Nothing takes place without the Lord’s presence. When God met Moses at the burning bush in the wilderness, He said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:7–8).[1] This is important because God was hearing His people. He was in heaven observing these things and giving heed to their cries. Then God came down and look what happened. Talk about a change of lifestyle! God was with them. They had none of the diseases; their clothes did not wear out, and they were fed manna every day (Exodus 15:26, 23:25). They visibly saw the presence of God and were suddenly thrust into motion to go possess the Land.
We need the presence of God because without Him things do not happen. I know we have a presence of Christ with us—but we have had a limited expression. We have seen outpourings like Azusa Street and other times when God’s presence was very real. But those things happened because God came down and brought His presence here. Do we have healings? Yes. Do we have the kind of healings we should be having? No. We have promises about resurrection life (Romans 6:5, 8:11; Philippians 3:10–11). But we are not going to just pray resurrection life into existence. Christ is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25–26). Likewise, we cannot pray the fullness of sonship into existence. This manifestation will be a direct result of God coming down and His presence being with us. All these things will dynamically happen when God’s presence appears.
When you really get this, it changes your prayer life and changes your approach to God. Ask the Father to release Christ into the earth. God did it before. He sent Yeshua (Jesus) into the world because God so loved the world that He gave us His Son (John 3:16). God sent His Son because He knew nothing was going to change unless His presence was here as “‘Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23). In other words, Yeshua was not just born in a manger; God came down again. All the days that Yeshua was in the earth, God came down. And with the explosion of Yeshua’s ministry came healings, signs, and wonders. People were touched and things started to happen. Why? Because God’s presence was here with us—just as it was when God came down to deliver His people out of Egypt.
One of the greatest things yet to happen is the revealing of the sons of God who will set all creation free from futility (Romans 8:19–23). But preceding that event is the Father and the Son taking up their abode in us (John 14:23). As we experience the greater appearing of God in the earth, we are going to see the release of the sons of God (Romans 8:14–17). God will manifest His presence through His people. We have not seen that yet, but we cry, “Lord, come down! Let Your presence be released. Let Your presence come so that like Moses we are anointed and sent to be the executors of Your will in the earth today.” Remember, when God comes down, He sends you.
[1] All Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995).