Walking in the Presence of Jesus

Lesson Transcript

Greetings in Christ's name this morning. It's a privilege to be here with you this morning. Before we begin, let's bow in prayer. Father, we thank You again for being a wonderful Shepherd to us, giving us divine life within. We just ask You to come here and show up in this assembly in Your power, in Your fullness, in Your Spirit. Lord, we need You. We're leaky vessels. We need to be renewed day by day.

And Lord, I just pray that Your Spirit would be poured out in these last days which we live, that men and women would be risen to the task of demonstrating the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, just help us. And we just ask that You would bless every heart in this assembly. I pray You would touch them with Your Spirit and move them toward a life and more life in You. Lord, just go with us. Thank You for what You have done already in the past. We commit the future into Your hands. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Oh, breathe on me. Oh, breath of God, fill me with life anew until my heart is pure, glowing with the fire divine. Is that your passion this morning? That the glow of the Spirit of God would be within you, the presence of Jesus would be in you? If I told you that God was in the upper room, His fullness, His presence, the essence of the majesty and the power, and what you really needed would be in that room, in the upper room, would you make the journey toward that left door and go up to the upper room?

How many would take that journey to find God? I want to take you on a journey this morning to tell you where you can find the fullness of God and the presence of God. We first must look at the condition of our heart. It's so vital. That's the subject this morning, the condition of your heart. Where is your heart this morning? Let's turn to Isaiah 57:15. Isaiah 57:15, "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell in the high and holy place.

With Him also those of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite one." God dwells in the high and holy place. We have no doubt of that reality. God is on the throne room. That's where He dwells. He also dwells in your heart. Only in the contrite heart is where He dwells. That truly is the greatest demonstration of His love, how Jesus dwells in the throne room of God and yet dwells, and yet seeks to dwell in the throne room of your broken heart.

What more can I say but thank You, Jesus, for that precious redeeming blood that has covered me, that has washed me whiter than snow, that You can make Your dwelling place in my heart. What does these two places have in contrast? I mean, have in common? They're so far in contrast. We're down here and God's up there. There's something in common that I want to address to you here this morning. In the throne room of God, it is recognized very clearly who God is.

In your contrite heart, you will recognize who God really is. That's one reality. The second reality is, in the contrite heart, there is ample room to allow God to dwell there in the fullness. In the throne room on high, He has preeminence to dwell in His majesty and His fullness. That's where God dwells, in the high and lofty place, and also only in the contrite heart. Let's turn to Isaiah 6. Starting chapter 6 there, verse 1, "And year, the King Uzziah died. I saw also the Lord sitting on the throne high.

Lifted up, and each crane filled the temple. And above it stood the seraphims, each one having six wings. With twain He covered His face, with twain He covered His feet, and with twain He did fly. And one cried unto another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.' And the posts of the door moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said, 'Woe is me, for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips.

I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.' Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken from the tongue from off the altar, and laid it on my mouth, and said, 'Lo! This has touched my lips, and thy iniquity is taken away. Thy sins purge.' Also I heard the voice of a Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then said, 'I hear my, send me.'" Isaiah saw the holiness of God.

And also he saw the condition of his heart. God could have left him drowned in despair, in guilt, in condemnation, in torment. But He gave Isaiah opportunity to repent. He says, "Woe is me," after he saw the condition of his heart, and he bowed his knee to the Lordship of Christ and allowed the fullness of the Spirit of God to come in and wipe away all that iniquity, all the crusty-heartedness that maybe Isaiah had for years. He probably was a self-righteous man.

He probably demonstrated God pretty good in the flesh. But when the Spirit of God descended, when the holiness of God descended, it took on a whole new dimension, whole new reality came into Isaiah's experience, and he just crumbled at the majesty of the fullness of God. And God wiped away the iniquities and purged him. That's the mercy and the generosity of our Lord Jesus Christ. He don't let us die in our sins if we're desperate to find deliverance. He will lift us up. He'll renew us.

This passage leaves me awestruck of the magnitude of God's love. The mercy that He gave Isaiah to repent and to turn. And I'm here to say Isaiah was never the same after that. He was a man of God in a powerful way. Wouldn't it, God, that we'd see that kind of reality in the 21st century, a moving of God's Spirit among God's people, that we could be Isaiah's in his last generation, moving abounding with the Spirit of God, quickening our hearts because we have Jesus Christ within? That's what Jesus wants.

