Changed in the Presence

Cultivation and being transformed into his image.

  Our modern world’s education system is not really an education system but an indoctrination system designed to make you regurgitate facts. Compare this to a system that is designed to cause students to explore to find the answers.

  Case in point, learning all the dates, locations, generals, etc of the American Civil War is not as nearly valuable as learning the lessons of the war on society so that they are never repeated, that is a far better education.

The purpose of learning is to bring something of value forward that helps you or your generation. The engineer learns to create, the doctor learns to heal and the cook brings food to bless. Turning students into walking storage devices that only carry the same options over and over with no new ideas is a bad idea. This makes them nothing more than an organic drone, a reflection of the ones who programmed them. And that does not help anyone.

  Unfortunately, this flawed concept of education is strongly embedded within the Body of Christ. Instead of discovering the hidden pearls of spiritual truth that can set you and others free. People have been taught to see spiritual truths as more like a grocery list.

  Someone starts preaching about salvation and very quickly we mentally hit the check box next to the word salvation in our mind. Deep inside, we then say, “Yep, got that, let's move on.” In fact, many have gotten so used to the process that Sunday morning messages often get a quick mental check of approval right before we tune the rest of the message out and drift off to other subjects in our minds until the pastor is done.

  True learning however is a different process and requires comprehension so an outward change can take place. Consider the ancient process of training a Rabbi, this process was extremely effective and was so solid it allowed the Jewish faith to last for thousands of years despite extreme social environments. In fact, it was so effective Jesus used it to teach his disciples.

  Basically, the teacher would teach his students something. Then at a later moment, he would demonstrate it. Time would pass and then he would tell his students to go and do the same thing. This provided on-the-job training and an opportunity for the teacher to evaluate the outcome. Eventually, the teacher released his students to go out and gather students for themselves.

  This then provided the original teacher with one final evaluation step in the process. Basically, he watched how his students taught the next generation. If the quality produced was acceptable then the teacher knew he did a good job. But if it did not, then the teacher knew he had failed, for his work should have lasted for generations. Now this is only one aspect of the process so let's look at this in a New Testament context.

  Let's take the subject of healing. Many people have attended conference after conference on healing, but how many of those people who attended are actively healing people today? A very small number I think. Have these people biblically learned how to heal people?

Personally, I don’t think so.

  They acquired information, but without a consistent pattern of work to back up the education, it is dead and the student failed to learn because the teacher did not continue the environment. “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” James 2:26.

  You see the information you have from years of Bible study, conferences, sermons, and other things is just information sitting on the hard drive of your soul. You NEED an application program to give it legs. Faith is the spark you are looking for and together it is the biblical evidence that you have learned something. But how do we get ourselves into the place of true learning?

Cultivation.

  “You must learn to cultivate my presence.” Was the message that the Lord gave me several years ago. Now to give a spot of context, my background is strongly connected to things like farming, homesteading, and stuff like that. So as a result when the Lord used the word “cultivate,” to me, this brings up an interesting mental image.

  You see cultivating is not planting, it is the soil preparation that must take place before planting. This is because whatever state your land is in, it must be altered to create the right environment for the seeds to grow. “But from the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of the heaven is taken by violence, and the violent seize on it.” Matthew 11:12.

  There have been many different interpretations of this scripture. Some make it confusing, others give better context. But if you understand the context that a massive crowd was traveling to hear John the Baptist. Then in some way, you could argue that they were like an army who were willing to violently find the kingdom at any cost.

  Even today, this is one of the primary bits of evidence for something “Being of God,” people become willing to violently risk everything in their hearts to find the Kingdom. And this is how we cultivate a habitation for his presence, we must be willing to do violence, tear up the soil of our hearts, burn the weeds, and force out the stones of harder, lifeless teachings.

  When God told me this message I struggled with it for some time with questions like, “How do I…? All in all, it was a process I needed to work through as I finally realized just how self-centered my own questions were. This is because he said, “cultivate MY presence.”

  In the spiritual economy of things, if you remove something, then you must replace it with something else. I finally realized that I could not deal with my own spiritual garden unless I acquired something to put in its place.

  Let me show you a better example. In our standard world of thinking, we think we need to take a broom to our house, kick everything out, and then say “Come and fill us, Holy Spirit,” but we can’t. Because if we could, we would not need Christ’s blood from the cross.

  There are many perceived spiritual disciplines that various denominations encourage their people towards. Personally, I believe that learning to walk in the presence of God in a 24/7 environment should be a high priority. I have not accomplished this personally, but I know what it feels like to have this around me for extended periods.

  In reality, we need to just come in and present ourselves before the Lord, and then reach into his presence by faith through the blood. As odd as this may sound to some people's ears, it is at this moment, that we start to cultivate his presence. We cultivate by intermingling with it, allowing it to inhabit us. It is at this moment His presence brings His Glory and then things can be changed. This is when weeds, stones, and hard soils can be changed out. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Cor 3:18.

  This is the start of the cultivation, as his presence arrives. We in turn hunger for more of Him. But to do this we often must surrender and force out aspects of our nature that the Holy Spirit has put his finger on. And so, in His presence, we exchange by faith the ugly for the beautiful, the broken for the redeemed.

  As the Lord has pointed out to me, many congregations have been built, endured, and drifted into the pages of time in the last 2000 years. And all of those in one form or another have centered their purposes around some facet of Christian purpose. Evangelism, Teaching, Missions, 24/7 prayer, Community Impact, the Prophetic, and the list goes on and on. But how many made His presence central, how many have sought a Habitation, a resting place as Isaiah 66:1 asks for, few I think?

  In the environment of His presence, he is slowly softening the soil of our souls. Getting us ready for things as of yet un-whispered to us. This is education at a different level, this is the transformation into the likeness of Christ as the Bible speaks of as we contemplate him.

The Right Environment.

  In my early days as a Christian, I knew I needed more. At this point, I had no knowledge of MorningStar ministries, only the Vineyard under John Wimber. At that time the Vineyard was starting up a biblical education system and you could either come to Anaheim and attend the classes or join the online courses.

  I was newly married so going to Anaheim was out of the question and we were not making a lot, so the online courses were simply out of reach for us. Add to this, I knew that if I did this by myself I would eventually not complete the online education. I really wanted hands-on learning, that has always worked for me.

  Many years later when I became aware of Morningstar, and after some time and a few road bumps we relocated to South Carolina. My intention was to get ordained and go through the school, but the Lord had other plans. I still got an education, but of a different kind that is perhaps better than what I would have got.

  My point is simple, even though there were serious issues within the ministry, there was a superior spiritual culture that existed among the average Christian. I grew, I flourished and in the end, it changed me.

  You were not meant to grow in a vacuum, nor does a tree become tall and straight without the forest. You need to be in a like-minded spiritual environment to pursue the presence of God. Too many people have been trained to think that if you sing this or that song you have entered into the presence. That is nothing more than a mental exercise designed to excite your emotions. The presence of God goes beyond that, and once you really start to interact on that level, it will change everything. This is how we learn to be “… transformed into his image…” 2 Cor 3:18