The Presence of God is the hope we live by

With Rev. Brian Moseley

I. Introduction

• The presence of God as our source of hope.

II. Unity in the Presence of God

• Ephesians 4:1-7
o “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
o Presence:
▪ Eternal life now!
▪ It is Knowing
▪ It is Experiencing
▪ It is Intimacy- intimacy with Christ and his spirit begins in the same place where we realize and admit that we don’t know him intimately.
▪ It is Oneness
▪ It is Sanctification
▪ It is Holiness
▪ It requires humility, gratitude, repentance, submission, obedience, loyalty, and discipleship. Before humility comes the fear, reverence, priority and the realization of God. This is the first hope placed in our hearts and minds by the conviction of the Holy Spirit through the word of God and every subsequent revelation we receive from Him.
▪ Truth, conviction, gratitude, love, and repentance are the same as cleansing the temple like Jesus did (sometimes by force). It is making a way and room for the presence of the holy spirit in our hearts. He doesn’t leave, but he “resists pride and gives grace to the humble”.
▪ He will not inhabit the areas of your heart that are without repentance. He will only convict in those areas.
▪ To seek the presence of the Holy Spirit we merely have to look in our lives and in this world. We must keenly observe, seeking with all our hearts, minds and strength for the evidence in this life, that God desires to do and has already provided. All that we will find is only a part, type and shadow of what is to come.
▪ We must always remember that “who’s you are, is who you are”!
o Hope:
▪ What we imagine
▪ what we see in our heart and mind
▪ it is created by faith
▪ belief
▪ trusting in his word
▪ it is supported by truth and love
▪ it is strengthened and supported by the church, the body of Christ by teachers, preachers, prophecy, encouragement, etc.
▪ We share the same hope because we share the same spirit!
▪ Hope is created by the spirit through the word of God, and this is the origin of faith. Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
▪ The desires of our heart are the hopes of the same spirit!
o The Holy Spirit:
▪ Being in dwelled by the Holy Spirit, the same spirit, is what creates unity in the body of Christ and unity with Jesus the son and God the father.
▪ The Holy Spirit is the presence of Jesus on this earth today.
▪ He inhabits praise that is motivated and driven by our love for Christ and to us, by His love for us.
▪ He is the means and the way to unity and presence.

III. The Presence of God

• Psalm 139:7-10
o “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”
o Relationship:
▪ The Holy Spirit resurrected Christ. It wasn’t his body that resurrected itself, it was the spirit who resurrects, transforms, and glorified the body. He was the column of fire in the exodus. He was the burning bush before Moses. He is the manifestation of God on earth. As Christ was the perfect representation of God on earth, he sent “another comforter like him to take his place.
▪ The Holy Spirit is the bridge between the earth and the Kingdom.
▪ He and his power (the same power that resurrected Christ), dwell in us.
▪ Relationship with Jesus is completely relying on who and what he is, his power and his atonement.
▪ Relationship with Jesus is service to him. Serving him is loving him!
o Perspective:
▪ We don’t possess the gifts of the Holy Spirit; you have the Holy Spirit living in you and he possesses the gifts. This is the essential and imperative reason why we are to focus on his presence and commune with and by him.
▪ We must stop looking forward to where we are going one day to heaven and start realizing and appreciating where we are now! His presence is paradise/ the kingdom on earth now!
▪ Our perspective should relate to his presence now! IV. Hope in God’s Presence
• Romans 15:13
o “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
o Faith:
▪ Do not be faithless! This is a result of pride and manifests in closed mindedness. It is the mindset and effort of putting your wisdom and knowledge above hearing the truth. It is to be certain that you are right, with no humility and it is to be like the Pharisees were. They were not open to the truth and had an inability and unwillingness to admit they could be wrong. Not only did they miss the Messiah’s coming but they crucified him because of it.
▪ Don’t let the errors of men quench your faith And the Holy Spirit! We are not to “compare ourselves amongst ourselves”, rather we are to focus on his presence, his gifts and his purposes!
▪ When it comes to faith and discipling in the word of God, there is a difference between understanding and knowing.
▪ In order for our trust and faith in the completeness of Jesus, in his power, love, and his desire for us and our lives, we must know/ experience him. Understanding is realizing “how” something is done and knowing is experiencing it.
▪ Knowing the word is first in the process. It leads us to experience, not through our efforts and works but through a total reliance on him and who he is. Faith then exponentially flows! The quantity of faith does not increase, but the results and manifestations of faith do.
▪ Understanding that the word is complete and correct will only happen when the context and perspectives of the writers are understood and realized. Both in the ancient Hebrew Old Testament and the 1st century church worldview in the New Testament. We must always remember that the New Testament was built on the foundation of and completes the Old Testament!
▪ Every story and great movement and manifestation of God in scripture began with obedience.
▪ The blessings of God only come to those whose heart is open and ready to receive them because they receive the truth that convicts the heart.
▪ Jesus proclaimed that John the Baptist was the greatest man ever to be born of a woman. He had an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit from the womb! He is the example of what a follower of Christ should look like. He proclaimed Christ’s coming, giving hope and we are to proclaim Jesus’s return, giving hope to the world now!
▪ Belief and fear of the Lord that derive from faith, originates from the Holy Spirit by the word of God. To reach this place we must be sensitive in seeking the Holy Spirit. It must be our priority in all situations.
▪ Hebrews 11:1-3 ESV
“By Faith 11 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”
▪ Faith is the belief and trust (the expectations), in the assurances we have been given by Christ regarding the hopes that we have been given in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It is the conviction, the truth of the Kingdom of God!
▪ Things not seen, become seen. The material, physical manifestations of our hopes are the substance of faith!
▪ There isn’t a single aspect of the Christian life here on earth, not a single expectation, not a single commandment, not a single action that we are expected and instructed by Christ to do, that does not require this type of faith.
▪ I keep going back to the analogy of the fish that is made for living in water. We, as new creatures are made (especially equipped), to live, move, and breathe in faith. Colossians 2:6-7
“Alive in Christ
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
▪
This type of faith begins and results from an ever-deepening relationship with Jesus Christ through his word and Holy Spirit. This type of faith is completely dependent upon our diligence and deliberate pursuit of his presence in our daily lives.
▪
It is the only thing that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6) and God will not involve himself in anything in heaven or on earth that does not require faith in him because anything not of faith is sin, (Romans 14:23). Because of His Holiness, He will not occupy (tabernacle / temple) the same place as sin. Deeper relationship and presence with God equal living in faith!