Are we allowing God to really transform our hearts? And I see in Isaiah's life a river-dweller, and that's the greatest challenge I want to let with you this morning. Are we river-dwellers in the presence of the fullness of God, dwelling in that stream continually, having the Spirit of God descend upon us and moving us toward life and vitality? Being river-dwellers, dwelling in that stream continually of the presence of God, to my shame, I have not always been a river-dweller in my life. That's my passion.

I still flunder around at times. But that is the heartbeat for His children in these last days, to be river-dwellers, walking with Jesus hand in hand, day by day, with your Master, with your dear tender Shepherd. At times our hearts become crusted and hard, and we step out of the river onto the bank and get lost in the woods. I can testify to that over and over in my journey. I went through the most difficult journey of my whole life in the last couple of years.

And I will share in my testimony more fully maybe some other time. But I wanted to dwell in the stream of the living presence of God, and yet I didn't know how to even totally get there. I'd step out on the bank, and I didn't want to be on the bank because that's a neutral ground that's terrible. I'd look at the woods, and I didn't want the woods because I was in the woods when I was a young man, and I was at a terrible tizzy trying to find my way in and out, in and out. I would confess over and over.

I'd lay myself bare before the Lord, and I was tormented day by day in my mind by the demonic powers that tried to take me out. I'm standing here only by the grace of God. I barely made it. Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. The heart is a dwelling place of intense desires. What's in your heart? It's a seatbed of intense desires. What is your desires? Are they pure? Are they God-given? Or you have come up with your own desires and your own ambitions and goals?

And are you ticking and moving about with your own desires, or has the desires of Jesus entered your heart, and you're moving and abounding from that reality? That's the heartbeat of God, that we'd pray for His desires, and they would be moving on out and reflecting the outworking of our life. Our lives and words reflect the condition of our heart. What we feed on grows. Our diet is so important. What we feed on will bear and output in a tremendous way.

What you put in your mouth, what you eat, will bear tremendous output of your healthy condition. In my health issues, I have really watched my diet. I pretty much stay off wheat, try to watch my sugar because I feel better, feel way more vitality when I stay away from junk food. I really watch my diet. Take that as a spiritual analogy as well. We need at times to take inventory of our hearts. At times our heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know? Only God can.

And are you willing to lay your life on the altar? You don't know how many times I said to my lazy boy, I said, "God, I want a pure heart. I want a clean heart. Just take my heart out, lay it on that table out there." And I mean take all the pride, all the selfishness, everything out of my life. I want the fullness of the presence of God. It took a long time. I had to keep waiting, knocking, seeking, calling out to Him before I felt the cleansing power of Jesus Christ.

We trust the surgeons that do heart operations, and we allow our bodies to be laid on the operating table and let the surgeon operate. And we will not allow Jesus to operate on our heart because we're afraid. He's the maker of our body, of our heart, everything that we possess here this morning. Are you willing to trust your life into the hands of a living God? We live in the most distracting, moving, loud society ever known to man. It alarms me. I have a tremendous burden.

I see things I have never thought I would see in my lifetime. AI is moving in. Technology has taken over. It's a loud, boisterous society. And the enemy is trying to distract you with sugar-coated poisonous devices. We hardly ever have time to stop, look, and listen. I hate to say it too many of our Anabaptist people are living on fumes. They're not living in the fullness, the reality of the Spirit of God. They're piggybacking on everybody's testimony. I love Anabaptist perspective. I have learned a lot.

But that's not going to get you to Gloryland. You can't piggyback on somebody else's testimony. You need your own experience with Jesus day by day. The infilling, dwelling of the presence of Christ must be in you, or else you will not stand before God and be ushered into the presence of the King. Brothers and sisters, we must stop, listen, and hear from God daily. We need more solitude, more quietness, more openness, more reflection to hear His voice. And for years and years and years, this was my passion.

And I feel like I'm now only learning. When I look to Jesus, when He was on this earth, He was always hearing from God. He knew how to abound, move, and work according to the voice of His heavenly Father continued. And I looked at that as so sacred, so wonderful. I said, "How Jesus, can I be that kind of person to hear, to move, and abound in the presence of You at all times?" My life was crushed to the bottom. I went to the bottom in a lot of ways.

