Brooke Ligertwood — The Path Of His Presence

who was it food conference first couple of days that was insane y'all y'all what you don't say y'all in Miami do you maybe you do I don't know mm-hmm but can I encourage you if you if you weren't able to be a part of the conference this past few days register for next year there's no easier time than now Scott and I have already registered for next year because we we need this conferences we have been so refreshed we have been so impacted we have been so imparted into that it wasn't even a discussion we with our credit cards down and we've registered and we're planning on making a way of being here next week so can a next year so can I encourage you to do the same and presents yourself at this gathering because it's powerful what God does is undeniable the power and presence of God was strong it was manifest it was penetrating it was incredible I'm excited about the Thunder that's happening outside all through the Bible we talk we we hear about how the voice of the voice of God thunders and and the New Testament I said when God spoke some people heard a voice and other people heard thunder so who knows maybe it's the voice of God here to speak to us at the 10:00 a.m. mm-hmm this morning last night last night is John Gray a pastor drunk I was was speaking there was such an incredible atmosphere of faith and the presence of God was so manifest did anyone else experience that you sense that so that's what happens when faith is when faith is multiplied when we each bring our faith to the altar and God consumes the sacrifice that's what you felt last night was faith multiplied that's why the Bible says don't give up meeting together because when our faith comes together it's multiplied and the presence of God can come in such a powerful way but I also I also coming into this morning wanted to speak to how how do we take that into our everyday how do we get the revelation of the presence of God for us not just being that manifests and conferences and in meetings on Sundays but how do we walk in the path of the presence of God in our everyday so that's what I want to speak to this morning the path of God's presence some 1611 says you make known to me the path of life you will fill me with joy in your presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand amen would you pray with me Heavenly Father we thank you so much that you have given us access to your reality through the blood of Jesus Christ and through pain the ultimate cost we're grateful and we pray that this morning as we open your word and open your scripture the Holy Spirit that you would illuminate the word of God to us that we would sense you that we would feel you but that we would be taught by you and down to our very bones Lord that we would get a new revelation of who you are and just how much we have access to all of who you are and all of your promises so I pray Lord that as I talk about your presence that your presence would be felt here that you would make your presence manifest in this meeting and this gathering this morning as we seek you as we lift you up Jesus would you reveal more of yourself to your people in Jesus name Amen I mean well I'm from a really beautiful place called Lower Hutt in New Zealand that's not a very beautiful place at all actually I grew up by the train tracks and mm-hmm and we had the head of a very famous gang living next door to us so my childhood was filled with rope swings and and SWAT team raids on my neighbors and this isn't in my notes where are we going he knows mm-hmm but my uncle was I'm high up in the police force in New Zealand and so he would give us a heads-up when the SWAT team were coming and so we would get a knock on our door and they would say stay away from they would say to my father you know tell the kids to stay away from the windows but of course my dad thought it was very exciting so he would come and wake us all up and together we would come and hadal MCN the SWAT team like climbing in our tree forts getting ready to raid our neighbors it was great I I grew up in an amazing family a bizarre family an amazing family but they didn't know Jesus and and so I came to Christ alone in my bedroom with a Bible when I was 15 years old how many of you love the Bible this book changed my life it changed my destiny it changed the course of my eternity and it has defined me it has shaped me it has molded me it has fueled me it has discipled me so can I encourage you if you find the Word of God difficult pray to the Holy Spirit and ask them to help you pick it up again make a choice stay in this word try different translations get in this word because it's life to your bones it's the promise of God for you and there's a personal promise for each and every one of you in this book now so I didn't grow up as a Christian and I discovered Jesus alone in my bedroom with this open Bible and I and and thus began this voracious hunger for the Word of God and I remember mm-hmm the first time I ever read Psalm 40 40 Psalm 40 mm-hmm it says I waited patiently for the Lord he turned to me and he heard my cry he lifted me out of the slimy pit out of the mud and the mire he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand he put a new song in my mouth a hymn of praise to our God many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him I remember I I read that for the first time as a 15 year old and I felt I felt so excited because this was what I had just experienced and here it was that someone else had experienced this and written about it many thousands of years before and the truth is that that some 40 is what God is doing in each of our lives and what he has been doing in the lives of his children for generations past some 40 years a new for every generation and and I remember I ran to my music teacher at school he was the only Christian that I knew and I knocked on his door in a recess and I I was so excited that I could share with him the scripture and say that that was what God has done that that scripture could define and explain my life that it would give me direction and would point me to the future that God had for me it defined my life another thing that was defining for me in those early years was I was a Christian accidentally I didn't really know what it was what I what I was doing I I I read this book I realized that I was a sinner and I asked God to save me I know and if it had ever explained to me that this was a prayer of salvation I just I prayed that because I had nothing and I needed God and he came after a few months of