Priority of His Presence, Part 2: When You Are Here
You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Ps 16:11
What is the priority of His Presence? The Bible tells us that God fills us with joy in His presence, with eternal pleasures at His right hand. Wondering what to do in life? The same verse above says that God will make known to you the path of life. We can ask Him in prayer! Ephesians 2:10 says "God has planned good works in advance for you to do."
As a young adult, Jonathan seriously contemplated suicide that ended with a major moment with God. Today, Jonathan leads worship at his father's church, assisted by his wife, Rebecca. They have three young children and want to live to serve God.
You will hear:
My dad was crying on the floor - broken. My mom did not want to talk to me. What the heck did I do? – Jonathan
I had gone through this time of disconnection with God. The times of rebellion in my life was the influence of the people I allowed in my inner circle, like my friendships. The boundaries I had set up for myself being raised up in a Christian home, I let go of them. That made me, not just create some distance with God, but also, create hatred towards Him. It opened the doors to even, I know it sounds crazy, but even suicide. – Jonathan
God loves me as I am… Okay God, I am not alone. I may feel alone but you are here, you are present. – Rebecca
Hear Jonathan and Rebecca sing Jonathan’s own song – When You are Here.
Be filled with the Spirit,…singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord; Ephesians 5:18b, 19b
If we are able to love one another above all of that, God will work through it. - Rebecca
Do not give up on yourself as parent, as a person. God loves me as I am. - Rebecca
God can use what we think we are not good at. – Jonathan
One of the important things as Christians, as followers of Christ, is we got to learn to be grateful at all times, when we don’t have it all and when we have much. We have to be grateful in everything. Even when we are at home or we are in debt, and everything is not going the way we were hoping for - being content, being grateful is something that you can learn as a Christian by knowing what God has done for us. – Jonathan
He hasn’t had an easy life. He decided to be brave. - Rebecca
In Part 1, we saw how before Jonathan's father was a pastor he was a Colombian guerrilla rebel fighter hired to assassinate an evangelist. The evangelist said, ‘I believe there is someone here, that is here to kill me.” My dad’s testimony is that he went up and everyone freaked out because he came and put his gun down and gave his life to the Lord. From then on, his life turned completely around. His decision paved the way for his son, Jonathan, and his whole family. Jonathan says, “Knowing all that background of my family made me realize, God can break barriers wherever we go with the priority of His presence.”
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