 You can experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit 24-7. Not only is that possible, it's simple. And we're going to look at the scripture regarding this topic so that you can walk in that awareness of the beauty of the Holy Spirit's presence all the days of your life in every moment of your life. And at the end of this teaching I want to pray with you that you would encounter the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in a very unique and powerful way. But first, I want you to write in the comments section right now, Show me your glory. Let that be your public prayer of faith. Show me your glory. Put that in the comments section whether you're watching live or on the replay. 24-7 awareness of the Holy Spirit's presence. That's possible. You can walk day by day, moment by moment, aware of the presence of your friend, the Holy Spirit. Even in trying times, even when you're facing moments of sorrow, moments of loss, moments of frustration, even when you're facing things that anger you or even confuse you, even in those moments you can be keenly aware of the nearness of the presence of the Holy Spirit because he dwells in you. He can't get any closer than dwelling within you. The Holy Spirit doesn't come and go. The Holy Spirit abides with us as children of God and we can experience the reality of that presence by simply being aware of him. When you sense the power of the Holy Spirit, in those moments when you feel close to God, it's not that God is coming closer. Rather, it's that you are becoming more aware of his presence and this awareness of his presence is going to be quite key to you encountering his presence 24-7. Now there's a difference between sensing the Holy Spirit's presence and feeling the Holy Spirit's presence because let's just be honest, you're not always going to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit as in you're not always going to emotionally feel him or physically feel him. Sometimes in the presence of the Holy Spirit you might feel like weeping. Sometimes you might feel with joy overflowing like laughing. Sometimes you may feel just that love, that nearness and you're just feeling close to him in your emotions. Other times you may feel him in a physically manifested way. Sometimes people when they're watching this broadcast or attending our events they report sensing the presence of the Holy Spirit on their physical body. Some people feel heat, some feel like a weight come on the room, others feel like electricity moving up and down. These are physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit's presence and power. Now to be clear, I am not saying that 24-7 every moment of every day you're going to feel the Holy Spirit in your emotions and I am not saying that every moment of every day you're going to feel the power of the Holy Spirit physically but that doesn't mean that you can't experience his presence 24-7. That doesn't mean that you can't experience his power 24-7. So what do I mean when I say that you can walk with him in this way 24-7? I'm talking about the sense in the spirit of his presence. Now how do you explain spirit sense? Those who are born again are born again of the spirit and they develop a whole new sense, the sense of the spirit that's discernment, hearing the voice of God, sensing his presence in your spirit. This is not to say again that you can always feel him emotionally or physically but this does mean that you can walk in that awareness of his presence in the spirit realm. Now this is something that's difficult to communicate because the sense of the spirit is not something that everyone can understand. When you were born again, you were born again in the spirit with new senses. So how do you explain sight to a man who was born blind? How do you explain hearing to a man who was born deaf? You can't. There's no words you can use that would adequately describe this entire new sense to him. So in the same way, you cannot explain the sense of the spirit to someone who was not born again. 1 Thessalonians 5-23 says this, Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. So it is true that God created man with three components, the body, the soul and the spirit and every single one of those components of your being was created to react to the presence of God. You can feel God physically. You can feel God emotionally. You can experience God intellectually and some people actually reject one of these depending upon what extreme they're on. Those who are very intellectual often reject the idea or despise even the idea that you can sense God in your emotions, but you can and in fact that's not a bad thing when you have an emotional encounter in the presence of God. People often ask rhetorically as if we have to choose between the two. Do you want an experience with God that's genuine or do you want an emotional experience? But the fact of the matter is that sometimes experiences in the presence of God can be emotional. Now notice there that I did not say that your emotions can connect you with God. Rather I'm saying that your connection with God can sometimes result in an emotional expression. So you can experience the reality of his presence and be overcome emotionally, but that doesn't mean that every emotional experience is necessarily an encounter with God. The same is true of the intellect. Those who are very heavily tilted towards emotional experiences or those who enjoy those emotional encounters typically despise experiencing God in the intellect. They say things like, well, I don't need theology. I don't need doctrine. I don't need head knowledge. Well, think about the fact that those who are spirit filled are always marked with a sharp mind. That is one of the pieces of evidences for the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life is revelation of the word. Revelation is knowledge set on fire. So you can experience God in your intellect. Those who are a little more emotional often despise the idea that you can experience God in your intellect. And those who are a little more intellectual often despise the idea that you can experience God in your emotions. But both are valid encounters in the presence of God. Because as I said a moment ago, everything in your being was created to react to the presence of God. So you can experience God physically where you sense his power on your being. You can experience God intellectually and emotionally, which is to experience him in the soul. But you also sense him in the spirit and this is the greater deeper knowing that inner witness, that constant faith, that constant connection, that constant awareness of the reality of his nearness that comes in the spirit. Just because I don't feel him in my emotions doesn't mean he's abandoned me in the spirit. Just because I'm not thinking about him intellectually or receiving some great revelation doesn't mean I'm not experiencing God in the spirit. Just because I don't feel his power manifested on my physical being every moment of every day doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit has abandoned me because he is joined to my spirit. