Experiencing God's Manifested Presence
You may be saying, “Yes Brother Cerullo…I want it. My heart is crying out for the presence of God. But I don't know how to experience God's manifested presence.”
There is a tremendous key God has given to enable us to experience and maintain the presence of God. It is found in the Old Testament account of King Asa. King Asa ruled over Judah for forty-one years (1 Kings 15:9-10). The Bible records that…
…Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God: For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: And commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. (2 Chronicles 14:2-4)
At one point during his administration, a mighty army from Ethiopia rose up against him:
And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came unto Mareshah. (2 Chronicles 14:9)
Can you imagine? A million-man army marching against the small troops of Judah. When Asa saw this great multitude advancing…
…Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee.” (2 Chronicles 14:11)
The enemy was advancing. Asa could hear the sound of a million marching feet. In this time of desperation, Asa turned to God and cried “Help us, Oh Lord…for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude!” Asa declared his total, utter dependence upon God. Without God's presence, he knew he was in trouble. But he also knew that with God's presence, no man could prevail against him because no man can prevail against God.
So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled. (2 Chronicles 14:12)
Asa led the armies of Judah to a great victory over Ethiopia's million-man army. Can you just imagine King Asa's puny little troops advancing against the million-man force of the Ethiopians? Asa declared that there was only one way he was prepared to face the enemy and that was through the presence of God. The presence of God went out before Asa and his forces and scattered the enemy before they even got to the battlefield!
Make this declaration:
God's presence will scatter my enemies before I can even get to the battlefield.