Spending time in His Sanctuary

Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands (pains) in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, oHow doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

(Ps. 73:1-12 NKJV)

So David starts with, “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.” Because David is a righteous man and he knows where to start, “You are a good God,” but his complaint begins to come forth. He’s confused. He’s in pain. He’s in some struggles. So he starts off by acknowledging God. 

How many of you know that David’s life was filled with trials. David was a warrior; he was a fighter. In fact, the only time David ever really got in trouble, was when it says, “at the time when kings go out to battle,” (II Samuel 11:1) David stayed home. There’s always something deeper. Knowing David’s tragic sin with Bathsheeba, people may say, “Well it’s just a typical man lusting after some woman.” Although there is a lot of truth in that, David's real sin was at the time when kings go out to battle he stayed home. He got weary. 

Anybody ever felt that way, “I don’t think I’ll fight today. I don’t think I’ll pray today. I don’t think I’ll make a stand today. I don’t think I’ll have time in the presence of the Lord today. It’s okay.” We don’t think that’s going to cost us but it costs a lot. So we know that David’s life is filled with trials, but it was also filled with victories. His life was filled with victories because he had many battles. 

I remember standing in a very large church, somebody was preaching up at the front and working the crowd up (not a good thing). He was getting the crowd to shout, “Miracles! miracles! Does anyone want a miracle?” And I was this little preacher boy standing in the crowd thinking, “Lord, have mercy. You people want a miracle? I don’t want to have to need a miracle. Because if you need a miracle, then you are in a trial.” 

“But as for me [David], my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” So David looks around him, he’s a man of reality. He sees what appears so contradictory to what he knows the word of God says. He looks around, and he sees “the prosperity of the wicked.”

This is what we see in America right now. We see the wicked have no pains in their life. They don’t have problems. They just seem to go from strength to strength. In Ezekiel 13:22 it says they encouraged the wicked and made the righteous sad. Many worldly believers are going into churches and made to feel good, and to be happy. While there are other Christians who are seeking holiness and they are made to feel bad. They are the ones that receive the persecution. They are the ones that are called names. They are the ones that are pushed aside. And it’s wrong. Because the ones seeking after God and seeking after righteousness should be encouraged. 

This is what David is seeing. He sees the wicked prospering and continuing on every side. Later on, “they say, How doth God know?” 

Have you ever felt that way? When you read the headlines, or you see the wickedness around you and you say, “God, wickedness seems to go on and on.” We are in such a time of wickedness that it doesn’t seem to even phase people any more. When we were young men, we would lay on our faces and weep and pray and intercede at night. Our hearts were broken over where America was years ago. Or I’d read Leonard Ravenhill in 1971 when he wrote Sodom Had No Bible. I’d read Tozer’s words from 1958. These were men whose hearts were broken. How much more broken now? The reason the prophets' hearts are not broken today is because our hearts tend to get hard. Jesus Himself said because sin abounds the hearts of many will grow cold (Matt. 24:12). We have to fight that. Many more babies aborted - no problem. Many more people killed - no problem. People being shot randomly every week. People running around with hearts set on opportunity and prosperity. 

It breaks my heart when I see churches functioning the same way. Not all, thank God, but many are functioning as a corporate entity, a corporate giant, just like this city does. All around us, sin seems to abound and it wants to try to make our hearts cold. Please hear me, this is not a message to beat you up. If convicted, I’m glad. But please, you can be encouraged with these words as we go forward. Because the battle to try and make your heart cold is out there. And yes, you have to trust in God’s grace that it doesn’t happen, but you also must realize it’s the times we live in. So don’t be hard on yourself, be hard on the devil, knowing, “No, you’re not going to make my heart cold.” 

This was David’s dilemma. How many of you have felt that way? “Lord, when are You going to avenge Yourself?” God sees it all. 

