Perceiving His Presence

God Is Still Present With His People Even When We Don’t Perceive It.

Playing hind and seek with the kids. They went from standing in the middle of the room saying, “find me”, to hiding and scaring me because i wasn’t aware they were there.

That is exactly what people in ruts find out about themselves. They discover that the passing of time tends to dull their religious feelings, and the signal that used to be quite clear is fading out. Then they worry a little and say, "The signal is gone. I'll have to do something." Suddenly it comes on again and they hear it a little and say, "Oh, it's not so bad after all." They are just in a favorable pocket—perhaps some new preacher has come to town. They think they are hearing the voice again, and they are, a little bit. But it is not long until they are out of range and cannot hear it anymore. Time has increased their indifference to spiritual things and dulled their religious feelings.” (A.W. Tozer, Rut, Rot or Revival)

The Truth of the Lord’s Presence is Never Negated by Our Numbness to it (v.10-13a, 15a, 16-17)

Jacob’s unawareness and numbness to the presence of the Lord in His life

Genesis 28:10–13 NIV

Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.

“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, “darkness” on the walls of his cell.” (C.S. Lewis)

The Lord’s Announcement that He is there though Jacob is unaware

“Emissaries of God were conducting commerce between Heaven and earth. The arrangement of the descriptions—from the ladder to the angels to the Lord—narrows the focus to the central point of the vision, which was God himself…Yahweh presided over the commerce of Jacob's life. God was directing everything. There was heavenly activity in this desolate place on Jacob's behalf. Jacob's somnolent eyes were upturned to Yahweh in his splendor. Divine reality assaulted his quivering soul. (R. Kent Hughes, PTW)

The Truth of the Lord’s perpetual Presence in our Lives

The point isn’t really the place, the point is the people! It’s less about the Lord being in Bethel and far more about the Lord being with Jacob. It’s not about the Lord residing in a location, it’s about the Lord remaining in our lives. This church building isn’t the Lord’s house (meaning his residence), you are the Lord’s house.

The Promises of the Lord Point us to His Presences (v. 13-15)

The Promises the Lord Made to Jacob

Genesis 28:13–15 NIV

There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

2 Corinthians 1:20–22 NIV

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Genesis 35:3, 7- Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone."… 7 There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

The Promise the Lord Made to Us, which are all “yes” in Christ Jesus

John 1:50–51 NIV

Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

Jesus is the true ladder, he is the gate, the is the one who truly bridges the gap between heaven and earth. He makes the truths of heaven tangible on earth. He enable us to experience the activities of the divine on a personal level. Through Him business is conducted between God and humankind.

Genesis 28:16 NIV

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”

1 Corinthians 6:19 NIV

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

We Increase Our Perception of God when we are Intentional and Committed to Meeting with Him and Meditating on His Promises (v. 18-22)

Genesis 28:18–22 NIV

Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

Genesis 35:3 NIV

Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.”

I’m amazed at how we can be asking God to speak while simultaneously being unaware of Him. Because we can speak without seeking and talk without listening…Illustration: counseling a couple where one spouse speaks at and over the other the other, but not to them and doesn’t allow the other a chance to get a word in. Then, they accuse the other of not being “engaged” in the discussion, or “present”…We must make time to just be in God’s presence and meditate on His promises

God Is Still Present With His People Even When We Don’t Perceive It.

We must, during all our labor and in all else we do, even in our reading and writing, holy though both may be--I say more, even during our formal devotions and spoken prayers--pause for some short moment, as often indeed as we can, to worship God in the depth of our heart, to savor him, though it be but in passing, and as it were by stealth. Since you are not unaware that God is present before you whatever you are doing, that he is at the depth and center of your soul, why not then pause from time to time at least from that which occupies you outwardly, even from your spoken prayers, to worship him inwardly, to praise him, petition him, to offer him your heart and thank him? What can God have that gives him greater satisfaction than that a thousand times a day all his creatures should thus pause to withdraw and worship him in the heart. (Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God)

Psalm 46:7 NIV

The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.