Experiencing God's Presence #218 - The One Year Experiencing God's Presence Devotional
Experiencing God's Presence #218
The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.
Matthew 11:5
In heaven, where God’s Presence is most tangible and obvious, there’s no pain. There’s no sickness or deafness or blindness. No one is crippled, and certainly no one is dead. Everyone is healthy and whole.
Jesus, God incarnate and filled with the Holy Spirit, carried the environment of heaven with Him during His ministry. In His Presence, sickness and pain had to bow. Blind eyes and deaf ears were opened. Both the disease of leprosy and its stigma were undone. Cripples—and even a few dead people—got up and walked. Wherever He went, circumstances had to recognize His authority.
That ought to tell us something. We often pray for healing for our infirmities, knowing that Jesus has the power to make us healthy and whole. But is it really healing we seek? Or would we be wiser to pray for His Presence? When we pray for healing, He certainly may give it, and we’d be made well and have a wonderful testimony of His power. But if we pray for His Presence, we get more. He makes us well simply by His nearness, but we also get Him—a fuller, more satisfying outcome. A prayer for healing is a prayer for a wonderful gift from God, but a prayer for Presence is a prayer for the God who brings gifts with Him. It’s a plea for relationship, which always hits closer to God’s heart.
Whatever you need from God, ask for the whole package—His Presence, first and foremost, and then everything that comes with it. Wherever He is, so is the environment of heaven.
Jesus, I want You and all that You bring. I know my greatest need isn’t the request I’m asking; it’s the Person I’m asking. Please answer in every way, but mostly with Yourself.
