls the Tent of Meeting. It says this in the NIV.

“Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it, quote, the Tent of Meeting, anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood get this at the entrances of their own tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.

As Moses went down into the tent, the pillar of cloud, which was God’s presence, would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshipped, each at the entrance to their tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend, then Moses would return to the camp, get this, I’m gonna bring this back later, but his young aide, Joshua, the son of Nun, did not leave the tent.”

Okay, so there’s a lot that we can glean from, from this passage, right? So some things that really stuck out to me is that it says in verse seven, anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent. But then later on in the passage, it says that Moses and clearly Joshua, because it calls him out at the end of the passage, Moses and Joshua would go into the tent and meet with the Lord. But when that happened, all the people just stood at the entrance of their own tents.

Why did they do that? Well, that’s a good question.

Maybe they were afraid, maybe they were intimidated. I mean, I would be intimidated, to go into the presence of God and talk to him face to face like a friend.

We don’t need a tent or an actual physical building anymore to access the presence of the Lord anymore, we have that same access, by the work of Jesus on the cross and the Holy Spirit that dwells within us as believers.

The barrier between God and man was literally torn in two at the death of Jesus on the cross, it was very powerfully pictured by the veil in their tabernacle being torn in two that separated the people from the Holy of Holies, which is where the Lord dwelled. And that barrier is no longer there because of Christ’s work on the cross.

What is stopping you from accessing that level of connection with God? I’m gonna say that again, what is stopping you? As a believer in Jesus Christ who has access direct access? What is stopping you from accessing that level of connection with God? Moses could commune with him as a friend, talking face to face. He experienced the present so powerfully that all he could do was fall to the ground and worship

Is it fear? Do you feel like it’s just not thought for you. Maybe you feel like it that doesn’t happen today that was in the Old Testament, it doesn’t happen today.

I’ve had many encounters with God that I would say, they come in many forms and in various locations. Sometimes they happen in church, sometimes they happen in my car. Sometimes it is in this still small voice and sometimes it’s not so still and not so small. Like in the Bible – sometimes it’s a whisper and sometimes God speaks in a tornado.

I think it depends on how much power he needs to demonstrate to get our attention.

I want to share two quick stories of personal experiences I have had that changed my life forever.

The first happened many years ago while I was at a worship leader conference.

Anytime you get a group of people, really seeking the face of God uniting together to seek His presence, there’s power in that. I think something very special happens in the presence of the Lord. God is faithful to show up. And that’s exactly what happened that day.

I don’t remember what song we were singing (it was in the middle of worship.) And I literally had this, the best I can describe it is a vision. I don’t want to say, out of body. It seems like it was in my mind, maybe that’s the human way to describe what I experienced.

I was worshiping and then all of a sudden, I was in this field of flowers. And I was standing face to face with Jesus. And we were literally just swaying together. And it was the most peaceful, beautiful, powerful thing that I had experienced to date. I don’t know how long I was there. I mean, it could have been seconds. It could have it felt like a really long time, but I never wanted to leave.

When I kind of came back into the space that we were at, at this conference, I looked around, and the band had left the stage. Most of the people in the room were standing and as I talked to other people about what had happened to me, I found out that mine was not an isolated incident. There were many, many people in the room who had had this personal one on one connection with Jesus. And it looked a little bit different for each person. But we were eat alone with the Lord. And it was incredible.

Nobody realized that the music had stopped, nobody realized that the band wasn’t playing anymore. It was just a moment of connection with the Almighty God and it was life changing.

A few years later, I was volunteering at a worship event.

If you are familiar with a good old Texas storm, you know that the power of that thing can be it’s terrifying.

This particular event was going to be over the weekend and and we were all getting ready for the event, which was to start the next day. It was in the summertime.

Texas has weather that is crazy. You can literally experience all four seasons in the matter of hours. And so at this event the night before the event was supposed to start, one of those storms rolled in.

It was one of the most terrifying experiences that I’ve ever had.

This event was in an open field and there were literally thousands of college students that were sleeping in tents. I was sleeping in a tent. Luckily, I had my car so I could leave the tent in the middle of the night when it was raining sideways and the wind was howling. I literally got in my car and slept there.

But the students – they didn’t have that opportunity. They were in their tents, trying to stay dry, hoping that there was not going to be a tornado. It was terrifying.

So next morning, we get up the temperature had dropped probably 30 degrees and we come to the event together. Soaked. There have been a few little incidents because of the, the storm and the rain, but most everyone was okay.

Beth Moore was speaking and she gets up and she tells the crowd that she had been praying in her trailer for everyone who was in these tents all night long, and just seeking the Lord God for his safety.

She said, “Lord, you can you can make this go away. Why is this happening?” And then she heard him say, Beth, these people have been praying for weeks to seek my praise my face, and to feel my presence. And that was me arriving.

Just the thought of the power of that storm being the presence of the Lord arriving, was life altering.

The fact is that we have access to that level of power!

Just two weeks ago, some of you may have seen this viral video on YouTube from the 2024 Passion event. (If you’re not familiar with passion, it is a an organization that brings college students together to learn about Jesus and to worship him. And they do a very large event at the beginning of every year.)

So, they just had their 2024 event at the beginning of January. The video shows a 20 minute segment of this conference, where they are just singing and worshiping the same phrase over and over again for 20 minutes.

“Hallelujah, Hallelujah Worthy is the Lamb Worthy is the Lamb”.

For 20 minutes. Over and over and over again.

There’s a point in the video, about seven minutes in, that the band stops and the voices continue.

You can tell the Spirit of the Lord is there the presence of God is in that place. I could actually feel it in the video so much so that it cause me to stop what I was doing and worship with them. If you look on stage, the worship leaders have all put their microphones down and they are getting as low to the ground as they can. The head worship leader is literally lying on the floor.

That is the power and presence of God!

It is life changing, and just like Moses in the Exodus 33, you try to get as low as you possibly can because that is the response that we should have when we are truly in the presence of God. Bowing before him in humble reverence.

So what does that mean for us.

The fact is, if you’re a believer and put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior once you get to heaven, your faith will not be surface level or passive. So why are we not accessing His presence every single day of our lives, being renewed and transformed and changed and led by the power and the presence of the Almighty God.

When you truly encounter him. You can’t stay the same.

And why would you not, as a believer in Jesus Christ, take full advantage of Christ’s work on the cross to daily access that kind of power?

Can you imagine how your life would change?

How your marriage would change.

How your parenting would change.

How your relationships would change.

How your business or your work would change.

As a business owner myself, why do I constantly stress out or try to control things in my own power when I know the one who really controls at all anyway?

I can just give it up to him and follow his lead.

I think we make this a whole lot harder than it has to be. I am thankful that as I press in, that he is faithful to show up and he is faithful to reveal himself and his plans for my life.

My prayer for you today is that you will not just read but you’ll take action to truly get into the presence of the Almighty and to soak in it.

Final thought for you…

Are you ready to kick your own spiritual butt and embrace the challenge of accessing the life-changing presence of God? The journey awaits, and the transformation begins with a single step.

Moses was a busy man. He spent time incredible time with the Lord but had to go lead the people and get stuff done. Sound familiar?

Moses left the presence. Joshua lingered there. Somehow, I think that maybe Joshua was the Wiser one.