The continuous presence of God transforms your life by inviting you into a daily, ongoing friendship with Him—one that is not limited to church or special moments, but is available anywhere, anytime. As you learn to converse with God throughout your day, listen for His voice, and bring every concern to Him, you experience His peace, guidance, favor, and personal transformation, making His presence your constant source of strength and joy.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
by Delbert Young
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Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
Scriptures used in this lesson:
2 Corinthians 5:8, Revelation 1:17, Exodus 33:11-14, Psalms 89:15-16, John 16:13-14,
I am excited to speak with you today about “The Practices That Changed Me: Stories of everyday transformation”. Many “Practices” assisted in changing my life, but the practice I want to share with you played an enormous role – The Practice of the Presence of God, but more specifically, The Continuous Presence of God.
So, if you’ve ever wondered if there is a God, or desire more than a superficial belief in God, or if you long to know, feel, and hear God’s presence, this message is for you.
Three Dynamics Of The Presence Of God
Over the past 48 years of serving the Lord, walking with God, and studying Scripture, I’ve learned that there are three dynamics of God’s presence. These are:
1. Ultimate Future Presence of God
2. “Magic Moment” Presence of God
3. Continuous Presence of God
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
I want to move through the first two rapidly, highlighting their differences from the third, and spend as much time as possible on the Continuous Presence of God.
What Is The Ultimate Future Presence of God
What is the Ultimate Future Presence of God? This is the presence of God that the Apostle Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 5:8.
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be PRESENT WITH THE LORD. [2 Corinthians 5:8 – NIV]
This doesn’t require much, if any, explaining. It’s concerned with the transition from this life to the next. We will all experience this presence of God one way or another, good or bad, for rewards, i.e., heaven, or judgment, i.e., hell. If you think you might be on the “bad” list, then we can correct that before you leave today. I will give you an opportunity at the end of the lesson.
I believe we all understand the “Ultimate Future Presence of God.” Let’s look at the “Magic Moment” presence of God.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
“Magic Moment” Presence of God
What do I mean by the “Magic Moment” Presence of God? The Magic Moment of God’s Presence is unlike anything else we experience with God. It’s when His presence shows up unannounced and uninvited. It shakes your world with a presence that you can physically feel. Often, it’s all but paralyzing. The visitation of this presence usually seems to provide directives. The “Magic Moment” Presence of God doesn’t happen often. I’ve experienced two “Magic Moments” in 48 years. We can’t plan it. It’s up to God how and when it happens. I’ll give us an example from the New Testament.
Apostle John was exiled to the isle of Patmos by Rome for preaching the word of God and for his testimony about Jesus (Rev 1:9-10). He heard a voice like a trumpet and turned to see the voice. Unannounced and unexpected, the Son of man (Jesus Christ) showed up (Matthew 16:13). John described what he saw: hair white like wool, eyes like flaming fire, a sword proceeding from his mouth, seven stars in His right hand, clothed with a garment to his feet, brazen feet, and standing in the middle of seven golden candlesticks.
What happened to John when this presence came to him? Let’s read Revelation 1:17.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
When I saw him, I fell at his feet AS IF I WERE DEAD. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. [Revelation 1:17 – NIV]
John fell out. In the Pentecostal/Charismatic world, we call this being slain in the Spirit! John physically experienced God’s presence. Many people in the Scriptures experienced this: Abraham (Genesis 17:3), Joshua (5:14), Ezekiel (1:28, 3:23), Daniel (8:17, 10:15), Peter, James, John (Matthew 17:6), Paul (Acts 9:4, 26:14), and John (Revelation 1:17). The magic moment shook John’s world. I folded up into a total fetal position. Everyone I know who’s experienced this presence reacted in some way.
The Lord said, “Don’t be afraid!” There is a degree of fear that accompanies this presence. It can be somewhat startling, but for me, I feared that I would do something to cause the presence to leave.
John’s directive was to write the Book of Revelation – write the things he was shown, which he did, i.e., The Book of Revelation.
For me, my directive was to prepare for the ministry, which I did. I worked to acquire several degrees in theology. A few years later, I uprooted and moved our family to northwest Georgia to serve as a pastor at a church. We eventually began a church. I served there as the lead pastor for 30 years, retiring in 2015. In 2016, Pastor Marty and Pastor Josh asked me to come on the staff at Northstar, and here I am today. This presence changed every direction of my life – occupation, where we lived, income, and everything. It all goes back to my “Magic Moment.”
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
A person knows when they experience a “Magic Moment” presence of God. You don’t doubt it, and no one can talk you out of it.
