Sermon Tone Analysis

Experiencing the Felt Presence of God

 

Purpose

To understand what the bible means by Presence

To practice various biblical techniques for experiencing God more intimately

To learn from one another’s Journey

To explore the nature, difficulty, purpose, and types of Prayer.

To understand the nature of Biblical Worship

To learn the practice of personal worship.

To begin a personal Journal

To develop discernment as to whether a certain experience is from God or not

 

 

| Schedule |

| | *Date* | *Subject* |

| March 9 | Orientation and Presence of Yahweh |

| March 16 | Presence of Yahweh |

| March 23 | Personal Worship |

| March 30 | Entering God’s Presence |

| April 6 | The Problem with Prayer |

| April 13 | The Practice of Prayer |

| April 20 | Discernment |

 

 

 

 

The Mystical Presence of Yahweh

Hebrew

Here is the definition from BDB

Presence and “face” are the same word

Hebrew = paniym

The word is used 2109 times in the OT

We all know intuitively what it means to be in the presence of someone

If I send you an email, there is a limited sense of my presence

If you hear me speak on a tape, there is an enhanced sense  - you hear voice intonation and emphasis

If you see me on a video – it click up a notch.

You detect gesture, environment

If you are in front of me it is the highest level – gesture, intonation, environment, but also eye movement, shared sense of the environment and the space we are in.

•         To enjoy His favor

•         To appear before God in the sanctuary

•         Area around a throne or proximity to a royal person

•         A theophany in the sancturary

 

Types of Presence

 

The bible speaks of the presence of God in three senses:

His omnipresence – Psalm 139:1-10

Psalm 139:1-10 (NIV) \\ 1 For the director of music.

Of David.

A psalm.

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. 5 You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

His Manifest Presence – John 14:21-23

John 14:21-23 (NIV) \\ 21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.

He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.

My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

His Abiding Presence

John 15:5-8 (NIV) \\ 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches.

If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Aspects of His Presence

 

 

Quiet

Daman

To be motionless, rigid.

"/ “Terror and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of Thine arm they *are motionless* as stone; Until Thy people pass over, O Lord, Until the people pass over whom Thou hast purchased./"

(Exodus 15:16, NASB)

the quiet is a result of an external influence

 

 

the attitude of the individual which his being silent is only the result

 

Franken, p. 18  - refers to a situation of the soul conditioned by some strongly felt external circumstance.

It “expresses  the inner attitude of the subject, which sometimes manifests itself in an attitude of motionless and is conditioned by some strongly felt outward influence.”

P 17.

If that outward influence is the presence of God “it causes people to stand in awe.”

P.

18  - this sense of awe can go in two direction, either fear or trust and longing.

Both are strong emotions.

“It denotes being obsessed by some strong influence and as a result of it the being motionless at the same time.”

P.

16.

Isaiah prophecies the terrible destruction of Tyre and then tells them to be still.

This is close to being struck dumb, overwhelmed.

Or consider Ex. 15:16

16Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as *still* as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.

God’s mighty hand will completely destroy the Canaanites tribes in battle.

As a result, they will be “still as stone.”

This sense of awe, of dread, of being confronted with the majesty of Yahweh cause them to petrify!

Similarly Aaron is silent when confronted with the sudden death of his two sons caused by the judgement of God.

3Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified.

And Aaron held his peace.

(Lev 10:3)

He is so overcome here that he holds “his peace”  There is more here than simply not speaking.

There is a sense of being overcome.

Damah

Isa 6:5

5Then said I, Woe is me! for I am *undone;* because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

Isaiah is overwhelmed with the holiness of God and with his own sin.

He is dumbstruck.

Niphal perfect

(piel) make smooth, make still, i.e., make a surface of a mass level and flat in contrast to wavy or bumpy, as the feature of an object (Ps 131:2; Isa 28:25+), note: for calmness as a weather event, see also domain 14.17–14.35

There were many “bump” in his life as described in vs. 1.

These had to be smoothed out.

Delitzsch  - David has leveled or made smooth his soul so that humility is its entire and uniform state.

– it is like an even surface, the calm surface of a lake.