Ushering in the Presence of God
Notes taken from Chapter 5 of Chuck Pierce’s book, “Reordering Your Day”
Chapter written by Robert Heidler and Chuck Pierce

God is about to answer our prayers for revival!
Repentance, harvest, and societal change are the results of revival. They are not the essence of revival. If we are going to “pray in” revival, we need to understand what revival is.

Revival is God visiting His Church.
The following is a list of phrases you hear over and over again from the study of great revivals of the past:
• There was an overwhelming sense of the Presence of God.
• His Sacred Presence was everywhere.
• God came down into that room.
• The Power of God seemed to descend on the assembly with an astonishing energy.
• Jesus lives in our town now!
One common denominator in every true revival is that people suddenly know they are in the Presence of God!

What does it mean when we say the “Presence of God”?

The Bible describes different levels of God’s Presence:

1. God’s Omnipresence – This means that God is always present everywhere. No matter where you go – God is there. He is always present to hear our prayers, bless and protect us.

2. God’s Indwelling Presence – This means that when we trusted Jesus, the Holy spirit came to live inside of us. If we know Jesus, the Spirit of God is present in us – this is different from His general presence everywhere.

3. God’s Manifest Presence – An illustration of God’s manifest presence is found in your radio. Right now, as you read this book, there are invisible radio waves passing through your body. There are probably news programs, talk shows, country/western music, rock and roll music, and all sorts of other radio programs filling the air around you, yet you are totally oblivious to them. But, if you turn on your radio, those invisible radio waves suddenly become manifest as sound! You are able to discern them with your physical senses! That is what the manifest presence of God is like. When God manifests His presence, He makes himself known in a way people can discern through their physical senses. When God’s presence is manifested in a tangible way, the Bible calls that His Glory.

God manifests His presence in many ways:
• The Hebrew word for “glory is the word “kavod”: “weight”. God’s Manifest Presence sometimes feels like there is a change in the air pressure – it feels weighty or heavy. Sometimes God manifests His Glory through a revelation of His Holiness – people weep and repent of their sins. Sometimes God manifests His Glory as a gentle whisper as He did with Elijah. Sometimes God manifests His Glory through an empowering for service. Sometimes God manifests His Glory through the release of spiritual gifts and acts of power.
We have all experienced God’s Manifest Presence. As Christians, experiencing His Manifest Presence, is part of our birthright!
When God manifests His Presence corporately, His Life is a magnet to draw the lost, His holiness moves sinful believers to repentance, and His power brings healing miracles and faith for answered prayer.
In the Welsh Revival there was “a supernatural Presence that moved from county to county”. The revival was so tangible that people reported a change in the atmosphere when they entered a county where the revival was present. When a revival came to a town, the entire city experienced God’s Manifest Presence. Society was changed.

What is the KEY?
Revival is Him – It is Jesus visiting His church.
Revelation 3:20: “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in.” We use that verse to refer to Jesus standing at the door of an unbeliever’s heart. But if you read it in context, it is talking about Jesus knocking at the door of someone’s heart. Jesus wants to visit His church. Jeremiah 29:31: “You will see ME and find ME when you seek ME with all your heart”. Revival is not found by urging repentance (even thou God wants us to repent). It is not a result of unity (although unity is important). It does not come by seeking harvest, city transformation or even revival itself.
Revival comes – God’s presence comes – when we seek HIM with all of our hearts.

4. God’s Dwelling Presence or Shekinah – God’s Manifest Presence is a “brief visitation” of the Spirit. God wants to do more than visit – He wants to DWELL with us – He wants to make His habitation with us!
He wants His Presence to ABIDE in the midst of His people – We call this His Shekinah glory.
Shekinah: “shakan”: means “to dwell”.

Our cry should be Jeremiah 14:8: O Hope of Israel, its Savior in times of distress, why are you like a
stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays only a night?”
Exodus 25:8: “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them.”
YOU BUILD IT AND HE WILL COME!

