The Necessity of God's Presence — R. Edward Miller

Well, if you'll take your seats, we won't sing long this morning. We'll try to get some of those questions. Maybe you've got a lot more questions, or you've run out of questions. Shocked out of them, I don't know.

Moses' Plea for God's Presence

But once more we're speaking about the presence of the Lord, and we want to go to the book of Exodus. First I want to point out the necessity of the presence of God with us. Exodus 33, verse 15 and 16.

Moses was answering God, and he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not, in that thou goest with us?

So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. Now, I want to clarify something before we go into it deeper, but just to clarify it now in passing, and that is Moses is not talking about the omnipresence of God.

God is everywhere. You cannot go where he isn't. In fact, I preached a sermon in Bickersfield, California, to a Chinese church a few years ago. The title of the sermon was, God is in Hell. Kind of shocked them.

Well, that's what David said. Do I make my bed in hell? What? There you are. That's the omnipresence of God. But his creatures are not conscious of his omnipresence. We are only conscious of his manifested presence.

You see, the Scriptures say he hides himself. He hides himself in great darkness. We can't penetrate. We can't reach him unless he manifests himself. You understand that? We'll clarify it later, but just leaving it there for now.

And so, that's what Moses is talking about. He's saying, if you don't go with us, and then he says, there's three things I want to point out. First of all, the presence will define us. Who are we? He said, how will they know that we're a people that have grace, people that have found grace?

How will they know that they're really thy people if you're not there? How are we different from anybody else? Just because I say, well, two or three are gathered together, lo, thou art there, and I'm in.

Well, they don't understand that verse. It says, in my name. And in is a Greek word. It means inside of the nature of Christ. Then I will be there. But it does not mean the omnipresence of God. It is a wonderful thing for the presence of God to be with us.

It is a defining thing. It is those that have found grace and have learned to maintain and walk in that grace. Otherwise, we're no better and no different from any other church anyplace else. Moses said, how will we be different then?

What's going to define us? What's going to make us different than any other religion? What's going to make us different from any other church? When I've said this many times, Christianity is not, and never intended to be, a religion.

Christianity is a relationship. When it descends to a level of religion, it isn't much better than anybody else's religion, whether it's India or China or Africa. It is a relationship. God wants to relate with his people.

He wants to be with his people. He's chosen us to be his habitation. I am born to be a dwelling place of God. We are his tabernacle. That's why he said, I don't want a building to live in. He said to Moses, he said to David, I want a tabernacle.

I want a moving. In fact, when it says God made a body for Jesus, the word is related to the word tabernacle. He tabernacles with us. He dwells with us. That's what he desires to do. That's the purpose of God.

If that purpose isn't fulfilled, and he is not able to dwell with us, then how can we say that we're any different from any other religion or anyone else? How are we different from the Catholics? How are we different from the Lutherans?

How are we different from any of the other ones? Fine, we have a little different ritual. Perhaps you like our ritual better than they like than theirs, but perhaps they like theirs better than ours. Rituals are still rituals, aren't they?

Moses said, your presence will define if we're really your people. It will define to the world. It will define to the church. This is a people where God is free to come and be with us. It's defining. Furthermore, it is separating.

God's Presence Separates Those Who Desire Him

He said, so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the other people. Though they're defining, but it is separating. It is very obvious that it's separating because some people cannot stand the presence of God.

I've been many places in the world, and I've been places where they pray for revival, and when revival comes, they don't want it. I remember when revival first came to the city of Mendoza, there was a lawyer.

He prayed for 12 years for revival to come to that church, in that place. When the Holy Spirit came, he lasted for one service and stopped out and never came back. People want God till he comes. Then they're not sure they want him.

There is an awesomeness when he really draws near his presence, when he really manifests strongly his presence. It's an awesomeness. There is a reality. There's a presence there. Many times in Argentina, when the presence of God would be strong and moving over the people, or weeping or rejoicing, or whatever the mood of the Spirit happened to be upon the people, they would gather people outside and watch through the windows, through the door, and it opened.

