By Pastor John Mateos Ong
~~
We all know that once we received the Holy Spirit, we become the church—and what God wants you to do is to release it. The presence that dwells inside us must be released in the open.
We can read in Luke 10:3-4 that Jesus sent out His disciples and commanded them not to bring anything nor greet anyone on their way. Why do you think Jesus commanded it to His disciples? Understanding the verse, this may mean Jesus wants His disciples (and us) to know the importance of His presence and that we don’t need anything as long as we have Him with us.
In verses 5-6, Jesus tells us to speak a blessing of peace and if our blessing is not welcome, it goes back to us. The kind of peace that the scripture says is not the worldly peace that is temporary but a peace that is permanent, which can be obtained through Faith in Jesus.
On verse 31 of Luke 12 says that seek His kingdom above all else and all these things will be given to you. Yes, it is important to think about our worldly needs (health, money, relationships) but once God takes it away from us we will know that it is Jesus we only need. For now, our priority is to seek His Kingdom because it is said that in due time all these things will be given to us.
Let’s continue in Luke 16:10, we can tell from here that if God can trust us in worldly riches, He can trust us with His heavenly riches. If He can trust us in carrying His presence, He can trust us with His Kingdom.
Luke 22:35-38, “ 35 Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you out to preach the Good News and you did not have money, a traveler’s bag, or an extra pair of sandals, did you need anything?”
“No,” they replied.
36 “But now,” he said, “take your money and a traveler’s bag. And if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one! 37 For the time has come for this prophecy about me to be fulfilled: ‘He was counted among the rebels.’[a] Yes, everything written about me by the prophets will come true.”
38 “Look, Lord,” they replied, “we have two swords among us.”
“That’s enough,” he said.”
We have learned that the disciples did not lack anything on their journey to spread the gospel and the importance of carrying His presence because with His presence everything follows. While in Verse 38, it clearly states that our weapon is important and enough because Jesus knows that once He leaves and the Holy Spirit is sent, it’s spiritual warfare.
For Christians, our Bibles is our weapon and we can read in Ephesians 6:17 that Jesus commands us to arm ourselves with the Word. For a Christian who does not read the Word of God is like a soldier who is naked and has no weapon to use.
Now, how and when do we release the Presence? It is when we proclaim the gospel, pray for provision, deliverance, for healing and driving out of demons. It is when we prophesy and lastly when we freely give. Release the presence every time, every place and in every person, we meet, we give it freely for the Glory of God.
When we do these things we put our faith in Jesus, and with our faith in Him, we can do what he did and even greater things (John 14:12)
As we end our series on “The One Thing” we can now tell (1) the importance of Presence in our relationship with God. (2) How important that we know our role as presence carrier and lastly, (3) we learned how to produce hunger and pursuit for the Presence because we are called to release the Presence for God’s glory.