Learning The Art Of Maintaining The Lingering Presence Of God

Over the last few months I have had the privilege of getting to know Gershom Sirakaala, and he shared with me a most profound truth about the Holy Spirit and its operation. “Richard,” he said, “I have discovered that it is important to continue the lingering of the Holy Spirit.”  He went on to explain that when he has an intense download of the Holy Spirit’s presence he is careful not to lose his connection to the Holy Spirit’s power.  So many times, when he has been praying for many hours during the day, he will go to the church and not talk to anyone lest he break that relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

As he was talking it reminded me of how important it is to maintain your cell phone connection when you are having an important conversation. But I never realized this same phenomenon occurs in the spiritual realm.  Gershom then explained, “The connection that I have been privileged to have with the Holy Spirit is not necessarily easy to reconnect if the connection is broken because sometimes I cannot make the exact connection again.  The privilege and favor that God was giving me was only for that particular moment.  But if I keep that connection active then many times I have the ability to extend the favor of God to help many more people with the blessings that God is imparting.”

Wow!  This was an earth-shaking revelation to me because I recalled in one of my conversations with the famous prophet, Paul Cain, that he told me of an incident which happened to him at the first church he held a revival in.  He had been interceding in the presence of the Lord all day.  When he arrived at the church he went directly to the pastor’s office and did not look at anyone in the audience.  Yet the Holy Spirit showed him many of the people and their problems that needed fixing.  When the pastor called on him to speak he walked out on the stage and, seeing those in the audience for the first time, began to accurately call forth the miracles and the prophecies that God gave him for the people he had previously seen in prayer.  My comment is I believe Paul Caine was sharing with me that he had continued the connection in the Spirit from the time of prayer earlier in the office.  But Paul Cain’s story went on further.

He told me that the next day so many people wanted to talk to him before the service, that when he later went on the stage to speak he discovered he didn’t have the same power he had the night before.  The following day he did an experiment.  When he left his prayer closet he had his friend blindfold him so that he could not see anyone, and then had the friend take him to church.  He walked into the pastor’s office, still blindfolded, and waited for the pastor to call him out to preach.  This time, when he walked onto the stage, he could easily prophesy to the audience.  I am sensing what happened in that moment.  Though Paul Cain did not specifically refer to it, he had kept the lingering presence of God active so he could have full access to the power of God when the time came for him to use it.

If you are still following me you realize that I am not talking about a secret that just preachers have access to.  This lingering presence of God is something He gives to everyone.  I once made a presentation to a board of a large corporation and at first it was readily accepted by the array of gray-haired “suits” sitting in the room.  As they opened up with their compliments, one of the oldest board members began a dialogue (which seemed like the other board members had heard before) and said, “Richard, your idea is great.  But I feel at my age that if one person in our company became hurt because we tried your innovative idea I would never live with myself again.  So if we are going to do this, I must give up my position on this company board.”

Instantly his dramatic statement broke the connection with the Holy Spirit.  I was very young at that time and was not familiar with dealing with high-level spiritual warfare.  Today I understand that even in such a high stakes game a powerful person who is influenced by spirits can literally put their own life on the line to stop God’s will.  The solution is to “agree with your adversary while you’re in the way with him” and thereby neutralize their ability to break the connection with the lingering presence of God.

This skill is the true art of spiritual warfare.  I believe you cannot reconnect yourself with the lingering presence of God just at will.  This is why we have such dramatic stories in the Bible.  Samson was the superman of strength but his strength was totally dependent upon the presence of God.  He became so accustomed to the lingering presence of God’s power that he took it for granted that his power was always going to be there.  God had commanded him, through his mother when he was born, that he was not to touch any dead thing nor cut his long hair.  As his life went on Samson used his super-lingering presence of God skills to defend Israel, rip the city gates off of a Philistine city, and even kill a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.  (Notice that in doing the act of defending Israel he broke one of the commands of God because he touched the jawbone of a dead ass.)

Yet Samson’s lingering power was still active.  But Delilah and the Philistines knew there had to be a secret because no human being could ever have the superhero powers Sampson had.  Finally Delilah seduced him into telling his final secret and the Philistines came and cut off his long hair as he slept in her lap.  When Sampson awoke and saw that the Philistines were breaking in the room to capture him he knew his hair had been cut, but he did not know the lingering presence of God had been cut off.  He shook himself, as he had done many times before, and thought his superhero strength would come on him again.  But it was gone and did not come back.

The Philistines poked Samson’s eyes out and made him work like an ox grinding wheat in a mill.  No matter how long and hard Samson may have cried out to God, he could not get the lingering connection of the presence of God back.  Then one day the Philistines took Samson into their temple where over ten thousand people were gathered to make fun of the once powerful man.  But something happened at that moment. The connection was made and Samson could feel the presence of God again.  He asked a young slave boy to lead him between the two columns that supported the roof of the temple and at the right moment the presence of God connected with Samson one last time, he pulled down the columns that held the temple up and killed more Philistines on the day of his death than he did his entire life.

This dramatic story from the Bible illustrates how critical a connection to the lingering presence of God can be.  You might be sitting at you desk at work and suddenly the presence of God comes upon you, and that day you may be having a board meeting, an appointment with an executive ~ maybe even your boss.  You have the privilege of maintaining a continuous, unbroken lingering connection with the Holy Spirit.  It might mean that you don’t talk to certain people and especially don’t respond to a conflicting conversation.  There are thousands of tricks the spirit world has to try to break your connections with the Holy Spirit.  I am learning how critical it is to avoid them in order to maintain a healthy spiritual life.  No wonder Jesus warned us that satan has come to sow tears in our good wheat field.  But the Lord told us to not remove the tares but instead wait for the angels of God to do that.

I am learning daily how important it is to never enter into a confrontational conversation with someone.  I just tell them something nice so the communication can end in a spirit of peace and joy.  Listen to me!  This is super important!  Do not have any element of confrontation in your communication with a person that can break your connection you have with the Holy Spirit, because that is how God is going to release miracles to you.  The prophet Timothy Snodgrass prophesied that just a “Hello!” said at the right place, the right time, in the right spirit, could release a billion dollars to you!