To really get close to God, I have to bathe more often...

Just recently, I did some introspection in an attempt to understand why
things aren’t moving fast enough for me in the spirit realm. Like He has for
many of you, God has blessed me with His mighty PRESENCE and with tangible
manifestations that are beyond description. To add to that, throughout most of
the daylight hours He is all over me...and on occasion Father even speaks
out my name audibly during the night in the times between consciousness and
sleep (I call it the “twilight zone”) That’s another story for another time.
But I’m tellin’ ya, He will do the same and even more for you! He is no
respecter of persons.
I’ve never been one to wait around for something to happen, and that can
be both an asset and a liability. Like so many of you who are reading this,
I have been called to aggressively reach the lost, as well as to pass on
revelation to those who already know the Lord. Through it all, my success in
ministry is in direct correlation to how much of HIM can get through me to
bless those around me. I’m doing my best to self-destruct, but it’s going
slowly.
I don’t want to do the best I can do. I want to do the best that He can
do through me. I know that GRACE supplies, LOVE gives, and FAITH takes
(Joseph Prince). But too often my problem is receiving and manifesting what has
already been granted to me by the finished work at the Cross. I sense that
getting quicker results has to do with my relationship with God (my abba
father...my Daddy).
So one day I simply asked Him: “Father, what’s up? Much of what you
have promised me has been manifested...but so much has not, especially the
heavy-duty stuff. Am I doing something wrong? Please grow me up quickly, as
there is so much to do in this world before the “end of time” shows up. You
know me better than I know me, Father. So whatever You say, I will do. I know
that I need to get much closer to You, and to my big brother Jesus, and to my
closest friend, the Holy Spirit.” Well, I waited for a quick answer.
I’m always careful not to appear to be whining, complaining or murmuring
when I approach God. The Israelites were always doing that kind of stuff
and it almost always ate their lunch. No way I’m going to do that. Get real. I
know better. Let me just declare two things concerning this: (1) My mamma
didn’t raise no Hispanic dummy; (2) I was born at night, but it wasn’t last
night.
Listen, I know it’s okay to ask questions of Him and to seek divine
direction. I’m His son, I was created in His image, and I have His DNA. If I
can’t talk openly and frankly to Him (with reverence), who can I talk to? And
besides all that, He loves me (and all of you) beyond comprehension. He
never leaves us nor forsakes us and He’s always there to help.
When I asked Him the above question, He did not answer me immediately.
He rarely does. But a couple of days later I heard His still small voice just
as plainly as I hear everything else: “Son...just rest...and bathe yourself
with my presence.”
As I always do when I hear from Him unexpectedly, I grabbed a pencil and
pad and I recorded what I had just heard:
...just rest...and bathe
yourself in my presence.
I didn’t get it. The last thing I wanted to do at that point in my
desperation was to take a bath. But so many times in my interaction with deity,
what seems so simple turns out to be so incredibly profound.
For a couple of days, I tried to get a handle on what Father was trying
to tell me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Since I already do my best to
stay in His presence, why would He say this to me?
I was talking about this to Linda and in a flash it came to me: I had
written it down wrong. What Father actually said was:
...just rest...and bathe
yourself with my presence.
(not in my presence)
That may seem trivial to most, but actually it’s huge! (the most
startling revelations from God that I receive are the ones that I‘m not smart
enough to conjure up by myself).
What He was telling me was this: Robert, you can stand next to a
beautiful bathtub full of sweet-smelling bubble-bath and you are in it’s presence.
But if you don’t get into the water and bathe yourself with it, you cannot
become clean and refreshed and reap the wonderful benefits. Wow!
So it is with so many of us. This is where most of us miss it. Sensing
God’s PRESENCE is a truly marvelous thing, especially in a corporate praise
and worship atmosphere. But to avail ourselves of God’s fullness, we must
step into that PRESENCE and become one with God. Let’s reach up and receive
His limitless love (He loved us first)...and then just love Him right back
without reservation. Simply surrender. Embrace all that God has already granted
to you according to the finished work at the Cross. Dive into His rivers of
living water and soak yourself with His proximity! Then, what is His
becomes yours.
• This is how Jesus multiplied the 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread: He held
the boy’s lunch in His hands as He reached up and became one with His Father.
Then Heaven’s power fell and super-sized the meal and it became the biggest
fish-fry ever held in the Middle East. Thanks Holy Spirit!
