The 3 Things Keeping You From God’s Presence
Obstacles to Experiencing the Divine in You
God’s Spirit in You
Throughout the Bible, it is not the individual but the Divine’s presence in the individual that is the deciding factor in their life. The same is true for you. The Spirit and Divine in you are the keys to experiencing the fullness of life and revealing all God has placed within you. When you live from your authentic and true self, you demonstrate God’s presence, power, and goodness to others.
Within you is the Divine waiting to be expressed. It is not just a little bit of the Spirit or a small piece of the God. You didn’t receive 20% of God’s love or 10% of God’s power. The Spirit in you is ALL of the Divine. Within you is 100% of God’s strength, peace, love, grace, and goodness — all that God is, is in you.
Obstacles
The challenge is maintaining the awareness of the Divine through each moment. I often start my day intending to reveal God’s life and love in the way I relate to another, but I quickly forget. At night, I am surprised that I was oblivious to my original desire and hurried through my day with little understanding of my presence or impact on others.
How is it that we so easily miss the Divine inside us or the presence of God? Author C.S. Lewis shared a story that illustrates the challenges of staying connected to the Spirit throughout the day. In his book, The Screwtape Letters, he writes about a demon who is a mentor for younger demons and trains them in keeping humans from God.
I share this story as there is great value in the principles it reveals. Whether or not you think there are demons is not the point. You do not need to believe in a devil to get something out of this illustration. Also, this is my paraphrase and embellishment of the story.
Demon Training
The older demon comes to the younger demons and says, “God, our enemy, wants these Christians to attend to two things in their life. First, they are to pay attention to the spiritual, for they are eternal beings. They are spiritual and will live forever, so they are to reveal the Divine and love in a way that will outlast their physical life. But even though they are eternal beings, they also live within the constraints of time. Therefore, God wants them to attend to the present moment, for that is the place where they experience and know the Divine. The present moment is the place in their life where they encounter God.”
The demons decide that they will do everything they can to keep humans from being present to the current moment, so they cannot connect with God. The demons devise three tactics to achieve their goal: attack our past, our future, and our present.
Our Past: Guilt, Shame, Regret
The demons first attack our past. They remind each individual of mistakes they have made and all that they have done wrong in their life. They make suggestive thoughts, like, “A good person would never do the things you have done.” or “You failed in the past, so you will probably fail now.”
Their ultimate goal is to create feelings of guilt and shame. Guilt and shame are words often used interchangeably, but they are not the same things. Guilt is a feeling of responsibility or remorse over something you have done and perceive as bad or evil. Shame is the feeling of being broken or unloveable as a person. Guilt says I have done something wrong, where shame says I am wrong. It is essential to see how shame is toxic and harmful to our identity.
If we focus on these emotions long enough, we become stuck in the past and miss our true selves. We want to learn from our mistakes and allow regret to teach us how to act differently in the future, but we must release guilt and shame to move forward.
However, the demons know that this approach will not work for some people. Some know that God loves them and forgives them for missing the mark. Not only do they receive God’s forgiveness, but they also extend forgiveness to themselves, which is often the most challenging part. The individuals know that God is not upset with them, so they extend grace to themselves, learn, and move on without regret. So for these individuals, the demons needed another plan.
Our Future: Fear, Worry, Anxiety
The demon’s second tactic is to attack an individual’s sense of the future. They bring up financial concerns, lack of control over outcomes, other’s opinions or judgments, or lack of safety and security. They suggest thoughts like, “You do not have enough,” “You are not safe,” or “You are not going to be okay.”
Their goal is to create feelings of fear and worry. These are unpleasant emotions focused on something that may cause pain, threat, or an uncertain outcome. The demons want each individual to feel uneasy about their future and continually dwell on their problems.
If fear and worry do not work, then having someone consistently daydream, always focused on some future date, will keep them from being present. Whether it is anxiety or daydreaming about the future, similar to being stuck in the past, the individuals cannot engage God’s presence in the current moment.
The demons know that this approach will also not work on some people. These individuals know that God is in their future, and they trust in the goodness of the Divine. They know they cannot control outcomes, but they can maintain their perspective, attitude, and response. So, the demons devised one more tactic to trip up humans.
Our Present: Busyness, Hurry, Exhaustion
If the demons are unable to get a person stuck in the past or fearful of the future, they target their schedule, so they have no margin for engaging God.
Their goals are to create exhaustion in all areas: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual weariness. When we are hurried and tired, it isn’t easy to connect with the Divine. Fatigue drains our capacity to be present at the moment and is an obstacle to giving and receiving love.
Whatever it Takes
The demons know God is in our past, but that is not where we experience God. They also know that God will be in our future, but that is not where we connect with the Spirit. Remember that God’s name is not “I was” or “I will be,” but “I am.” We experience God, the present tense I AM in the now.
Therefore, the demon’s goal is to keep you from the moment so that you cannot be present to God, to your Spirit, to what seeks to emerge in you, and to the Divine in others. They will do whatever it takes. They will use your past to create feelings of guilt and shame, they will use your future to elicit fear and worry, or they will get you busy, hurried, and exhausted.
What Keeps You From the Divine?
Again, the point is not about the existence of a devil or demons. The story’s theme is realizing what keeps you from living and expressing the Divine in you. What is it that keeps you from God’s presence? Is it one of these three or a combination of two or three?
- Your Past: Guilt, Shame, Regret?
- Your Future: Fear and Worry?
- Your Present: Busyness and Exhaustion?
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