God's Location Pt. 2: Finding God's Tangible Presence Beyond Prayer and Worship

True relationship with God means encountering His tangible presence throughout your entire life, not just during prayer appointments.

Finding God's location requires something far deeper than receiving answers to prayer or performing religious rituals. It demands intimate encounter and the abiding presence of God woven through every moment of your day—a relationship fundamentally different from the prayer and fasting practices that mark the beginning of seeking Him.

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Teaching Overview

1. Prayer and worship are the beginning of intimacy with God, not intimacy itself; true intimacy requires God's tangible, experiential presence throughout your life.
2. Finding God's location is distinct from receiving answers to prayer; God sends blessings to both the righteous and unrighteous, but finding His presence requires a deeper level of seeking and encounter.
3. Scripture is a map to God, not God Himself; the Pharisees memorized the Bible while missing Jesus because religion and ritual cannot substitute for direct encounter with His presence.
4. Religious practice—prayer, fasting, and observing the law—does not guarantee finding God; simple fishermen found Jesus while religious scholars missed Him because encounter transcends religious performance.
5. God's success in Jesus came from constant abiding presence with the Father, not from prayer appointments; believers must move from "going to prayer" to "doing life with God."
6. Abiding in God transforms your nature fundamentally; those in Him cannot sin because sin flows from separation from His presence, not from human effort to stop sinning.

Key Distinctions

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The Confusion Between Prayer and God's Presence

• Prayer does not equal God's tangible presence; God listens to prayer because He is omniscient, but His listening is not the same as His relational presence with you.
• God answers prayers for both the righteous and the wicked, sending rain and sunshine on all; receiving an answer to prayer does not mean you have found God's location.
• Prayer is not powerful—the One who answers prayer is powerful; believers have been taught to confuse the prayer itself with the power of God who hears it.

"Finding God's location is different than receiving an answer to prayer. This is another dimension, this is another level of intimacy with God."

"Prayer is not powerful children of God. The one who answers the prayer is the powerful one. God is not a genie. God is not a puppet."

Worship as the Beginning, Not the Goal

• Worship and prayer are the beginning of intimacy with God, not intimacy itself; true intimacy requires a tangible presence and encounter, not emotional feelings from singing.
• Basing your relationship with God on feelings from worship is deception; when the worship feels good you assume God is near, and when it doesn't you assume He is absent.
• There is a huge difference between "I pray to God," "I worship God," and "I have found God"; the first two are processes, the third is an encounter.

"To pray and to worship God is not intimacy, it is the beginning of intimacy. There is a huge difference between I pray to God. I worship God and I have found God."

Scripture Points to God, Not God Himself

• The Bible is a map to find God, not God Himself; it testifies about Jesus but will never give you life—only He gives life.
• The Pharisees memorized Scripture, quoted Moses, and observed the law perfectly, yet they missed Jesus standing before them because they treated the map as the destination.
• After you have memorized verses and understood Scripture, you must move beyond it to encounter the Person it points to; Scripture's purpose is to lead you to Jesus.

"Your Bible is simply a map to find him. It is not him. It only talks about me. It will lead you to me."

Religious Practice Cannot Substitute for Encounter

• The Pharisees prayed, observed the law, and fasted, yet simple fishermen found Jesus when the religious scholars did not; encounter with God transcends religious ritual.
• Peter and Andrew found Jesus and immediately began casting out demons and healing the sick without formal training in prayer because they had His presence.
• Prayer is for those seeking to find God; once you have found Him, your focus shifts from petition to presence.

"Prayer is for those who have not found them. They found Jesus when nobody else knew that he was in the city."

Fasting: A Practice for Seeking, Not for Those Who Have Found

• Fasting is a discipline to prepare you for finding God; once you have His presence, fasting is no longer necessary because you have what you were fasting to obtain.
• When Jesus's disciples ate while John's disciples fasted, Jesus clarified the distinction: His disciples had found Him, so they did not need to fast.
• The purpose of fasting and prayer is to prepare you for times when you will urgently need God's intervention and will not have time to pray; you must already be established in His presence.

"Why should they fasten their found me? If you have him, you don't need fasting. That is for people who have not found me."

Jesus's Model: Abiding, Not Appointment Prayer

• Jesus's success on earth came from His constant abiding presence with the Father, not from remarkable external accomplishments or scheduled prayer times.
• The evidence of being with God is not prayer; it is His tangible presence with you when you are walking, working, facing attack, or confronting sickness.
• God's presence with you means you are confident and peaceful because you know He is there to handle what comes, not because you have prayed well.

