Infinite Fellowship Ministries

The Mountain Of God’s Aura/Presence – Part 4: Sermon By Bishop Gobanga

Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.And it came about, whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent. Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; and the LORD would speak with Moses. When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his tent. Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Then Moses said to the LORD, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know whom You will send with me. Moreover, You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ “Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. “For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?”  

Exodus 33:7-16 (ESV)

The contemporary Church the world over has always been yielded to the construction of church programs. A sermon that is unpopular today is the presence of God.

Many ministries market themselves to be appealing to the contemporary society but they fall short on marketing heaven, or the things of God.

When God’s presence is in the Church, every manner of PR is irrelevant. God has not called us to be protocol officials in society or ISO certified. God has called us to commune with the person of His being in His presence.

Church today is full of information about God but devoid of the reality of the presence of God. 

People cannot ruminate on the reality of His word. They are not transcending into the heart of God via the Holy Spirit via experiences He brings them into.

Many pastors worry too much about growing their congregational numbers instead of growing the congregation in their relationship with God.

A time is coming whereby many believers will get tired of hearing and reading about God but will want to hear God for themselves. You can read about God but don’t know who He is.

You can talk about the experiences in God but fall short on the reality of that experience.

Whenever God wanted to introduce Himself to humanity, He ushered the people into an experience. Experiences are not what He is interested in but that you get caught up in the reality and person of God wrapped up in the experience. It is how you will understand His purposes for your life.

The first Church began with power. They had a divine encounter in the upper room.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. 

Acts 2:1-4 (ESV)

It was a Church where God’s manifest presence was alive. God was their breath, pattern and form. (Reference: Book of Acts)

God wants us to be a sanctuary of His presence, not of our structures, programs, strategies, plans and purposes.

God desires that every person in the Body of Christ will be an abode where His presence abides.

God wants us to value His presence more than our plans. God wants us to value His presence more than His purpose. The purpose of God will not be of value to you without His presence.

Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.

Psalm 127:1-2 (ESV)

Do not build in vain. Have the presence and purpose of God.

The ways of God are made manifest within the sanctity of His presence. There are certain phenomena of God that you cannot understand unless you have His presence. You can be exposed to the works of God devoid of His presence. His presence is beyond power and demonstration. It introduces you to the reality of His being and the embodiment of His attributes.

We need to give priority to God’s presence. That way, everything will find perspective in your life.

God does not speak in human language. He speaks in the language of prophecy. God speaks figuratively.

What God does is He communicates to mortals through the language of symbols.

Study seers in Scripture and understand how they saw things in God. It was the Spirit of God that illuminated what they saw.

But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. 

Job 32:8 (ESV)

Aspects Of The Language Of God Are:

1. Light

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. 

Psalm 119:130 (ESV)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1:17 (ESV)

Moses face shining after an encounter with God.

It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. Afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the LORD had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him. 

Exodus 34:29-35 (ESV)

2. Colour

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

Revelation 22:1 (ESV)

3. Divine Chemical Energy/Pulsations

4. Sound:

E.g. Thunder at Mount Sinai.

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 

Exodus 19:16 (ESV)

5. Thick Smoke

Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 

Exodus 19:18 (ESV)

This is a dimension that only those who have a clean heart and clean hands qualify to enter.

O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. 

Psalm 15:1-5 (ESV)

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah. 

Psalm 24:3-6 (ESV)

The Ark Of The Covenant represented the presence of God. Where God’s presence is, there can never be defeat. It can melt mountains like wax. 

Ask yourself, do I have the presence of God in my life?

The presence of God introduces you to brightness of light. It illuminates the dark areas in your life ensuring every darkness in your life is obliterated.

The presence of God is what will make a difference in your life.

The reason why people are not being transformed is because people have not been introduced to God’s presence. You can learn so much about the principles of the Kingdom but they cannot change you. Dogma will constrain you. It is the presence of God that activates these principles to change you.