I remember when I was a young man. I was at my church (which used to be an old theater). We would pray before we went out on the streets. I remember exactly where I was, I was on the balcony, praying and interceding, “Lord, show me Your heart. Let me feel what You feel.” Then, just for a moment, God touched me with His pain and I found myself praying, “Lord, take this off me. I can’t bear this.” He was letting me know, you go out on the streets, you see the prostitutes, both male and female, you get threatened etc.. Yet, laying on the floor of that balcony in prayer, God let me see, “This is what I see. I see what you don’t see.” Just for a moment, He touched me with His pain and I could not bear it. 

This is where David was, “my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.” Why? When he looked around, he saw the wicked prosper. Anybody been there? And you think it’s you all of the time. How many of you know we have an enemy? We have to see things the way God sees them. So these are incredible words we hear, “They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.” You see, David puts his heart to words because he's not afraid to do so. He starts off by saying, “truly God is good.” He knows the ground he is on. 

David's looking around and in verse 13 he says, “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.” There it is - “I've washed my hands in vain.” In other words, he's looking at the situation and he feels hopeless.  

Anybody ever felt that way? I’ve felt that way at times. 

“Lord, I've done what you wanted to do, but look, what's going on. God, I raised my family, not like the world. I corrected my children. I've stood for what you wanted. I’ve loved you.” And yet you still have some children away from the Lord. That story is not over. 

You've done what God wanted you to do. “I'm going to be the proper kind of businessman. I'm going to do my business dealings the way you want, God. I'm going to set aside the money that you want me to set aside for you, God. I'm going to do it your way.” And then you struggle financially. 

You're going to walk as a pure man of God and the world is going to mock you and say, “You're not a real man.” 

You're going to be a sister who walks in the purity of God while you watch others get married and you wait for the right one.

And all of a sudden you get to a place where you want to say, “I've washed my hands in vain.”

“Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.” (Ps. 73:14-15 NKJV)

Psalm 73 is a conversation between David and God. I've had those times too where I’ve asked “Lord, where's the fruit of what I'm doing?” You may say, “Well, David did write it into a song.” That's true. As I've said before. If you write a song, a book, or even stand up and preach, people are going to know something about you. If you want a very private life, don't write songs, don't write books. David wasn't ashamed to write his songs. David knows, “If I speak out loud, I'm going to offend the generation of the Lord.” He knew that if he spoke like that to the children of God, it's going to hurt them. He was not being fake, but what a shame it would have been if he stood up and said, “It's vain to serve God.” That would be awful, wouldn't it?

If I said, “God's let me down so many times.” That would be awful. Or if I said, “God doesn't really speak anymore. Just study your Bibles and and just get your heads as full as you can. God's really not a miracle worker. That has all passed away. That would be wrong. You would offend the children of God. 

David knew, “I have to keep this between me and you, Lord.” 

We all have those times. Even as a preacher, I have those times where I cry out, “Lord, what's going on?” But I know I have to get through those times before I stand up here and speak to you or I would hurt the kingdom of God. That's where strange doctrines come from – when people get offended. “God can't do anything at all,” we shouldn't preach that. Or, you just have to say these right words and God does everything. All because we don't want to face the reality. God is a healer. Is everybody healed? No. Even Elijah said he had the disease that was going to end his life. We have to leave everything in His hands. That's why formulas don't work, but a relationship does.

There's a real responsibility in the pulpit. We market ministry today. Let any kind of preacher boy get a degree, a diploma, and let them preach whatever they want. But I'm telling you there needs to be a fear of God. A.W. Tozer said, “When you go to listen to a man, look for the oil on his head. If he doesn't have the oil on his head, and his God hasn’t anointed him, then you need to be careful.” In preaching there's a responsibility; not to get everything right, but to not offend the children of God. 

This is what David is saying. “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.” (Ps. 73:16 NKJV)

We have to look at reality. This is the difficulty - God can do miracles, but sometimes you're standing at a gravesite. So what do you do? Do you just say, “God can't do anything?” Or you just go into some kind of la la land where you just want to have happy feelings? No. You stand there and you know, my God is able. “Yeah, though he slay me, yet Him will I serve” (Job 13:15). 

