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Prayer Coach Prayer Coach : worldview : view of God : Who May Live in God’s Presence?

Who May Live in God’s Presence?

    Live in the God's Presence
    1. Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?
      Who may live on your holy mountain?
    2. The one whose walk is blameless,
      who does what is righteous,
      who speaks the truth from their heart;
    3. whose tongue utters no slander,
      who does no wrong to a neighbor,
      and casts no slur on others;
    4. who despises a vile person
      but honors those who fear the Lord;
      who keeps an oath even when it hurts,
      and does not change their mind;
    5. who lends money to the poor without interest;
      who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
      Whoever does these things
      will never be shaken.

    Psalm 15

    This Psalm is an encouragement and a motivator for me to stay in God’s presence. The psalm starts with a seemingly extraordinary condition; to have your walk blameless. However, now in the New Covenant our walk is blameless as we align ourselves with Jesus. Let our eye be focused on Jesus, keep short accounts of wrongs, and we will stay blameless before God.

    While we may have freedom to stay blameless, our calling is not only to abstain from evil but also to actively pursue doing good (Galatians 6:9). We have to do good and pursue righteousness. Again, everything has been provided for us through the Holy Spirit. He reminds us of the things of Jesus and empowers us to do His leadings.

    After these general instructions, the psalm goes into more detail which opens our hearts to God’s inspection.

    1. Loves Truth:

    If we want to enter into God’s presence we must speak the truth. This is such a big deal. For years I lived in the shadows of half-truths and lies. Fear of what others thought of me and shame attacked my heart and pushed me into lies for attempted protection. God is all-truth and highly values truth in us. We cannot experience the goodness of His truths when we block them with our lies. We need to reject the lies we hold onto in order to embrace the truth that God will protect us.

    2. Loves Others:

    If you want to be in God’s presence, you need to love what God loves. What does God love? Himself and His people (Luke 10:27). How do we love others? We love them by honoring them, not taking advantage of them, protecting them with our words, caring for their needs, etc. The psalm twice mentions the need to guard our words about others, so this may be the area where most of us struggle. Can we avoid gossip about others, even if it is true? Who do you need to build up with your words?

    3. Honors Righteousness:

    It may be hard to make the transition from loving others to despising the vile person. I like to look at this in comparison with honoring those who fear the Lord. We can love people who do wrong, but it doesn’t mean that they have to have a place of honor in our lives. We become like who we value. We are to love righteousness so much that we emulate those who display it. Obviously Jesus is our model, but there are also people display areas of righteousness well. Maybe for you, you have someone you honor for loving their spouse, someone else for caring for the needy, someone else for valuing the truth, and another for chasing the things of God. Honoring those that model their calling well helps lead you into God’s presence.

    4. Values Commitments:

    God is a God of promise and God of fulfillment. God enjoys making promises to His people to give an anchor to our faith and see who will trust Him over whatever circumstances may come. Therefore as we become God-like, it is important for us to keep our commitments. Will we show up when we say we will be somewhere? Will we honor our commitments to give to the missionaries we said we would give to? If we miss a commitment, we will own up to it or try to hide it under the rug? It is hard to hold God accountable to His promises if we value ours to little.

    5. Values People:

    This last point almost reiterates #2. The difference is we may love people, but do we love them enough to cost us something? In particular these last couple verses encourage us to love others more than money. In a world that values money, this is hard. Are you willing to take a loss on the sale of your house to value someone else? Would you be willing to spend more on something because the company protects the workers throughout the supply chain? These are doorways to seeing people like God sees them. As our eyes are opened, we enter into God’s heart and presence.

    I hope this psalm encourages and motivates you as it has me. He wants us in His presences, and He has left us with a map to help us know the way there.

    For more on how to live in the presence of God, check out Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life: Christianity Today’s 2018 Book of the Year.

    Original image courtesy of Christian and Rebekka Jungo

    13 thoughts on “Who May Live in God’s Presence?”

    1. God wants us to be in His Presence, for us to abide in Him and Him in us. His manifested presence in best seen when we stop focusing on ourselves, our mess, our situation and look to Jesus. Jesus invited us to come unto Him, learn of Him and find rest for our souls. This Psalm and the words of encouragement were on time. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. In order for us to walk in newness of life, we must learn His way and the Holy Spirit will lead us to all truth and testify of Jesus to us daily. Presence of God is needed, for God is love. Let’s live to love and do good.

      1. Dear Carter,
        Thanks for your comment. There could have definitely been more focus on Jesus in the post. Sometimes we also need the principles in order to help us know where Jesus is.

        Your words reveal a driving force in you to provide refreshing to many people. I pray that it increases in you and that you experience the joy of seeing others come into new freedom with burdens lifted. Thanks again sharing.

        Kevin

      1. Steve, thank you for your reply and encouragement. One of the things that I love about blogging is the chance to go back and review what God has shown you. As I reread this post, not only did I catch and fix some typos :), I was encouraged again about what God desires from us.

        I hope you may find the same encouragement in your blogging… that you may be surprised by the level of grace and inspiration God gives you to say. God is so good.

        Blessings,
        Kevin

    2. Great thoughts, Kevin! I was just talking to a mentor about this exact topic earlier today. All these points you’ve listed ‘re natural by-product of a heart in love with God and a life cultivating His presence.
      The question is does it work the other way around? Can we say, if you don’t have love for people, you’re not really living in God’s presence yet? I think yes. It’s possible to spend hours every week in worship services “feeling His presence” and still not catch His heart and desire His truth. If we’re not caring about what He cares about, we probably haven’t stepped into an actual relationship with Him yet.

      1. Daniel, thanks for your encouragement. I think God is eager to give people experiences of with Him. He knows this is what we have been created for. However for those of us who are pursuing after Him, He does want us to grab hold of His heart. I don’t want to limit my life to random surprises by God; I want regular times in His presence. Psalm 15 gives us a roadmap on how to make this happen. I love it. Love it. Love it.

        Daniel, I hope you have a good trip back home and hope you make it back here before we leave.
        Blessings,
        Kevin

    3. Pingback: Mountain Sunday – Isaiah 65:17-25 | Food for the Spirit

    4. Thank you Kevin for this post. It sure touched my areas of weakness such as saying half-truths and so on. I hope the Holy Spirit helps me keep those steps that I may evermore dwell in God’s presence. Amen

    5. Inspecting my heart I have found the root of bitterness from lies that have enter my ear gate over the course of my life. When someone lies to me I found the innocence of character and belief in this person is damage and damages just does not go away with an apology usually when the lie is revealed anger sets in and a root of bitterness develops. My prayer is that I will be able to understand when a person lies they are hiding something or seeking protection for their self delusion. I must forgive them. Thank you

    6. Living in his Holy Spirit and not our carnal flesh is the only way to fully live in his presence at all times. Our flesh wants to defend, avenge and straighten out crooked paths. It’s from those weaknesses that we fall away from the Lord, when all along he knows the truth, our hearts, our souls, our minds and our own individual choices. He will guide us properly with the Holy Spirit. Learning to not take others choices personally by living in his presence at all times is such a peaceful life. What others choose is between them and God, what we choose is between us alone and God. Absolutely nothing will bother us when we live under his wings of faith and on his narrow path til our final destination of eternal life with our Heavenly Father and his son in his kingdom. Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Praise be to God. We are truly blessed and forever grateful that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Blessed is he who returns in the name of our Lord. God bless.

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