Several times I would go out and invite them in. Oh no, no, I'm not coming in there. Oh, come on in. No, no, no. Why not? You know what the answer would be? If I go in there, I will have to repent. And I'll never forget one night, a little nurse, a student nurse girl, she was stood out there, and the services were long.

They went way past midnight, and she got tired, and she came and sat on the doorstep. I thought to myself, maybe you're getting pretty close. You'd better look out. I just sat there. After about a half an hour, she got kind of weary sitting there, and she leaned over, she put her hand on the floor, and she leaned over to lean against her arm.

That's when it hit her. So half inside, half outside, she was repenting at full voice, crying out to God for mercy. It is separating. When we started our search in Buenos Aires in about 1972, I said, look, we will not hide the things of God in a prayer room like many people like to do.

We will give him absolute freedom to move in our midst. We'll let God sort it out at the door. People come in and like it or hate it, but that's where it'll be sorted, right at the door. And that's the way it was.

Some people would come in and it wouldn't last forever. Some people come in, next night a little closer, next night a little further in, and love it. It sorts it out. Either they want it or they don't want it.

Either they want God, either there's something in them that is reaching out and hungry for God, or there's something in them that when really God begins to go on, he says, get me out of here. I can't stand it.

He will separate the people. He knows who's who. Maybe they're a fine looking person on the outside, maybe a very upright person on the outside, but the inside, their heart is not inclined towards God.

I had a pastor pick me up in New Zealand on the way to his home from the airport. He said, you must find many hungry people as you travel from church to church. I said, no, I don't. I said, I find many people that say they are hungry, but I said, when God begins to move, usually those people disappear.

In fact, I remember I was in a service in Orange, California, and God really began to move, and his congregation disappeared, and another congregation of visitors took over. The pastor was so embarrassed because none of his people were there, and we had a good congregation.

He separates, and that's the way God works, because he knows what's inside. So this man said to me, he said, well, that's strange. He said, I find many hungry people. I said, you do? He said, why, yes.

I said, well, that's strange to me. He said, why? I said, well, is your concept of God a God that's so stingy, so selfish, so self-centered that he'll let his own children starve? He looked at me and said, no, of course not.

I get your point. God will never have really hungry people. Did you know that? Because he's the source. Didn't the psalmist say, he prepares a table before me? Where? Where? In the presence of my enemies.

I can still eat. I can still be filled, even if the enemies are surrounding me. You see what I mean? For truly hungry will always be fed. It's the people that think they are hungry. You know what I mean?

They, they are the ones. And sometimes if you come and tell people that think they're hungry, you just hand it right to them and just put it almost in their lips. They'll say, oh, that tasted good. But they never think of going out and getting their own.

They'll wait for you to come and put it in their mouth. Of course, sometimes their mouth is on top of their head where you put your hand, you know. But you see, that's, that's the way we, we imagine. But God separates by his presence, and when he draws near, there will be those that are inclined towards it, and there are those that are inclined away from it.

Their hearts are not inclined toward God. Now, that doesn't mean forever. That means that this time, at this place, no, they don't want it. They thought they want it. They think they want it. But there may come another day.

God is, is very patient. If there's any, I've said this before, and I'll repeat it, he's the Savior of all mankind. If anyone, possibly under any circumstance, even in jail, even in a hospital, if they can be saved, the Savior will save them.

That's what it came to do, isn't it? He's the Savior of the world. You and I aren't. If there's any possibility, he'll find some way. If there's any way he can reach that heart, he will do so. He'll find a way.

Joy in the Manifested Presence of God

But the presence is another thing. The presence gives joy. In thy presence is fullness of joy. Now, don't equate joy with laughter. Laughter is something else. It doesn't say in thy presence is fullness of laughter.

Fullness of joy. In fact, joy is manifested by laughter, it's true at times, but joy is more often manifested by tears. Did you know that? Have you not found out that you can laugh so hard you cry? Laughter and tears are not far separated in our internal makeup.

But you see, tears are our ultimate expression of emotion. Whatever the emotion is, whether it's anger, it will go to tears. If it's envy or jealousy, it will go to tears. If it's love, it will go to tears.

If it's joy, it can go to tears. That's our ultimate expression. That's our last defense. Therefore, when the joy gets intense enough, it won't go into laughter, it will go into tears. Because that's the way we're made.

