Being Governed by the Presence of the Lord, for God’s Presence is everything to us

The presence of the Lord, the smile of the Lord, is the governing principle in our Christian life and church life; we need to be kept, ruled, governed, and guided not only by the Lord’s help or blessing but by His firsthand presence, for the Lord’s presence is everything to us. Amen!

Paul was one who lived in the index of the Lord’s eyes; he didn’t just teach one with the Lord, neither did he only follow the Lord’s leading in what he did – he did everything in the Lord’s presence, one with Him.

In 2 Cor. 2:10 he forgave a brother in the person of Christ, in the face of Christ, in the index of Christ’s eyes.

He was intently looking into the Lord’s eyes and was one with the Lord to the extent that he sensed the Lord’s desire to forgive the brother, and he just expressed the Lord’s feeling.

When one looks into our eyes, they see what is in our heart and in our being; if we are attentive and our countenance is uplifted, they sense that we are happy with then, but if our countenance is not happy, they will be clear concerning this.

We can tell by the look of the eyes of others what is their feeling. Enoch was a person who walked with God (Gen. 5:22-24; Heb. 11:5-6) and obtained the testimony that he was well-pleasing to God, so God translated him.

He simply was not found, for God took him; he walked with God for three hundred years, and he simply remained in God’s presence.

We all need to have this prayer in us that we would be well-pleasing to the Lord, that is, that we would obtain the testimony of being well-pleasing to God.

May the Lord grant us His mercy and grace that we would obtain the testimony of being well-pleasing to Him.

Without faith, it is not possible to be well-pleasing to God, for he who comes forward to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Faith is to believe that God is; on the other hand, faith is to believe that we are not. Faith means that we believe that God is the only One, the unique One in everything, and we are nothing in everything.

Enoch walked with God and took God as his everything, and he did everything according to the Lord’s leading.

God needs to become our everything, and we need to realize that we are nothing without Him.

Without the Lord’s presence, without His smile with us, we have nothing and we are nothing; He needs to become everything to us in our spirit, soul, and body, and we need to decrease.

Day by day and moment by moment, we need to take God as our everything, treasure His presence, and live in the index of His eyes so that we may be well-pleasing to Him in our daily living.

We need to have the Presence of the Lord with us, for God’s Presence is Everything to us

As believers in Christ, we need to treasure not only God’s help or His blessing but also His presence, for God’s presence is everything to us in our Christian life and church life.

If we would enter into the enjoyment and possession of the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land, we must do so by the presence of the Lord.

We need to treasure the Lord’s presence and hear His promise, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exo. 33:14).

Wherever we go, whatever we do, and whatever we say, we need to do it in the Lord’s presence.

As we serve the saints or the young people in the church life, we want to be in the Lord’s presence.

We don’t want to be speaking in the meetings or visiting a new one in his home and have our inner being in turmoil; we want the Lord’s very presence to go with us and give us rest.

God’s presence is everything to us; His presence is His way, the map that shows us, His people, the way that we should take.

The Lord’s presence is His smile, Him being pleased with us.

The people in the world are governed at best by the principle of right or wrong; they don’t want to do the wrong thing or commit evil, but they want to do good and be good people.

But we need to be saved from this principle, which comes from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and be governed by the Lord’s presence.

We may be in the church life for many years but we may still be governed by right and wrong; we may speak what is right, do what is right, and stay away from what is wrong.

We may be with our spouse and we may think we are right in saying something, so we say it; we justify ourselves by saying that we are right in what we think and say.

But we may not be governed by the Lord’s presence in what we do and say.

We may think there’s no problem if we do the right thing and say the right thing; but there is a problem, for we may be dead right, right but in death.

The Lord’s presence is the criterion for all things; if we have His presence, right and wrong are not an issue, for we have the presence of the Lord.

May we seek to have the Lord’s presence, His smile, so that our conscience would operate not in the realm of “good vs evil” or “right vs wrong” but in the realm of God’s presence.

In human society at best people’s conscience rejects the wrong and evil things and choose the right and good things; as believers in Christ, however, we need to go higher and deeper than that.

Our conscience should be governed by whether we have the presence of the Lord with us or not.

In our fellowship with one another, in our daily living, in our relationships with the saints, and in the family life between the husband and wife, God’s presence should be the governing principle.

Do we have the Lord’s presence or not? If we don’t, our enlightened and vivified conscience should tell us that we are right, but we don’t have God’s presence, so we need to confess this to the Lord.

Whenever we sense that we lose God’s presence, we need to confess this to Him, refusing to be governed by the principle of right and wrong, and choosing to be in the presence of the Triune God according to the tree of life.

In our decisions regarding this and that, may we check first and foremost with God’s presence and not which is the right thing to do.

God’s presence is the map that we, His people should take; when we choose where to go for university, what job to take, and even in the mundane things of our daily life, we should check with the Lord first and follow His leading by His presence.

We may have some very enticing offers to do this or go there, but if the Lord’s presence is not with us, we shouldn’t do it or go there.

God’s presence should be our travelling map; what should govern us is not merely doing good or taking the right way but the presence of the Lord.

We need to have many conversations with the Lord regarding this in all the aspects of our daily living, our work, and our Christian life and service, opening to Him again and again and seeking to have the presence of the Lord.

Lord Jesus, we treasure Your presence with us. May Your presence go with us and may You give us rest. We take the presence of the Lord as our map to show us what way we should take. Amen, Lord, be with us today; we want to have Your smile in all the things we do and say. May our conscience be governed not only by doing the right thing and rejecting the wrong thing but by the Lord’s smile, His presence with us. Save us from merely saying the right thing or choosing what is good; may we treasure Your presence and take Your presence as our governing factor. Amen, Lord, if Your presence doesn’t go with us, we don’t want to go! We want to remain in the presence of the Lord in all the details and aspects of our daily life and our service to the Lord!

