A Return to His presence

The text is taken from a message preached by Frank Tallerine on January 2nd, 2022. We've maintained the spoken word in written format. It's represented here as it was preached.

I urge everyone to get into the presence of the Lord, for in His presence you will hear Him, and I certainly heard the Lord on Wednesday night. Such a beautiful time of worship it was. The Lord spoke to me out of Isaiah 30, something that he'd already been dealing with me on, in some ways, but He made something very clear about where he's going with His people: it opened things up to me, and this is what it opened up.

“Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord that take counsel, but not of me, that have a covering with the covering, but not of my spirit. Today, they may add sin to sin.”

Isaiah 30:1 KJV

So we start off on the very opposite side of perhaps where we might wind up this morning. If we continue to walk with faith in the Lord's Word.

That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

Isaiah 30:2 KJV

So it starts off here where God begins to warn the rebellious children who trust in Egypt, which always represents the world in times of testing. As in the case of Abraham and Moses. God warns the various houses that go down to Egypt and turn to the world.

And that's where we are in so many ways right now, in America and even in the church. We are looking to the world, thinking that the world is bound to have an answer and the world doesn't have an answer.

God is waiting for us to really and totally turn to Him.

Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

Isaiah 30:3 KJV

There is a lot of confusion today and a lot of shame, because people are putting their trust in the world. Man is convinced that he can do it, he can save the earth, He can change the weather, He can do all these things. On the other hand the church has become so sophisticated, and we don't want to look foolish, we want to seem like we understand things, that we know what's going on.

Many preachers too don't want to be accused of being an old time preacher or just some Holy Ghost preacher that just believes in the word of God and that's it. This is what God wants us to see, this is where God is trying to bring America and trying to bring us to. There's no hope in trusting in anything of the world.

We have to be in the world, but we're not of the world. That doesn't mean we don't have to engage in things of the world. It doesn't mean we don’t listen to a doctor, go to the bank or engage in certain things of this life, but we are soldiers and pilgrims on this earth and we don't have confidence in the world. We don't want to be worldly-wise, we want to be godly-wise. We should understand the heart of man, because we were lost men and women, we should understand the heart of God because He's revealed himself to us.

For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.

Isaiah 30:7 KJV

That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

Isaiah 30:9-10 KJV

This is really where, in many ways, we are at today, people want seers or prophets or preachers that are going to preach smooth things. They don't want to hear the hard messages or the matters that are difficult to take. They have itching ears. This has been a problem for a long time. It's come to a point where, as we talked about last week, false doctrines aren't even necessary. People don't need those false doctrines of prosperity etc. because the ideologies of humanism and the gospel of self is in the church. People want practical preaching; a message to tell them how to get through their day; have a happy marriage; have a nice bank account; how to get through things that are around them. Even today, the church is struggling with all the confusion that's going on and trying to figure it out, when we should have been prepared for it!

We should have known it was coming. So many times, even for me as a preacher, the Lord will be putting messages like this on my heart, putting fire inside my belly for things that He wants and I think “But Lord, especially here in the Well, there's so many that are faithful and lovely saints and I want to encourage them, but I want to encourage them with the truth. I want to encourage them with conviction. I want to encourage them with strength and with the right words of God. Not just bringing something that smooth.”

What we need today, more than anything, is men who say we need preachers who've seen something. You can't unsee what you've seen. Paul, on the road to Damascus, he saw the Lord, he had a revelation. Peter couldn't deny when he said in John 6:68: “Lord, where shall we go? You have the words of life.” As seen in his heart and in the Spirit, saying, “This is the Christ, the son of God” (Matthew 16:16).

Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

Isaiah 30:11 KJV

How is this possible that people would say that they want the Holy One to cease from before them? They don't really want to see God for who He is, they don't want to face where things are at or how to get out of the dilemmas that they are in. Because of this, God says in Isaiah 30:13, “Therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, a bulge in a high wall.”

I don't know if you’ve ever seen this, but when I lived overseas, there would be walls and hedgerows that had stood for hundreds of years. But if they stand long enough without proper maintenance, all of a sudden the wall begins to bow out from the mortar that's holding it together between the stones, and you can clearly see the wall is about to crash down. There was a prophetic word in a sermon many, many years ago before 9/11/2001, and that message was The Walls in America are Down. We've been walking in iniquity and the walls are down, things are being let in that aren’t supposed to be. I was overseas on 9/11 and I walked past our television when it was on, and as soon as that plane hit that tower, I heard the Spirit speak in my heart, He said “The walls are down in America.” I remember falling on my knees right where I was and praying and weeping.