Joy is a very deep thing. Laughter is more superficial. Joy is a very deep thing. And in his presence is fullness of joy. That's one way of knowing if you come into the presence, is the fact that there's not a heaviness, there's not a bitterness, there's not a reaction, there's not the negative emotion flowing in your life, because joy will wipe them out.

His presence will wipe them out. In his presence is fullness of joy, not just a touch. It is full. Jesus said, I tell you these things that your joy might be full. He wants us to be a very joyful people.

That's one of the signs of a people that are accustomed to enjoy the presence of God in their meetings. He wants to be with us. He wants us to be a people of the presence, and that's the only way you're going to be different from anybody else.

Otherwise, you're in competition with all the rest. So who's got the best teacher, or who's got the best music, or who's got the best ritual, or who's got the best, shall I say, entertainment in town?

They all have the best crowds. You're in competition. But when the presence is there, you're not in competition. I assure you, there's not many places where you'll find it. I'm sorry to say that. I wish it was every place.

And I can remember a day. I can remember a day very well. When I go from this church to that church to that church, you find the presence in all of them. When we lose simplicity, when we lose simplicity, we begin to get complicated.

We lose that relationship. You know, a relationship can be so simple. You don't have to have a college education to get married, do you? There's that relationship, and it can be so simple and so deep.

Walking With God Without Advanced Education

I go back many times, Robert, and I often mention the fact we were working with Argentine young people. Most of them didn't have more than a third-grade education. They could barely read and write. Oh, the presence of the people!

They knew more about God in His Spirit. They couldn't put it out in an essay. They couldn't write a doctrinal thesis at any matter of means. But they knew Him, and they knew when He was there, and they knew when He was.

It doesn't take a lot of education to move and walk with God. It's that presence. It defines, it separates, and it fills with joy. That's the presence. Remember what we call the power of the presence.

Remember Aaron's rod? Remember how there's a big quarrel amongst all the leaders of the tribes? They said, yeah, just because Aaron's your brother, you put him in the highest place, but I want you to know that we're just as good as he is, and we have a right, too.

You ought to vote, or you ought to have some matter of choosing who's the real one, who God puts in there, not you, Moses, just because he's your brother. You ever hear that kind of talk? God said, Moses said, all right, let's let God choose.

And He took a rod from each one of them, and He put them in where they are likewise. Remember? And in the morning, that field rod had broken forth into blossoms and leaves and fruit all at once. What had happened to it?

It was there in the presence of God, doing nothing but just sitting there, but with a desire for God, with a receptivity that the rod didn't have. And that life force flowed into it all night long. Roots or no roots, rain or no rain, it broke forth into life, abundant life.

There is a power of life in the presence of God. There is a power of life. One of the things in Katharine Kuhlman's meetings, and a little bit in Benny Hinn's, there are some beautiful healings, but no one prays for the people.

Have you noticed that? And in her meetings, I had the privilege of being in what she was, and that is, she was very simple, but she was able to bring the presence of God into that place. And what's to do it?

I said to one of the others, I said, she rules with an iron hand, doesn't she? He said, you'd better believe it. It's not just happenstances. Everything is geared to bring forth, to open the doors to the presence of God.

And when it comes, things begin to happen here and there and there. Sometimes God gave her to know it. Sometimes God gave Benny Hinn to know it. But many things he doesn't know anything about. The last service he was there, before the service even started, that presence was there.

And we watch a woman jump out of a wheelchair and start running. Nobody prayed for her. No one ministered to her. There's a power of life in the presence. There's a powerful life for her. Is it any wonder that the devil do anything in the world to keep you out?

Is it any wonder he'll do anything in the world to get you away from it? Not only is it a life force that even reaches into the physical being, it's a tremendous life force of the spiritual being. You cannot be in that presence and be loaded up with anger, with resentment, with envy, with bitterness, with jealousy.

No, you can't sit there with that. Either you go out or it does, and the presence stays. Either all that trash goes out and gets washed and cleansed and that beautiful presence come in, or else you'll get up and go out.

