“I have walked habitually in your midst, and have become your God, and ye -- ye are become My people.” (Lev. 26.12)

“But God's free gift is not at all to be compared to the trespass [His grace is out of all proportion to the fall of man]. For if many died through one man's falling away (his lapse, his offense), much more profusely did God's grace and the free gift [that comes] through the undeserved favor of the one Man Jesus Christ abound and overflow to and for [the benefit of] many.” (Romans 5:15)

Commentary notes, “The first contrast is between the offense of Adam and the free gift of Christ. By the trespass of the first man, the many died. The many here refers, of course, to Adam’s descendants. Death here may include spiritual as well as physical death.

The free gift abounds much more to the many. The free gift is the marvelous manifestation of the grace of God abounding to a race of sinners. It is made possible by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ. It was amazing grace on His part to die for His rebellious creatures. Through His sacrificial death, the gift of eternal life is offered to the many.” [1]

This free gift of eternal life that overflows and abounds out of proportion with the offense, is the gift of not only a one time salvation, but of access to knowing God.  Once separated from God from one's man falling away, this relationship is now fully restored through Christ. By His death, Christ gave us access to the Father.  And through Christ, we are made righteous and blameless in His sight.

John 17:3 says, "And this it eternal life: [it means] to know...You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ... Whom You have sent."

When we die, what we look forward to is seeing Him face to face and fully knowing Him. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

The precious gift Adam and Eve lost in the fall was that they walked and talked with God in the garden.  They stood fully known and unashamed in the presence of God and in the presence of each other (Gen 2:25, 3:8). They stood in the very presence of God, being known by Him and having fellowship with Him.

David Benner writes, “Human beings exist because of God's desire for fellowship.” God did not need us to fulfill a purpose. He desired and longed for our love, affection, friendship and company.

Greg Boyd writes, The Trinity created humans not out of need but out of abundance.” [2] We were created out of love. He created us because He desired to walk in the garden with us.

It is His love for us and His presence in our midst the distinguishes us as Christians, not achieving some purpose or some religious significance. This has been true since the beginning of time. The distinguishing characteristic of the Israelites was not their own greatness, ability, size or strength, but that of their God. They were a stiff necked people but they were known and feared by those around them because of the greatness of their God.

Deuteronomy 7:7 says, “The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.”

God demonstrated His greatness in the midst of His people. In Exodus 6:6-7 (Fox) God spoke to the Israelites,

“I am YHWH

I will bring you out...

I will rescue you...

I will redeem you...

I will take you...

and I will be for you...

and you shall know that I am YHWH your God...” [3]

Their God was a wall of fire round about them and the glory in the midst of them (Zech 2:5). And Exodus 40:38 says, “For throughout all their journeys the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.”

While God was with the Israelites, He still stood separate from them. Only the High Priest and only once a year could man enter the inner chamber (Holy of Holies) to the place where God dwells. And it was “never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance” (Hebrews 9:7).

Just before Jesus was betrayed and went to the cross, what He prayed for all those who would come to believe in Him that they would come into full union with God and with others through Him.

In John 17:21-23 He prayed, “That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me. I have given them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one:

I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.”

Through the death of Jesus, we have full access to enter into the Holy of Holies with boldness and confidence. We were given full access to the presence of God to fellowship with Him freely. By His death and through His blood, we are now a kingdom of priests who can come directly before God any time we want.

Hebrews 10:19-20 says, “Therefore, brethren, since we have full freedom and confidence to enter into the [Holy of] Holies [by the power and virtue] in the blood of Jesus, By this fresh (new) and living way which He initiated and dedicated and opened for us through the separating curtain (veil of the Holy of Holies), that is, through His flesh...”

We are offered to draw near. Not once a year, but every day we are invited into the presence of God - to have fellowship and communion with Him. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit on the inside of us, we are invited to have a foretaste of what is to come. 

Romans 8:23 says, “And more than that, we ourselves, though we possess the Spirit as a foretaste and pledge of the glorious future, yet we ourselves inwardly sigh, as we wait and long for open recognition as sons through the deliverance of our bodies.”