And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.

Isaiah 30:14 KJV

Listen, your vessels you're going to carry, they're going to be broken. What you're trying to do is not going to work. And then God always has the answer, He is always bringing us to a conclusion, is He not? In just this one chapter in Isaiah, we see the Lord dealing with this, telling His people the truth, telling them the way out and where He is going.

For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

Isaiah 30:15 KJV

I hate those last words, those last four words, and you would not. But we're in a new covenant. We have Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit, we are new people. So those words do not have to be where we stay this morning. By the grace of God, not by anything of ourselves, we can say “I'm a new creation by His grace.”

Listen to these words so, so, so carefully. For thus, says the Lord God of Holy, one of Israel in returning and rest. What do we return to? Jesus. That we would turn to Jesus himself. In many cases, I fear that many in Christianity don't even realize what they're supposed to return to. How many of you would agree that what we need is a real revival? We need a real turning to God. Do we not? Yet, how can people even know what they're to return to? Maybe they think we need more morality, maybe they think we need to get more people back to church. Maybe we need to turn to more Bible study. What we need to return to is Jesus himself. I talked to many sincere believers and they talk about where they're going to church, they talk about Christianity, they'll even talk about God or this or that, but the conversation rarely is centered around the Lord Jesus Himself and the personhood of who Jesus is. There must be a return to that relationship with Him, a return to being in love with Him. Here's how you'll be saved. Here's how God will begin to get what he wants. By returning in repentance in rest and quietness and in confidence. Come back to Me.

This is the answer to the dilemmas that we are facing, even now. The answer is not in trying to figure a way out, not running from one message to another and not spending time on YouTube trying to grab a good message or trying to get some advice. It comes down to this: simply stopping and returning. This would have to mean you were somewhere in the first place, doesn't it? So I fear that many in America don't know how to return, because they've never really met the Lord. How many believers out there have been touched by the Lord? They were excited for a while when they got to say their life was turned around; joy, freedom, love was in their heart. Then they start on this road, to walk with God and things become mundane, trials begin to come, difficulties begin to come. They begin to drift from Him and they become further and further away. Now, no matter how long we walk with the Lord, it doesn't matter where we're at, our circumstances or how long we've known Him, there should still be that joy deep inside your heart of knowing Jesus, You have the answer. So we need to return to him in rest. I hate to keep reiterating these things, but a year before the whole pandemic I was crying out that we need to stop, for the love of God! But you couldn't get people to stop. God wants us to stop with open hands and come to Him. Throughout 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, the thing that caused more deaths than anything worldwide was abortions. Far above, way above, everything else. You see how we miss so many things, we fail to see!

Do you have confidence this morning? Is your confidence in your heart? Wouldn't you like to walk like that, with all the craziness going on? Knowing He is in charge. There's a quietness about you - this is what will be the testimony, even to the world. When the world sees the peace and confidence, the quietness. It is because we have returned to Him.

But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.

Isaiah 30:16

Is that not what's going on at every turn? Man says “We'll fix this, we'll fix that,” and God is saying ‘You have to turn to Me.’ He is constantly trying to get His people to turn to Him. He is a very jealous God, He wants your full attention. We see that throughout the whole history of Israel. Through the Old Testament, God seems to be harsh, but He is not being harsh He is exacting what is required to bring His people back to Himself. He's a faithful God. In Isaiah 50:1, God said to His people: “Where are you, where's your papers of divorce it?” Israel is described as an unfaithful wife. How many men would put up with that today? She's been unfaithful, out in the world instead of worshiping God, out there dancing instead of caring for family and children. Divorce and bitterness is rampant in the church today. Not God, He says that He will do whatever it takes to bring her back to Himself.

How many in your own personal life are going this way or chasing that. Some things begin to become so important to you, whether it's family or work or whatever. Some things begin to get out of proportion because your focus is not on God. Then, all of a sudden, God begins to touch things in your life, you begin to realize He's bringing me back to Him. It's a beautiful thing, and that's what He's doing here. Do you say “No, I'll fly even faster”? The Lord replies, ‘Those that go after you will be even faster.’ Verse 18 is exactly what we were talking about:

“And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.”

Isaiah 30:18 KJV

He's going to wait. To do what? To be gracious unto you.