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. And so I'm talking about living in the reality of the awareness of the Holy Spirit's presence in the spirit. Am I guaranteeing that you will always feel him emotionally? No. Am I guaranteeing that you will always have everything figured out about him? No. Am I guaranteeing that you will always feel him physically? No. And you shouldn't panic when you don't sense him in those areas of your life. Rather, you should fall back on what the word declares and that is that the Holy Spirit abides with you. And once you put your faith in the word, eventually your emotions and experiences catch up to what you know by faith in the spirit. And so I'm describing the sense of his presence in the spirit. This is greater than just feeling him emotionally. This is greater than just feeling him physically. And again, there's no issue with those. God does nothing without purpose. Every aspect of your being is made to respond to God. So you experience him by being aware of him. And there's other keys that I'll give you that are practical. But first I want to say this to you, to have his presence and to experience his presence are two different things. Every believer, read Romans 8 and 9, every believer has the Holy Spirit. But that doesn't mean that every believer is always aware of that presence that abides in their life. That doesn't mean that every believer is living in the full benefits of the presence that abides in their life. Many believers actually go without even acknowledging the presence of the Holy Spirit. They try to do things in their own strength or they go about their day without ever once remembering that his presence abides in them. And that is to live a life that is of unhealthy independence. We need reliability upon God. We need to learn to surrender to yield and to depend upon the presence of the Holy Spirit. So understand this about God's presence. There is the omnipresence of God. Psalm 139, 7 to 12 says this, I can never escape from your spirit. I can never get away from your presence. If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night. But even in darkness, I cannot hide from you. To you, the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. So here the scripture is describing what I call the everywhereness of God. In other words, God is everywhere at all times. This is his omnipresence. Then there is the indwelling presence, as we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19, and 1 John 4, 4. Let's first read 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19, where Paul writes, Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself. So there we see that in the being of the believer resides the presence of the Holy Spirit. 1 John 4, 4 says, little children, you are of God and have overcome them. He who is in you, this is speaking of the Holy Spirit, is greater than he who is in the world. So we see that the believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling in them in a way that the unbeliever does not. Sometimes it can seem as though there's a contradiction between the reality of the omnipresence of God and the indwelling presence of God. After all, if God does dwell everywhere, what then do we mean when we say that the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer? Well, this is a heightened level of influence where the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer as a seal for their salvation in a way that distinctly marks them and separates them from a non-believer. This isn't to say that the Holy Spirit isn't aware of what's going on in the life of the unbeliever, but this is to say that his influence affects the believer, his presence affects the believer in a way that it doesn't affect the unbeliever. So the indwelling presence of God is reserved for just the believer, those who've placed their faith in Christ. If you've put your faith in Christ, you're born again, you received the Holy Spirit at the very moment that you were saved. So there's the omnipresence of God. This is the everywhereness of God. The indwelling presence of God, this is the Holy Spirit in you that heightens special influence reserved just for those who've put their faith in Christ. And then finally, we see the manifested presence of God, such as we see in Acts chapter 1 verse 8. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. So here we see in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 that even though the born again believers were saved and therefore had the Holy Spirit, that there was yet another level of influence that was to come upon them for the purpose of ministry service and kingdom expansion. It was now the founding of the church, and this is now a different type of influence that the Holy Spirit gives. So the Holy Spirit in you saves you, redeems you, sanctifies you. The Holy Spirit upon you helps you to carry out kingdom work. The Holy Spirit in me is for salvation. The Holy Spirit upon me is for the work of the kingdom. And so the Holy Spirit is in every believer, but not every believer is walking with the Holy Spirit in such a way to where now that influence is allowing them to carry out the work of ministry. Mark chapter 5 verses 25 through 30, we see something interesting. A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them. But she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed. Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him. So he turned around in the crowd and asked who touched my robe. Now is the Bible saying here that the Holy Spirit left Jesus? No, it's talking about an actual physical power that manifested in this world, in this realm. There's a tangible quality to the power of the Holy Spirit that can be felt physically. And so the scripture here demonstrates that tangible quality to the power of the Holy Spirit. So when we talk about the manifested presence of the Holy Spirit, we are not saying that suddenly now the Holy Spirit shows up. I think even some of the language that we use during our services can sometimes cause us to think about the Holy Spirit's presence in a way that's not exactly accurate. When we say things like, oh, the service was so powerful, the Holy Spirit fell, or the power of God came into the room. Now I'll be the first to admit that I too use this kind of lingo, and it's not necessarily always helpful. For the most part, people know what you mean when you say that. But I think we need to get back to understanding the presence and power of the Holy Spirit as the scripture describes him. So the omnipresence of God, that's the everywhereness of God. That's his awareness of everything. Then there's the indwelling presence of God. That's the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer in a way that's very specific. It's very special. It's a heightened form of influence that the unbeliever does not have. And then we see the manifested presence of God. This is where you can now sense physically the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, if you feel the physical power of God, does this therefore now mean that he somehow came closer? No, this is you increasing your awareness of him. The omnipresence of God is God's awareness of everything. The manifested presence of God is your awareness of him. So now I'm suddenly becoming more aware of that which has always been with me. I can feel him physically. Again, some people feel like vibrations, electricity, heat. Some I've had even report in our services. They say they feel like water filling the room and like they're standing in a river. In fact, this just happened a couple of weeks ago at one of our healing services. And people reported feeling like waves of water moving through that room. That's the manifested presence of God. I think even David the Psalmist had some understanding to the different aspects of the expressions of God's presence. Psalm 51 verse 11 says, One is for him to be removed from some type of influence of God. And the other was for God's influence in him to be removed from him. So he could see the distinction even if with blurry sight he could still see the distinction in God's presence. And we of course have the full picture now that we see in scripture. So the omnipresence of God, God's everywhereness, the indwelling presence of God. This is the Holy Spirit in you. The manifested presence of God. That's the physical tangible touch of his power where you can feel it physically and sometimes even emotionally. Now to be clear, and again I want to repeat this. I'm not saying that you can walk 24 seven in a physical manifestation of God's power because then it would be difficult for you to carry out certain responsibilities that God has given to you. But what I am saying is that you can walk in an awareness of his presence and that awareness of his presence is the experience of his presence in the spirit. That awareness of his presence is the experience of his presence in the spirit because once you begin to walk in that awareness you now begin to change the way you think and live and I'll cover more on this in a moment. So let me give you one key here to walking in that awareness. You need to apply or I should rather say implement in your life these two types of prayer. You won't find these terms in scripture but you will see these principles clearly spelled out in scripture and I'll give those verses to you in just a moment. You need both unceasing prayer and intentional prayer. Unceasing prayer and intentional prayer. Unceasing prayer is continual 24 seven praying. This is to walk in an awareness of his presence constantly. To where you acknowledge him at work, you acknowledge him in your commute, you acknowledge him when you're carrying out tasks at home, you acknowledge him at meals, you acknowledge him when you're spending time with friends, you're just putting the presence of God in your mind and you're choosing to be mindful of the fact that he's near. And because you do that you begin to pray, you begin to involve him, you begin to acknowledge him and that is the 24 seven continual prayer. It's about awareness, this alertness, this constant reminding of yourself that he is near. And then we have intentional prayer. This is to set aside a time and a place. This is about atmosphere. This is about being in a distraction free environment where everything in that moment becomes about God. You see, when you have unceasing prayer being practiced in your life, you may practice that say at your child's birthday party or at an anniversary dinner or when you're fellowshiping with friends over coffee or when you're among the group of believers at church or when you're driving to work, you're aware of him, but you're also doing other things. You're basically involving God in your activities through the awareness of his nearness. Whereas intentional prayer is to set aside a specific time and a date and just be aware of him. I'll give you an example. In my marriage, I tried to practice both intentional and unceasing fellowship. My wife and I talked throughout the day. We're texting throughout the day. We're calling each other to check up on each other throughout the day. Even if we're in the house together and we're doing different things, maybe she has me moving boxes from the attic and she's working on something down in the living room, maybe some fall decor. We're both still doing separate things, but we're still aware of each other, talking to each other, communicating to one another. But then there are date nights. And typically for me, this is on Monday night where I carve out a section of the week where nothing else can have the day. I don't schedule anything on Monday nights. I don't plan anything on Monday nights. And if we are going to make a change, we discuss it with each other first. This is where we sit down, maybe over dinner, maybe we go for a drive. It doesn't matter. We are sitting there. We're talking. We're intentional. It's about spending time with each other. The phones go away. Not