Commentary notes, "First, the abiding presence of the Spirit Himself is a continual reminder of the certainty of Jesus’ promises. Second, the Spirit Himself generates those inner longings, within the beast of the believer, that will only be satisfied when he sees Him face to face (cf. Rom 8:23)." [4]

David Benner writes, "Through the Holy Spirit who dwells within me, I journey with Jesus and Jesus journey's with me... The journey that we take with Jesus is obviously not a journey through space but a journey through time. It is not a journey to some physical-spatial destination. It is a journey of growth and transformation. It is a journey of growing into “the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). It is a journey of progressive union with God.” [5]

We are a bride being prepared for our wedding day (Revelation 19:7-8). Our ultimate destination is full union with God through the Spirit. Revelation 19:9 says, “Then [the angel] said to me, Write this down: Blessed (happy, to be envied) are those who are summoned (invited, called) to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

The Holy Spirit is our seal of the promise to come. 2 Corinthians 1:22 says He has, “set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

Jesus, giving us the seal and promise of union, went away to go and prepare a place for us. His plan, that He will come back again and take us to be with Him, that we may also be where He is (John 14:3). In this place of betrothal, we wait and long for His return for us to take us to Himself and make us one with Him.

We are being courted and drawn into this union by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not only the Father's sons and daughters but we have been promised to His Son in marriage. Until that day, we are being prepared and grown more and more into His likeness. When we are seeking Him with all our hearts, we are on a journey of progressive maturity and deepening union with Him. More and more we are to grow to know Him, experience Him in our lives and deepen our faith and trust in Him.

And love is the bond of perfect unity that brings it all together (Col. 3:14).  Our union with Him now and in the time to come is brought about through the drawing force of love. We cannot earn this union or obtain it by our own means. It is as only as we allow Him to love us and ourselves to love Him that we grow in this union of love.

As He walks with us and wrestles with us through our journey, we are learning to be loved, love God, and love others through Him.  Paul prays in in Philippians 1:9-10, "that your love may abound yet more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight [that your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment],

So that you may surely learn to sense what is vital, and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value [recognizing the highest and the best, and distinguishing the moral differences], and that you may be untainted and pure and unerring and blameless [so that with hearts sincere and certain and unsullied, you may approach] the day of Christ [not stumbling nor causing others to stumble]."

For along time, I struggled with thinking I needed to earn His love by obedience. I kept thinking if I could just work harder and get it right, I would be more deserving of His love and He would be more pleased with me and I could enter into this place of greater communion and union with Him.

However, as David Brenner notes, it is the reverse. We obey God because He has won our hearts. He writes, “If he has not [won our hearts in love], our focus should not be so much on obedience as on knowing his love. For once we get that solidly in place, obedience begins to take care of itself. Apart from love, obedience is simply an act of obligation. As a response to love, duty becomes an act of devotion. God wants our devotion, not simply our acts of duty.” [6]

It is not by our actions of holiness and will that lead us to true obedience, but by soaking ourselves in the love of God “so thoroughly that love for God springs up in response.” As Brenner notes, it is surrender into His love that brings about obedience. [7]

In “Fire Within” Thomas Dubay writes of a union that enters deeply into God by the power of love. He writes, “In the transforming union the person is now 'all love', and all her actions are love... everything -seeing, hearing, tasting, working, resting, playing -triggers love in and through all things. This person is quite literally fulfilling the greatest of all the commandments: she is loving God with her whole heart, soul and mind.”[8]

He goes on to write, “'The soul easily extracts the sweetness of love from all the things that happen to her, that is , she loves God in them. Thus everything leads her to love.' Whatever her daily experiences are delightful or bitter, she finds the Beloved in them and 'knows nothing else but love' for Him in each of them.

We have here an adequate explanation of what it means to love God entirely, what it is to be on one spirit with Him, what the remarkable intimacy of the interindwelling means, that is, our dwelling through love in God and His in us.” [9]

As we freely receive God's love, His love freely flows through us to other people. Greg Boyd calls this receiving and giving away his love a dance. He notes His love is an end in and of itself. He writes, “We might say that the goal of every individual, and of humanity in general, is to dance the eternal dance of the Trinity, to participate in and glory this unsurpassably loving fellowship. We do this by receiving and reflecting the unsurpassable love that God is.” [10]

Greg Boyd goes on to note that we often assume that we get closer to God through working hard at overcoming faults or producing positive habits in our lives. However, as He notes, our participation in this dance is “founded exclusively on our union with Christ by faith.” [11]

This union with God through the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us is a free gift. It is not that we have this union at times and do not have it at others (Ephesians 2:6), but that we are not always aware and present to this divine union with Him. We do not always abide (dwell, remain, cling and encamp) in Him, walking and talking with Him in the garden as we were made for.

And it is our union with God through the Holy Spirit that we have constant availability of His living waters of love so that we never thirst again. This place of union with God, through the Holy Spirit, is vital to our Christian walk.

As mentioned earlier, for years I struggled with working hard at living holy so I could be more deserving of the gift of God's nearness. When I would get it all right, I would become self-righteous where when I would not get it right, I would feel unworthy.

What happened is it actually distanced me from being aware of God. As I worked harder at earning His love, I was distracted from being with Him because I was working so hard at earning the place I felt I wasn't worthy of.