And that was my cry, "Lord, I want to hear Your voice." I'll ring that more out fully later. Jesus longs to walk with us day by day, hand in hand with Him in a loving, sweet relationship. The story that has always convicted me. This family had a little toddler, a little boy, two, three years old. And one day he wandered away. He got lost. The family looked frantically for this lost boy, and they could not find this boy. And darkness fell, and it got very cold that night.

And they called a search team to come and help to find their little toddler. And all night long they searched, and they could not. In the morning coming, this father was so desperate. He says, "Let's all join hands and comb this wheat field, hand in hand." As they did that, they come upon this little boy. He was gone. He perished. Now heart cried. That father was, "Why did we join hands sooner before the death of the toddler?" Brothers and sisters, we have this moment today to join hand with Jesus.

That's our only lifeline into eternity. There's many souls losing out. Many people are getting cold and moving out away from the King of Glory. Are we joining our hands with our wives and our church family that we can help usher more souls in the kingdom of God? Jesus is our only hope. I love this one verse in Deuteronomy 5:29, "Oh, that there was such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their children forever." That's your only hope.

It's to love Jesus with all your heart, soul, and mind, and hold on whenever the winds and the waves and the seas rock your boat in a tremendous way. The saying to say, "We're prone to wander like the song writer writes. We're leaky vessels. We move away in easy, soft times." He's calling us back to a relationship with Him, having an open, transparent heart. Many times we experience very painful situations. The tendency when we experience difficult situations, that tends to produce confusion.

Another tendency is when we experience difficult situations, we try to figure it out. And I'm a very analytical-minded person. It has been a wonderful tool in my construction business. I can work, and I can order five men very easily, keep everybody busy because of how God has used or made my mind. But in this journey, I tried to figure out what went wrong. I spun in circles like you wouldn't believe. I sat down like, "Lord, what is going on?" When everything was going sideways, I couldn't figure it out.

I would go into more circles, circles and circles again, enter into more confusion over and over. My mind become racing, full tilt. I look for answers, and that vicious cycle end up going in circles more and more. And I was on the treadmill, the merry-go-round, over and over again, over again. That vicious cycle only led me more into darkness and more hopelessness. That's where it was.

And then on top of everything that I tried to figure out, all the gossip, all the criticism, all the things that came in, judgmental comments is the breeding ground for more confusion, to spin people more. And what I needed is hope. And Brother John gave me hope in the journey. When a person is going through such a low time, the number one thing is lift that brother up, give him hope that there's a brighter morning star ahead.

Family and friends and church can inflict the greatest pain into our hearts in difficult times. Let's be very careful with our words and what we echo. Are they words of life? Are they inspiring words? Are they words of death that will descend to more depression, more agony? The answer is Jesus. He is the one that will bring you through. And through this journey, there's one thing that I will let with you. Jesus Christ has been my all-inspiring Savior. The magnitude of His compelling love is indescribable.

His awesome tender care has brought a measure of healing to my broken heart. There's many times in this journey I said, "I wish I could see You, Jesus, and just give You a hug." My relationship with Jesus has become so deepened, my identity, the foundation, because I had nothing else. I would just cry and cry. Very little people know how it is to be in a deep despair and depression. You cry every day. Looking for answers in my driving force to know Jesus, to know Him.

And He came back with such tenderness and love and care that is indescribable. That's why I'm inspired to walk more fully with Jesus because of His compassion, His all-inspiring love and kindness upon my life. Is He dwelling in the throne room of your heart? He seeks that deep relationship with You to live in the presence. To live in the presence of Jesus is the most powerful, harmonious oneness you can ever experience in life. The sweetness. What baffles my mind is that God does not need me nor you.

He is complete. He is holy. He don't need you at all to be where He really is in His holiness. But in His generosity, in His great love for me, He gives us opportunity to be adopted into His family, to be part of His children. Gives us a name, gives us divine life. I stand in awe of the greatness of God. But we must remember that suffering is part of reality, is part of the journey as well. Jesus lived in the perfect presence of God continually. Jesus was a river dweller. He followed God into fullness.

But as you take a look at the reality of Jesus, when He lived in the fullness of the presence of God, what happened? He lived in a stream. The rocks were hitting Him. The logs were smacking up against Him. He went through rapids. He went through waterfalls. There was all kinds of things that came in upon His life. But He kept His eyes on His heavenly Father through all the ups and downs. And here's where I went wrong.

