When you worship, don’t just sing—enter His courts and encounter His manifest presence! God wants to take Your worship up a notch from simply singing about Him; He wants you to sing TO Him. Realize that when you sing and worship Him, whether individually or corporately, that You are not static, but active. You are actually entering the gates of His manifest presence and coming into the courts of heaven.  Read More

The real problem with idolatry, or covetousness, is not simply attributing inappropriately high value to other things, but devaluing the manifest presence of Christ. Psalm 73 is a powerful journey of a fellow seeker who admits to the slippery slope of envy in verse 3—“I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” The Psalm then ends on a high note of transition from the common things of this physical world to the manifest presence of God. When the Psalmist says, “it is good to be near to God,” he could not have been referring to the omnipresence of God because you cannot get any nearer to His omnipresence; He was obviously referring to the manifest presence of God.  Read More

If you have set your sights on the manifest presence of Christ, one of the first sins God will deal within your own soul is the sin of iniquity, or treating as common the holy things of God. This is one sin God will not tolerate, nor should He. Do you value the manifest presence of Christ? Do you value the fact that you were chosen to draw near to His presence and to dwell in His courts?  Read More

You can praise your way through things you could never pray your way through. Psalm 34 is one of several acrostic poems in the Old Testament, each verse beginning with successive letters in the Hebrew alphabet. More importantly, Psalm 34 was written when David was fleeing Saul in Israel into the foreign land of the Philistines, where Abimilech was king. He found himself cornered in a cave and fleeing for his life. This marked one of the lowest points in David’s entire life, and yet against all odds, he began to praise the Lord. He would not allow anything to fill his mouth but praise. What an example for the rest of us who are seeking to make our way through the challenges of life. If David could praise the Lord when he was between a rock and a hard place, you can, too.  Read More

It is in the act of being worshipped that Christ most often chooses to reveal Himself. This was the Psalmist’s experience, and it can be your experience as well.   Read More

When we pray, we spend too much time listening to the voice of the enemy, and not enough time listening to the voice of God. The enemy is the accuser and the condemner who accuses us day and night of our sins and failures. He not only lies to us about ourselves, but he lies to us about God.  Read More

It’s not the person who talks to himself who is going crazy; the sign of going crazy is the one who listens to himself! Here in Psalm 103, David takes dominion over his soul and commands himself to remember all the blessings and benefits of being a child of God.  Read More

When was the last time your encounter with Christ was so overwhelming that it moved you to literally get on your knees in His presence? This is the kind of kneeling praise that King David is calling for today.  Read More

We play too many mind games when we pray. Have you ever looked at the problems going on in your life and said to yourself, “Where did I go wrong? God must have withdrawn His presence from my life because if He were here things would certainly be going better.”   Read More

The only way to truly overcome fears is to welcome the presence of a power that is greater than what we fear—the presence of God Himself. Fear is a force to be reckoned with-- if we don’t handle it, it will handle us.  Read More

It is all too easy when we get caught with our hand in a cookie jar to succumb to the fear of man and respond with a desire to fix it. While sin often has consequences socially that need to be addressed sooner or later, if you start the process of repentance on the horizontal level, it is unlikely that you will ever truly repent.  Read More

Anyone who knows the manifest presence of God will sooner or later be scorched, incinerated, and reduced to dust and ashes. True worship always leads us to an encounter with the manifest presence of Christ, and that encounter will always lead us in honest brokenness of spirit.  Read More

The most horrific consequence of sin is that it forces us to forfeit the manifest presence of God. Hell is the consequence of a life of sin where the ultimate tragedy is realized—we eternally forfeit the manifest presence of God in Christ.  Read More

Don’t ever underestimate the power of praise. Worshiping God may seem weak, harmless, and ineffective, but nothing can be further from the truth. There are times in life when the battle gets difficult and circumstances seem impossible, when the most practical, powerful, and effective thing you can do is praise the Lord.  Read More

When you are in trouble remember, Christ is with you in the trouble. It’s easy to feel God-forsaken. Don’t worry—we may run from trouble, but not God. He is our very present help in trouble.  Read More

There is no place on earth where you feel more secure than in the manifest presence of God. King David was a warrior who faced countless enemies throughout his life. If anyone might have suffered from anxiety disorder, it would be David. Rather than stressing over conflict, however, he ran to the presence of God for refuge. When he said, “God is in the midst of her,” he was not referring to God’s omnipresence because His omnipresence was with every people group. Instead, he was referring to God’s manifest presence, and because of God’s manifest presence, God’s people “shall not be moved.”  Read More

There is no greater joy on earth than the joy a human heart experiences when it encounters the manifest presence of Christ. For this reason, the psalmist refers to an encounter with God’s manifest presence as “fullness of joy.”   Read More

On this day, November 21, in the year of our Lord 1922, Presbyterian minister, T.J. McCrossan received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He was so overwhelmed, he fell to the ground, during which time God gave him a spectacular vision. “The blessed Holy Spirit came down upon us. We saw light, far brighter than the noon-day sun – a perfect blaze of glory. Then hundreds of tongues of fire seemed to dart forth upon and around us. Then for an hour or more, great billows of glory, indescribably beautiful from the standpoint of light and colors, began to roll through our soul like mighty breakers over a sandy beach.   Read More

The joy of God’s presence is not referring to the omnipresence, but rather the manifest presence of God. For many good reasons God’s manifest presence brings us true joy. - In His presence we receive His loving kindness. - In His presence we receive His blessing. - In His presence we are more ourselves than at any other time. - In His presence we see life from His perspective. - In His presence we are delivered from evil forces that would steal our joy.  Read More

The friendship of the Lord is not referring to His omnipresence; it’s referring to friendship with His manifest presence. God makes known His covenant and tells us secrets when we learn to attract, welcome, and sustain the manifest presence of God.  Read More

We are all gate keepers—gate keepers over our minds, our bodies, our souls, our hearts, our families, our names, our jobs, community, and local church. A gate represents a sphere of influence and a gatekeeper has authority over a particular sphere of influence.  Read More

In your generation God is not only mobilizing more prayer, He is mobilizing more prayer mobilizers. You and I are living in a day of a crescendoing global prayer movement that exceeds anything in history. Not only are there more Christians today than at any other time in history, a higher percentage of Christians are being stirred in their spirit to seek the face of God. Face-seeking is not in pursuit of God’s omnipresence; Face-seeking is always pursuing God’s manifest presence.  Read More

Once you taste the manifest presence of God, you will want to come back for more. When King David said, “One thing I have asked of the Lord,” he clearly identified that one thing—the manifest presence of God. He clarified God’s manifest presence in three ways—“to dwell in the house of the Lord, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple” (Psalm 27:4). Dwelling refers to living in God’s manifest presence; gazing refers to seeing God’s manifest presence; inquiring refers to wanting more of His presence. We inquire about things we are interested in to learn more, to experience more, to gain more.  Read More

When you pray Your kingdom come you are praying the Holy Spirit to come. Why? It’s quite simple—the Holy Spirit brings the kingdom of God. Every time. No exceptions. Think about it. Apart from the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom would be a theory but would never become a reality.  Read More