Then I was trying to give away love to others when I was not receiving it myself. My love for others ended up being a kind of syrupy trying to please and appease others to gain their approval rather than genuine love from the overflow of His Spirit.

The only way we can genuinely love others in the way that God loves is if we are entering into this dance -connected to God, receiving His love and giving it away to others. It is as we receive God's love that we are filled and it can flow through us to others.

Sometimes it is our beliefs that hinder our ability to encounter God on a day to day basis. We believe God is somewhere out 'there' rather than close, near, and personal. We hold Him at a distance and do not acknowledge His desire to be in our day to day lives.

From God's willingness to dwell in a box (Ark of the Covenant) inside a tent, then in a man-made temple to His coming down from heaven, walking among us and dying for us on the cross, to His sending His Holy Spirit in our hearts and tearing the veil in the temple, God has made it clear that He desires to dwell among His people and be very near to them.

Leviticus 26:12 says, “And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people “

2 Corinthians 6:16b, “As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

Deuteronomy 23:14 “For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you.”

Commentary notes that His moving from place to place with a Tabernacle as His dwelling (2 Samuel 7:6) is expressive of the familiarity and communion which the Lord grants to His people in and through Christ. [12]

God deeply desires to commune and fellowship with His people in intimate ways rather than be held at arms length as One who is unapproachable or untouchable.

Benjamin Schäfer writes on his blog, “We need to move from universal presence [ God exists somewhere out there] to manifest presence [ God is near, Jer. 23:23] which means from unrecognized presence to a never ceasing awareness that He is with us in an immediate and deeply personal way. With our sensitivity for His nearness grows our experience of Him. If we get this truth, it will totally revolutionize our lives and relationship with God. Many Christians believe that He is always there, but they live as if He wasn't, not having pondered the depths of this truth so that it would transform the way they live, pray, worship and so on. We need revelation of His presence in our lives, not only in general but in particular situations. It's one of the most powerful truths for the human heart. Many problems and struggles will be settled as we connect with this truth deeply.” [13]

While there are dark nights of the soul where God will withdraw His manifest presence for a season to allow our roots to grow deeper and our faith to be purified, the manifestation of of God (letting Himself be clearly seen and making Himself real) is available to every believer (John 14:21, 1 Corinthians 12:7). We were made for this fellowship and communion with Him.

In my daily devotional for today, Lynn Hammond writes, “Many Christians have the idea that those kinds of supernatural experiences [manifestations of God] are only granted to an elite few, to people who have special callings like the early apostles did. They think manifestations of the Spirit aren't meant for ordinary believers. But the Bible says differently.” [14]

Sometimes what keep us out of this awareness and fellowship with God is not our theology but our distraction and inattentiveness. Simply said, we get busy with everything else and do not abide in His love. Not that we lose this union with Him. Like one who is married, when the spouse is off doing their own thing, they are still married – we are still in union with Him through the Holy Spirit even when we are not attentive to it.

However, sometimes we can become like the woman in the Song of Songs who did not want to be bothered to get up in the middle of the night to answer the door when He knocks because it is an inconvenience to our agenda. We get used to having God around and take Him for granted, putting Him off and not really paying attention to Him.

Sometimes we can see serving Him or doing something for Him as a priority over being with Him. We see obtaining something outside of our fellowship and relationship with Him as our ultimate goal.  We value our own significance over our relationship with Him. Other times we simply become to focused on what needs to get done and cannot see beyond it. When we are like Martha and distracted by our doing, we lose the opportunity for the best part – sitting at His feet.

Learning to invite Him into all that we do throughout the day takes practice.   Brother Lawrence was someone who did this very well. In “The Practice of the Presence of God” it notes, “Brother Lawrence insisted that it is necessary to always be aware of God's presence by talking with Him throughout each day. To think you must abandon conversation with Him in order to deal with the world is erroneous. Instead, as we nourish our souls by seeing God in His exaltation, we will derive a great joy at being His.” [15]

Brother Lawrence saw fellowship with God is being the pearl that was worth letting go of everything else to obtain. It was His greatest joy and worth selling all else to obtain. In one of his letters Brother Lawrence write, “Do not forget Him! Think of Him often; adore Him ceaselessly; live and die with Him. That is the real business of a Christian; in a word, it is our profession.” [16]

Some of the suggestions for practicing this that have at times worked for me in the past to draw near to Him are:

Making Him your first priority - Our fellowship with Him grows as we become more and more aware that life is about relationship and fellowship with Him rather than what we accomplish. No matter how busy our lives can be, we find the time for those things that are truly important because we make the time.