I can say that with some authority as my wife and I buried our son. That is what I stood on, “My God is able!” I had a daughter with congenital heart disease and stood and prayed for her, thinking I'd lose her too. And yet my God came through. Does that mean he's a God of contradictions? No, it means God's will is perfect. Perfect! When I think on these things, sometimes it's painful. Listen to me carefully, this is for the sanctified saint, the saint that really wants to know God.

This is where your pain comes from, 

“My God is able.” But look at the circumstances. 

“My God is able.” But I have pain in my body. 

“My God is able.” But my mind is in difficulty. 

“My God is able.” But look at my bank account. 

We don't ignore that and we don't say, “God can't do it.”

This is where the pain comes, because you know God can. That was Job's pain, “My God is able.” His friends doctrinalized it all away, saying “surely there was sin or you've done something wrong…surely we can figure this out.” Yet Job replies, “Only one thing I know. My God is a God of love, and I will see him stand upon the earth. My redeemer lives.” (Job 19:25-26) This is what we need. This is what David is saying. He's a man who could get real. But that reality was based in, “I'm looking to God.” 

I remember sitting with a pastor after preaching in his church, I had just returned from a trip. He said, 

“Let me ask you a question?” - Yes, sir. 

“Where do you get your money?” - God.  

“No, I know that. We're both preachers. We both know that. Really, where do you get your money from?” - God.  (Yes, people give to us, but we weren't running around raising money). 

“You must have a way. You must have a benefactor.” - No, we just go and God supplies.

This is getting real. When you think it’s too painful – keep believing God. 

We're living in a time where the world out there doesn't have hope. We live in a time where much of the church doesn’t have hope. 

It's hard as a preacher … 

• when that sister comes, “My husband's not treating me right. What should I do?” And she's getting all kinds of advice on what to do. And you have to say, “Go home and love him and keep believing.” You know, that's painful, that's hurtful. 

• when that brother comes and he says, “I love my wife. But, you know, she came home drinking last night or she'd been out in the world. And I don't think I can take it anymore.” And you have to look and say, you’ve got to keep believing God. You have to keep standing. 

The pain of faith is that you know God can do it. 

There's no pain when you believe things such as - “God can’t do it and doesn’t answer prayers anymore. Let’s just read our Bibles and hang on to what happened then.”

Sometimes, people in the world seem happy and just fine. At times, they seem more sane than me. I've often said if I sat with a psychiatrist, I could probably get them to cry, but I'm not worried about being sane. I want to be in love with Jesus. Do you love Him? Yes? That's all it takes. Satan can't stand that you’re in love with Him. David’s name meant lover of God. He loved his God! That's why he could talk to Him like this. He's in trouble. He's in pain. Is there any way out? What can he do? Does he need to pray more? Does he need to fast? Does he need to get to this service or that meeting? Does he need to read more? What does he need to do first? 

“Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.” (Ps. 73:17 NKJV)

There it is. When he went into the sanctuary of God. 

Growing up not knowing the Word, it was so fresh to me when I got saved. The first time I read this psalm, it was like, “Oh man, I understand completely what David was talking about. I'm with you David and when I got to verse 17, God showed me, even as a young believer way back then, this is the key – get into the presence of God!

In the presence of God, all confusion goes. In the presence of God, all our trauma goes. That doesn't mean it disappears or that in the natural everything will be fine. It means between you and your Lord it will all make sense. Therefore, go into the presence of the Lord.

Let us get into the presence of the Lord. As you've heard me quote this old Puriatan many times, “God does not solve problems, they are lost in the vastness of Jesus.” 

