Dr. Creflo Dollar
How many of you have ever felt like God was not there—that His presence had deserted you altogether? Some of you may say, “How can God be on my side when I’ve failed Him so many times in my life? How can God be on my side when I’m not quite living right? After all, He’s a holy God.”
Well, I’m going to tell you how God can be on your side. He’s on your side because of what happened on the cross. Because of the blood of Jesus, God has committed Himself to never leave you, nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). A divine exchange took place on the cross. Jesus took our sins and released the presence of God to us so we could take His righteousness and receive the presence of God.
Under the old covenant Law, when people were obedient to God His presence would stay with them; but if they disobeyed God, His presence would depart from them (Numbers 12:9; 1 Samuel 16:14). But under the covenant of grace, it doesn’t work like that. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, it sealed the presence of God in our lives forever (Ephesians 1:13).
God’s presence is ours for eternity. That one statement changed my life. I used to think His presence was conditional—that He was with me when I was doing “good,” but not with me when I wasn’t doing so good. But God is not just with you only when you feel you deserve it. God is with you even when you fail. He’s with you when you’re up and when you’re down. Don’t ever evaluate the presence of God based on your circumstances. Your circumstances don’t dictate whether or not God is going to be with you. There’s no circumstance strong enough to make God leave you! Psalm 118, verse 6 declares, “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?”
Some of you may be thinking, “If God’s commitment to me is so strong, why does it appear that I’m not benefitting from it? If He’s for me and with me, no matter what, why am I going through certain things?” You have to learn how to take full advantage of His presence. To experience God’s presence, you’re going to have to increase your consciousness of His presence by practicing the presence of God.
So, let’s talk about how to practice God’s presence. You have to begin to train your mind to think about Jesus more. You can choose to think about a problem, or you can choose to think about Jesus. He keeps you in perfect peace when you keep your mind on Him (Isaiah 26:3). When you do this, you’re getting Him involved in your everyday situations in life. You become so consciously aware of Jesus that you’re setting yourself up for Him to show up and perform some things you didn’t expect. When you get in the Word, you’re exposing yourself more to the presence of God. When you attend Bible Study every week, you’re exposing yourself more to the presence of God. Something supernatural happens when you expose yourself to God’s presence. The breakthrough that you’ve been struggling to receive supernaturally begins to occur when you become exposed to the presence of God.
The presence of Jesus is all that we need. Begin to get in a routine of saying, “God is with me.” Anytime fear arises, remind yourself that God is on your side. Even when you don’t feel like He’s there, acknowledge His presence. It’s not possible for Him to leave you, not by any means! He won’t do it! Jesus, Emmanuel, is God with us. Hallelujah!