There's a power in that presence. No wonder Moses said, don't take your presence, don't take your presence, then don't take me. That presence doesn't go with us. I don't want to go either then. There's a life in it.

There's a glory in it. There's a beauty in it. There's God in it. I don't want to live without it. David said when he fell in his great prayer in Psalm 51, he said, take not my presence. Don't take that away.

I know I've been disobedient, and I repent, but don't take it away. The Lord didn't. He knew what happened to Saul. He knew what happened when that beautiful thing lifted off the life of Saul, and terror and torment came in.

He didn't want that. He didn't want that. He wanted the presence of God, that beautiful, glorious, wonderful. You cannot imitate it. As Robert said last night, you can imitate the form all you want to, but you can't imitate the presence.

He spoke to us. The Lord spoke to us back when he was beginning to bring this into his presence, and that was, he said, never sing lies to me if you want me to stay there. Never sing lies to me. The story of Ananias and Sapphira.

We hear what the God of truth, the spirit of truth, how he speaks a lie. He let the church know, I can't stand a lie. Either they go, or I go. Don't lie to me when you sing. The Quakers were very sticklers for telling truth, and they would never sing.

They didn't have singing in their audience, in their congregation. They were afraid of telling a lie. And if you'll examine songs, you'll find very frequently they say things that aren't true to God. The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy.

That's because we're in his Kingdom, that's because we're living in his Kingdom where his presence is. Now I want us to go to Exodus 33. We're going to find out why God took his presence away. Why did they lose that presence?

Rebellion, Unbelief, and the Withdrawal of God's Presence

They had it. They had that presence. He went with them every day. Verse 33, and the Lord said unto Moses, depart and go up hence. He goes on saying, and I will send an angel before thee. I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perisite, the Hivite, and Jebusite.

I will take you into a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in the midst of thee. For thou art a stiff-necked, stubborn, rebellious, unbelieving, that's what the word means, people, lest I consume thee in the way.

That's what he did with Ananias and Sapphira. When the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned. Incidentally, they didn't repent. No man put on him his ornaments. You see, that was just after they had raised up the golden calf, and God said, I can't stand it.

I will leave you. If I don't leave you, I will consume you. I will destroy you. He didn't leave the first church, he just destroyed Ananias and Sapphira. But he doesn't want to destroy his people, so what does he do?

He withdraws his presence. He withdraws his presence. When there is... Why did they enter in, we read in Hebrews? Because of their unbelief, and that word unbelief is the same word that also translated rebellion, because that word unbelief means they refused to believe.

They took a choice not to believe, and that is rebellion. I choose no instead of yes. That's what it means. Because of that rebellion, because they will go their ways. They want me, but they want me to go their ways.

I can't go their ways, and if I did, I'd consume them because I can't stand it. Therefore, I withdraw my presence. I won't be there. I will send my angel. My angel will be there. And incidentally, he says something interesting about an angel.

It's in Exodus. Let's see if I can find it. Exodus 23, verse 20 and 21. Behold, I sent an angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into a place which I have prepared. Beware of him.

Obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgression. My name is in him. Angels can't pardon sin. They are holy. They cheat it, and they can't pardon it. Moses didn't know if God could, but God showed him that he was able, through the cross, to forgive sin.

I'm afraid if people today, if God came down and said to one of our ministers, you know, I'm not going to be with you anymore, but I'm going to send an angel to your church. You can be sure that it'll be on every television.

You can be sure that the papers would say, come to my church, we have an angel. Would you think so? And he'd be there. Oh, powerful angel. See, I'm powerful. I'll drive out the enemies. I'll drive out the parasites.

I'll take care of the Amorites. And he did. He brought the people in, didn't he? You know, a strange thing happened. In about 1950, when most of the leaders, if not all of them, the main leaders of the Pentecostal movement died out.

And I said before, I could take you to church after church after church after church, and I've been in many of them many times where that beautiful presence would be there, time after time. Back in the 30s and even in the 40s, you'd get that prayer room, and you'd sit there till way past midnight, just enjoying that presence.