Have you ever been there? You start off with “Your good, God” and then all of a sudden, you're bringing all your complaints/sorrows and that's okay. God knows them. You're going to Him as to your Father and He wants to hear them. What kind of Father do you think He is? Do you think you come to sit in His presence with tears in your eyes, your heart is broken, you're stressed and he's like, “Get on your knees. Let's get some prayers out.” What would you do with your son or daughter? “What's the matter my daughter? What's the matter my son? Talk to me.” We begin to put our complaints and everything out before the Lord, our misunderstandings and as we continue to talk to Him in faith, all of a sudden we realize, I'm in His presence. I'm connected with heaven, seated in heavenly places. 

All of a sudden, 

• it doesn’t matter what’s in your bank account. That's just dirty money. 

• It doesn't matter who likes you or who doesn't like you, because He loves you. 

• It doesn't matter if your body's in pain or not, because in His presence, you know, God, it won't be that long when I'll be transformed.

Why don't we go into His presence? There's only a few reasons. In Genesis 3, it says that when they heard Him walking in the garden after they’d sinned…

{I mean, how cool is that? The Lord was walking in the garden. I don't know what Adam and Eve were up to but every evening was made to spend time with Him.} 

and they were ashamed. One thing that keeps us from going in the presence of God is shame. How many of you won’t worship because of shame? Once again, think of an earthly father - his son comes to him and maybe his clothes are dirty, maybe he smells of the world a little bit but he says, “Father. I love you and I need you. I want to come to you.” What would the father say? “I don't have time for you.” You know God always has time for us. He always has time. 

That's why I live the way I do as a pastor here because I want to have time for people. I knew a preacher who came down from New York many years ago to preach in some of the poor neighborhoods of Houston. Now, I'm a nobody preacher, but he finally called me because he said, I just want to talk to somebody. With all the other preachers,  he couldn’t get past their secretaries. I said, “Well, I ain't got a secretary. I got all the time you want, you can come talk to me.” Eventually, he found his way back to New York and I stayed in touch with him for a long time, because I simply gave him time.

Don't let shame stop you. “Lord, I've come here to pray, but I just shouted at my wife.” Well, then repent. One thing you're going to do in His presence is repent. Shame will keep you out of His presence. Do not let that happen. Despising the shame of the cross, Jesus went forward. 

We avoid His presence because of shame or we run from His presence. It says that at least twice in the book of Jonah, he ran for the presence of the Lord. Now, this is an interesting character, because Jonah knew the presence of God. He knew the presence of God and that was why he was running from it. We pick on Jonah and he did some things wrong, but he must have been a pretty stout guy when God called him. We don't want to be in God’s presence because He might speak to us. We want to be able to say, “I'd like to submit all my requests outside the office. Maybe you could have a suggestion box, God, and I put all my suggestions in there.” Then the door opens and God says, “Come on in.” “No, I'm good. Let me just put my suggestions here.” Because, you know, if you get into His presence, He might say, “I would like you to do something for Me.” Let's get in His presence. 

This is why I question a lot of the worship and music we have today. The question should be - are we getting into the presence of the Lord? I’m not talking about ‘a feeling.’ During the worship, God should be speaking to you and you to Him, “Lord, you're opening my heart.” 

That's why we sing and open our hearts, not to sound good and feel good but to enter into His presence. When you get into His presence things change. You might be thinking you're doing just fine but when you come into His presence, conviction is there; what a beautiful thing. That's how, you know Christians are not experiencing the presence of the Lord, because there would be more conviction, more revelation out there. There would be more humility. 

Let's talk about the last thing. We don't get in His presence, because we have a misconception. In Hebrews 12:18 it says, “For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,” “...But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22 NKJV). There were those in the Old Testament who were afraid when God’s presence came down saying, “Don't let God speak to us.” Now you could see how it could be scary seeing the smoke and awesomeness of God. It was commanded “if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart.” (Hebrews 12:20 NKJV) Nonetheless, Moses was up there talking to Him in His presence for 40 days. Joshua and Aaron were in His presence. We serve a holy God, we cannot dumb down our God. We cannot try and make Him into a happy go lucky father or a modern dad that just doesn't do anything. We see in the Book of Revelation that He is all powerful and yet He says, “Approach me.” How? By the blood of Jesus. His Son made a way, isn’t this beautiful? This is the beauty of a longing for the presence of God. 