We need to settle this once and for all, the world is in enmity with God, is that not correct? You cannot serve the Lord and the world together, you cannot trust in Egypt. The church is actually in many cases, structured itself for the Christian who is serving the world and serving God. And that's why we're in the trouble that we're in. You cannot serve God and man, you can't do it. We've been praying for the city, let us stand our ground for this city, because this is a place that definitely tells people they can serve God and man. It's got to be one or the other. God says here that He will wait, that He may be gracious unto you. Therefore, He will be exalted that He may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgment. He's telling you and telling us through the scriptures, that when you rely on the world, God's judgment comes on His people just like it's come on America. Not to cast you out and to be done with you, but so that God can wait.

He waits.

He waits so He can be gracious to you. He wants so much, for you to turn to Him. He's waiting for those who have backslidden to get to the place where they realize the world is not their friend. The world is their enemy. “For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem” Isaiah 30:19. That's the returning back to Jesus. He continues in that same verse, “...thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.” Sometimes we don't understand things as we read them. This starts off, and it seems quite severe, it is a woe to the rebellious children that are trusting in the world. This is where America is at. We need to stop and pray. We need to repent. We need to be a country that gets back to God, because God is waiting for people to return to Jesus. A turning away, even away from. How exciting it was for me all those years ago, especially being raised in religion and Catholicism, when I realized that it is simply Jesus. It was so exciting. I didn't need rituals, services or good works. It was just me and Him, what a beautiful relationship. He's waiting for us to come back to that.

It's like two people that fall in love. They fall in love, they even have some kids, they have their careers, they make sure they purchase the right house and the right cars, they make sure that they have everything set aside to raise perfect little kids. They do all this; yet they grow apart, instead of having that relationship; that is most important. Other things become so important, things get in the way but God, through allowing adversity, draws us near, is that not true? I’ve told this story before how I was in Honduras a few years back and a young couple were heading towards marriage. They were asking me for some advice and asked “How did you get through the tough times, brother Frank?” So I started to share with them, and as I looked at them, I realized I wasn’t answering the question they had asked. What they had meant was, “How did you get through the tough times between each other?” I looked at them and said, “Oh, we didn't have that many problems with each other because you see, we had so many tough times coming against us. We didn't have time to have tough times with each other. The tough times drew us together.” When my wife and I had nothing except Jesus, that was all we needed. We could come together and pray. The church today is like a modern marriage, where the house is filled with stuff, nice cars are in the driveway and the kids have everything they want. The wife's going this way, the husband's going that way, everyone is so busy it’s as though they forgot about each other. Wouldn't it be good if God would take all that away, surely it would be worth it for the couple to re-find each other. This is what God does for us - Come be with Me. Do you understand? Do you see His love?

The Lord’s heart is: “You're so busy. What about Me? You're running over here and there, return to Me. Rest in Me, have confidence in Me. Quiet your spirit and know that I'm in charge. Have faith.”

When He hears that, He will answer.

“And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers”

Isaiah 30:20

This is the heritage of those who will press in with the Lord in these dark and difficult times. God is saying here, “Even though you have the bread of adversity, it will be the bread of adversity that God will provide for you. You will not thirst, but your waters may be the waters of affliction.” There may be difficult times but what will be the fruit of that? Your teacher will not be removed into a corner anymore, but your eyes will see your teacher. This is what God is going to do with this generation. There are going to be a people who aren't going to say, “Oh, I'm trying to follow the Lord or I'm trying to hear the Lord, or I'm trying to be led by the Spirit.” Those may have been the watchwords in the past, but no longer. This is going to be a people who are going to say, “Listen, I may have the bread of adversity and the water affliction, but my teachers will not be hid from me anymore. I'm simply living, I'm trusting, I'm resting, and I'm walking in confidence. And I believe that behind me, I'll hear a word that will say, don't turn to the right here or turn to the left there.” God wants the people that are going to live that are going to be open hearted and say, I trust God.

You see, sometimes you can give people too much information, let me be careful here, not too much information about God, as in A.W. Dosas, book The knowledge of the Holy God. Rather, He wants us to keep exploring Him and keep delving into that endless depth, that is Christ. Sometimes you can just put too much religious information out there, to the point where people are trying to keep everything just right. It makes them crazy. They don't know how to live anymore. This is what happened in the garden, was it not? God had said, “I don't want you to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” That is religion: what is good and what is evil - and you want to understand it all. That's not what God wanted us to eat from, yet that is what we ate from. He wants us to eat from the tree of life. He wants us to live. This is going to mark this generation. People are going to be stunned. They're going to be saying the same things about this generation that they were saying about the Apostles. As the crowds said of Peter and John.

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took note concerning them that they had been with Jesus.”

