Day 82: We should never take for granted the privilege of access to the presence of the Lord

“Blessed is the man You choose, And cause to approach You, That he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Of Your holy temple.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭65:4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

I truly don’t get it. Of course I understand that the carnal mind is not subject to the laws of God and can’t be; and that our flesh fights against the things of the spirit; but the only thing that I can assume is that we don’t believe what the Lord has said. Now, what am I talking about? It just seems to me that if we truly believed what Jesus said, we wouldn’t be so easily moved away from gathering with other believers.

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭18:20‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Yes, I know that we can worship God in our own homes, all by ourselves; but there is no promise given about the Lord being in our midst when we are by ourselves. As a matter of fact, when we are by ourselves, there is no midst.

Given, we know that Jesus dwells in each believer who has accepted Him as Savior and Lord. But experiencing the presence of the Lord is generally a phenomenon occurring AMONG believers. I know that this is not a commonly taught principle; but the word of God is very clear that—whereas the Lord dwells in each individual Christian—greater glory is experienced when believers come together in the name of the Lord.

I have had many wonderful spiritual experiences by myself, but they have never been to the degree as when I was gathered with other believers, even if those other believers were my own family members. For example, my prophetic gifting is activated in a group of believers in a way I generally don’t experience by myself.

When I was growing up, I remember how amazed I would be—as we would be driving to church—seeing people out and about, doing all kinds of things, obviously not going to any house of the Lord on the Lord’s day. To be honest with you, it still confounds me that some people never even consider darkening the doors of a church, much less being a supporting member.

“not forsaking our meeting together [as believers for worship and instruction], as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more [faithfully] as you see the day [of Christ’s return] approaching.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10:25‬ ‭AMP‬‬

Now more than ever, we should be gathering together in the name of the Lord so that we are able to meet the demands of this hour. How could we have gotten to a point where so few seek the Lord’s presence in the body of believers?

In our portion from Psalms today we see David talking about the wonderful privilege of being able to be in the presence of the Lord. It seems that he never lost the awe of the Lord nor took for granted His presence. Rather, he diligently sought after the Lord‘s presence and encouraged others to do the same.

Through Jesus Christ we have been afforded an unprecedented level of access to the presence of the Lord.

“And He came and preached the good news of peace to you [Gentiles] who were far away, and peace to those [Jews] who were near. For it is through Him that we both have a [direct] way of approach in one Spirit to the Father.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:17-18‬ ‭AMP‬‬

Let us never lose the thrill of access to the One Who is All. And remember, our fellowship with Him will transcend this life and we will make our home with Him forever!

For today let us know and understand what David knew:

We should never take for granted the privilege of access to the presence of the Lord.

#100dayswithdavid