In my journey, when the rocks were smacking up against me, the logs were hitting me on every side, when I was going through rapids and I was dropping off waterfalls, I'm like, "Lord, where are You at? Why is all this happening? Why is people doing this to me?" I got my eyes off Jesus many times in that journey to my shame. But I'm here to say this morning, I want to challenge You to stay in the stream of the presence of God even though things are smacking You on every side.

When everything else goes sideways, hold on to Jesus Christ. And I'm convinced we're entering an age that we probably don't know what's coming. There's a burden that God has left on, put on my heart. I feel like we're heading into a church age where there's going to be severe persecution. And if we're not willing to accept the bumps and the bangs of the logs and the rapids and the waterfalls, we're not going to make it. We're going to have to be okay with suffering. Jesus was okay with suffering.

I don't know how He did it, other than He had that sweet communion with the Father day by day. That identity, that connection with His heavenly Father kept Him going through the storms of life. He faced more mental stress than any human being ever lived on the face of the earth. Hallelujah. He made it through. Through difficult experiences, many souls get offended at God. Why did God allow Pam Andre Landis to be killed? What a bizarre happening.

Why does God allow the drunken man to crash into that vehicle and kill that godly mother that had 10 children, very much needed in the home? Why did God allow a handicapped person to be born into our family to slow us down, to keep us pinned more? We can't abound. We can't move. We're more house-bound, and we just can't do the things we used to do. Why does God allow all the wars, the earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, floods? Why does God allow all the sickness, cancer, diseases? Why did God allow the church splits?

Why did God allow that family to fall apart? The list could go on. But I thought of Andre and Pam that passed. In our economy, that didn't make any sense. A much-needed mother and a young boy pass into eternity. So young, so needed. In our economy, that didn't make any sense. But in God's economy, it does make sense.

And the only thing that makes sense in my finite mind is that God sees from His eternal perspective that if one soul can enter the kingdom of heaven over this tragic accident, it's worth it in His economy. I have a customer that I have talked to, I have shared the gospel with. He's dying of cancer. He's, I think, in his 70s. I shared with him, and I didn't know what else to do. So I put my arm around him, and I just prayed, and he just wept like a little baby.

After I was done, he said, "Nobody ever did such a thing to me in all my living days." I had a talk with him just recently again, and this is where he got hung up on this accident. How can a good God allow such a tragic accident to happen? And I could tell in his tenor of his voice that he was offended toward God. And I kept pleading. I said, "We don't understand everything, but just let this go and somehow see beyond this that God loves you and cares for you." And I prayed once again with him.

But I'll tell you, through hardships, our boat can rock and almost take us off center. But we have to believe God is good. In His economy, it's different than this economy. And we have to remember, we live in a sin-cursed earth, and we live in a very wicked society. And what I'm saying is persecution is coming hard against the church because the wickedness of men is abounding. Iniquity is moving in. I hear it among my customers all the time. They can't believe what's happening to America.

Brothers and sisters, are we anchored in the Lordship of Jesus Christ? When your ship becomes toddling, back and forth, rocking back and forth, will you withstand these times and cling to Jesus? Will He be your anchor? Satan is the number one hindrance in this journey. His goal is to destroy your concept of the goodness of God. Satan is very angry with God. He's at rage with God. He can't get to God anymore because He's done kicked out of heaven.

But He's going to try to get to you because He knows if He can get to you, He has a target against God, and you're in the limelight. And He's going to try to distract you. He's going to try to keep telling you, "God is not good. Look what happened here. Look what happened over here." He's going to try to get your mind spinning off center and getting you away from focusing on the goodness of God because He's very angry. And He uses painful situations to get you sidetracked.

But make sure you look at the person of Jesus Christ. He's our ultimate perfect example. Was God delighted when the Pharisee called Jesus a devil? Can you imagine what God felt like in heaven? Was God smiling when Jesus spit? When a Jew spit in Jesus' face, but God allowed that to happen as well. Was God singing when a Jew nailed Jesus to the cross? God allowed that to happen. I could almost see tears running down His eyes, from His eyes. When His Son was tortured being nailed to that cross.

Why did this all happen? Because of a sin-cursed earth and because of the wickedness of men. That's why Jesus had to suffer so much. Will your anchor hold? When all the storms of life hit Jesus continually, what was His lifeline? His lifeline was His identity. When He was in the garden, suffering tremendously, sweating blood, when He was walking into the trowel and all the ridicule and all the tormenting things that happened in there, and then when He was nailed on the cross, what was the answer?