Learning to have not only the Lord’s Help but the Firsthand Presence of the Lord, His Direct Presence

In our Christian life, God’s presence should be the criterion for every matter; what we should pay attention is only that we would have God’s presence with us, for when we have His presence, we have everything.

The presence of God is the Spirit and light; when we have the Lord’s shining and His Spirit moves in us, we have the Lord’s presence.

The Lord’s presence is the Lord’s smile; when we were saved, the Lord’s smile entered into us, and whenever we touch the Lord and enjoy Him, we are happy for the Lord is happy.

However, we could be serving the Lord without having His smile; everything may be drudgery, a strain, a big effort because we don’t have His smile.

When we have the Lord’s smile, we have everything; without the Lord’s smile, however, every single thing is hard and an effort.

May we be kept, ruled, governed, and guided not by the Lord’s secondhand presence but by the direct firsthand presence of the Lord.

As we grow in the divine life in our Christian life, we need to realize that the governing factor should be the Lord’s firsthand presence.

We shouldn’t seek more victory or spirituality, neither should we try to merely know the way to overcome, be holy, and be spiritual; we should simply be in the Lord’s presence.

We learn this by making many mistakes and failures, and then we open to the Lord to have His firsthand presence, His sweet dispensing.

Nothing works except the Lord’s presence; when we have the presence of God, everything is alright, but without His presence, nothing works.

The entire New Testament is an Emmanuel, God with us; we believers in Christ are part of this great Emmanuel, for we live in the Lord’s presence until we are consummated to be the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth.

Amen, the New Jerusalem will be called, Jehovah is there (Ezek. 48:35); this is the name of the city, and this is what we are becoming.

Therefore, in our daily Christian life, we should treasure the Lord’s presence and sense whether we have His presence with us or not.

Many times we can testify that, even though we enjoy God’s help and even some of His blessing, we don’t have His presence with us because He is not happy with us.

The Lord may go along with us and He may even help us, but He is not happy with us.

Many times the Lord withholds His presence so that we may know His displeasure; He may help us and cover us, but we may not His firsthand presence.

He is waiting for us to come back to Him and tell Him,

Dear Lord Jesus, if You don’t give us Your firsthand presence, we will stay here with You. If Your presence doesn’t go with us, we don’t want to go. We want to be governed by Your presence, not only by the things You do to help us. What we want is not just the Lord’s help but His presence! Amen, Lord, we must have Your presence! We cannot do it without Your presence. We can do without Your help, but we can’t do without Your presence! Your presence is everything to us! Oh Lord, keep us in Your presence and guide us by Your smile.

When we have the Lord’s presence, we have everything; if we lose His presence, even though we may have His help, it is not sufficient.

Whether the heaven comes down or the earth falls apart, as long as we have the presence of the Lord, everything is well.

As long as we have the smile of the Lord, His firsthand presence, everything is fine.

Sometimes the Lord may help us and give us things, but the things He gives us may become something that keeps us away from His presence.

We need to learn to be ruled and governed only by the presence of the Lord, not by what He does or give to us.

The Lord may bless us, but the blessing He gives us may become something that keeps us away from His presence.

Our focus should not be the Lord’s help but His presence; we must be guided by His firsthand presence, His direct presence.

Many times we have His secondhand presence, enjoying things that we heard from others or being touched by others’ experience, yet not contacting the Lord ourselves.

We need to contact the Lord and break through until we have His smile, and we need to be governed by the firsthand presence of the Lord in our daily living.

Day by day, in all the situations of our daily living, we need to take the presence of the Lord as our living map, contacting the Lord and depending on Him in everything.

Lord Jesus, we treasure Your firsthand presence, Your direct presence with us. What satisfies us is not merely Your help but Your smile, the smile of Your glorious face. We love You, Lord, and we want to remain in Your presence today. Save us from merely asking for things from You; keep us in Your presence today. Your smiling face is our governing principle, our living map in our Christian life. Oh Lord, if we don’t have Your presence, we are nothing and we can do nothing. May we be keen in sensing Your presence and remaining in Your presence; may we focus not on Your help or blessing outwardly but on Your smiling face, the shining of Your face inwardly!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-Inclusive Christ,” ch. 11, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living In and With the Divine Trinity (2021 Thanksgiving Day Conference), week 4, entitled, Living with the Divine Trinity (1) Living with Christ as Emmanuel and Having the Resurrected Christ Living in us, by Living Christ for His Magnification, and by the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in Our Spirit.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – In order for us to fully gain / and possess Christ as the all-inclusive land / for God’s building, / we must learn to be kept, to be ruled, / to be governed, and to be guided / by the direct, firsthand presence of the Lord; / if we have the Lord’s presence, / we have wisdom, insight, foresight, / and the inner knowledge concerning things; / if we have the Lord’s presence, / we have wisdom, insight, foresight, / and the inner knowledge concerning things; / the Lord’s presence is everything, / the Lord’s presence is everything, / the Lord’s presence is everything to us. (Song on, If We Have the Lord’s Presence)
  – Each time when of heavenly blessings I think, / O let my heart long to be raptured to Thee; / My only hope here is Thy coming again, / My only joy there, Lord, Thy presence will be. (Hymns #389)
  – Dear Lord Jesus, precious Jesus, / When Thy presence does depart, / Seems the dawn has lost its traces, / Hidden are my smiling faces; / All I yearn for is Thy coming / And Thy presence’ sweet embrace. (Hymns #1158)