amazing right amazing and after a few months of that and reading this book and praying to the Savior I realized I think I'm a Christian this is unexpected and I was like I should stop going to church so I asked my mom if she would if she would drive me to a church I couldn't drive so my mom every Sunday would drive me to the local Salvation Army and drop me off at the corner and I would go and sit there with all the 60 year olds and head down and and and love church and then she would pick me up at the end of the service and and we would go home but one of the things that were so defining for me in that season was at the Salvation Army this little Salvation Army Hall in Lower Hutt in New Zealand there was something called the mercy seat and at any time during the service while the worship was happening or while the pastor was bringing the word there was a like a little low carpeted bench just at the side of the platform on the ground and that was the mercy seat and there was kind of a box of tissues and at any point during the service you could go forward and kneel at the mercy seat and do business with God and what was amazing was that in those early months I discovered that it wasn't just a mercy seat in the Salvation Army Hall and lower her in New Zealand but that there was a mercy seat in my bedroom and that there was a mercy seat when I was alone and in the field outside school there was a mercy seat in our back yard there was a mercy seat wherever in fact I was at the mercy seat I was challenged at the mercy seat I was forgiven the mercy seat I was accepted and that the mercy seat I discovered the path of God's presence I read that scripture some 1611 before you make known to me the path of life let me read it to you and the passion translation that says for you bring me a continual revelation resurrection life the path to bliss that brings me face to face with you isn't that amazing there is a path in God's prisons and it's a path that is accessible to every one of us and he invites us to walk it so I want to unpack a little bit of that this morning is that okay Romans 8 and the message it says those who enter into Christ's being here for us no longer have to live under a continuous low-lying black cloud a new power as an operation hallelujah the spirit of life in Christ like a strong wind has magnificently cleared the air has magnificently cleared the air the clouds part allowing us to see as we step into the presence of God we step into clarity clarity is the possibility of sight when I was how many of you know that real friends are friends who help you move house moving house is the worst and as the real friends who will drive you to the airport or help you move house and and and some years ago I was moving house I was single I wasn't married then and I'm a friend of mine was a social worker and she had a van and so I asked if I could borrow her then and she and she she was very gracious she said yes and she just warned me that the keys stuck a little bit in this van so she was like don't worry about it but when you try and unlock it it was you know it wasn't a bp1 it was a key turning one she said when you try and unlock but it's gonna stick a bit so just keep trying head a little and it will open so I went and I was doing my moving I came came back to the van to hop in and go to my next stop and I stuck the key in to unlock the door and like she had warned me the the key stuck and I couldn't I couldn't unlock the door so I was juggling juggling jiggling I got the door opened I hopped in the driver's seat and it was something unusual about this van I looked around and all of a sudden I realized that there was car seats in there and trash and like empty McDonald's cups and my first thought was who broke into my van and put all this stuff in here and then I looked through the passenger window and saw the van that I was actually supposed to be driving four spots along I had just broken into a van I got into the wrong van and so I quickly I jumped out and I don't know why I did this I could have just like pushed the little lock button and shut it but I spent ages trying to lock it again like to be really responsible but you know Galatians chapter one when when Paul was first called to the ministry he said when God who sent me apart and called me by His grace was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles my immediate response was not to consult any human being sometimes I think we just get into the wrong band we get into the van of cluttered with people's opinions when God is asking us to step into clarity and step into his presence so we need to get out of the van and get in the presence of God or find clarity this happened for Saul in 1st Samuel 1st Samuel 16 Samuel had anointed David as king but Saul was still the king the Spirit of God had come powerfully upon David but the Spirit of God had left saw but it says in verse 23 whenever the tormenting spirit troubled Saul David would play the harp and David of course as we know was a worshipper from when he was out in the field to when he was king to when he was in battle he was a worshipper David will play the harp and this is intense or would feel bitter and the tormenting spirit would go away that beg nificent power that Romans 8 talked about the continuous low lying black cloud was cleared by the Spirit of Christ clarity clarity is the possibility of sight so why would clarity give us the possibility of sight unless we were meant to see and move into the next step in the path of his presence and division vision is the accuracy of scale clarity the possibility of sight vision is the accuracy of scale Psalm 125 verse 2 in the passion translation it says just as the mountains surround Jerusalem so the Lord's wraparound presence surround his pit surrounds his people protecting them now and forever I'm a big fan of imagination I think gada who gave us imagination for a god-given purpose and I know that I'm sure like many of you here I struggle sometimes with employing my imagination for the wrong purpose I lie in bed awake imagining what happens if a meteor hits my house at the baby's nursery like what's my quickest way of escape why would I think that I don't know I employ my imagination for things that perhaps aren't conducive to stepping into his presence but God invites us to use our imagination and in connecting with the holy spirit to understand more of who he is and more of the scripture so a couple of weeks ago I was I was just feeling very buffeted about I was feeling kind of torn and tossed around and I was like I