What was the secret? His identity. That sweetness with His heavenly Father day by day was His lifeline when the storms of life hit. He heard the voice of God continually, day by day. He was completely obedient to His father's commands at all times. He heard the all-inspiring words, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." That identity, that foundation that He had day by day was the lifeline that kept Him faithfully going through the most painful experience in life.

Those beautiful words of life were exhilarating to Jesus. When Jesus prayed and communed with His heavenly Father all night long, I can imagine the sweetness of the presence of the exhilarating words that were echoed back and forth. Brothers and sisters, how deep is your identity? Do you really love Jesus? All other ground is sinking sand. Do you have a passion for Jesus? Are you a river dweller?

Are you dwelling in the rivers and the streams of the presence of God where you have peace like a river, living in that flow continually at all times? Brothers and sisters, we live in the Ladacian church age today. Lukewarmness has entered into our Anabaptist churches. We have left our first love. The all-inspiring Jesus we followed became what? Became a spiritual ritual. What else did He become? A religious performing culture. Spiritual theology has become a major pursuit in our Anabaptist churches.

Religious performance has become accepted as being spiritual. Is your spiritual rating accurate? As long as you look right, act right, talk right, show up at church, we deem that as being okay. You're in the kingdom. Is that how God sees it? We took a trip, a youth trip, to the Ark Encounter Creation Museum. And my prayer was taken there was 37 of us in this bus. My prayer was that the presence of God would go with us, that we could be salt and light.

We entered that creation museum, and there was a little woman that came up to me. She was from India. She said, "I see the presence of Jesus in you. Can I get a picture with you?" What have they seen in your life? You're not neutral. You're a vessel. Either they see the presence of Jesus Christ in you, or they see self in the world. Praise God He was with us on that trip. We had a very good time. What are they seeing in you, brothers and sisters? We have given a cheap, false hope to people in our generation.

As long as you look right, act right, get baptized, go through all the rituals, that's accepted as being okay. And we've moved away from personal experience, the power of the Holy Spirit. Is the Day of Pentecost only a good story in our generation? Some thoughts to ponder. Is it only a good story in our generation? What's happening? Our hearts are becoming crusted, hard, and deceitful. Do you really know your heart? I don't know your heart, but Jesus knows your heart.

Do you remember that exhilarating salvation experience where the peace of God? I remember that very well. I had peace like a river. I had a dramatic conversion experience. I remember the next whole week, I was floating on the clouds in heaven. A lot of strongholds were broken in my life. I knew what it meant to walk with Jesus. Have that precious blood wash over me, cleanse me, have that perfect peace day by day. Also, do you remember the wedding day where you married your beautiful bride, the perfect bride?

That exhilarating experience, your love for her was perfect, flowing. She was the most wonderful person you could marry. Is that a one-time experience? Is your love for Jesus all-inspiring? Have you left your first love? My testimony, I'm standing here today only by the grace and mercy of God. Satan attacked me so severely. It's beyond what I can describe. Someday, I will share my testimony. I was fighting principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places.

I was fighting demonic, evil spirits in my mind. My mind was plagued with demonic powers that you would not believe. It made me shiver and shake. I can tell you things that I just won't go there. I never knew a man could endure such torment. I was a wild man. Well, ask my family. Ask my church. I couldn't get away from it. Didn't know what I said and what I did. I could not get away from it. But my lifeline was my identity in Jesus, even though I got offended at God different times.

"God, why are You doing this?" And then I had stepped up on the bank, and then I would head toward the woods at Lake Norwood. I don't want the woods. I've been there. And I would be a yo-yo back and forth trying to find my way. But you know one thing that was a lifeline in my life that I went back to many, many times when I was a young boy. A couple of years after I walked with Jesus, I had a lot of interaction with my father. I wanted my father to become a Christian. He would not.

We had a lot of dialogue, and it didn't always go well because I was trying to convince him to be a Christian because I wanted to have a fellowship relationship with my dad as a young boy that I could not have. I thought if I could get him in the kingdom, we could have that sweet relationship. This went on for a couple of years. I remember I could take you to the very spot. I was sitting in my car in the field.

