The Lord Reveals Himself in Many Ways

For as long as I can remember, I have heard stories about the presence of God. Growing up as a pastor's kid automatically gave me a front row seat to what the Lord was doing in countless people’s lives.

I grew up hearing your stories and watching as God provided in your lives. I spent so much of my childhood wondering how people could be so full of faith to see God move in ways like that...to sense His presence fully. The older I got, and the more I made my relationship my own with the Lord, the more I thought I understood what God’s presence looked like.

When the Lord called me to the mission field, I began to see, hear and do things that I had only read about in the New Testament.

I watched as we would not have enough food for our feeding programs, and the Lord would miraculously multiply what we did have so that no children would go hungry. I watched as we prayed for people that demons would leave their bodies, and deliverance came so profoundly. In my time on the mission field, I witnessed thousands of salvations that could only be explained by the presence of God.

Seeing and sitting in the presence of God was normal to me until I found myself following God into a new adventure, leaving my life as a missionary, and coming home. I remember my first week back; I immediately noticed there was a shift.

I felt the Lord grow quiet, and, for the first time in my life, I began to ask God a lot of hard questions. I spent months wondering where the Lord had gone, wondering what I had done to cause His absence, and if God only existed in my sacrifice.

What happens when that feeling isn’t as easy anymore? What happens when religion and relationship with Him suddenly feel like work rather than joy? I tried to rationalize God, when really, I think He was trying to rationalize Himself to me.

I think we have all faced seasons where we cannot hear the Lord, where this idea of His presence never leaving us doesn’t feel real. Seasons where it’s easy to look at people who are walking so closely beside God and you feel miles away. I know I have gone from excitement about what the Lord was doing to wondering why He was quiet. I know I have suffered and waited for God to move in my situations when the person who sat next to me on Sunday received healing.

This month’s promise is one of the hardest to comprehend, but one of the most important to hide deep within your heart. His presence is not always intensity and healing, and all these things we make it out to be. I believe the Lord had to draw me away from seeing His presence displayed one way so that I could learn about all the other ways He chooses to reveal Himself.

Sometimes His presence is an encouraging lunch with friends.

Sometimes His presence is Him helping you get through another day.

Sometimes His presence is your favorite meal.

Be encouraged today; if you are not raising the dead or seeing God move mountains in your life, you are still within His presence.

He is always with you, in the big and in the small. He is always working, even if it's mundane. He cares for you, and that means every small detail. So today, if you are struggling to see Him and His presence, know that He is in all things at all times for all people.

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below – indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

Throughout 2024, every Monday morning by 7:00 AM, we will post a new video from Pastor Shane or an article written by a member of our staff that connects to that month's featured promise. Learn more.