The Continuous Presence of God
Let’s discuss the Continuous Presence of God. It is invited and expected. It can be planned or spontaneous. His presence is 24/7, anytime and anywhere. It’s experiencing God not just in a moment, but in every moment.
There is a devotional book titled “The Practice of the Presence of God.” Pastor Roy quoted from it several weeks back. It’s a devotional classic about a 17th-century monk called Brother Lawrence who lived a life in the continuous presence of God. He was an ordinary person like you and me. While working in the monastery’s kitchen, he said,
“The time of work,’” said he, “‘For me is not any different from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I sense God in as great a tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the altar.”
Ladies, men, students, everyone, you can experience the continuous presence of God in your kitchens, workplace, shopping, driving, or doing anything, in your classrooms, on the bus, or while driving, mowing your lawn, playing golf, fishing, working in your garden, working out, or anywhere, anytime, and any place.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
God’s presence isn’t just for the church auditorium. It’s for your kitchen, your commute, your life. The ‘magic moment’ with God can change your direction, but His continuous presence changes your life.
Moses’ Example
Moses was called to lead God’s people from Egyptian bondage to the Promised Land of Canaan. During the journey, the Lord and Moses had many conversations. Let’s listen in on one of those conversations when they talked during a Continuous presence of God.
The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, AS A MAN SPEAKS WITH HIS FRIEND… [Exodus 33:11 – NIV]
Notice who speaks to whom here – the LORD speaks to Moses as a man speaks with his friend. Religion is man’s attempt to reach God through laws, rituals, programs, etc. Christianity and what God wants is to reach you. God wants a deep relationship with you—a genuine friendship. The Lord desires to speak to you in a friendship relationship. (I plan to discuss how I hear the voice of God later.)
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
Moses said to the LORD, “You have BEEN TELLING ME, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have FOUND FAVOR with me.’ [Exodus 33:12 – NIV]
Now, Moses speaks to the Lord. This has been an ongoing conversation—a continuous presence of God. Moses said, “You have been telling me…” It’s in the continuous presence of God that we find favor with God. The favor of God is when God does you favors. God loves everyone, but it seems some people get special favors from God. You know that person. It’s the person who seems that nearly everything they ask the Lord to do, He does. That’s the favor of God.
To be clear, people who have God’s favor do not always get everything they pray for answered. It’s more like life goes smoother for them. They seem to have a special connection with God.
If you are pleased with me, TEACH ME YOUR WAYS so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” [Exodus 33:13 – NIV]
It’s in the continuous presence of God that the Lord will teach us His ways. We learn about Him from the Scriptures, teachings, media, and various groups, but He teaches us His ways in the continuous presence of God. The difference is that what He teaches you is personal and applicable to you. Ninety percent of what you will talk to the Lord about will be about you and people you love. It’s a one-on-one conversation, face-to-face, as it were.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
The LORD replied, “MY PRESENCE WILL GO WITH YOU, and I will give you REST.” [Exodus 33:12-14 – NIV]
The continuous presence of God accompanies us 24/7 and is the most restful and peaceful part of my day. Life can be chaotic, but in the continuous presence of God time, everything becomes restful and peaceful.
We received a phone call from our son. He told us that one of his sons, one of our grandsons, had leukemia. Michael was 14 years old at the time. I freaked out. I was trying to hold it together for my wife’s sake, but inside I was a mess. Needing to reach out to the Lord as quickly as possible and talk to Him about this, I headed for our balcony to talk. I did, and everything became restful; I felt that He let me know He was in it. Rest and peace came. Michael is twenty now and cancer-free.
How does the Continuous Presence of God work in real life today?
For this to work in life today, we must learn to do one thing. This is the most important point(s) I will make.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
BLESSED are those who have LEARNED to ACCLAIM [clamor] you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD. They rejoice in your name ALL DAY LONG; they EXULT [to rise] in your RIGHTEOUSNESS. [Psalms 89:15-16 – NIV]
We learn to “acclaim” God. The Hebrew word translated as “acclaim” means “to clamor.” Clamor is a lot of talking. To others, it might sound like a bunch of noise. A point here is that we must learn to talk a lot to God. That’s it, but it’s not that easy to remember to do. I’ll discuss this more later when we talk about hearing the voice of the Lord.
Four Key Points in this Scripture
(1) There are special blessings for those who walk in his presence. Again, we note the aspect of God’s favor in the continuous presence of God.
(2) We learn to “acclaim” (clamor) with God.
