1. Pillars of Rest – Presence

The first pillar of rest I would like to talk about is His presence.

And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14 ESV

When you look at this verse you see that presence and rest go hand in hand. When we find His face, we find the place of intimate knowing. However, when you struggle to enter the place of rest, you will probably struggle to enter the fullness of His presence, we can’t have the one without the other. It’s the place of Union.

The Hebrew word for “presence,” paniym also means “face,” or, more accurately, “faces” as it is plural.

It is mentioned over 2100 times, and it is translated as face, but also as presence, surface, front, before and countenance.

The first time presence is mentioned in scripture:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface [the face: p’neh] of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface [the face: p’neh] of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. Genesis 1:1-3

God illuminated the face of the earth, (the depths and the waters), with His presence. Light mentioned here is God revealing Himself to His creation. Sun and moon was not created yet so this light is uncreated light, the purest of light. We know that water is reflective therefore the face reflecting back from creation was God. When we allow ourselves to be in His face to face presence we will see ourselves reflecting back from Him.

Rest is found in the dark cloud.

We find His face in the Rest, when we are outside of rest, we tend to look at the world in the natural. Our pain, hurt, trauma, past, the day at work was bad or good, food for the family, rush, rush, rush. This is what I call autopilot. By the end of your day, you can’t remember half the things you were thinking of, or the stress you were under.

Often, we find ourselves in a place of despair, stress, anxiety, etc. and we allow this to block us from feeling or perceiving being in His presence of rest.

You can go through your moment of darkness in a more powerful manner when you change your perception.

What do I mean by this?

People often speak about the Glory of God or the Glory cloud, being a cloud of golden light. They could then feel or sense the presence of God fall upon them. This is true, His Glory is full of light, however there is another side of the Glory cloud we miss, when God is hidden in the dark cloud of Glory.

When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple. Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud”.  (1Kings 8:10-12)

You might struggle to find God in the darkest places of your soul, or circumstances. When allowing yourself to change your point of view from how bad the situation might be too His presence, you will find Him in the dark cloud. To enter Face to Face moments of His presence, you can recreate or speak to your situation, as it is in heaven so it will be on the earth. It is found in the hovering of His face on the waters of your heart.

Changing your perspective to “God what are you busy doing?” instead of “the enemy is out to get me again” makes a huge difference to our awareness of His presence.

Awareness is a key word to discovering His presence.

Coming back to my statement of running your life on autopilot. Staying in a place of awareness while beholding His face, switches your autopilot off and place you back in the driving seat of your life. No longer triggered by your nervous system, living from your emotions, thoughts, or traumas etc. you are living from abiding rest.

Over the next couple of months, we will look deeper into triggers. But for now keep focusing on your awareness. Whatever we behold in our hearts we become, so as you behold His presence, you will become rest.

Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you.

If you don’t want to miss out on any new content of this series then please subscribe to my email list to find the next blog in your inbox (or promotion box).