It was so glorious, so beautiful. You go to other churches the same way. But then people began to demand better accommodations and better ministry, and people were highly educated and so on. They started in the Bible school, but that's too long a thing to go into.

Just the fact that those men all died out, and that whole move declined. And then there arose another man. He met an angel. Remember his story, some of you? He met an angel, and that angel would be with him.

And I've been in his services, and I've heard him say, if you can't believe God, believe the angel that's with you. And he would call you up, or you'd come up, sometimes in lines. He'd look at you and say, your name is so-and-so, you live in such-and-such a street, you live in such-and-such a city, tell you all about yourself, and then you'd get healed.

It was amazing. I watched it. But you know, not once in that service did I ever sense the presence of God. I sensed an angel, powerful, frightening. Angels are frightening. I'm afraid of presents, but I don't like angels.

They're frightening. They're powerful. They're hard. They're very, very affectionate, very full of love, but not compassionate. God is compassionate. And they're very obedient, and they do what they're told, absolutely.

And they're wonderful beings. Don't misunderstand me, please. They're wonderful, but they're frightening, more than one occasion. I remember once when the angel was working very strong with a certain ministry in Argentina, and oh, it was electrifying, and the people with demons were just falling like flies all over the place.

Boom, they'd go down and start screaming. That powerful angel was moving. And I stood there and watched it, and sensed that power, and trembled. I said, God, I know this is of you, but I don't know him.

I know you, and this is not the God I know. This is not the God I know. Moses said, he said to God, he said, I don't know this angel. I don't know his name. I know you, and I don't want him. I want you.

I want your presence. But if we're going to have that presence, we have to shape up before he ships out. You know what I mean? Because he can't stand, he can't stand rebellion. He can't stand that unbelief.

He can't stand the things we want to bring into church with us. So in his love to us, and his mercy to us, he just walks out. Time after time, even in this congregation, God has asked people to do something.

Obedience and Opening the Heart to God

And I've seen him ask the person, and I've asked that person, didn't God want you to do such and such a thing? Yes, he did. Why didn't you? You know, it's so hard to obey God when God gives a direction.

I've been working with people for years, and I've gone to a person, and I thought this has happened, oh, I don't know how many hundreds of times. And I've seen the presence of God, and the Spirit of God is really reaching to that soul.

And there they stand, just tired. I say, just pour out your heart. Now just say what your heart is saying. Open it up. You know, you have to open your heart by opening your mouth. There's no other way to open it.

Speak to God. Just say, Jesus! Because if they did, and sometimes they will. Sometimes all that's able to say is Jesus, and that quick, the power of mercy of God will come into your life. But that, no, I won't do it.

Why? Look, one hour later, they can jabber all over, tuck their heads off. But not then. When he says, now, do you want me to do it? Yes. No. And oh, they will. I've seen that hundreds of times. You know why it's so hard to obey God?

Because when you do this, always a blessing going to be leading. And the devil knows that. And he'll stand right there and say, don't you do it. Don't you dare do it. You'll make a fool of yourself. You don't know what'll happen.

Say anything you can to keep your mouth, to keep you from opening your heart to God. I said before, you open your heart by opening your mouth. How do you open your heart to a friend? By going to visit him and sitting there with your mouth shut?

No. You talk to them, don't you? How are you going to open your heart to God? There's just one way. Talk to them. Hosea says, take your words and go into the Lord. And so that's why they lost the presence.

The heart, sir, was unbelief. Say, we don't know if there's Moses, he's going to come back or not. We want our God. This is the God that brought us out of Egypt. We don't know about Moses God. He's gone.

Oh, what unbelief. What rebellious unbelief. That's Moses God. He's not our God. We want our God. What a thing. So God said, well, fine, you don't want me. I'll leave. Moses said, oh God, no. Oh God, no.

He knew what that meant. He knew we'll be like everybody else, every other church on the block, every other church in the city, every other church in our nature will be just like them. Struggling to do our little thing and those that have a little more giftings of politician or a little more giftings of music or a little more giftings, yes, they'll have a little better congregation, but we won't really be any better than anybody else unless you are there.

If you're not there, don't. I know you. I know who you are. I know that beauty of that presence. I know that glory of that presence. I know the wonder of it as it moves into my being and melts everything down till I become fluid and liquid and can flow in any direction that you choose.