(3) God’s presence is available “all day long” – 24/7. The continuous presence of God isn’t the same as a specific prayer or devotional time. It’s 24/7. It’s whenever we take the opportunity, i.e., driving, cooking, fishing, gardening – any “ing” we do.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
4) We exult “in your righteousness.” I probably read that verse twenty times, reading “exalt” in your righteousness. No. It’s “exult in your righteousness.” Exult is not in my vocabulary. I needed to look it up in Hebrew to see what it means. The Hebrew word translated as “exult” means “to rise.” We rise in His righteousness. We rise in our righteousness level. This is where the life change takes place.
Today, I am more Christlike than ever. I have more of the mind of Christ than ever, and I have the continuous presence of God more than ever.
God wants a conversation, not just a visit—clamor, acclaim, and connect all day long.
Personal Story – Fishing
I recall a time when I was learning how to experience the continuous presence of God. I used to fish a lot, and I enjoyed fishing alone. In Georgia, I’d fish at a place called the Cave Hole at Lake Weiss. Where I fished, there were a lot of fish and a lot of boats. We’d move around in the area using electric trolling motors to avoid rocking and disturbing other boats by using powerful outboard motors.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
This particular day, I was fishing alone in my boat. Other boats were around, and I was talking to God. This one boat came by me with two men in it. I was so engrossed in the conversation that I was oblivious to the fact that I was talking louder than I realized. One of the men in the boat asked me, “Who are you talking to? I don’t see anyone in your boat but you.” I laughed and said, “God.” I later heard someone who knew me tell the person, “He’s a preacher.” The guy said, “Well, maybe he was talking to God.”
My point is that there is no limit on where or when we can enjoy the continuous presence of God. It’s “all day long,” anyplace, anytime, and anywhere.
Focus On What’s In Front Of You
Years ago, I was teaching a series about the presence of God. I found a book by Jan Johnson titled “Enjoying the Presence of God.” I used the book as a help for the series.
She offers several valuable tips based on her experiences. It has a chapter about “Focusing On What’s In Front Of You.” When I first read the chapter, it didn’t stick. I’m not sure I even used it while teaching the series.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
Nearly everyone here drives. I was driving north on I-75 one day, after taking my wife to meet our daughter-in-law. Driving back alone, I remember saying, “Lord, what would you like to talk about while we drive home?” A big smile appeared on my face. Why? I felt I’d made the Lord smile because I didn’t want to discuss a church problem, a sin, a Scripture, a sermon, a series. I wanted to talk to the Lord about anything He wanted to talk about. So, we began a continuous presence experience with me clamoring and listening to what the Lord was saying to me.
Hearing the Voice of the Lord
Here would be a good place to tell you about how I hear the voice of God. Hopefully, it will help somebody. Then I’ll come back to I-75.
We all have a conscience. You know how you “hear” your conscience? You don’t audibly “hear” your conscience. What we hear are loud thoughts like “Don’t do that! You know that’s wrong!” Or, “Do this. That’s the right thing to do.” Hearing God is similar in that we hear loud thoughts.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
Let’s look at a Scripture. Jesus said,
John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; HE WILL SPEAK only what he hears, and HE WILL TELL YOU what is yet to come.
14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and MAKING IT KNOWN TO YOU. [NIV]
The Holy Spirit dwells within us, and it is his responsibility to communicate to us what the Lord has to say to us. I knew the Lord was speaking, and I knew I was desperatley listening. The problem was that I didn’t know how to filter what He was saying from everything else. Here is what I learned. I learned that if I continued to clamor and acclaim, eventually it would filter out the junk. I hear the loudest thought concerning what I hear, and then I begin clamoring about it. Then I take the loudest thought and clamor about it, and on and on until I feel comfortable I’ve heard God speaking to me.
It’s incredible what you will hear sometimes. Many times, if it’s God, you will know that you’re not that smart, and there’s no way for you to have thought what you’re hearing with your thoughts.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, my wife caught COVID, or it caught her. She lost her sense of smell. Every day, she would smell a scented candle on a lampstand to see if she could smell the scent. She had no sense of smell since 2021. Sometimes, she’d ask me to smell the candle to be sure it was scented.
Not long ago, she caught the flu, or it caught her, and with it came a horrific cough. She would cough until she lost her breath, gasp for air, and continue coughing. The cough continued for weeks. I prayed many times for her, but she continued coughing. She was taking medication and doing everything she knew to do to stop the coughing.