The word “sanctuary”: a holy place, a special place, a ‘set apart;’ place. If we will prepare the place, His Presence will come. The word “dwell” in this passage is “shakan”. God says, “Prepare a place for Me, so that My Shekinah can live among My people.” God wants His Presence to dwell with us – our responsibility is to prepare a place for Him.

God gave Moses detailed instructions on how to make the tabernacle a place where the Shekinah could dwell.

1. The Altar of Burnt Offering: this was a place of worship: a burnt offering was a voluntary act of worship expressing commitment and complete surrender. The burnt offering was the Old Testament equivalent of Romans 12:1-2. When they brought their animal to be offered, they were saying, “This animal represents me. I am giving myself totally and completely to God as an act of worship.” Leviticus 6:9-3 says that the fire on the altar of burnt offering is to be “kept burning” – It shall not go out…Fire shall be kept burning continually. God wanted the tabernacle to be a place of continual worship!

2. Table of Showbread: this is part of the grain offering. It was a voluntary act of worship thanking God for his goodness and provision. Leviticus 24: “Bake twelve cakes…and set them before the Lord every Sabbath…set it in order before the Lord continually”. God wanted continual thanksgiving.

3. The Golden Lampstand: the lampstand is the symbol of the Presence of the Holy Spirit fellowshipping with His people and releasing divine revelation. Leviticus 24: “Command the sons of Israel to make the lamp burn continually. Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord continually. It shall be a perpetual statute. He will keep the lamps on the lamp stand before the Lord continually.” There must be continual fellowship with the Holy Spirit!

4. The Altar of Incense: Incense is a symbol of our prayers rising before God. God’s instruction about the altar of incense was this: “And Aaron shall burn fragrance incense on it; he shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamps. And when Aaron trims the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense. There shall be perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.”
There must be continual prayer before the Lord.

The Tabernacle must be marked by continual worship, continual thanksgiving, continual fellowship with the Spirit, and continual prayer! There must be continual prayer, praise and worship in that place.
Exodus 29:42-46: “There will be continual burnt offerings throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle. There I will meet you and speak to you…and the place will be sanctified by My Glory...Then I will DWELL among the Israelites and be their God and they will know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of Egypt that I might dwell among them.”

If the Tabernacle is marked with these things:
• He will meet with us there
• He will speak to us there – prophetic revelation will be released in that place.
• The place will be consecrated (set apart, or made special) by His Glory – His Manifest Glory will make that place discernibly different.
• He will dwell among the sons of Israel. His “shakan” will come if we do this.

The BLESSINGS that will flow from His Presence dwelling with them:
• I will give you rains in their seasons so the land will yield its produce.
• You will eat to the full and live securely.
• I will turn toward you, multiply you, and confirm My Covenant with you.
• I will walk among you and be your God and you will be My people.

The Principle for Dwelling in His Presence:
1. Where there is prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, God’s Presence will come.
2. Where there is continual praise, prayer, and thanksgiving, God’s Presence will dwell.
3. Where the Presence of God dwells in power, there is revival and everything is changed.

Acts 3:1-8: Peter said “What I have, I give to you!” How did he get what he had? Verse 1: “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer”. They had a number of “hours of prayer” daily. As there were set times for sacrifice in the temple, so there were set times for a “sacrifice of praise” in the church. They came together and praised and worshiped God throughout the day and the night. They divided up the day and night into WATCHES based on the vigils of the Roman military. Hebrews 13:15: “they continually offered up a sacrifice of praise” – the purpose was to keep the fire of the Spirit continually burning. For over 300 years, wherever the church was planted, they would seek the Presence of God through continual watches of prayer.

The number one ministry of the church is not a ministry to people; it’s a ministry to God.

The WATCH OF THE LORD produces – the Watch of the Lord at Herrnhut kept the fires of revival burning for over one hundred years, producing a Great Awakening that swept the world!

God is calling Us to STAND WATCH in prayer, that His Glory may come!