Follow practices - such as taking a few minutes out each hour to meditate on His love.  Meditating on the Word, practicing centering prayer or Lectio Divina, praying the Word, soaking in worship, prophetic art, sitting silently at His feet, visually picturing yourself on a picnic or at a beach with Jesus and other disciplines such as these help us to connect with God and become present to Him.

Live present to the moment with Him - Continually drawing ourselves back to the current moment, asking what God is doing and how we can enter in to it right now, engaging rather than allowing ourselves to be distracted by the future or the past.   Set aside specific times to allow yourself to focus on vision and goals for the future and reflect and learn from the past rather than dwelling on it in the moments during the day when we need to be present to what God is doing.

Cultivate intimate moments with Him - Look for ways to catch His eye.  Journal to Him, read and write poetry, write Him love notes, leave Him little gifts, do something you would know He would approve of that is painful for you or a little silly and outside your comfort zone just to tell Him you're crazy about Him.  

Come away when He calls - Answer when He comes knocking on your door with His hair drenched in dew.  When you begin to have an intimate moment with Him where He feels very present, drop everything else and be in the moment with Him until it passes.  Be willing to be late or miss something else that you had on your schedule if it interferes. (Once as a fairly new Christian I was standing in my prayer room talking to God and I was overcome with His presence.  I was supposed to go to church for a meeting but instead I just stood there for hours held in His embrace and overcome with Him.  Another time when I was praying, I felt His overwhelming presence in intercession but was late for church so I just told God I had to go or I'd be late and got up and left.  I got to church and stood in worship feeling completely dry wondering why I thought it was so important to get to church.)

Practice Praise and Thanksgiving - Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.   Spend time to adore Him and think about what He means to you.  Spend a few minutes each night writing down all the blessings you can think of that you received during the day and thank Him for them.  In the morning, spend time telling Him what you love most about Him.

"Come let us adore Him, He has come down to the world we live in... All I have to give Him is adoration" sings in the background.

Practice 'returning' and 'recollection' throughout the day - Keep focusing your attention back on God.   Whenever you are drawn away and then remember, turn your focus back to Him. 

Establish stones of remembrance for difficult seasons or dry times - Write down the moments where He does something to come through for You in incredible and amazing ways on a note card.  Keep a stack of note cards that contain many of the times that He has came through for you, loved you and made Himself known to you.  Then when you are feeling dry, discouraged, or doubting His love, pull them out and go through them one by one - remembering on the times past that He has been faithful to you.

Throw out all that gets in the way - Brother Lawrence writes, "it is necessary for the heart to be emptied of everything that would offend God."[17]  Make a conscious effort with the help of the Holy Spirit to eliminate those things in your life that distract you, cause you to loose your peace, or hinder your walk.  Repent and bring those things we struggle with to the light. Do our part in moving toward greater holiness by eliminating those things out of our life that are a hindrance to our walk and fellowship.  For instance, if we struggle with bouts of anger.  Instead of complaining to ourselves that God never sets us free, buy a workbook on anger management and go through it, keep a journal of our bouts with anger and what causes them, and see a therapist and ask for help.  Trust that God will see our earnest efforts to repent.

Lord, You are the Pearl of Great Price. You are our greatest joy. We were made for fellowship with you. We long to experience a greater awareness of your nearness and a deeper experience of commune with you throughout our days. Would you sensitize our hearts to Your being with us every moment. 

1.  MacDonald, William ; Farstad, Arthur: Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995, S. Ro 5:15

2, 10-11.  Boyd, Gregory A. Repenting of Religion: Turning from Judgment to the Love of God. Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI. 2004.  Kindle Edition.

3.  Fox, Everett. The Five Books of Moses. The Schocken Bible, Volume I. Schocken Books Inc, New York, NY. 1983

4, 12.  KJV Bible Commentary. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1994.

5-7.  Benner, David G. Surrender to Love: Discovering the Heart of Christian Spirituality. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. 2003. Kindle Edition.

8-9.  Dubay, Thomas, SM.  Fire Within:  St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and The Gospel on Prayer.  Ignatius Press.  San Francisco, CA.  1989.

13.  Schäfer, Benjamin.  Living in Constant Awareness of God's Immediate Presence.  A Yearning Heart's Journey... to a deeper friendship with a loving God. Blogpost September 30, 2011.  Located at: http://yearningheartsjourney.blogspot.com/2011/09/living-in-constant-awareness-of-gods.html    Last Accessed: 7/10/12.

14.  Hammond, Lynne. Devotions for the Praying Heart: Prayer Notes. Lynne Hammond Ministries, Minneapolis, MN. 2010.

15-17.    Brother Lawrence. The Practice of The Presence of God. Whitaker House, New Kensington, PA. 1982