Walking In The Spirit Towards True Spirituality - Acknowledge God's Daily Presence

This personal development article is written by Oscar Chestnut.

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One step we can take to walk in the Spirit towards true spirituality is acknowledging God's presence daily.

When we are truly walking according to the Holy Spirit, we are in daily communion with God. All our actions and movements are done in His presence. All of our deepest thoughts and feelings are not hidden from Him. They occur in His all-knowing, all seeing presence.

As Christians, we know God sees all that we do, hears all that we say, and knows all that we think. But being in daily communion with God involves more than God seeing and hearing us.

Communion is defined as a spiritual fellowship. Fellowship is synonymous to a relationship, a being together or union sharing similar interest, companionship, or friendship. So our daily communion with God is more than just our knowing we are in His presence, it is a two-way communication relationship.

Knowing that we are in God's presence is a mental understanding of a fact. But, acknowledging we are in God's presence goes beyond accepting fact, it is taking some action based on that fact. The differences between the two are sometimes reflected in our response to God. Some Christians know that when attending church they are in God's presence, but they take no action to acknowledge it. They do not participate during the praise and worship period, they do not pray during prayer time, nor do they worship through giving during the offering period. When we are truly in communion with God, we do not just know we are in God's presence; we are led by the Spirit to acknowledge it.

Acknowledging involves listening to God in our inward thoughts and responding in obedience to what we hear. It involves no longer doing our own will, but allowing Jesus to do the will of the Father through us. Also, it involves us understanding we should attempt nothing without His guidance and direction. With this relationship, we come before God with a desire to be filled with His Spirit. Without this daily communion with Him, our lives are like the waves in the sea tossed and driven in whatever direction the wind blows.

Acknowledging God's presence in our lives does not require some spiritual outburst of uncontrollable emotion. That is not what God wants from us to acknowledge His presence; He wants us to be in communion with Him.

Acknowledging God's presence through being in communion with Him takes daily commitment from us. We must walk in the Spirit daily to be in constant communion with Him. Similarly, we must acknowledge His presence daily. We cannot say we walked in the Spirit yesterday, but we are going to sit today. We cannot say we acknowledged God's presence yesterday, but we do not acknowledge it today. We must keep walking in the Spirit and acknowledging God's presence each day we live.

A farmer plants his crops yearly. He cannot say, "I'm going to take it easy and live off the crops I reaped last year". In order that he may have a fresh crop, he must prepare to plant after he reaps. The same principle applies to our daily walk. The level of spirituality that took us through yesterday is not enough for today. God desires our acknowledgement of who He is and all He is today just as He did yesterday. One day does not make Him less deserving of our praise than another.

In order that we do not fulfill the desires of our flesh, we must receive a fresh supply of the Spirit daily. Fulfilling the desires of our flesh breaks our communion with God. Our flesh refuses to acknowledge and accept God's presence. It leads us away to function apart from God to accomplish our own ends. The daily choice is before us to walk in the Spirit or to follow the desires of our flesh.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome the desires of our flesh and walk in the Spirit daily. We have the power to make prayer and meditation on Scripture a regular part of our daily walk to keep us in communion with God. Through the Spirit, we have the power to acknowledge God's presence and walk in God's presence each day.