Free From Dream to Destiny: The Ten Tests You Must Go Through to Fulfill God's Purpose for Your Life by Robert Morris

believer has experienced that special sweetness that sometimes fills the atmosphere during times of worship and prayer. That is the manifested presence of God.
    There are other times when God’s presence manifests in unusual or unexpected ways. We all have times like this. I remember experiencingjust such a time after I lost my grandmother. I was at the hospital when she passed away, and I went into the bathroom and began to cry. I was grieving because I loved my grandmother very much; she had lived with us when I was growing up. As I knelt by the toilet in that little hospital bathroom and cried, all of a sudden it seemed like that little room was filled with the presence of God. I felt as if Jesus were standing there with me, putting His hand on my shoulder. I sensed His presence in such a powerful, tangible way! As I think back on that incident, I am reminded of how wonderful it is to experience the manifested presence of God.
    Have you ever met someone who obviously has the presence of God on them? You can’t help but notice it. Joseph was a person like that. Even Potiphar noticed it.
    Here is my heart’s desire: I want to be like that. I want to live in God’s manifested presence every moment of every day.
    And I hope that you share my desire. If you do, remember that the key to having His presence in your life is obedience.
    In the same way that obedience will cause God’s presence to manifest in your life, disobedience will cause His presence to leave. We can see a sad example of this occurring in the life of Cain. “Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord” (Gen. 4:16).
    Cain “went out from the presence of the Lord” because he was disobedient. Cain had first disobeyed God in the matter of his offerings, and then Cain had killed his brother Abel. But God gave him a chance to confess what he had done. God asked Cain, “Where is your brother?” Of course, God knew where his brother was. He didn’t need Cain to let him know that. He was simply giving Cain an opportunity to confess his sin and repent of it. God was not looking for sinless perfection in Cain—but He was looking for a repentant heart.
    But instead of confessing his sin, Cain replied, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”—denying any responsibility for what he had done. So God said, “Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.” In this way God was telling Cain, “I knew what you did all along. I just wanted you to confess it and acknowledge it as wrong.” But Cain refused to confess it and repent; and the result was that Cain “went out from the presenceof the Lord.” Because of disobedience, the presence of God was no longer manifested in Cain’s life.
    Disobedience cost Adam and Eve the presence of God as well. They had enjoyed the manifested presence of God in the Garden of Eden. The Bible says that God walked in the garden in the cool of the day. But after Adam and Eve sinned, they hid themselves from God’s presence. God came to Adam and gave him a chance to repent and God came to Eve and gave her a chance to repent. But sin caused them to hide from the presence of God.
    King David understood the manifested presence of God. He knew what it was to have God’s presence rest upon him, and he knew what it was to lose God’s presence through disobedience. But David also knew that he could cry out to God in repentance for his sin, asking God to forgive him. In Psalm 51:11 David pleads: “Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”
    David had disobeyed God, and as a result he had lost God’s presence for a time. But when David repented from his heart, the Lord forgave him. When David returned to walking in God’s ways, to walking in obedience, the presence of God was restored to David’s life.
    The presence of God is what makes you prosper in all you do. And obedience is the key to a life that is marked by the presence of God. This presents another question.
    What is