By John Thiel

As you read the word of God as speaking to you personally, it is a creative power because it says and God spake and it was done at creation. His word is going to create as you absorb it into yourself. If you take God’s word and want to obey it from your own perspective, it will wear you out. That is the whole issue that so many Christians are becoming weary because iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold because it is not a love that is generated by the word. It is a love that is built upon emotionalism.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

When we suffer stress, is that fear? In perfect love there is no stress. You have to find that beautiful release of God’s love and when you have found that love that is true love, the love of God, then it casts out fear and stress. Stress cannot function. If you have a life of trying to obey God without that love, it is what is called mechanical obedience.

By their actions those connected with our institutions give proof of the worth, or worthlessness, of their judgment. Those who enter the service of the institution with a spirit of unwillingness to help, who do their allotted tasks with a feeling of compulsion, in sullen submission, who act as if they would gladly escape from the drudgery of the necessary daily duties which someone must do, are very little help to the institution. A mechanical obedience may hide the smoldering fire of rebellion, but it is ready to break out at any time against restraint. In the service of such there is no peace or light or love. The atmosphere surrounding their souls is not fragrant. The influence of their words and actions is felt by others, and this influence is a harm even to those who are trying to do their best in any position in which they are placed. Self-pity is deteriorating to the characters of those who cherish it, and it exerts an influence that spoils the happiness of others. {MM 177.3}

We have to come face to face this is our problem but when the presence of God comes in then that love of God that is the presence that is the presence of God, we sense his love, and it chases away this internal selfism. Perfect love casts out all fear. The person’s life is not fragrant.

God wants all to have His grace and His Spirit to make fragrant their life. {CH 402.2}

This is what God wants. He knows our condition but he wants us to have his grace and his spirit to make fragrant our life. That is the only way it is going to be fragrant through his spirit, the presence of God in the soul. This is so important. This is what our exploration is to be. To hear his voice, to sense his presence.

What God Wants Us to Have

Faith that enables us to receive God’s gifts is itself a gift, of which some measure is imparted to every human being. It grows as exercised in appropriating the Word of God. In order to strengthen faith, we must often bring it in contact with the Word. In the study of the Bible the student should be led to see the power of God’s Word. In the creation, “he spake and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:9). . . . {RC 126.5}

The word of God is his voice and we have to appropriate it. As you read the word appropriate it and say thank you Lord you are speaking to me. For you to be constantly in touch with God, you often bring your faith in contact with the word. Do it often because the faith that God has given you must be exercised and it can’t be exercised unless you come often in touch with God’s word so your faith can grasp him speaking to you personally. To enter into the audience chamber of God in his word, you need to do that often and when you move away from it to do your duties you must take that presence with you that was gained in the word. As soon as you lose the presence you have to go for it again. Where are you Lord? I’ve just lost you.

As a shield from temptation and an inspiration to purity and truth, no other influence can equal the sense of God’s presence. {RC 126.7}

What do we need constantly? The sense of God’s presence as that will be the shield that will protect you from Satan and stress.

Only the sense of God’s presence can banish the fear that, for the timid child, would make life a burden. {RC 127.5}

God is speaking to the timid child in each of us. Life is a burden for the timid child as there is so much that would stress it out. The sense of God’s presence can banish the fear. As you experience the sense of God’s presence, you experience his love and the perfect love of God chases it out. The answer is very simple. You draw near to God.

James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse [your] hands, [ye] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [ye] double minded.

If you will have a sense of God’s presence you will find it in the audience chamber of his word and you need to stay there very deliberately in the morning where you first start and to keep the sense of God’s presence with you, mediate on what you have been reading as Gods voice speaking to you. You will be able to resist the devil because he has to flee. He will flee as you mediate and continue. It is one thing spending time with the Lord mediating in the morning and saying I want to stay here but I have to get up and do some work as God tells me to be clean, tidy and earn my money, I have to take him with me. I can’t just sit there and enjoy myself in his presence, I have to enjoy myself with God in the duties of life. If you operate this way you will have the precious answers especially when it comes to Gods healing presence in your life as it is he who is your physician. If you recognise the word as Gods voice speaking to you;

Exodus 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I [am] the LORD that healeth thee.

Notice how personal this is, if you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord they God. Listen carefully to him and open your heart to the love that comes from him in all the things he says. For instance, give ear to his commandments which is the commandments of love and keep all his statues as he will be the Lord that heals.

Malachi 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

That is the personal relationship, the sense of God’s presence that makes all the difference. The sense of God’s presence is the function of faith because while you have the sense of God’s presence you can enjoy it and it dispels the fear and calls for action. What is the faith that is the gift of God that brings forth the action?

Faith is trusting God–believing that He loves us, and knows best what is for our good. Thus, instead of our own, it leads us to choose His way. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His righteousness. Our lives, ourselves, are already His; faith acknowledges His ownership and accepts its blessing. Truth, uprightness, purity, have been pointed out as secrets of life’s success. It is faith that puts us in possession of these principles. {RC 126.2}

What is trusting God? It is an action of your mind saying thank you Lord. You release your emotional life in him trusting him. One of the biggest problem of women is they can’t believe a man and God is a man. You don’t believe that he really loves but you have to believe that he loves you and that he knows best. Faith is a gift and this is what it will do.

Faith is a Gift

Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

2:6 And hath raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus:

2:7 That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:

2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

If we don’t have the grace and the sense of God’s presence then it is of works and works are done grudgingly and we will think I’ve worked so hard to do what God wants but I’m still not blessed. I’m grudging. It must not be of works which we do mechanically. It has to be of grace through faith which is the gift of God. Faith is the gift of God.

Faith is the gift of God, but the power to exercise it is yours. {ST, March 5, 1885 par. 13}

He has raised us together and made us to sit in heavenly places. Even when we were dead in sins he quickened us. He has done it already but as you open your heart to it, it is a gift that you believe it. Through that you will be able to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Then you will do what that statement said. You will place your own will under his will. You will choose his way not yours, everything will be something willingly submitted to rather than burden. Mediate on these things and exercise the gift the Lord has given. The gift of faith is God drawing near to you.

Amen.