God's Presence as the Way to Know Him

So Moses, what I'm praying, verse 13, chapter 33, Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me thy way that I might know thee, that I might find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people.

Now God answered that prayer in a strange way. Show me thy way that I might know you. And what was his answer? My presence will go with thee, not with them. Moses, I will not leave you. I will go with you.

It was personal. He didn't say thy people. I will go with thee, and then his answer, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Now show me thy way, and what was his answer? My presence.

Show me thy way, my know you. What's his answer? My presence. Furthermore, what did Jesus say in John 14, 6? I am the way. We want a way. We want, as Rob said last night, a formula. I've had people come to me, well tell me the one, two, three.

We want a map. He says, I am the map. My presence is the way. You want to know the way? It's my presence that is the way. Strange enough, we think of a formula. Tell me what to do. I've had so many people, even these last few days, I've had two or three come to me and say, tell me how.

What do I do? What do I have to do? Nothing. There's not a thing you can do. He is the way. When I draw near to him, he'll instruct me if he wants me to do something, or if he just wants me to do nothing.

He is the way. My presence is the way. That's how you'll get to know me. How do we get to know one another? By getting together with him more often and more often until we become more and more friends.

Isn't that right? We get in the presence of that person. We begin to share and to contribute, and share and contribute, and shall we say, drink of the mind of that person, or drink of the spirit of that person.

And more and more we like what we see, we like what we hear, and so we open up more and more, and we can become very fine friends. But not if you live in Kentucky and I live in South Africa. We're not going to have very much friendship, are we?

How can we develop that friendship? How can I get to know you? He said, my presence. That's the way. Well, how do I get there? Well, what does this scripture say, the Psalms? Come to his presence with thanksgiving, doesn't it?

Psalm 145, I think it is. 95 it is. Come to his presence with thanksgiving. Remember in the Old Testament, in the book of Esther, Mordecai was dressed in sackcloth. That's a sign of mourning, isn't it?

And he sat at the king's gate. And it specifically says he sat at the king's gate because it was prohibited by the king for anyone dressed in sackcloth to come inside that gate. So if you're going to come into his presence, you better take the sackcloth off and come in with thanksgiving.

That's the first. Take all that complaint, all that resentment against God, all that self-pity. You know self-pity is resentment against God? It's a form of hating God. Get all that chuck off. Get it all out.

Put on some glad robes. Come in with thanksgiving. And then he says in Psalm 100, sing yourself into the presence of God. Take a nice hymn and just sing it. That's a simple one, mind you. Not one of these complicated choruses, because the Spirit never uses complicated choruses.

Just use a simple one, especially one that has the melodies that came from heaven, God-inspired, not man-inspired. Just get it to singing into your heart, over and over and over, until it captures your heart.

Pretty soon it just opens up. Lord, that's what I want to say to you today. And as that melody flows on, that Spirit of God will move in that spirit of melody and begin to draw near. He wants us in his presence.

He doesn't raise up the barriers. If that doesn't work, then go down to the fountain of blood and get washed and be clean. Get nice and clean. Get the black garments of mourning off. Sing yourself into his presence.

My Jesus, I love you. I know you are. There's so many lovely songs, but mind you, they must be sung in truth. Don't pick one you can't sing in truth. It was what you're speaking, what your heart wants to say to you.

Make up your own song if you have to. I've made up many of them. When I was a boy on a farm, I made up so many songs, sang them on top of my voice for hours at a time. I didn't have anything else to do.

I was working. But oh, that presence would be there. When I was plowing or sowing or harrowing, it wouldn't make any difference. That presence would be there. I enjoy it. He loves to be with his people.

He's not the one that cuts down the curtain and shuts the door and slams it and locks it. He's not the one. He wants to be with us. We are afraid of it. We are not sure we want it. We're not sure we want to take off that sackcloth and be clothed with garments of righteousness.

I take it off, I'll be naked. Yes, you might for a moment, but then you're clothed. And so there is a way in the presence of God. That way is beautiful. He says, I am the way. Jesus is the way.