I was sitting there, and Jesus spoke so clearly, "I will be your earthly father and your heavenly father to you, Jonas." Something happened from that time on. My love for my father turned completely. I had a love. I was fully accepted in the blood. I no longer had that passion to have a godly father. I was healed. I pitied Him. I prayed for Him every day from that point. But there was a measure of healing I can't even describe.

Then all-inspiring words that I heard from Jesus that day kept me going through the storms of life. I kept saying, "God, that's all you have to do is say these words again." And I could be out of it again. But I had this wait. It took me over two years. Through that most difficult experience, one person says, "You need to journal with Jesus." And I didn't know how. But I still remember one morning, I went down to my lazy boy. I said, "Jesus, I don't know what to do." I grabbed my tablet.

I just said, "Jesus, come to show up. Holy Spirit, just come and show up." I said, "Jesus, what would You say to me if You were standing right here in front of me?" Instantly, He said, "I dearly love You, Jonas." That is still with me today. I've been journaling with Jesus for over two years. When I journal with Him and I invite Him to come and speak to my inner heart and my mind, I ask the Holy Spirit to show up.

The first word is, "I dearly love You, Jonas." The second is, "I deeply care for You, Jonas." My identity, that's why Jesus has become my all-inspiring Savior because of my identity with Him. Yes, I made a lot of mistakes. I have a lot of regrets, and my family knows it. I've cried over some of the things that have happened. But I know Jesus has washed me with the precious blood of the Lamb, and He loves me dearly, and He cares for me. I'm learning to hear His voice more fully as I journal day by day with Him.

And then I write down partway down on the page, I write, "Holy Spirit." I said, "Holy Spirit, what do You want me to do today?" And the number one thing that He has told me for the last two years, "Walk with Jesus today hand in hand." And the second thing He tells me is, "Love Jesus with all your heart, soul, and mind." And I will confess this morning, I have not always because I tend to look around.

When things crack in, whenever people say things, whenever things go sideways again, I look around and I get discouraged. But I must say, as time goes on, the reality of the sweetness of Jesus has resonated in my heart. "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath the clean hands and a pure heart." Jesus coming for His pure bride. He's not going to come for a bride that's distracted. He's coming for a pure bride.

And if you don't have the Holy Spirit within you, you're none of His. In my lowest time of my life, I thought the Spirit of God left me because I couldn't comprehend how You could dwell in a body that was tormented that much and still have the presence of God. I had to be reassured by a couple of people that Jesus was still with me. John D. Martin was one of them. I remember calling him up and saying, "Could I come over some evening?" I don't know if he remembers that. But I was tormented.

It's like, "Did the Spirit of God leave me?" I was aware and say, "Because I know if you don't have the Spirit of God, you're none of His. You're not going to have an entrance in the kingdom of God." And I thought it done exit out of my body because of my mistakes, my failures. I have failed. I remember stepping in there, "John," you said, "I see the Holy Spirit." That was precious words. There was another guy in West Virginia that said the same thing.

He kept saying, "Do you have the Holy Spirit?" I said, "I don't know. Do you have the Holy Spirit?" His brother says, "I'm getting the same thing from God. Tell him. He needs to get this connection." Finally, I said, "Well, I don't want to lie, but I don't know if I do anymore." Finally, after a while, I said, "Well, if that's what God's saying to me, I want to believe it," even though I have no feelings, no emotional connection. It was dead. I had to believe by faith that God loved me, and He let me go.

Where does God dwell? In the contrary heart. I will say my heart is not always perfect. I have a lot of ground to be done. But I know Jesus is living there and dwelling there. One song that has resonated very deeply, I sing it sometimes with me and the Lord in my quiet time. I want to sing it here this morning. "Lo I come, Dale, you want to pass it out." I want to sing this song here. It has been very precious to me. There's only 90 copies, so you have to share some. "Lo I come to do Thy will, O God.

I come by Thy Spirit. Let me dwell, O God, I come." And the second verse, "Keep me sober and sincere, O God, I come. Let not Satan interfere, O God, I come." "Loving Heavenly Father, take my hand, O God, I come. Lead me to that heavenly land, O God, I come. Walk beside me, guide me, help me daily to be holy. Oh, I need Thee. Yes, I plead Thee. Let me live in Thy presence. Let me walk in Thy ways." You can take that song home with you.

If nothing else resonated with you this morning, think about that song and walk with Jesus day by day. God bless you.