Praise and Presence

The Starting Place

Psalm 139:7–10 NKJV

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.

Matthew 18:19–20 NKJV

“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

Omnipresence vs Manifest presence

David: 700 years before Christ

Omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent: All knowing, All powerful (All potent: potential), all present. These are the attributes of God that set Him apart from every other being.

David is talking about the omnipresence of God. He says, “wherever I go, there you are. I cannot hide from you.”

God’s omnipresence is why we can call on Him anytime and anywhere.

Jeremiah 33:3 “‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’”

Whatever you need, wherever you are, you can call on God and He will answer.

In Matthew, Jesus is tells us He shows up in a special way when his people gather together. Manifest presence is when God shows up and makes His presence known and tangible. It is when God inhabits a room. This is when miracles break out, healings take place, deliverance happens, addiction breaks, depression is lifted, anxiety and worry have to leave the room. When God makes His presence known in a place, people will get healed without ever even having anyone lay hands on them.

I have been in thousands of services in my life. I cannot remember every sermon I have heard or even every sermon I have preached, but I can remember every time the glory of God has fallen in a way that His presence cannot be denied. It happened here last week. God moved in a powerful way and was here to meet the needs of His people.

There are moments when His manifest presence is so strong in a place, it marks you. Every time you get in the presence of Almighty God, you leave different than when you came. There are certain things about you and certain ways you see things that will never be the same.

RUACH

There was a shift that happened in my spirit that night. The next day during praise, I found myself dancing before the Lord, something I had never done in a service. There was a new sense of freedom that I had never felt. I had ben in places before where people were dancing freely but I never felt the freedom to join in. I had always heard things like, “They better be in the spirit if they are dancing. You don’t just dance in church.”

Now, if I feel like dancing, I am going to dance. Because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. There is freedom to shout. There is freedom to cry. There is freedom to sing, There is freedom to run around the room. There is freedom to DANCE!!!!

The Bible never says David was in the spirit when he danced before the Lord. He just started dancing with all his might because the presence of God had returned to Jerusalem.

There are churches all around, both big and small that have never had an encounter with glory. They love God, they love Jesus, they sing and they pray and yet they never experience a move of God. Big churches get a bad rap but I have been in a lot of small churches that have never experienced an authentic Holy Ghost takeover. And I have been in very large churches where the presence of God is so thick and powerful that it is impossible to not be changed in some way.

There are churches everywhere that have service after service, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night and people come in lost and leave lost. They come in sick and they leave sick. They come in addicted and leave addicted. They come in depressed and leave depressed. I have been some places where you leave even more depressed than when you walked in because they just want to preach on everything that everybody is doing wrong and never talk about the hope that is found only in Jesus Christ.

Why are we not seeing God’s presence manifest like Jesus promised? You do not have to do anything for the omnipresence of God. But, manifest presence has protocols and patterns and most often we do not experience the manifest presence of God because those patterns are ignored.

Throughout the Bible, God gives the pattern, the people obey, and their obedience is rewarded with glory.

Deuteronomy 28: blessings and curses. You cannot curse what God has blessed. No witch or warlock can curse what God has blessed. The only person that can curse you is you.

Exodus - God brought his people out of slavery and they ended up wandering the desert for 40 years. God said, “I want to dwell with my people. Build me a tabernacle so I can meet with you.”

Slaves - one of the first things God did was take up an offering. He gave them the list of materials. He told them what kind of wood, what kind of skins for the walls, what color of dyes to use, how much gold, the size of everything.

The people did exactly as the LORD commanded them and His glory filled the tabernacle.

Build the ark of the covenant: inside - manna, Aaron’s rod that had budded, the tablets with the Ten Commandments.

2 cherubim made of beaten gold, wings touching over the mercy seat. They did exactly as God told them and His presence came and sat on the mercy seat.

David: wanted to build God a temple. “Too much blood on his hands.” - You take up the offering from the people to build it and your son will build it.

God gave all the instructions, Solomon made sure the instructions were followed. When they were done, the glory of God filled the temple with his glory so strong that the priests could not even go in.

To everything there was a pattern, the pattern was obeyed and the manifest presence of God showed up. Just because you have some music and a sermon does not mean the presence of God will show up and fill the room.

You cannot just walk up in God’s face any way you want. You must follow the patterns that God has laid out in His Word.

I have determined that we will not be one of those churches that never experience the presence and glory of God. We will seek the glory of the Lord and seek to be in his presence. I want to see people set free, saved, healed, and made whole. I want to see an outbreak of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit where miracles and healings become normal.

Why do we want to enter into His presence?

Psalm 16:11 NKJV

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

In the presence of God is fullness of joy. Today, we more people in the church on anxiety medicine and antidepressants than ever in history. Why is that? What is the solution? We need the presence of God back in our churches. Psalm 84:10

Psalm 84:10 NLT

A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else!

One moment is can do what a thousand doctors cannot.

Once you experience the manifest glory of God in that manner, religion will never satisfy you again. To everything God, there is a pattern.

2 Timothy 3:5 NKJV

having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

2 Timothy 3:7 NKJV

always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

They have a form. Saul - the Phillistines came and took the Ark but the people he had surrounding the Ark kept singing the songs, going through all of the same motions and never even realized the power and presence of God was gone.

David went to get the Ark and bring it back to Jerusalem. Put it on a new cart - the oxen stumbled and Uzzah reached out to touch it and stabilize it, and ignored God’s instructions and God killed him in that instance.

