Manifest Presence Series
“God’s Desire Is To Dwell With His People”
(Inspired by Don Nori Sr.’s Manifest Presence: You Can Live Within The Veil)
January 7, 2015 CFBC Chester, IL Dr. Mike Fogerson, Speaker
A Isaiah 4:4-6 (NASB) 4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, 5 then the LORD will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. 6 There will be a shelter to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and protection from the storm and the rain.
1 In the ancient past, God protected Israel with a pillar of fire by night/cloud by day while they were in the wilderness.
a The pillar/cloud were both tangible manifestations of the presence of God, Shekinah Glory.
aa The cloud offered them protection from the hot sun by day.
bb The pillar of fire afforded them the protection by piercing the darkness every single night for 40 years.
cc His presence was given to His people for their protection.
b In these last days, I believe God has promised His latter-day church the same protection He afforded His chosen in the wilderness . . . that is His Manifest Presence.
2 Hebrews 1:1-3 (NASB) 1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
a I believe the Lord is about to visit His Temple
Malachi 3:1 (NASB) 1 "Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts.
aa His Temple today is the Born Again believer, Christians, The Church.
bb He will walk among us in a real, tangible, authentic way via His Manifest Presence.
b His Manifest Presence is often misunderstood, dismissed because of a lack of misunderstanding/teaching/fear.
c There are basically two ways to look at the Presence of God.
aa Omnipresence: He’s everywhere whether we can sense Him or not.
Psalm 72:19 (NASB) 19 And blessed be His glorious name forever; And may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen, and Amen.
Psalm 139:8 (NASB) 8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
Numbers 14:21 (NASB) 21 but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD.
(He’s as close as the mention of His name!)
bb Manifest Presence is revealed whenever He makes Himself real to you, personally. (When He makes Himself real to you in your spirit . . . when you know God has spoken to your heart . . . you are experiencing the manifest presence of YHWH.
B Malachi 3:1 (NASB) 1 "Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts.
God will so fill the Church with His Manifest Presence that He will become perceptible to any of our five senses.
1 He manifests in ways we can see . . .
a healing, change, restoration, prophecy.
b manifest: readily perceived by the senses; easily understood or recognized by the mind; obvious.”
aa Anytime God manifests Himself through any of our natural senses, there is always a visible demonstration that He is literally in the midst of His people.
bb In these last days, He wants His church to experience His Manifest Presence.
2 We walk by faith, not by sight per 2 Cor. 5.7, right?(I don’t need to see, feel, touch, taste, hear God, preacher. I walk by faith.)
2 Corinthians 5:7 (NASB) 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight—
a God doesn’t chose to reveal Himself to us in order to stimulate/grow our faith, rather He reveals Himself to us in response to our faith.
b Our faith moves Him to transcend time/space and respond in the natural realm to our faith.
c I believe God loves to show Himself to His people.
aa He’s not trying to hide from us . . . He wants us to experience His presence.
bb He sent His Son so we could be clean/whole so He could reveal Himself to us . . . be with Him.
C The Bible is ripe with descriptions of God’s Manifest Presence.
1 Exodus 13:21-22 (NASB) 21 The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
Exodus 24:12-18 (NASB) 12 Now the LORD said to Moses, "Come up to Me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction." 13 So Moses arose with Joshua his servant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. 14 But to the elders he said, "Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a legal matter, let him approach them." 15 Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. 17 And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. 18 Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
a In the wilderness He revealed Himself as well
Numbers 9:15-17 (NASB) 15 Now on the day that the tabernacle was erected the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, and in the evening it was like the appearance of fire over the tabernacle, until morning. 16 So it was continuously; the cloud would cover it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. 17 Whenever the cloud was lifted from over the tent, afterward the sons of Israel would then set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the sons of Israel would camp.
b All of the nations of the world had their gods, but Israel was unique in that their God dwelt with them.
aa When the nations looked at Israel, they would tremble because of the God they served manifested among them.
bb They saw Him; knew Him.