When you have the presence of God, you can be sure that every principle of God that you have learnt will be activated.

For you to be able to apply the truths that you have learnt, you need to desire God’s presence. It is the presence of God that will enable you to know where and how to apply these principles.

Jesus spent 3 years with the disciples teaching them the principles of the Kingdom.

None of them were transformed until the working of the Holy Ghost came upon them at Pentecost.

Jesus said that if you continue in the Spirit of what He taught in as far as you remain in My presence, the truth will be activated to you.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31-32 (ESV)

What Christ was saying here is that the Spirit of the word that is activated in the presence of God would manufacture freedom for them if they continued in it.

It takes a sermon to make a preacher, but it takes an altar to manifest a servant of God. The presence of God is for people who have a servant spirit, not a preacher spirit.

God wants us to understand His presence, get saturated in it and partake of Divine nature.

The Holy Spirit will teach you things.

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 

1 John 2:20-21 (ESV)

We need God-led systems not man-led systems.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 

Galatians 5:25 (ESV)

Where God is there is no defeat.

I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 

Psalm 16:8 (AMP)

Blessings and breakthroughs are not gotten by our giving but by our being in the presence of God and our obedience.

God wants us to come to the place where we focus on Him not on men.

Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. “For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?”

The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” And He said, “Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” Then the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall standthere on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. “Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” 

Exodus 33:15-23 (ESV)

If you are in the wrong environment, the anointing will never work in you. Do not be concerned about structure and status.

Yes, God has sent you to the workplace and other gates of society but when they come to you what shall they find? Will they find the presence of God or a church program?

The sanctity of the presence of God is what we need to take the gates.

When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. 

Deuteronomy 7:1-2 (ESV)

Unbelievers hate the Church because what does the Church have to offer? Many churches have scandals both in the congregation and in the pastorate. The Church truly has been her own worst enemy. The Church has no glory.

People no longer seek God, they seek things and blessings. Blessings are found in the presence of God, not even in giving. Giving is a principle whereby the person of God stirs you up to give as a sign of worship. You cannot give and fail to walk in righteousness. That is giving in vain.

God wants to invite us into the sanctity of his holiness not for the things we will get but for who he is!

Will your breakthrough take you away from the presence of God?

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint.“In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. 

Deuteronomy 8:7-16 (ESV)

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and everything will be added unto you.

He is the lover of your soul.

Where is God in all that you have and are being? The fruit will tell.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

 John 15:5 (ESV) 

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 

Matthew 7:16 (ESV) 

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 

John 15:8 (ESV)

Let us not get so familiar with God and the man of God.

Stubbornness and being stiffneckedness will hinder us.

Let us be fascinated by the person of God.

Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 

Psalm 96:6 (ESV)

The Mighty One, God, the LORD, has spoken, And summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone forth. May our God come and not keep silence; Fire devours before Him, And it is very tempestuous around Him. 

Psalm 50:1-3 (ESV)

God wants us to embrace the whole counsel of His word. This can only be done in His presence. Outside of His presence, you will struggle.

In the preceding chapter before Exodus 33:7-16, Moses had gone to commune with God to receive the 10 commandments. The Israelites ended up worshipping a golden calf. They were focused on the works of God and not on His ways.

The 10 commandments were supposed to stand as the ways of God.

Whatever transactions we have with God or with each other must be done in the sanctity of His presence.

The Kingdom of God is revealed unto us in the sanctity of His presence.

God does not want us to get caught up in the works of God and but in the ways of God.

God has promises and things in store for us. He does not want us to be like the Israelites who turn away from God and begin worshipping a golden calf (representing the vision of Aaron trying to find expression in the vision of Moses). Moses represents a type of Christ whereas Aaron represents us.

The heavenly vision has not been cogitated by the hands of men.

Where have you gone wrong?

Seek forgiveness from the Lord, and seek His presence.