With God

*This post is from my brother Mike Santistevan. Mike is the president and CEO of Bridgeway Church in Ambridge, PA (or you could just call him Pastor Mike). Mike likes to eat popcorn, read Tolkein, and love Jesus. This post is awesome, by the way. Enjoy.

Psalm 60:12 is a powerful verse written by David, the king of Israel. It says “With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.”

David is saying that there is nothing like God’s presence in and among his people. This history of Israel is one large illustration of this. When God was with them, there was nothing that could stand in their way. Moses led the host of Israel out of Egyptian slavery with signs and wonders because God was with them. Joshua led them into the promised land where they defeated peoples greater and more numerous because God was with them. Gideon defeated 120,000 Amalekites with 300 men because God was with them.

Conversely, when God’s presence was not among them, they wandered in the desert for 40 years. In the book of Judges they experienced enslavement to an assortment of Canaanite peoples. They were eventually sent into Babylonian exile because of their failure to honor God and walk in his ways.

The point is this: we cannot afford to live without the presence of God in our lives and in our midst as a people.

Today, our enemies are not people. But as Paul the apostle says, our enemies are “the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The battle we are in is a spiritual battle. Our calling as the church is to proclaim Christ and lead people from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. That’s what victory looks like for us. This is not accomplished in our own strength or might but by the presence and power of God at work in us and through us.

In another sense, there is our need to walk in the presence of God personally so we can fight our personal spiritual warfare.

God’s presence in our lives is negatively affected by sin
David writes in Psalm 51:11 “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” David knew that nothing was more precious than the presence of God in his life. He also knew that his sin had grieved the Holy Spirit and caused his relationship with God to fracture. Therefore the entirety of Psalm 51 is gut wrenching repentance. He knew that if there was going to be any moving forward, he would have to repent of his sin and find forgiveness in God. He knew that his relationship with God must be restored if he wanted the presence of God to fill his life again.

From time to time we will sin in various ways that will affect our relationship with God. When this happens, we must be quick to repent and make things right with God. We must be quick to fall on his mercy, and forsake whatever is sinful.

God’s presence in our lives must be cultivated intentionally
One of my favorite verses is James 4:8 which simply says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” I love this verse because it reveals to us a very important key to pursuing God and living in his presence. It basically means that if we want to see God at work in our lives, we need to take steps toward him. Sometimes we wonder why it seems that God’s presence and power are not as much at work in our lives as we wish they were. While God certainly chooses to work in different ways at different times, I think often our lack of sensing his presence is due to our failure to actively pursue him.

2 Questions to consider

1. How is my walk with God today?

Not how was it 10 years ago or 20 years ago, but how is it going today? We must be diligent to maintain a freshness in our walk with God. Are you closer to the Lord today than you were last year?

2. What changes do I need to make in order to pursue God more fervently?

What do I need to stop doing? Excessive busyness could be hurting your spiritual life. Are there patterns of sin that you need to repent and get rid of? Secondly ask yourself, What do I need to start doing, or start doing again? Do you have a consistent, unhurried time of reading the bible and praying each day? Maybe you need to start building friendships with people who will build you up spiritually and encourage you.

When’s God’s presence is in your life there is nothing better. When it is absent there is nothing worse because “With God, we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.”