Acts 4:13

That didn't mean that Peter and John were stupid or illiterate. Though, many that received the New Testament gospels could not read, so when the letters were read to them they just believed the Word of God. Yet, we know Peter and John could read because Jews were usually taught to read. There was usually a school attached to the synagogues for the boys, at least, so they could learn to read. When the crowd said they were ignorant, they meant ignorant of the law - the reasoning of good and evil and of all the things that the Pharisees knew. But they knew Jesus. People are going to be shocked at some of the young men and women that are going to get saved, because they're going to know God. Others will say “How are you doing all this? How are you walking in this? How is God using you in this way?” Those who know Him as Peter and John did are going to respond with, “I don't know, I'm just living. I have an open heart and I'm just walking, but I'm hearing my teachers say, Don't turn this way. Just walk.”

I've quoted it many times and I'll quote it again. Oswald Chambers said, when you're constantly seeking for what is God's will, it means you're outside of His will. To be in His will means you have confidence. What an opposite walk that will be for this generation, for they are careful about everything. I've literally had some young people say to me who are living together in sin, and it is a sin when you live together. They say “I've seen divorce in my family. I've seen unhappy marriages. Therefore, we're going to live together because we don't want to make a mistake.” They’ve already made the biggest mistake they could make. There's no faith in their relationship. How many of those who are saved, believers, yet living their whole life making decisions based on where they came from, instead of living as a new creation. This is why we have so many false ministries. So many women out there trying to rescue people in the sex trade and all that. I'm not saying these things don't need to be done, they need to be done, but by the right people. Husbands are sending their wives out in the night to go rescue some of those girls, because they have come from backgrounds of abuse. This is the wrong way, do you understand? I had a few years on the dark side before I got saved and I'm so glad that when I did get saved, God kept me away from so much stuff. I'm so glad that other Christians, because of my powerful testimony, didn’t send me out to go rescue drug addicts. I would have been trapped myself. He kept me away. God knew what He was doing. There is going to be a generation that will walk by faith in this way; this is the promise of God. Do you have the bread of adversity and the water of affliction? No longer. You're going to be hearing God, by simply walking with Him, as He brings you through this. As for those who have trusted in Egypt, listened to the world and it’s cost them, they're going to begin to return to the Lord. As they return, they’re going to hear a word behind them saying “This is the way, walk in it.”

Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

Isaiah 30:22

Do you see the correlation to this? Here is a people that are trusting in the world, they have to see that the shadow of Pharaoh is a mistake. If they begin to return to the Lord, they begin to rest and trust him again. Though there might be the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, they will begin to hear God to turn to Him and begin to get rid of all the extra ‘stuff’. After some of the crusades I preached at in the past, people would be throwing their music away, all their books of the world away. God says they're going to begin to get rid of their trust in the world, and when they do the blessing will start to come. The chapter continues on about all the things that the Lord will do and how He begins to judge Egypt.

“Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel. And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.”

Isaiah 30:29-30

Do you see the progression of the Lord here? When His people begin to trust, to turn, God begins to bless His people. Then He turns his anger on the world because The mark of that blessing is a song. I like that the scripture says you're going to have a new song. There's a generation coming up, that won’t need a spectacular music service, all they’ll need is to clap their hands and they’ll begin to praise God. They won’t need the Hollywood version of Christian music. God's got to do a new thing with all that.

May God bless brother Keith Green all those years ago. Somebody interviewed him in the early days and asked him where he saw Christian music going? This was at the epicenter of the whole Christian contemporary music scene at the time. He said “I see the day when it will be marketed and there'll be Christian Music Pharisees.” That's where we are today.

Confidence will be their safety; His presence, their heritage. Satan may come against you, you make mistakes or difficulties come; yet our heritage, for those of you who trust the Lord, is His presence. One may not have a big congregation or a big budget but for so long, my prayer has been, “Dear God, just let me have your presence.”

I can get discouraged in so many ways and the battle can be so difficult but when I come before Him, I simply want to know His presence. I'm not talking about a feeling or some kind of touch in a worship service, but that witness of knowing that He is here.

“This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me”

Isaiah 54:17

When Moses came out of the mountain he knew the Israelites were rebellious people and that he had been told to go forward into a land of milk and honey. Moses needed to know “Who is going to go with me? How am I going to know we can do this?”

And He said, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”

Exodus 33:14

The church should never go forward without the presence of the Lord. Never.