"The success of King Jesus on Earth as a man was the fact that he was always with his father. For him to be tangibly for you to have a relationship with the presence of God is a completely different thing."

The Danger of Sending Blessings Versus Being Present

• Many believers are accustomed to receiving what God sends—blessings, open doors, direction—but are unprepared for the difference between His sending and His presence.
• When crisis comes, believers trained only in prayer struggle because they have not learned to have God present with them in danger; they expect Him to send relief but do not know how to access His presence.
• In the valley of the shadow of death, if you are not with the Shepherd, you will perish; blessing and provision cannot protect you when you face true danger without His actual presence.

"You are used to him sending things. You are not used to him being with you. This is a completely different."

Humility: The Gateway to Encounter

• Come before God's presence willing to admit what you do not know, emptying yourself to receive what the Holy Spirit wants to teach you.
• Do not formulate your own way or preach to yourself in God's presence; come to hear what He wants to speak to you through others and through His Spirit.
• The biggest danger in working with God is thinking you know it all; the difference between where you are and where you want to be is often 1% of information you are missing.

"Don't come in God's presence, trying to formulate your own way. They came to speak to you what you may not know."

"The biggest danger in working with God is being a man or a woman who thinks they know it all. The difference between here and where you want to be is 1% of something that you may be missing."

Knowledge Empowers Prayer, Not Prayer Itself

• Spiritual advancement is not determined by how much you pray but by the knowledge you possess; your prayer is empowered by what you know.
• Satan's power comes from knowledge, not from resources he possesses; he has advantage over believers not because he is stronger but because he knows things they do not.
• The Holy Spirit within you is greater than any demonic force, but if you do not know your authority and God's promises, you will be overcome by one who does know.

"My people perish because of lack of knowledge, not lack of prayer. Your prayer is empowered because of what you know. He knows things you don't know."

God Opposes Pride and Demands Self-Humbling

• God actively resists the proud; the moment you walk in pride, God locks up everything connected to your life and will not move until you humble yourself.
• Never pray for God to humble you; when God humbles you, He strips you completely and you may never recover, as happened with Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar.
• Self-humbling is a choice you make—an attitude adjustment—while divine humiliation is devastating; it is far better to humble yourself willingly than to face God's resistance.

"God opposes and resists the proud. That spirit is so necessary to grow with God."

"When God humbles you, he strips you completely of everything. And you may actually never recover from that. It's better for you to do it yourself. Humble yourself."

The Spirit of Revelation and Attitude Change

• When you genuinely empty yourself and admit your need to learn, the spirit of revelation comes upon you and you begin to see things in Scripture you have never seen before.
• A change of attitude opens the door for God to reveal Himself to you in new ways; pride shuts that door completely.

"When that attitude is for real, is the moment the spirit of revelation comes on you. There was a change of attitude."

Trust in God's Promises Through Contradiction

• God builds faith by asking you to rest in His promises even when circumstances contradict them; if God said it, you can rest assured that He will do what He promised.
• The testimony is not just at the end of deliverance but throughout the entire journey of waiting and trusting; the whole road is the testimony, not just the destination.
• If you lose your peace while waiting for God's promise, the devil still has you; you must trust Him before it happens and along the way.

"Rest in my promise. If I said it, you can take me at my word."

"The testimony is the journey not just the destination. We have to trust him before it happens. We have to trust him along the way. The whole road, amen."

Comfort Requires His Presence

• True comfort and courage come only from God's actual presence, not from self-encouragement or positive thinking; the Bible never says "comfort yourself," it says "I will comfort you."
• When God is present with you in difficulty, you can look at your circumstances and know that His presence means this temporary suffering does not compare to what He is preparing.
• Without His presence, you do not have a still mind; you panic because you are relying on your own resources instead of His presence.

"You cannot receive comfort if He is not with you. When things go bad, you don't have a still mind. He's not present."

Job's Confidence: Hearing God's Voice

• Job's confidence through suffering came from his relationship with God—he could hear God's voice and knew God was speaking to him directly.
• True relationship with God means He tells you when you have offended Him; you do not have to guess or assume, because He communicates with you.
• The things that most offend God are not your sins but your inability to hear Him when He is trying to lead you; missing His direction is the root of your problems.

"God will tell you. That is relationship. The things that most offend God are not what you do as sin. Is when He's trying to lead you and you can't hear Him."