This is what happened to me. As I've said so many times, all those years ago in my home when I met Jesus, I knew He was a king. I knew He was awesome. I was just looking for the other side of the spiritual realm, I didn't even know it was Jesus. Back then, I was into all kinds of stuff but when I cried out to Jesus, He answered me. And I knew immediately, He's the all powerful God. Still, in that moment all I felt was His love. 

I went into the presence of God. As in Isaiah 6 where His train filled the temple. Isaiah saw the smoke and the seraphim. One of them came with coals of fire and touched his lips. How many of you know your lips have been touched? By the blood of Jesus, you've been made righteous. That's what happened to Isaiah. He saw the omnipotence of God. It's not a dichotomy. It's the fullness of God. We need to fear God, but He loves us. 

Since there is a real lack of fatherhood today, this respect for fathers is lost. Yet, that is the way we need to see our God – with respect. The church is filled with too many actors and entertainers. To play around or joke about our worship or the Word of God is just wrong. There was a misconception. Keep that in your heart. 

To be in His presence is not a feeling, nor is it an altered state. It is first and foremost a place of faith, believing in the reality of what the blood of Jesus has brought us. Now, there will be feelings and your state may be altered, but the core reality is believing God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

This is something I learned as a baby Christian. I took the Word for what it said. I remember one night, not long after God had given me the guitar back, my wife and I were in our house. We didn't have any children at the time. I began to play, thinking to myself that it says, “Boldly go.” (Hebrews 4) I had no feelings, no altered state - nothing. I had to believe that He was there. I began to sing and then how long my wife and I were gone, minutes or hours, I couldn't tell you but we were in His presence. So I learned early on, there are days that I don't feel much of anything and there are days that I don't want to leave my prayer closet. Have you ever gone into the presence of the Lord so agitated, so upset, and yet all of a sudden, you're in His presence and there's peace, like a river? I have. In fact, I know when I'm having a bad time, I've got to settle down and get in the presence of the Lord. Usually you start off with all your complaints and He's just waiting on you to get to the point where you say, “Lord, put Your hands on me. Touch me, Lord.” 

It starts with faith. If you don't have faith, then you have an empty Christianity. My heart breaks when I think of believers who love God and they're born again but if you were to ask when do you go into His presence? Their response would be, “I don't. None of that happens to me.” When was the last time you were in church where you felt like singing loudly, or dropping to your knees? When was the last time you really felt that anointing of God? 

Now, I’m a musician and I could go into one of these bars and start singing Amazing Grace and I could have everyone clapping and singing with me. That's not anointing. Anointing starts with faith, “I believe you love me God.” I know it's hard. Satan will throw everything he can at you – lying, telling you all these things about yourself and others. Let us come boldly. Why does it say bold? I don't think it's bold, like, “Hey, it's me, Frank, and I'm such a good guy. I'm boldly coming in.” I don't think that's what it means. Rather, “God, whether I live or die, I'm coming in.” That's the desire we have to have. “You mean, you're going to go in there, aren’t you a sinner?” As we see in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 4, in that whole chapter of worship, where the 24 elders get out of their chairs and fall on their faces before him crying out, “You are worthy to receive glory and power and honor; and You've created everything and we are created for You.” “That’s where you're going? In there!? But how?” Boldly. Yeah though He slay me, I'm coming in. 