need to get into the presence of God and so I lay on my floor and I had just read that Scripture so I'm 125 just as the mountains surround him Hades just as the mountains surround Jerusalem so the Lord's wraparound presence surrounds his people protecting them now and forever so this is what I did I lay on my floor and I imagined the mountains surrounding Jerusalem and I imagined the mountains of God's wraparound presence surrounding me and all of a sudden I had vision I could see I had vision to see the accuracy of scale that God was so much greater than the things that I was facing that his forgiveness was so much greater than the sins that I was struggling with that his healing power was more than enough for the wounds that I was carrying in my body and that eternity is so much more real than the temporary reality I was struggling with at that point asf asf talks about this in Psalm 73 he says and from verse 13 surely in vain I have kept my heart pure have you ever felt like that you feel like you've been trying to do the right thing when nobody's looking in your integrity has gotten you know where can I assure you that God sees can I assure you that God knows and can I assure you that every act of obedience unseen as a seed planted in the ground of God's kingdom that will spring up into a harvest far greater than any you can imagine persist my friends persevere and righteousness persevere and doing the right thing when no one sees and no one cares because God sees so I'm Stephanie 3 surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and I have washed my hands and innocence all day long I have been afflicted every morning brings new punishments verse 16 he says when I tried to understand all this it troubled me deeply verse 17 till I entered the sanctuary of God then I understood he had the accuracy of scale he goes on to say he was able to see that the wicked actually won't prosper at the end of the day he sees that he's held and guided by the hand of God and then he closes after stepping into the presence of God expressing his frustration but then getting vision to see the accuracy of scale he ends the sum with this my flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever we get a vision to glimpse who God is and what he is doing the accuracy of scale so if clarity is the possibility of sight and vision is the accuracy of scale what's the next thing that we step into and God's presence and on that path that resurrection life revelation paths that sound 16 talks about I think we experienced it last night the next step is revelation revelation of identity revelation first and foremost of God's identity and revelation then of our identity as we worship God and discover more of who he is we discover more of who we are Matthew 16 verse 15 to 16 Jesus asks but what about you well who do you say I am and Simon Peter answered you are the Messiah the Son of the Living God in Matthew 16:17 jesus answered blister you Simon son of Jonah for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood but by my father in heaven a continual revelation of who Jesus is the path that brings us face to face with him we see more of who the Lord is and in encountering him and seeing more of who has a more understanding more of his identity we discover more of our identity true encounter with God is revelatory and it's transformative John Gray said last night actually perfectly his identity leads to destiny we see that in Genesis 32 which has been a chapter resounding and my own life the past couple of years at Hillsong worship we have in your album cook there is more this isn't a plug but the artwork at the front is actually the central characters are as the central character is trying to translate that the the since the central figures in that out workers it's Jacob wrestling with God God represented by a lion because we thought if we put a picture of two men wrestling on the front of the worship album it could be misinterpreted so but um but let's delve more into that description not into men wrestling Genesis 32 from from first 22 s is that night Jacob got up and took his two wives his female servants has 11 sons and crossed the fort of the debauch after he had sent them across the stream he sent over all his positions so Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until daybreak when the man saw that he could not overpower him he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the men then the man said let me go for it as daybreak but Jacob replied I will not let you go unless you bless me the man asked him what is your name Jacob he answered then the man said your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome Jacob said please tell me your name but he replied why do you ask my name and he blessed him there so Jacob called the place Peniel which means face of God saying it is because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared the Sun rose above him as he passed the place and he was limping because of his hip when we step into the presence of God and have an encounter with him it changes the way we walk [Applause] it changes the way we walk and the thing I love about that encounter he went Jacob went into that encounter with God as Jacob a guy who up until that point from the from the womb and from birth had manipulated and strategized his way ahead in life but he left that encounter with God as Israel the father of the nation of the people of God he entered that encounter with an earthly identity but he left with a new name the name that he had always been distant to have we step into the presence of God sometimes with all these strategies and all these plans and all these ideas of how we are supposed to apprehend this life with God but in his presence we discovered that he has already named us that he has already set in motion the destiny that he has for us in Jesus in revelation of our identity and why is that important it's important because when I get a revelation of the love of God when I get a revelation of who I am it's over in the best way because I realized that I am Anna unutterably and irrevocably loved I realized that I'm secure I realized one of the things I that kind of irks me the most is is after I've lived worship or something on someone says I was so blessed by your performance did you know Jesus died so I don't have to perform anymore I don't have to perform anymore I am who he says I am I have a revelation of who I am in Jesus that everything that has been won for me was won by the precious blood of Jesus was won by the cross that I cannot do