HOW TO DEVELOP A SENSE OF DIVINE PRESENCE

“The LORD is my shepherd; 

I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

 he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

 thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil;

my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

 and

I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.”

PSALM 23

Today is February 14, a day referred to as Valentine’s day, set aside to celebrate love worldwide. This blog “How to Develop a Sense of Divine Presence” is my Valentine’s day gift to you. It is not a legal illumination that Akintunde Esan’s Blog is renowned for but a spiritual illumination.

We tend to relate with others based on our perception of how they tend to appear to us, we do not consider that, what drives a person is usually not visible to us. In life people are driven by their spiritual interpretations of life in general and particularly their spiritual interpretation of life and death, poverty and prosperity, love and hate, justice and discrimination, pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, reincarnation and resurrection, sowing and reaping, scarcity and abundance, success and failure, victory and defeat, mortality and immortality, morality and immorality, right and wrong, male and female, heaven and hell, greatness and nonentity, good and evil,  career and calling, peace and war, marriage and divorce and above all destiny.

What determines your spiritual interpretations is your spiritual foundation. Spiritual foundation consists of metaphysical principles and beliefs impressed in your mind from childhood till date and upon which you build and run your life, including your education, career, marriage, family life, relationships, character and business.

A spiritual foundation could be positive or negative just like night and day. A positive spiritual foundation inspires your faith in possibilities, in yourself and in the superior intelligence of the Creator. It gives you the inner strength to face your inevitable life challenges, while a negative spiritual foundation destroys your faith in possibilities, in yourself and in the superior intelligence of the Creator. It destroys your inner strength to face your inevitable life challenges.

What constitute our spiritual foundation are drawn from our subconscious experience such as dreams, trace, divination, astrology, spiritual illuminations, statements and suggestions from “influencers” such parents, clergies, teachers, gurus, sages, coaches, guardians, seniors, elders, sibling, spouse, leaders and superstitious beliefs, ancestral beliefs, religious beliefs and myths.

Your spiritual foundation defines who you are to you and who you see yourself as is whom you live your life as. If you see yourself as useful, you will live a useful life and if you see yourself as useless, you will live a useless life.

A classic of spiritual foundation is the story of Jacob when he went into exile as described in the Book of Genesis Chapter 28 from verses 10 to 22:  

   

“Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was   set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.”

From the above verses, one can see that God revealed himself to Jacob and this revelation became a turning point in the life of Jacob. What can be greater than the divine assurance from the Almighty himself that: “I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of” . It will take one greater than the Almighty to undo these divine assurances and of course, there is none.

This revelation signifies the continuation of the covenant relationship between God and Abraham with Jacob. Jacob was convinced from the revelation that, the God that was with Abraham his grandfather and Isaac his father was with him. He presumed that it was because this God was with them that they were kept in their ways, had bread to eat, and raiment to put on, he then concluded that if this God that has now revealed himself to him will do the same to him, then He will be his own God too. This divine assurance created a sense of divine presence in his life and affairs. It was this sense of divine presence rooted in divine assurance that, became the spiritual foundation upon which Jacob built his life.

When you see God like Jacob did, you receive divine assurance from the encounter and you become aware that, all things in life and in your life are working together for your good. Apostle Paul puts it this way in his epistle to the Romans in chapter 8 and verse 28: 

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

You may not have the kind of revelation that Jacob had, you may not see God in your dream as he did, nonetheless, God has made available to you His divine assurances in the Writings, Books and Messages of His Messengers to you.

The most reliable divine assurance you can ever receive on earth is from Jesus Christ, for he is not just an ordinary Messenger like other Messengers before and after him, he is the son of the most high God sent by God to manifest God as God our Father and to deliver His divine assurances to us.

The testimonies of the Prophets, the Apostles and above all Jesus Christ of the divine assurances from God documented in the Torah, the verified Books of the Prophets, the verified four Books on the gospel of Jesus Christ all contained in the Bible are the spiritual blocks to build your foundation.

The assurances from diviners, astrologers, white or black magicians, witchcraft or voodoo practitioners or people pretending to be clergies for monetary gains are not reliable, they will fail you in the days of adversity when you need them the most, they are like Jesus himself said building your life on grains of sand which cannot withstand the pressure of the adversities of life. Jesus Christ in the Book of Luke chapter 6 verses 47 -49 puts it this way:

“Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:

He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.

But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”

Apostle John one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ before his ascension to the right hand of God made us to know in the Book of John chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 of his account of the ministry of Jesus Christ that:

    

“As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

In other words, the moment you acknowledged Jesus Christ as the son of God, who was crucified for sharing the message of reconciliation with God and resurrected the third day and is now seated at the right hand of God, you become a son or daughter of God. Henceforth with the code name of “Jesus Christ” which works with the Holy Spirit - our spiritual internet - you then have access to God the Father. Apostle Paul puts it this way in chapter 2 verses 18-22 of his Epistle to the Ephesians:

“For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

You cannot have a sense of divine presence without divine assurance as your spiritual foundation. You have to cease from making human assurances or demonic assurances the basis of your decision-making. Your need to understand that: the foundation of God is indestructible and that God knows those who worship him in spirit and in truth and anyone that associates with the name of Jesus Christ must cease from doing the wrong things.

You may ask why must anyone that associates with the name of Jesus Christ cease from doing the wrong things? This is because the moment you make divine assurances, your spiritual foundation you become the temple of God, where the Spirit of God dwells and the Spirit of God cannot accommodate filthiness.

It is a privilege for my “ship” to be used like one the “ships” at the lake of Gennesaret.