Power of God’s Presence: Peace, Joy, and Freedom You Can’t Live Without
Excerpted from Daily Surrender.
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1 NASB).
One evening in October 2019, after feeding my precious family and getting our two young children to bed, I slipped in late to our Open Heavens Conference at Bethel Church in Redding, California.
I knew Michael Koulianos was ministering for our final night of the conference, and I anticipated that the Lord would move powerfully that night.
We as a family had been through a wilderness season, and I, in particular, had faced immense physical and emotional hardship for nearly two years.
I had been under Michael’s ministry a few times, and we had some brief connection in the time when he had lived in Redding. What God was doing in his life was evident, and I was in need of a touch from the Lord.
Michael ministered to many that night, calling out people from the audience and prophesying over them. At one point, he called out people from Singapore, not realizing that a large group of them had flown out, and he ministered to each of them one by one on the stage. As Michael prayed and prophesied, it seemed as though each person he ministered to was touched powerfully by God, and I could sense the weighty presence of God in a tangible way. He started calling words of knowledge, and people were getting healed—God was there. It was getting late, and I could tell Michael was winding down when he suddenly called out my name. “Hayley Braun, get up here, prophetess,” he said. “Your face flashed in front of me.” As I approached him on the stage, with most of my friends and spiritual fathers watching, he asked me, “Are you willing to prophesy if people don’t like it?” Feeling the fire of God course through my body, I tried to nod as the power of God came on me like a weight, causing me to fall down in His presence. Some friends were able to catch me and lay me gently on the floor as Michael began to prophesy over my prophetic voice and declared over me that the fear of man (being deeply concerned with peoples’ thoughts and opinions) was going to die.
There are moments when you receive a touch from God and are completely undone and given to the moment, and there are others when you can reason and comprehend through the encounter with Him. Though I was experiencing deep emotion and feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit powerfully, my mind was very present and somewhat in conflict. I remember thinking while lying on the floor that night, God, this will be a miracle if You do it; if You kill the fear of man in me, God, that will be a miracle.
You see, very few people would have known that I had been wrestling with the fear of man my whole Christian walk. I would have likely called it insecurity or even thought it was good leadership: trying to constantly keep everyone happy with me. But God knew. He knows every hidden fear, every insecurity, every longing in our hearts. And He is in the business of setting us free.
The Cross of Jesus has made a way for us to walk with the Father again, where before there was no way. The heart of God is turned toward His people and His faithfulness is unwavering and steadfast. The Lord is near to those who call on His name and His great love is calling you out of whatever fear, insecurity, self-doubt, offense, or pain that you feel stuck in. He is looking for a heart that is surrendered to Him and inviting His great wonderful-working power to have liberty to transform them. Romans 8:31 (ESV) says: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Lord, I see Your invitation for freedom, and I feel Your heart drawing me near to You. I ask You, Holy Spirit, to teach me how to surrender and trust in the mercy and power of God. I ask You, Lord, to meet with me, to deliver me from any hindrance that keeps me from living in the freedom You purchased for me. I thank You, Jesus, for the Cross and I receive what You have purchased for me. Amen.
More of Him
I love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find me (Proverbs 8:17 NASB).
Encountering God goes beyond the moment we feel Him near or moving; it goes far beyond a good testimony.
These moments of power, passion, or freedom in the Holy Spirit are invitations to know Him more, to seek and find. The tension lies in receiving the outpouring, not analyzing it too soon, and learning to steward it in due season. When we have profound moments with the Lord, yielding to them and allowing Him to do a great work in us is vital. When the Holy Spirit is tangibly upon you, it is not time to be introspective but time to receive. It’s the season after that we must take the time to press into His work in us and pursue His heart to know His intention. This is a covenant, not just a moment; and while moments of encounter are vital and valuable in covenant, it is the day-to-day pursuit that anchors those experiences and causes them to flourish.
If we let the seed He deposits in us during those encoun- ters take root in our lives and nurture them until they grow into maturity, we will bear the fruit of the word. Receiving the seed is just the first step. We must nurture it so that the world can reach out to taste and see His goodness emanating from our lives lived in full connection with Him.
To think that the violent shaking I experienced for six weeks was the extent of His availability would be ludicrous. There is so much more in Him, and there is so much more about Him. There is so much more He has for me and you that if we were to ask for it now, I believe He would respond to us as He did to His disciples in John 16:12 (NASB), saying, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them at the present time.” An encounter with God is an invitation to more in Him and a lifelong relationship of pursuing and being pursued by the King of all. As we seek real relationship with the Lord, we create space for the more of Him we desire.
Our King longs to be hosted by His people; the precious Holy Spirit longs to be wanted, to be invited, and to be cooperated with. It is the place where we offer all of who we are to Him so that He comes to rest on us markedly.
Lord, I am in awe of Your love, which calls me deeper into relationship with You. Lord, help me to steward the seeds You plant in my heart, nurturing them so they may bear fruit in my life. Teach me to yield to Your presence, to receive without hesitation, and to trust in the work You are doing within me. May I not settle for a single experience, but pursue You daily, anchoring my life in Your truth and love. Holy Spirit, I invite You to rest upon me, to shape me, and to lead me into greater intimacy with You. I long to be a child of God who hosts Your presence, who welcomes You fully into my life, and who walks in the fullness of all that You have for me. May my heart remain open, my spirit hungry, and my life a testimony of Your goodness. Amen.
Kingdom Hunger
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good (1 Peter 2:2-3 NIV).
I am often around believers who are just so hungry for more of the Lord. When you have tasted His goodness and His nature, you cannot be satisfied by anything other than all of Him. I’ve seen desperation turn to a challenging frustration in people and myself at times. The tension of gratitude (thanks for what has happened) and desire (longing for more in the future) is not an easy one to navigate, but I have realized this frustration can actually be a holy invitation from the Lord if we can posture our hearts and thoughts toward His abundance instead of fear of lack.
When we adopt the posture of a child toward the Kingdom of God, frustration is an invitation to know Him more, to experience a new facet of His glory, and to go deeper into the Lord’s heart.
The reality is that hunger for God in your life is the very evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in you. When I began to realize that the deep hunger and tension I felt was, in fact, the work of the Spirit making room for me to know Jesus, my frustration turned into anticipation and gratitude. I started to bless the hunger and declare I was about to know Jesus in a more profound way.
This posture of anticipation and gratitude was the very thing I needed to receive what He had prepared. There is no desire the Holy Spirit would put in our heart that He doesn’t want to fill with Jesus. When the Holy Spirit is welcomed to work in our life and we invest in our connection with Him, He begins to make room in our heart to desire to know and experience God in greater measure.
Something I have heard Bethel’s Pastor Bill Johnson say very often about hunger in the Kingdom is that it is the opposite of hunger in the natural. In the natural, you get hungry when you don’t eat, but in the Kingdom, you get hungry by eating. The more of God we experience, the more of His Word we consume, and the more we desire to know and experience Jesus.
In what ways have you experienced spiritual hunger, and how can you shift any frustration into anticipation for what God is preparing for you?
Lord, I thank You for the hunger You have placed in my heart to know You more. I recognize that this longing is an invitation from You to go deeper into Your presence. Help me to posture my heart in anticipation and gratitude, trusting that You are always ready to fill me with more of Your goodness. Holy Spirit, continue to stir a greater desire for Jesus within me, and may my hunger lead me to deeper intimacy with You. Amen.