David got angry - he had the best of intentions but he had ignored the patterns that God had established.

2. How do we enter the presence of God?

We must realize that God is a King. We are citizens of a kingdom. Every king has protocols to enter his presence. In ancient times, kings ruled various empires in the earth but they all had some things in common.

Key realities of a king’s court:

The king was supreme authority — law, life, and destiny flowed from him.

Access was restricted — you didn’t just “walk in.” You cannot go to Buckingham palace and just walk in however you want and see the king. You cannot just walk in and get in the king’s face. We act like we can come to church any way we want and just get in God’s face. We come complaining, fussing, fighting, maybe you flipped 3 people off on your way here who cut you off in traffic. Then we show up and expect God to allow us into his presence our way. You cannot come to God your way. You have to come his way and through his protocols. There is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is destruction. You can do life your way marriage your way, raise children your way, handle your finances your way

Permission was required — being summoned mattered.

Protocol mattered — dress, posture, words, and timing were crucial.

Risk was real — approaching wrongly could mean death.

A powerful biblical example:

“Anyone who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned is to be put to death…” (Esther 4:11)

The tabernacle: Holy of Holies - priest had to be pure, no sin in his life and he had to go through specific steps and procedures before he entered the sacred space of God’s presence.

You cannot expect to encounter the presence of God and live however you want. You cannot expect to enter the presence of God and talk however you want, watch whatever you want, listen to whatever you want.

Access was privilege, not entitlement. Remember, God does not have to allow you into his presence. He does not owe you anything but we owe him everything.

So, how do we enter his presence?

Psalm 100:1–3 NKJV

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness;

Shout: “rua” - to split the ears with sound, to raise a triumphant battle cry.

Has God ever given you victory in your battles? Has God ever raised you up when you could not get up on your own? Why are we so loud at ballgames and concerts and then want to be quiet in church? Is our favorite ball team more worthy of praise than our God? It is time to stop being quiet and begin to let out a roar that shakes the gates of hell and drowns out the noise coming from the enemy’s camp.

David did not go to fight Goliath in silence. He did not just run onto the battlefield with his mouth closed and sling the rock that brought down the enemy.

David let out a battle cry. David shouted as he ran toward the giant. David declared loudly to make sure the enemy heard what he had to say. David shouted out in faith, declaring what the Lord was about to do.

1 Samuel 17:45–46 “Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.”

It is time to open your mouth!!!!!

Psalm 100:1–3 NKJV

Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God;

Why is it important to sing songs at church? David tells us! You do not have to be able to sing pretty to sing before the Lord. I do not care if you cannot carry a tune in a bucket, the sound of your voice in praise is a beautiful sound in the ears of the Lord.

We do not sing because we want everyone to hear us. We do not sing just to be singing. We sing because God has declared it to be a protocol for entering his presence.

We sing simply because We know that the LORD, he is God. That is why I do not need a cheerleader to get me ready to praise and worship God.

“I didn’t feel like singing this morning. I did not like the song. The person leading worship couldn’t sing good.”

When did it become about you?

Psalm 100:1–3 NKJV

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

It is not about you or your feelings. It is about Him.

Psalm 100:4 NKJV

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

The gates are the first step into the outer court. You cannot come in without being thankful. If you cannot think of anything to be thankful for today, go back to the cross.

Enter his courts with praise: The tabernacle - Judah was in front.

Praise: one of the seven words for praise: (Tehillah) - to sing praises from the heart.

Same word: God inhabits the praises of his people - enthroned - The praise that makes room for his presence.

King’s courts - this is when the King takes his seat. He is enthroned in praise.

“Praise isn’t one sound—it’s a language. And when we speak the language of the court, the King responds with His presence.”

Listen…

In an earthly court, when the king is about to speak, the room shifts.

Conversations stop. Movement ceases. Every ear turns toward the throne.

I sense that shift right now.

Some of you came in carrying verdicts spoken over you:

“It won’t change.”

“It’s too far gone.”

“You missed your moment.”

“You’ll always struggle.”

But heaven is silencing lesser voices.

Because when praise fills the court, the King rises to render decree.

Raise the Expectation

I hear the Spirit saying:

“This is the sound before the decree.” “This is the praise before the breakthrough.” “This is the alignment before the acceleration.”

You thought you were just singing— but you were summoning alignment.

You thought you were just lifting hands— but you were positioning yourself for favor.

You thought you were just shouting— but you were announcing victory before the verdict.

Build the Fire

Lift it now.

Shabach Him! Let there be a shout in this house!

Not because you see it— but because you trust the King.

Some chains are breaking in this moment. Some anxiety is dissolving in this atmosphere. Some prodigals are turning around because of this sound.

This isn’t emotional hype.

This is court language.

And the King responds to covenant sound.

Prophetic Declaration

I declare over this house:

Where there has been delay—there will be decree. Where there has been heaviness—there will be glory. Where there has been warfare—there will be victory. Where there has been silence—there will be strategy.

Because when sons and daughters learn the language of praise,

The King does not ignore it.

He inhabits it.

Bring It to Jesus

And hear me— this access was not purchased by your volume.

It was purchased by His blood.

Jesus tore the veil. Jesus opened the court. Jesus secured your standing.

So now lift your voice—not trying to get in— but because you’re already welcomed.

This is not the sound of strangers.

This is the sound of sons.

And the King is responding.