Abiding in God Transforms Your Nature

• Those who abide in God cannot sin because sin is contrary to their new nature in Christ; sin comes from not abiding in Him, not from lack of willpower.
• When you are in God, you are a new creation whose spirit has nothing to do with the fallen body's mistakes; your spirit is not your body and not subject to its impulses.
• Anyone who deliberately continues in sin has never encountered God, because encounter produces a fundamental transformation that makes sin contrary to your nature.

"Those who abide in Him cannot sin. You sin because you are not in Him. When you abide in God, you are a new creation, you cannot sin."

Encounter Versus Religion

• Anyone who claims to have been Christian but became something else never truly encountered God—they were only religious; you cannot meet the King and do the things religion permits.
• Satan believes in God and fears God because he has encountered Him; belief in God without encounter produces no transformation.
• If you have truly met God, you are permanently changed; walking away from that encounter is impossible.

"You can't meet the king and do nonsense like that. It means you never met him. Satan fears God. He believes in God. It's not imagination he believes in him because he has met him."

Doing Life With God: The Shift From Appointment to Presence

• The goal is not to "go to prayer" but to "do life with God"—having His presence throughout your entire day, when you wake, walk, eat, and work.
• God walked with Moses and Enoch not through prayer appointments but through constant companionship; this is the realm God has ordained for His people.
• Believing He is with you is good, but knowing He is with you is different; knowing means experiencing His presence, not just holding a belief.

"You need to do life with God. When you wake up Jesus, when you walk Jesus, when you eat Jesus, He is present. Not let me go and pray and be with God."

Gratitude as Continuous Outpouring

• Pour out gratitude from your heart as a fountain, releasing thankfulness continuously without restraint or hesitation.
• Gratitude is not a one-time expression but a continuous declaration of what God means to you; it flows from a heart that recognizes His faithfulness.

"Pour that gratitude out like a fountain, pour it out like a fountain. I want to start hearing your gratitude. Don't stop your gratitude."

Being Prophetic in Every Moment

• Never miss an opportunity to be prophetic; speak God's promises and authority over your circumstances in everyday moments—when you wake, walk, or face challenges.
• Every opportunity you have is a chance to declare something into existence; speak victory, declare God's promises, prophesy over your life and others' lives throughout the day.

"Never miss an opportunity to be prophetic. Every opportunity you get to tell something into our weapon."

Psalm 23: The Progression From Provision to Presence

• Psalm 23 begins with God as Shepherd and Provider, establishing that He watches, cares for, and meets every need; it then progresses to His presence with you in danger.
• The structure reveals God's intention: He provides for you, leads you, and most crucially, stays with you in the valley of the shadow of death.
• Many believers have learned to receive what God sends but have not learned to access His presence when darkness comes; this is the final and most critical dimension of relationship.

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Key Definitions

God's Location — The place where God's tangible, relational presence dwells with you; not merely His omniscient awareness of you but His active, experiential companionship throughout your life.

Intimacy with God — A state of being constantly present with God, knowing Him through encounter rather than information; characterized by His tangible presence, His voice, His comfort, and His direction woven through every moment of your day.

Prayer — The act of speaking to God; a means of petition and communication that does not guarantee His tangible presence and is not itself the source of power, though it accesses the power of the One who hears.

Abiding in God — Remaining constantly in God's presence through a transformed nature that makes sin impossible; a state of being so unified with Him that your actions flow from His nature, not from human effort.

Encounter with God — A direct, transformative meeting with God's presence that produces permanent change in a person's nature and understanding; fundamentally different from religious knowledge or practice.

Doing Life with God — Living every moment—waking, walking, working, eating—with God's tangible presence; the goal of relationship, not appointment-based prayer but constant companionship.

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Key Takeaways

• Prayer does not equal God's presence — God answers prayers from both believers and unbelievers, but receiving an answer is not the same as finding His location or experiencing His tangible presence.

• Religious practice cannot substitute for encounter — Prayer, fasting, and observing the law are practices for those seeking God, but they do not guarantee or produce the transformative encounter with His actual presence.

• Scripture is a map, not the destination — The Bible points you to God but is not God; memorizing Scripture without moving toward encountering Jesus keeps you in religion rather than relationship.

• Humility is the gateway to revelation — Admitting what you do not know and emptying yourself before God opens the door for the spirit of revelation to bring you new understanding and encounter.

• God's success was through abiding presence — Jesus's model was constant presence with the Father, not appointment-based prayer; believers must shift from "going to prayer" to "doing life with God."

• Abiding transforms your nature — When you are genuinely in God, sin becomes impossible because it contradicts your transformed nature; sin flows from separation, not from lack of willpower.