even our precious Aria can cut in on that time that is just for us. That's intentional. And so as you begin to merge those two types of fellowship, you begin to see that you can fill in all the gaps of your day. So we are talking throughout the day, but also we set aside those times. Now, if I were to suddenly cancel date nights, that wouldn't be good for either of us because all we would have then are those conversations throughout the day. And though those are good for keeping clear communication, that would not be good for deeper connection. And if we were to cancel that communication throughout the day, we would feel like strangers when we finally did chat on Monday nights. And so we have both intentional and unceasing the same is true of prayer and your connection with God to where you're communicating with him throughout the day so that you're staying aware of his presence, but also carving out that time to be with him. This is something I wrote to help you understand better the dynamics of scheduled and spontaneous or unceasing and intentional prayer. Unceasing prayer, that is spontaneous prayer 24-7 prayer, unceasing prayer is for any atmosphere. Intentional prayer is for certain atmospheres. The undisciplined struggle with intentional prayer. The structured have trouble with unceasing prayer. The undisciplined think intentional prayer is unnecessary. The structured think unceasing prayer is strange. Unceasing prayer is spontaneous. Intentional prayer is scheduled. Both are necessary elements of connection with God. Unceasing prayer produces longevity. Intentional prayer produces depth. Let me say that again, I want you to catch that. Unceasing prayer produces longevity. Intentional prayer produces depth. Let me break that down. When you live a life of constant prayer, yes, you live in that constant connection with God. Yes, you live in that awareness of his presence, but though that might produce longevity because you're constantly connecting with him, it will not produce depth and maturity. It will not produce that deeper intimacy with the things of the spirit because you're not setting aside that time to really work through the distractions of the flesh to really agonize over the sin nature or to spend time with God in such a way where he can speak to you about the deeper things through his word. That's why you need intentional prayer for depth. So unceasing prayer produces longevity. I know a lot of Christians who've been saved 20, 30 years, but they have the same depth that they've always had. They have the same depth that they've always had because it's nothing but that touch and go type of prayer. But those who have intentional prayer, in addition to that unceasing prayer, they are the ones who walk with greater depth. There's a stronger manifestation of glory that you can sense on them because they're spending more time in that secret place with the Lord. Now, those who are a little more loose may be a little bit more spontaneous. They're a little bit more of a something you might call a free spirit. They think that intentional prayer, that's religious. Well, I talk to God throughout the day. I don't really need to schedule any time. Do you pray? How often do you pray? Well, all I do is talk to God, you know, as I go about my tasks and as I go about my day, I just live my life and just talk to God every now and then. Well, they're going to have a little bit of trouble with intentional prayer because they're not as structured as someone maybe who's more intentional. An intentional people may be able to carve out that section of their day for prayer and study the Word, but they might find that constant spontaneous speaking with God to be a little silly. They may even sadly be embarrassed by talking to God throughout their day lest people think that they're crazy. So this is why I say that unceasing prayer will challenge those who are a little more cerebral and intentional prayer will challenge those who are a little more emotional. So we need both and we need to allow the Holy Spirit to work out those things in our flesh that contradict the necessary components of a prayer life. So the strength of your spirit is directly proportionate to the consistency of your prayer life. Let me say that again. The strength of your spirit is directly proportionate to the consistency of your prayer life. If you're hearing something that you feel is challenging you, I want you to let me know in the comment section right now. Several years ago I had a vision and in the vision I saw myself and within me I could see this bright glowing orb. And on top of the orb was a layer of dirt and on top of that layer of dirt were all of these tiny structures that look like buildings. And I would see that the orb would shrink and when that orb or that ball of light would shrink the dirt would become uneven. And when the dirt became uneven the structures that sat upon the dirt would begin to collapse. Yet when the orb began to grow the dirt would again become smooth and even and the structures would once again stand tall. It would be organized. I prayed for the meaning, the interpretation of this vision. The Lord spoke to me clearly. That orb represented my prayer life. That dirt represented my life. And those structures represented all of the responsibilities that God had given to me. My marriage, my finances, the ministry that he entrusted me to steward, my connections with people, relationships, all of it. That was represented in the structures. Now whenever my prayer life was strong the orb would grow, the dirt, my life would be less chaotic, it would become even, there would be order and the structures would stand upright. Whenever my prayer life would shrink my life would become disorderly and all of the structures would fall over. And so this of course is why it's important that we schedule prayer. We have to remember the ceremony of prayer. Few believers understand this today. I'm not saying that to be condescending and I hope it doesn't come across that way. I say that out of love and compassion wanting the church to rediscover this reality that there is a ceremony to prayer. There is a reverence with which you must approach prayer. Yes, I understand God is our Father. Yes, I understand we can come boldly before the throne. But we also have to remember that divine heavenly reverence that must come over us when we become aware of the presence of God especially when we implement what I call this ceremony of prayer. Matthew chapter six verses five and six say this. This is Jesus speaking. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on the street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father who sees everything will reward you. Prayer is more than just thinking about God. It's also setting aside the time to focus on Him. Prayer is more than just thinking about God. It's also setting aside the time to focus on Him. Establish a time and a place in which you will practice the ceremony of prayer. In which you will devote everything that you are. You put away the phone. You tell the family not to bother you. You take on no responsibilities. You allow nothing to clutter your mind. You shut the door, remove distractions of the flesh, remove the inner distractions of questions and doubts and shame. And you come to the Lord and you say, Lord, this is all about you right now. I'm focused on you and I just want your presence. I want nothing else. And you carve out that section of your day to implement the ceremony of prayer and you will find that you will sense deeper realms of glory. That you will walk in greater measures of power. That the character and the nature of Christ will grow exponentially in you. It'll change your perspective. It'll change your mood. That's not why we do it, but that's part of the benefit of spending time with the Lord in this way. Yes, He's everywhere at all times, but your mind is not always focused on Him. Jesus practiced prayer in this way. Mark chapter 1 verse 35, the Scripture tells us very early in the morning, while it was dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where He prayed. Luke chapter 5 verse 16, the Scripture tells us, Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. So here we see in the life of Christ that He's modeling for us this lifestyle of prayer that is carried out in places of seclusion. I'm not talking about living a lifestyle of isolation. I'm talking about creating moments of seclusion between you and the Lord. This is about cultivating an atmosphere. Mark chapter 14 verse 49 says, and this is Jesus asking, why didn't you arrest me in the temple? This is when they came to arrest Him in the garden. I was there among you teaching every day, but these things are happening to fulfill what the Scriptures say about me. Now, of course, we understand here that Mark chapter 14 verse 49 is attached to a crucifixion narrative, or at least leading up to the crucifixion narrative, and we understand that this is a story that's being told. But something I want to note here about the ministry of Jesus that we see very plainly told to us from this verse is that Jesus was in the temple. He says, I was teaching there every day. Contrary to popular belief, Jesus was not 100% spontaneous in the way that he carried out ministry. In fact, he was 100% intentional. Everything that he did was according to the plan of God. So this idea that we as Christians are supposed to take this hippie-like mentality to prayer, where man, I just flow with the wind. I just go as I go. I just do as I please, and I wander around. There's no structure. There's no anything. There's no organization. I just do as I do. I go with the wind, and whatever God wants to do in my life, he will do. Well, that's not necessarily how Jesus did it. Jesus would go from place to place, and he would teach in an established building. I believe that this is done in part because he wanted to teach in a distraction-free environment. Whenever he would teach, he would have people sit down. Whenever he would teach, he would go to a certain place where it could accommodate the crowds. Yes, he healed in the streets. Yes, he was stopped in the streets. Yes, he would minister in the marketplaces, but primarily the way that Jesus ministered, the model that he gave to us, was that he was very organized, structured, and intentional, and spirit-led at the same time. Just because you're structured doesn't mean you can't be spirit-led. Those two are not mutually exclusive. Only those without God's presence have to chase atmospheres. Only those with God's presence can cultivate atmospheres. The prayer life requires of you the discipline of disconnect. The discipline of disconnect. Now, why am I telling you this in a message where I'm talking about experiencing the presence of God 24-7? After all, if I'm going to experience God 24-7, does that mean that I therefore have to seclude myself in a room 24-7? No, again, I'm just talking about one aspect of this filling your day. So first, there is scheduled prayer. Have that established in your life first. Do whatever it takes to do that. Rearrange your schedule. Wake up earlier. Go to bed later. Do what needs to be done. Say no to more things. Say no to more hobbies. Remove things from your responsibilities and begin to live a life structured around prayer and build everything else around it. That's at least what the Lord spoke to me, not only through Scripture, but in that vision that he gave me with that orb. Everything was built around prayer. But next we see how to practice spontaneous prayer. When you become aware of the Holy Spirit's constant nearness, every room is a prayer room. Write that in the comments section. Every room is a prayer room. When you become aware of the Holy Spirit's constant nearness, every room is a prayer room. 1 Thessalonians 517, very plainly tells us, never stop praying. Is this literal? Not necessarily. This just means that you live in the constant awareness of His presence, and you're keeping those lines of communication open between you and God. This is a commitment to remain prayerful, to remain mindful of God. This is the practice of the presence of God. We need to pray about everything according to Philippians chapter 4 verse 6. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done. Some of us worry about everything and we don't pray about anything. When the Scripture tells us, don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. You must pray about everything. Is this given to us to be taken literally? Not necessarily, because then you couldn't carry out a life. You'd be stopping every three seconds to pray about everything, and you have to be careful that legalism doesn't attach itself to this Scripture, force a meaning upon it, and then cause you to live in a way that God never intended you to live. If the way you're living causes torment, causes anxiety, causes constant confusion, you're constantly wondering your mind. Is this God? Is this not God? You may be suffering with what I call religious OCD. This is where obsessive or intrusive thoughts based around biblically themed fears begin to fill your mind. You don't want to live in that constant tension of, well did God tell me to wear the red shirt or the blue shirt? Or I think God told me to get out of my car, go stand on that corner, and just wave my hands around. Sometimes we just get these random thoughts, and once we're convinced that they're God, we're tormented if we don't do what those intrusive thoughts tell us to do. So I want to make sure I'm balancing this by making sure you understand that the Scripture here is not speaking literally, it couldn't possibly be speaking literally to pray about literally everything, but rather those things which cause us care and concern, those things which could inspire fear in our hearts, we ought to take those things to God, things about our responsibilities, things about our future, things about the ministry with which he's entrusted us, things about our family, those important things, and even those things we might consider less important, we still should take some of those to him as well. But you pray about everything. You live this lifestyle of constant communication with God. If you want God's involvement, pray to him about it. So unceasing prayer is constant awareness of the Holy Spirit's presence. Philippians 4-8 says this. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. So here the Scripture is telling us what to think about. And by implication, it's communicating to us that you can control your thoughts. I know it may not always feel like that. I know it may seem that some of the patterns that you've picked up in your thinking are permanent and there's nothing you can do about it. But let God be true in every man a liar. If the Bible tells you a command, it can only be because God expects you to fulfill it and he wouldn't expect you to fulfill something that was impossible for you to do. So yes, according to the Scripture, you can control your thoughts. Thoughts are the actions of the mind. And so you as a believer have to choose to fix your thoughts. On what? What is true? Honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable. It's a commitment of mind and heart to say, I'm going to put my focus on Jesus. I'm going to include him in my thoughts as often as I possibly can. Again, not in a legalistic way to where you feel condemned if you don't think about him every millisecond of every day, but to rather look at this as an opportunity to have that constant line of communication, to experience that fellowship with him by keeping him in your thoughts. Thoughts, again, are the actions of the mind. You can control your thoughts. You can think about them at work. You can think about them at school. You can think about them in the commute. You can think about them while you're carrying out ministry. You can think about them while you're spending time with your family. And in fact, you should. And even if it's not always this conscious specific thought like God is here, God is here, God is here, at least live in the posture of gratitude, at least live in the posture of thankfulness for his presence so that even if you're not always thinking a very specific thought about his presence, you're at least living in this general awareness of his nearness, that gratitude, that thankfulness for his presence, it causes you to carry yourself in a much different way. When I am mindful of God, I am involved with God. Prayer doesn't bring God nearer. It makes you more aware of his nearness. And so as I begin to choose to bring him closer in thought and mind, and I make a commitment to say, Lord, within me I want to walk in that fellowship. I want to be aware of you. It's just as simple as that. To think about him as often as you possibly can, without falling into despair and legalism when you forget him in a moment. But it's a practice. It's something you learn to do. It's something you become aware of over time even more and more. So again, this is not some legalistic obligation that's on you. It's not an obligation, it's an opportunity to where now you can say, wow, I can involve him in every moment of every day, and that awareness of him becomes the experience of him. Let me say that again, Lord, I pray you help them catch it. That awareness of him becomes the experience of him. To where now, even if I'm not, again, thinking that specific thought about his presence, I am generally aware of his nearness and it changes everything about my life. It produces the joy of the Spirit. It produces the pleasure of the Lord. It produces this spiritual alertness in you. You begin to walk in this newfound awareness, this joy, this peace, this confidence that comes from knowing that the Holy Spirit is near you and you hold him close to your heart and thoughts, knowing that he's walking with you every step of the way and you begin to live like that and you watch how it changes the way you live. I remember when I was single, I would drive really fast and God forgive me, I would do what was called a California roll at stop signs. That is, you kind of just check out, make sure there's no one else in the intersection, just kind of roll over slowly through the stop sign. And then when I got married, Jess would often do her makeup in the car. She would do her makeup in the car and I would have to drive at a certain pace with a certain caution because I didn't want to mess up her makeup and so I learned to drive at a different pace. I learned to drive with a little more attention to detail. And then when Aria was born and we took her for the first time from the hospital in the car, not only did I stop at the stop sign, I stopped and I waited and I studied that intersection before I even inched my way forward. Why? Because of who was in the car with me, it changed the way I drove my car. Because of who I had with me, it changed the way I operated that vehicle. In the same way, when you begin to become aware of the nearness of the presence of the Holy Spirit, it changes the pace of your life. It changes the way you treat people. It changes the