one single thing to make God love me more than he already does I cannot do one single thing to make him love me less than he already does identity leads to destiny that's what we experienced last night it was a it was a end of people were individually getting revelations of who God was in his love for them people were individually getting revelations of who they were in God and as that was happening on mass what we experienced was a little bit of revival can I say so clarity the possibility of sight vision the accuracy of scale revelation of identity his and ours and what that looks like on mass is a little bit a revival Roberts Lydon and I'm God's generals the revivalists wrote this the hallmark of every every revival is hunger of heart the hearts pursuit of a personal relationship with Christ the hearts longing to experience God's presence and the hearts cry to worship God in spirit and truth revival is the product of an awakening of the heart to the power and presence of the Living Christ who loves us unconditionally revelation 5 says then I heard every creature in earth and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them singing to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever revival is revelation on mass the book is called revelation for goodness sake and you know what revivals there have been waves of move of God in the Church of God throughout history and the past revivals that we have seen we should celebrate them and we should study them and we should venerate them but you know we need a revival of God in our own generation pastor rich asked me yesterday in our Q&A about you know whether I thought that this generation needed a a new understanding of of life with Christ and of following him and you know you always people ask you things in those settings and then it's like hours later like I should have said that you know so you know I was thinking about that and and and really it's what I'm talking about here that there is no such thing as generational memory each generation must experience revival afresh each generation must walk the path of God's presence for themselves [Applause] John 6:37 said all those the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never drive away oz will chamber says questions that matter the questions that truly matter in life are remarkably few and they are all answered by these words come to me our Lord's words are not do this or don't do that but come to me how do we experience revival in our generation how do we walk the path of God's presence we come to him it's as simple as that in commenting on that scripture come and Matthew 11:28 come to me get away with me and you'll recover your life as well Chambers is this sorry now I'm doing a lot of reading but I just love it I was with chamber says come to me what happens when we come to him come to me and I will give you rest that is I will sustain you causing you to stand firm he is not saying I will put you to bed hold your hand and sing you to sleep but in essence God is saying I will get you out of bed out of your lids listlessness and exhaustion and out of your condition of being half dead while you are still alive I will get you out of bed I will wake you up when you come to me I will give you a revelation of Who I am I will give you a revelation of who you are and as you live that out that it will explode and overflow and impress upon the people around you until together we are walking in Revelation there is revival on mass in this generation we cannot inherit the knowing of Jesus in his way we must walk this path of his presence for ourselves so how do we do it I'll close with this mm-hmm we choose do you want this do you want the presence of God do you want to walk with Him do you want to see a revival and a move of God in our generation we choose do we want to get in God's presence instead of the van cluttered with everybody else's opinions and the strategies of how church should or should not be done or do we want to get in God's presence do we want clarity to be able to see what he is doing the accuracy of scale of his kingdom to get fresh revelation and to walk in revival we just choose it's as simple as that we choose and then the second thing is that we use our faith we have faith the team can come up if you guys want to if you around there Hebrews 11 verse 1 in the amplified it's one of my favorite verses of my favorite translations of this verse says now faith is the assurance the title deed the confirmation of things hoped for divinely guaranteed and the evidence of things not seen the conviction of their reality faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses in other words faith is the sixth sense that God has given us to apprehend the reality of his kingdom could I say this morning that God and his nearness and his presence has not reserved for the religious elite it's not reserved for the Mystics or the pastors or the well-behaved the presence and the reality of God is for every child of God you just need to choose and you just need to use faith to step in I'm gonna read one more thing from the pursuit of God aw Tozer he says overall this cloudy vagueness of earthly life stands the clear spiritual doctrine that God can be known in personal experience a loving person dominates the Bible walking among the trees of the garden and breathing fragrance over every scene always a living person is present a living person is present right now can you sense him you just choose and you use your faith always a living person is present speaking pleading loving working and manifesting himself whenever and wherever his people have the receptivity necessary to receive the manifestation you know this morning I just came to remind you that God is so much more real than is probably comfortable for us and that has loved us so much nearer than you could possibly imagine but to step into that path of his presence clarity vision revelation we simply have to choose we simply have to wake awaken our awareness that he is here that he is among us that he is present that he is loving that he is good that he came for you so that you can choose him he chose you already now you just have to choose him and choose his presence and by faith we apprehend the reality of his kingdom and the reality of his presence and Jesus name

Channel: VOUS Church

Views: 294,718

Rating: 4.9537196 out of 5

Keywords: brooke ligertwood, brook fraser, vous church, vous conference, presence, sermon

Id: dSGQ_01Ff6c

Length: 29min 42sec (1782 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 11 2018