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Presence is a community experience


Being in a community of faith is an important aspect of learning to carry the presence of God. Our stream of faith values the presence of Triune God. I love this about my faith. In both the old and new testaments being in the presence of God begins with being in a community of like-minded people. Or, to put it another way, being in the presence of people.

Before I get too far along with this thought, I need to throw a life experience into this. I am one of the many who gave up on organized religion. We came to a place several years ago, where my wife and I decided it was time to leave a church that we had been an integral part of for 25 years. We took about 1 ½- 2 years to just be together on the weekends with family or with just the two of us. Still in love with God but not in love with his church. We came out of this time by asking Papagod to lead us to a church body that was the spiritual family He had for us. There were some extenuating circumstance that had lead us leave the past church family. At the time we left we didn’t realize that there was some healing God had for our lives. Although we had worked on personal growth we knew that risking relationship again would continue the process in us. It also would begin to put us back into a community of believers. We did not want to “shop for a church”. God was good to honor that request and we’ve integrated into a church family that is who we are now but is also a church that stretches us into more of who we are designed to be as image bearers of Papagod. I still have many good relationships with my friends in faith from our previous church. God’s way is the redemptive way. What seems to be lost many times is found.

With that being said… In the old testament, Triune God says multiple times, "You will be my people and I will be your God." Many times this is a part of a Messianic covenant word. We can find examples of this in the Adamic covenant, the Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, etc…  Knowing the presence began with community relationship. It was not solely individual. The individual relationship with God begins and is, in community. Except for the High Priest entering the Holy of Holys alone there was a sharing of religious life.

Our new testament church also has this same dynamic. The church was birthed in an upper prayer room with a group of people. Community. Relationship. A common desire to seek God and be in relationship with Him. The Acts 2 experience of Pentecost was shared as a group. A group where each member also had an individual experience of a Holy Spirit fire. Towards the end of this chapter in Acts we see they met together, had much in common. From this relational dynamic individual experiences of Triune's presence were birthed. There were leaders emerging, miracles happening. All the while new relational communities of faith were started as groups of people entered this life. In Acts 10 this happened again but, in a gathering of non-Jews for the first time. They did not experience the visible Holy Spirit fire but they did receive Him. The rest of humanity now had the opportunity know the presence of God.

I think I was ready for God's presence to be an integral part of my life. But, It was more than I could understand by myself. Just like trying to deal with sin issues as an individual, it's more than I can handle alone. I/we must confess and be healed. The hunger for Him was there but the ability to know and carry His presence was outside of my grasp. In relationship with a community of like-minded people I have been given this gift of growing into the Image Bearer I was intended to be. The hunger to know more of "the mystery of God" is satiated in this type of community by carrying my personal experience into the community setting. Through these relationships Papagod has formed me into a maturity that can partner with His Presence. It is not that "I've arrived" into maturity, it's more like I've begun to live this out with halting steps urged on by Holy Spirit and the community of faith I'm in relationship with. In turn, I am honored to participate in, and see, others grow into maturity.

Thank you, God, for my church family and the shared adventure we have together!


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