way you talk. It changes the way you act. It changes the places that you go. It changes everything about you because you walk in the awareness of the beauty of His presence and glory, and you say, Lord, I want to carefully hold and host the presence of the Holy Spirit, and I want to walk in a way that's honoring to you. That is the experience of God's presence. That is what I'm talking about when I say 24-7 awareness of Him. Now, how do you do this? Well, that's number one. Walk in awareness of His presence. Colossians 3, 23-24 says this, and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord shall ye receive the reward of the inheritance. For ye serve the Lord Christ. This is to do everything you do as unto Him. Every day is a gift to God. At the end of your day, when you lie your head on your pillow and you're fading into sleep, you can say to the Lord, Lord Jesus, take everything I did today. I present today as an offering to you, and it's my prayer. It was glorifying to your name. Make every day an offering to God, and when you begin to live like that, that comes from that place of awareness, and it begins to change everything. So, you live in the awareness of His presence. That's number one. Be aware. Think of Him. Just make that a discipline. I'm going to try to think about God as often as I possibly can. And then there's reverence. This is to act with Him in mind. Going back to my driving analogy, once you're aware of His presence, it changes everything about the way you behave. Ephesians 4.30 says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Don't grieve Him. The Holy Spirit, again, doesn't come and go, but He can be grieved. And in that grieving, you become miserable in your compromise. It's not possible for a born-again believer to live in compromise and not be tormented and miserable. And that's a good thing because it keeps you away from the sinful state. So, you want to, number one, be aware of Him. Think about Him as often as you can. Number two, live in reverence of Him. That is to act with Him in mind. Number three, confidence. Don't doubt that He's with you. Don't wait. Please hear this. Because some believers, they're constantly looking for an experience in their emotions, in their physical body to tell them that the Holy Spirit is near to them. In fact, they even begin to fret when they no longer feel the physical manifestation of His power or in their emotions. They're wondering if He's distanced themselves from Him. And because of this, they become scared. They become abound by legalism. They live in torment. What did I do? Did I do something wrong? Did I upset Him? All the while forgetting that the Scripture describes very clearly that He'll never leave us nor forsake us. So, don't wait for an encounter to convince you of what you should already believe by faith. I want to say it again. Get it in your spirit. Don't wait for an encounter to convince you of what you should already believe by faith. In fact, when you walk in that faith, encounters abound. When you walk in faith, you're more likely to experience the presence of God in a manifested way. In fact, as you begin to become more aware of His presence, encounters with His manifested presence and power become more frequent in your life and even more intense. First John 5.14 says this, and we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him. We are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for what pleases Him. Well, that's to be led by the Spirit when you pray. Many believers approach God sheepishly with doubt in their minds and hearts, wondering if He's hearing them, and that's just not the way to approach God. So, stop listening to your emotions. Stop listening to the devil. Stop listening to your flesh. Stop listening to your past mistakes. He's with you. He's in you. He's going to remain with you, and He's going to help you get this right. So, have confidence. Don't doubt that He's with you. And number four is intentions. So, number one, awareness that is think about Him as often as you can. Number two, reverence. Act with Him in mind. Number three, confidence. Don't doubt that He's with you. And number four, intention. Slow your pace. John 5.19 says this, So Jesus explained, I tell you the truth. The Son can do nothing by Himself. He does only what He sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. Think about the fact that Jesus lived in a constant state of reflecting the glory and the image of God the Father. There was nothing that He did outside of the will of God. Jesus was obedient, not just down to the week or day by day. Jesus was obedient down to the last millisecond. Like a reflection in the mirror, Jesus did not break away from the image of the Father. Jesus walked in sinless perfection. Jesus walked in the perfect will of God down to the last millisecond. He was a reflection of the light from heavenly places. He was the light from heavenly places. And this is why we have to make sure that we're not hurrying our pace. This doesn't mean you don't do things fast when it's necessary. I'm talking about an internal pace where we're panicking, we're fretting, we're frantic. We're performing out of fear. We're performing out of self-doubt. We're performing out of a lack of confidence in who we are in Christ. You have to recognize the connection between worry and hurry. Worry often is what produces hurry. Worry is often what produces hurry. And so slow your pace. If you are living at a pace that doesn't allow for prayer and reflection on God's presence, you're living at a pace that's too fast and you need to slow it down. So again, awareness, think of Him. Reverence, act with Him in mind. Confidence, don't doubt He's with you. Intention, slow your pace. You notice that Jesus would often flee from places or I shouldn't say often, there's a record of it. Jesus would heal the sick. Jesus would cast out devils. Jesus would raise the dead. But you never saw that Jesus panicked. You never saw in Scripture Jesus rushed. Why? Because Jesus was never late. And Jesus was never late because He walked in the pace of grace. He walked in union with God. When you walk with God, you'll never fall behind. When you walk with God, you'll never go too far ahead. When you walk with God, you walk in that perfect will and part of that is just slowing it down, being aware of His presence, reverencing the nearness of His presence, living and acting in a way that is conscious of His nearness, and then of course also having that confidence in His nearness. This is how you experience the presence of the Holy Spirit 24-7. Again, experience Him by the Spirit to live in that influence. Don't look for always that encounter. They happen and they're wonderful. Those encounters with God, those conversations, those are great. But even when you don't have those, you can still live under the influence of that internal presence within your life. Father, in the name of Jesus, come on, let's pray. I'm going to pray that the Lord would give you an encounter in His presence now. Father, I thank you. Your presence and power surround us. Even now, I'm telling you right now, I can sense Him so strong. I am so aware of the Holy Spirit's presence right now. Father, let them have that awareness. Let them have that awareness, I pray. Stir their faith overflowing. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, I give you the praise for this power. The power of the precious Holy Spirit. And I thank you that healing is flowing. Bring healing to sickness and disease, we pray. Break every bondage. I come against a demonic attack right now in the mighty name of Jesus. Every addiction be broken. Minds and hearts be healed. There's inner healing taking place for many of you watching right now. Jesus, I give you the praise for the miracles happening around the world. Let them sense you precious Holy Spirit. I pray the fire of God upon them now. Thank you, Jesus. We give you glory and honour. Let your presence and power flow like a mighty river. There are rivers of healing flowing right now. There are rivers of deliverance flowing right now. Just receive. It's the sweetness, the beauty of His presence. Remove all distractions right now. Don't let the flesh distract you. Receive. Receive. Thank you for your power. Bring your people into encounters with you, precious Holy Spirit. I pray. Jesus' name. If you think that believers from around the world need to hear what was in this message, you can help spread the message by simply leaving a like on the video right now. And that will help us to spread this message. Also, don't forget to subscribe to my channel for more teachings on the Holy Spirit Prayer and Spiritual Warfare. You'll also see footage of the power of the Holy Spirit at work from the events that we hold around the world. Let me ask you a question. What's waiting for you on the other side of your obedience? What's waiting for you on the other side of the act of faith? Maybe you feel at this point in your life like you're frustrated like. You just keep getting stuck in the same place. And you know that there's so much more. There are dreams and visions that God has placed in your heart. And you know that God has intended greater things for your life. But you feel stuck. You feel like you just can't move and you're spinning your wheels. You're doing all you can and you just can't move beyond this point. Something that I've learned that's worked in my life is the law of stewardship and generosity. I've found, and this is one of the keys. It's not the only key, but this is one of the keys to break through. When you get stuck, carry out an act of faith. When you get stuck, begin to allow the Holy Spirit to challenge you to do things that contradict what your fear says you should do or what the flesh says you should do or what greed says you should do. And I want to challenge you right now to step out in faith. Pass the test. Pass the test by becoming one who is generous, by becoming one who walks in faith. And I know that the Lord will add to you. You'll increase your resources as the Scripture says, and produce a harvest of generosity in you that you might be a help to many others. So I want to challenge you right now to listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit and to support the work of the ministry as he leads you to do. I'm asking you to help us on our mission to spread the gospel around the world through events and media. Will you right now consider becoming a monthly ministry supporter? Maybe you've been watching us for a while and you've been thinking about it. You've heard me mention this a few times and you're saying one day, one day, one day. Why not two day? And you'll be amazed at how impactful your giving can be. Why? Because not only are you giving, you're joining your gift with givers from around the world, all of us who have the same mission, the same heart. We want to see lives transformed. We want to see the sick healed, the bound delivered, the believer empowered. You can be a part of that. You can be a part of what God is doing in the earth. And together as we push back with the light of the gospel, we are seeing darkness dissipate around the world. We are seeing it working. This is working. So if you've ever wondered what's going to happen, if you've ever become frustrated at the state of the world and said, I want to do something that makes a difference, you can make a difference right now. You're becoming a monthly supporter. DavidHernandezMinistries.com slash partner. Sign up today. Think of all those things we give monthly too. Streaming platforms and gym memberships and gaming console memberships and all that. Consider today supporting the kingdom. Go right now, DavidHernandezMinistries.com slash partner. Ask the Holy Spirit what you should do in terms of partnership. And just listen for his voice. Step out in faith. Say no to fear. Say no to withholding. Say no to the voices of this world. Step out in faith and say, Lord, I'm going to do as you lead me to do. You can also give a single gift by going to DavidHernandezMinistries.com slash donate. Everything counts, guys. Don't discount yourself. Don't say my gift is too small or oh, it won't matter. Other people will do it. You do something right now to help us on our mission. Partner with me. I need your help and need your help to do this. We can win the soul of a generation. One more time, DavidHernandezMinistries.com slash partner to become a monthly supporter. DavidHernandezMinistries.com slash donate to give a single donation. Just as the ministry has been a blessing to you, as you give to it, we can expand it and you can be a blessing to others. Thank you for your giving. And until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.