2 We see God tangibly showed up in Solomon’s Temple so intensely that the priests could not even do their job!
2 Chronicles 5:11-14 (NASB) 11 When the priests came forth from the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard to divisions), 12 and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets 13 in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the LORD saying, "He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting," then the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.
a YHWH reveals Himself to Joshua just prior to taking Jericho
Joshua 5:13-15 (NASB) 13 Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" 14 He said, "No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, "What has my lord to say to his servant?" 15 The captain of the LORD'S host said to Joshua, "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.
aa Joshua was going to Jericho BY FAITH, stand against an army larger/better equipped than Israel BY FAITH.
bb Joshua was going to Jericho before the visitation.
cc God showed up in response to Joshua’s faith.
b God didn’t stop manifesting when the ink dried on the last page of Malachai.
D On the Feast of Pentecost, the Father manifests Himself to His church in several ways
Acts 2:1-4 (NASB) 1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
1 We see the cloven tongues of fire, mighty rushing wind enter the room they were sitting.
a These are all tangible manifestations of the presence of Jehovah.
b Acts 4:31 (NASB) 31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
we find Peter & John and the rest of the disciples praying to the Lord for strength, ability and it changes them from 98 pound wimps to Charles Atlas!!! (Where there is change, transformation, move into a greater anointing . . . we find His manifest presence.)
2 The New Testament church is entering a season where His presence is not optional.
a In the latter-days, He’s presence will be necessary for the church to make it through the wilderness.
b I believe what God is going to do in the latter-day church will make what He did in the early church pale by comparison.
aa His presence will give up great boldness, confidence, anointing to be the voice crying out in the wilderness.
bb Declare sin to be sin.
c When Stephen was martyred, Scripture tells us his face shone like that of an angel
Acts 6:15 (NASB) 15 And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel.
aa The shining on Stephen was the presence.
bb Acts 9, when Paul’s trip to Damascus is interrupted by the Lord, the Word of the Lord came to him . . . his companions heard the sound of thunder but didn’t see the light Paul saw. (BTW, I believe it’s possible for one person to experience a manifestation in a service that is unique to them.)
cc Acts 12:6 (NASB) 6 On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison.
Peter is sleeping in chains, earth shook and the chains fell from him, angel leads him out of the jail
Acts 12:7-11 (NASB) 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter's side and woke him up, saying, "Get up quickly." And his chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, "Gird yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he *said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." 9 And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."
3 In our day, we are seeing a continual fulfilling of Emmanuel - - God with us.
a God wants to show up amongst His people, fellowship with them in a tangible way like He did with Adam.
Genesis 3:8 (NASB) 8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
b He wants to walk with us so we’ll experience His presence, power, glory in a mighty way.
c In the annuls of Church history, it has been tribulation/persecution/hardships that drove them to seek His presence.
aa Difficult times press God’s people into Him.
bb His presence should have never been an option, as we approach the Day of the Lord, the church can’t afford to dismiss His presence.
Conclusion:
Notice to Sermon Central Users:
My name is Mike Fogerson, and I pastor a Southern Baptist Church in Chester, Illinois. I have been a long-time user of Sermon Central and truly appreciate its content and contributors. Some of the best sermons I’ve ever preached have been reworked material from this website. As you use the material from my sermon bank, understand that it is work that has been done from not just myself, but from hundreds of other pastors as well. If you see part of your message, or a bunch of your message with my name on it and this upsets you, please email me and I will quickly respond and cite you as the main source. My intent is not to claim someone’s work as my own. I am disclaiming up front that I use the resources from Sermon Central and appreciate the tool. I simply want all those who use my work to know that some of these messages were inspired by the Holy Spirit working through other pastors. Because I do use the messages of other pastors I waive all claims of originality or origin of creativity for the messages posted under my messages. I pray God blesses your preaching ministry for the glory of His Kingdom.
Respectfully,
Mike Fogerson