One night, I was clamoring with the Lord about Judy’s cough. I heard a loud thought from the Holy Spirit, “Her cough will cause her sense of smell to return.” I burst out laughing like Sarah when she heard the Lord tell Abraham that this time next year, she would have a baby! As I was laughing, I said, “How does that work?” I wasn’t talking to the Lord about her sense of smell. I was talking to him about the cough. So, I knew it had to be the Lord.
I told my wife what I felt the Lord said. She said, “I hope something good comes from this cough.” A few days later, she did her smell test using the scented candle and exclaimed, “I can smell it!” She probably smelled that candle ten times. Her sense of smell was back.
My point is that if you persist in clamoring to the Lord, you will filter through the trash and eventually hear solutions to your financial problems, marital issues, children’s dilemmas, and so on. He will talk to you if you clamor to Him and listen.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
God’s voice sounds like your loudest thought—listen, clamor, and let Him filter the noise.
Back to driving on I-75
Personal Story – Driving
Back to I-75. I’m driving north on I-75 after asking the Lord what He’d like to talk about while we drive home. We were having a continuous presence of the Lord time, when I heard a loud thought. It was, “Focus on what’s in front of you.” I had not been clamoring about “Focus on what’s in front of you,” so I knew it was the Lord. I remember looking up and immediately seeing a Budweiser billboard! It inspired me to talk to the Lord about some people I knew who drank excessively or had other addictions and to pray for them.
I saw an eighteen-wheeler with a logo on the side that reminded me of our son-in-law. He’s been a marvelous son-in-law. He loves our daughter and is a great dad to two of our grandsons they have, so I thanked the Lord for him and prayed for him.
Then, I came up behind two cars driving about 60 MPH, one in the right lane and the other in the left lane. Now, I, like Pastor Marty, have a bit of a problem here. I’d usually pull up close to the back of the car, they’d see me in their mirror, be mad enough or frightened enough to speed up, and pull over so I could get by. That day, I didn’t do that. Instead, I stayed back sufficient car lengths and began talking to the Lord about the driver.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
It was something like, “Lord, help this man. He is oblivious and has no idea I am behind him. He is consumed with some thought, perhaps some problem he is facing. Please help him. Give him wisdom. Give him mercy. He could be in the midst of a divorce, bankruptcy, or facing job loss. I don’t know, but I know you know. Please bless him.” In a few seconds, after I prayed for him, he looked into his rearview mirror, saw me, sped up, pulled over, and I went on by.
I asked the Lord to remind me of this experience the next time I found myself behind a slow driver. That was the easiest and fastest way to get a slow driver to move out of my way.
Eight Benefits of the Continuous Presence of God
I’ve shown you several benefits of developing the practice of continuous presence of God in your life. Let’s take a look at them.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
EIGHT BENEFITS OF THE CONTINUOUS PRESENCE OF GOD
1. God speaks to us in friendship
2. We converse with God
3. We find favor with God
4. God teaches us His ways
5. We find rest
6. We receive special blessings
7. The Continuous Presence of God is learned
8. We exult (rise) in righteousness – changed life
Transformation happens not in the extraordinary but in the continuous presence of God.
Closing
God wants to talk to us and have a friendship with us, but we are too often playing Adam and Eve, hiding behind our sewn-together fig leaf excuses of being too busy, too tired, or too preoccupied with our own concerns. God says, “Where are you?” We, hiding behind our fig leaf excuses, say “I’m too busy,” “I’m too tired,” or “I’m too busy,” or “I’ve got too much on my mind.” The Lord asks, as He did with Adam and Eve, “Who told you that you were too busy, too tired, too much on your mind?” We have to be like Eve and answer, “The serpent did tell me.”
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
Be careful. Listening to the serpent cost Adam and Eve their garden. God’s presence is the garden you don’t want to lose. Don’t let busyness, tiredness, or too much on your mind be your fig leaves or your serpent.
Don’t settle for a distant God; walk in continuous, everyday friendship with Him.
Application
The application is to find a time and place to clamor (acclaim) with the Lord about anything – your marriage, finances, family, occupation, or anything else. It doesn’t need to be about sin. Listen to your loud thoughts. Talk to the Lord about your loud thoughts until the junk filters out. Trust the Holy Spirit to make known to you what the Lord is saying. He will. It will change your life, just as it has changed mine.
If you want your life to change, make God’s presence your daily practice, not just a Sunday experience.
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
Continuous Presence of God: How to Transform Your Life
Related Sermons and Messages:
Hearing The Voice Of God Audio
Enlightenment Voice Of God Audio
Magic Moment – A Journey into the Tangible Presence of God
Trigger God’s Presence: How To Turn Aggravation To Awareness