When we preach the gospel like, “Let me tell you your rights and privileges as a Christian. You have a right to do this and that.” We lack the humility that John showed in Revelations, in the presence of the Almighty. Please understand, I used to be a Catholic and we had to ‘practice humility’ all the time, in all the wrong ways. It was a false humility. Humility comes from this place: when you're simply in the presence of one greater than you. You've heard me quote Tozer many times, “If you have faith, you will have feelings. But you can have feelings and it doesn't mean faith.” Feelings are deceitful. Have you noticed that? If I went by all the things I felt or that went across my crazy thinking pattern, I really would be struggling. 

This is where you come to the Word of God and say, 

“Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins (convicted). So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. (Psalm 73:17-22 NKJV)

You see, when you go into His presence, you realize, evil is just not winning. Satan is not winning. It may not look that way but God will show up and have His way. David says, “I was pricked in my reins.” Right now he's convicted about what he said. Anybody ever been there? “Lord, let me explain to you what's going on…” Then all of a sudden, He begins to open things up to you and you realize, I spoke too soon. Let us never neglect this fact of what the fall did to us. The fall said, “You can be like God. You can know good and evil.” Now we're saved, but that old man still tries to creep around. 

In David’s deepest heart he admits - “So foolish was I, and ignorant.”  What was he ignorant of? That God is on the ball. That God is doing it. He is watching. God's involved in this country, even if it's in judgment, God's going to have a people out of it. God's involved in your life. God is deeply involved in your life. “I was as a beast before thee” - what powerful words! David goes from “Look at the wicked and look how good they're doing” then in God’s presence he immediately sees that they're on a slippery slope and he realizes how ignorant he was. Anybody here ever continually learning how much you don't know?  It says in the book of Revelations that the Church of Laodicea was blind and ignorant and poor and beggared. The church in America is all these things. We think we're so rich, so intelligent, that we don't need anything. David said, “I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless,...” Glory to God for ‘nevertheless!

Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.  

(Psalm 73:23-28 NKJV)

There's that courage, that boldness we can have. “I failed you, Lord. You're right. You've convicted me of this and that. I've been so wrong. But nevertheless, remember, Jesus died for me. Remember the precious blood of Jesus. Remember that I am yours God and You're mine.” It's not an arrogant thing. It's bold.

How beautiful that is. Yes, we must know that He is an Almighty God to be revered and feared. Yet, He is an approachable God. Some would like to re-imagine God as a big Santa Claus type figure. Others that He is too holy to be approached at all. The beautiful thing about our relation to our Maker is that He is indeed an awesome, holy God but we can approach Him. It is not because we are: christian, prayerful, sing great songs or read the whole Bible through, but because we put faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. May we have more preachers that preach on that precious blood. 

• “Nevertheless, I'm continually with Him.” Are you continually with Him? You are, no matter what you feel. 

• “You hold my right hand.” Does He have a hold of your right hand? 

• “You will guide me with Your counsel and afterwards receive me in glory.” You're going to make it. 

• “Whom do you have in heaven but thee? and there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee.” None. He's got to be your greatest desire. 

• “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart.” 

• “For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.” So David realized it may look like everybody gets away with stuff, but it's not vain to serve You because I'm missing destruction. 

• “But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.” It is good for me and it is good for you to draw near. 

Please do not let anything keep you from the presence of the Lord. Even if you feel nothing, wherever you go sit with your Bible or however you enter His presence just say, “I'm here, Lord, and I know by faith, You are here.” He doesn’t want us to just walk in and say, “I need to feel good.” He knows. No, you have to come to Me by faith every day. Put your trust in the Lord Your God, draw near unto Him at any moment at any time. 

My heart breaks for the many believers who go through their day not just feeling something, but at any moment you can stop and say, “He is here. He lives in me.” I wrote a song years ago and I said, “God, You live in me like the sap in a really rough tree.” Lord, you live in me, and I feel like a beat up mess, but it doesn't alter this fact - He lives in you. That grounds you. That centers you as the world likes to say. I have to smile when I pass these big posters from big churches that proclaim, “There's a hero inside of you.” I don't think so. Not unless you know Jesus, and you've surrendered to Him. He lives in you. Amen.