• Comfort requires His presence — True comfort and courage come only from God's actual presence with you in difficulty, not from self-encouragement or positive thinking.

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Reflection Questions

1. In what areas of your life are you currently receiving blessings from God (provision, answered prayer, open doors) but have not yet experienced His tangible presence—and what would it look like to shift from receiving what He sends to knowing His actual presence there?

2. What would change in your daily life if you genuinely understood that doing life with God means His presence during your work, your challenges, your eating, and your rest—not just during prayer times?

3. Which of these distinctions challenges you most: prayer versus presence, worship versus intimacy, or Scripture study versus encountering Jesus—and what specific step could you take this week to move deeper into the reality it points to?

4. How are you currently approaching God—through religious practice, petition, or genuine encounter—and what would it require for you to humble yourself enough to admit what you don't know and become open to the spirit of revelation?

5. If you truly believed that God's presence with you in crisis is more important than His sending you blessings, how would your prayers, your expectations, and your daily seeking of Him need to change?

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Prayers and Declarations

Congregational Reading

Let's read it together. One, two, three.

"The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He lead me beside just the world. He leads me in the path of righteousness for His name. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou prepare us the table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anoint us my head with oil. My cup run it over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I would love to have a little forever."

Touch your neighbor, say...

"As you sit, may you sit on the enemy's head. May you sit on the enemy's head."

Prophetic Word Declaration

"May you discover God's location."

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Scripture References

• Psalm 23:1-6 — "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." (KJV)

• John 5:39 — "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." (KJV)

• Matthew 4:4 — "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (KJV)

• 1 John 3:6 — "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him." (KJV)

• 1 John 3:9 — "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (KJV)

• 1 Peter 5:5 — "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." (KJV)

• Proverbs 29:18 — "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." (KJV)

• Romans 7:17 — "Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." (KJV)

• Psalm 25:15 — "Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net." (KJV)

• Matthew 3:11 — "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." (KJV)

• Mark 11:24 — "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (KJV)

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Golden Nuggets

"Finding God's location is different than receiving an answer to prayer. This is another dimension, this is another level of intimacy with God."

"Prayer is not powerful children of God. The one who answers the prayer is the powerful one. God is not a genie. God is not a puppet."

"To pray and to worship God is not intimacy, it is the beginning of intimacy. There is a huge difference between I pray to God. I worship God and I have found God."

"Your Bible is simply a map to find him. It is not him. It only talks about me. It will lead you to me."

"Prayer is for those who have not found them. They found Jesus when nobody else knew that he was in the city."

"Why should they fasten their found me? If you have him, you don't need fasting. That is for people who have not found me."

"The success of King Jesus on Earth as a man was the fact that he was always with his father. For him to be tangibly for you to have a relationship with the presence of God is a completely different thing."

"You are used to him sending things. You are not used to him being with you. This is a completely different."

"The biggest danger in working with God is being a man or a woman who thinks they know it all. The difference between here and where you want to be is 1% of something that you may be missing."

"My people perish because of lack of knowledge, not lack of prayer. Your prayer is empowered because of what you know. He knows things you don't know."

"When God humbles you, he strips you completely of everything. And you may actually never recover from that. It's better for you to do it yourself. Humble yourself."

"When that attitude is for real, is the moment the spirit of revelation comes on you. There was a change of attitude."

"Rest in my promise. If I said it, you can take me at my word."

"The testimony is the journey not just the destination. We have to trust him before it happens. We have to trust him along the way. The whole road, amen."

"Don't come in God's presence, trying to formulate your own way. They came to speak to you what you may not know."

"God will tell you. That is relationship. The things that most offend God are not what you do as sin. Is when He's trying to lead you and you can't hear Him."

"Those who abide in Him cannot sin. You sin because you are not in Him. When you abide in God, you are a new creation, you cannot sin."

"You can't meet the king and do nonsense like that. It means you never met him. Satan fears God. He believes in God. It's not imagination he believes in him because he has met him."

"You need to do life with God. When you wake up Jesus, when you walk Jesus, when you eat Jesus, He is present. Not let me go and pray and be with God."

"Pour that gratitude out like a fountain, pour it out like a fountain. I want to start hearing your gratitude. Don't stop your gratitude."

"Never miss an opportunity to be prophetic. Every opportunity you get to tell something into our weapon."

"You cannot receive comfort if He is not with you. When things go bad, you don't have a still mind. He's not present."

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Resources and Further Reading

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• Study with a Recommended Bible →