The word ‘presence’ is a broad word but I believe its closest meaning is “face to face.” It is our heritage as new creations that we can boldly go into the throne of God. By what Jesus has done, you can sit with Him and talk to Him. Imagine that. That's what the life of Jesus was with His Father. In Exodus 33, they were so afraid of this presence and power of God in the mountain, and yet Jesus came and He let people know in John 14:9: “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”

How beautiful it is. Even though you understand the holiness of God, even though you understand the awesomeness of God, even though you don't take any of this for granted; you and I, no matter how advanced we think we are in the kingdom of God, can sit and say “Lord, you are here.” You can talk to him like a friend. You can weep before him without shame. You can dance before Him with joy. You can tell Him your deepest secrets, your most difficult struggles, and He is there. We have substituted all of our activities, our programs, budgets etc. for the simple presence of the Lord. We must have the presence of the Lord.

This is a generation that when they graduated, there was no graduation, everything has let them down. I knew we were coming to this because I grew up in a generation that rebelled against the authority of their parents and materialism. Eventually we would come to a generation like this: What can they rebel against? They can't rebel against their parents. Their parents have lived with partners unmarried, been divorced, been drunks, smoked dope etc. Their parents have left them nothing. This is a generation that believes they've been given nothing and that the world is going to die. Now they're saying that their money will soon be worthless, even though the economy is heating up and we're heading into six months of a pretty heated economy. I'm going to tell you in the end it will bite, because inflation will be out of control. They are cynical: they don't believe in marriage, they don't believe in real love, and none of them want to have children. The only thing to do, they say, is just eat, drink and be merry. Yet, there is a heritage coming, this will be a generation that will ask, “Is there nothing for me?” We will tell them the truth: there's nothing in this world for you. I'm so grateful that at the age of 21, my eyes were opened and I saw the vanity of where I was headed. I was chasing money, fancy cars and all the wrong things. God opened my eyes that it was all vanity, so I didn't have to spend the next forty-three years in vain. This is a generation that will wake up to this. “Brother Frank,” you may say, “well, we don't see it yet.” I'm preaching in faith, brother, sister, I told you we're going forth in faith this year. People thought I was crazy in the past, they're going to really think I'm crazy now because we're going to preach in faith. America's trusted in the world, yes, even much of Christianity has done so. There is a price to pay for that, and that price is losing the presence of the Lord in some ways, but God waits graciously.

For those who will return and rest, there will be a blessing that God will put upon them, there may be affliction but your teacher will be there with you. This will be the key to this generation of Christians. Not that we have to bring them into a meeting and fill their heads, not that we have to sit there and say, “Listen, you must study this.” Rather, we will say: “Go, get into the presence of the Lord.” They'll be coming into meetings with others asking, “Wow, what's the glow about you? Wow, how do you have this revelation? Why is there such joy upon you? Why is there such power in your life?” The response: “I simply was in the presence of the Lord.” Oh, what worship services they will have because individually they've all been in the presence of the Lord, and when they come together corporately, they'll have corporate worship. You may say, “Brother Frank, that won't happen because people don't want this.” Well, you're right. It says it right there that they would not. But God is able to create a people. God's going to do it. He is waiting. All that's going on is God's way of asking: “When will you turn to me?”

I believe many of these things have been warned about for the last 30 years, but God is a gracious God, because Jesus hasn't come back yet. Don't write anybody off. It may be too late for America in many ways, but it's not too late for the people here. God is going to have a people. I remember reading Oral Roberts’ book about his life growing up and it hit me as a young Christian, because he was describing that Jesus was in his home growing up, in his parent’s house. The name of Jesus was spoken, the presence of God was there. So much could be salvaged in families, by simply having Jesus in the home. Not the teachings, not the plaques, not services, but the very person of Jesus.

I think that God has communicated what he needed to communicate this morning. I want so much for you to go out this morning with that confidence in your heart, not in yourself, but in Jesus. This is who we are. We don't have to apologize anymore. Our God is with us and God is bringing us forward. Young men do not be ashamed to say that you are a man that wants God. Young ladies do not to be ashamed that you want to walk with Him. Who knows, you may in this room be of those who will lead this next generation?

This is how we come into the presence of the Lord - by standing. The blood of Jesus is enough. Oh, what a move of God there would be all across this city if Christians would just get their eyes off themselves, and their own failures, and just start standing in Him.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, we go forward even this week in the beginning of this year, in faith. Father God, that we have the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, even in things that are going on in this city. We know that our teachers are no longer going to be hidden from us. Our teacher will clearly be heard. He'll be instructing us daily within our hearts. Father, I believe everyone in this room, in the sound of my voice that knows You, can hear You God. You want to speak to them. As You do, You'll have Your way in Jesus name. Amen.