• This is also how the woman with the issue of blood was cleansed. She
reached out and touched Jesus and became one with Him. Healing power had no
choice but to flow from Heaven, into Jesus and into her to burn away her afflic
tion.
• This is also how Jesus stopped the wind and the waves from sinking the
disciples’ boat. He awoke, reached up and became one with His Father, and then
the power flowed down from Heaven to command change in the natural world,
and the wind and the waves became still.
• This is also how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. He reached out and
became one with His Father and He commanded: “Lazarus, come forth!”
Afterwards, he said, “Thank you Father for hearing me. You always hear me.” In
order for Jesus to thank His Father for hearing Him, He must have reached out to
God for the power to manifest the raising of the dead (again, through the
Holy Spirit).
Jesus was God, but He did God’s work as a man. That should tell us
something. Everything He did was an example for us to see and understand. It was
a big-time show and tell. Even Jesus said, “Without my Father’s power, I
myself can do nothing.” As He is, so are we in this world today (1 John 4:17)
The Bible is emphatic about saying, ...get close to Me and I will get
close to you (James 4:8). This is the realm where not only does the impossible
become possible, it becomes a piece of cake. In HIM (not just next to
him)) we will find all the answers. In addition, He will burn away from us all
that is not of Him in order to be able to commune with us more effectively.
Bathing with His PRESENCE is also how His promises, provisions, and
gifts are released to us through the wavelength of inner peace (Philippians
4). We must also remember that PRESENCE is not necessarily SANCTION of what we
are doing (but very often it is). His powerful PRESENCE also reminds us
that He will never leave us nor forsake us...and that He will see us through
everything the world and the Evil One will surely throw at us. Hey, if God is
for us, who can be against us? We got it “whupped.”
In the final analysis, what Father was trying to get across to me is to
simply jump off the bank of the stream and into His rivers of living water!
There I can merge with the flow of the current of God, as His heavenly
momentum renews, refreshes, rejuvenates, and repairs me inside and out (Isaiah
40:31).
But there’s more. And this is the key: By design, from my innermost
parts, that same living water will flow outward through me as I speak His Word
into the realm of the natural, in order to bless those around me. A vessel
with purified water constantly flowing through it never becomes stagnant.
“If God can get His blessings through you, He can get His gifts and
provisions to you.”
We’ve got this thing all turned around. What I’m trying to learn to do
is to set aside quality time every day to spend in the presence of the
world, but only after I devote the vast majority of my primary time in the
presence of my Creator. Also, I would much rather commute to the Earth from
Heaven every day, instead of the other way around.
You know you have bathed yourself with
His presence when:
1) It’s no longer a chore to keep your hands raised high after praising for
an extended period of time (your arms are supernaturally strengthened);
2) You started out to pray for a while and then you look at the clock and
it’s 2 or 3 hours later than that (time is irrelevant in the spirit realm);
3. The things of the world become trivial and of little value (compared to
the gift of the Heavenly realm);
4. You feel like a king and a priest, and that you are an owner of the
Kingdom of God (because you truly are);
5. You quickly forgive those who have hurt you and it’s no big deal (the
Love of God transcends everything);
6. You feel connected to everlasting life and even the stupid Devil can’t
talk you out of it (Jesus gave you authority over the totality of Satan’s
kingdom);
7. You get a taste of the depth of God’s love as the waves of His Glory
overwhelm your spirit and then your flesh (who would want to be anywhere else?);
8) You become seriously addicted to the “tingle of life” all over
you...and you’re not the least bit interested in going into rehab (if it ain’t
broke, don’t fix it);
9) You are through praying, but you’d rather stay up there and not come
back down until sometime on Saturday (how do you keep a kid on the farm after
he’s seen the Magic Kingdom in Orlando?);
10) You come back down to the world and the Devil says, “Now I’m gonna
really git you!”...but you kick him in the rear and send him to a corner to do “
time out” (Jesus did it to him and He’s given you the authority to do it,
too).
There’s lots more...but once again, I’m out of space. Suffice it to
say that in order to understand and to benefit from the deep things of God, we
must have an ever expanding deeper relationship with Him. What better way
to do that than to become one with Father God as we bathe regularly with His
PRESENCE...and obey Him.
Almighty God has a fantastic plan for everyone of our lives. But hey,
there’s only one restriction: we must have a super-tight relationship with our
Creator...where He is first and everything else is last.

“Extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people who have an
extraordinary destiny.”
C. S. Lewis
Chronicles of Narnia