The Holy Spirit’s Presence
Welcome to the Holy Spirit Untethered. My name is Amber Beals, and it is my job and my mission to allow the Holy Spirit
Amber Beels:to speak through me, to help demystify who He is, what his role is, and to deeply encourage you to seek a relationship with him. Alright. Let's get started. Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Holy Spirit Tethered podcast.
Amber Beels:My name is Amber, and I am so happy that you're listening right now. Wherever you are, whether you're in the car, you're doing dishes, you're walking your dog, maybe you're procrastinating on something else and decided to listen to this podcast, you are welcome here. I don't know about you, but I always like to listen to my podcast whenever I am doing something else because I am a woman and I do multitasking. Maybe not well, but I do partake in the multitasking thing. So wherever you are, I hope you're doing well.
Amber Beels:And today I am excited because we're gonna be talking about the Lord's presence, the Holy Spirit's presence, and we're gonna dive into that a little deeper today. But before I do, first off, have you listened to my last episode yet, the one with Eloisa? We talk about the fruit of the spirit, and it was, as my pastor would say, so good. So good. So if you haven't already, go ahead and take a listen to that.
Amber Beels:That is episode 16, that is with Eloisa, and we talk about the fruit of spirit, and we just dive into that in each one. And she has a scripture reference for every fruit that there is, and she points out some things that I didn't even notice. That is why we need the body of Christ so that we can bounce things off one another, so that we can reveal things to one person because we didn't recognize something that they did in scripture because we all think differently. Right? We all have different perspectives, and we take away different things.
Amber Beels:And it's just amazing to be able to come together and, you know, go over our thoughts and talk about it and just really dive into the living word because it is living. And the Holy Spirit speaks to us all differently in in the word and reveals different parts of it to each of us. And it's just really cool. So again, go check it out, episode 16 with Eloisa. So, yes, but today, the Lord's presence.
Amber Beels:Now, before we get started again, we're gonna pray. So if you can do so and it's safe, go ahead and pray with me. All right. Dear heavenly father, we just thank you for today. We thank you for this opportunity to be able to come here and just learn more about your living spirit.
Amber Beels:Holy Spirit, I pray that you would speak through me. I pray that you would just allow your words to come forward and my words to fall away. I just pray Lord for every person that is listening to this podcast, that their hearts would be prepared to listen and that they would be able to take away the message that you want them to take away, Lord. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amber Beels:Alright. So, the presence of the Lord. Now, God is omnipresent. Right? And that means that God is everywhere.
Amber Beels:He's everywhere all at once all the time because he's outside of time. And that is very unique to him. Right? Nobody else can do that. Nobody else is omnipresent.
Amber Beels:They're not everywhere all the time all at once. Right? But he also lives inside us. Right? So once you become a believer, once you accept Jesus's gift by dying on the cross and for all of our sins, and you trust in him and you accept his gift of salvation, then you get the Holy Spirit to live inside you, which is very unique because prior to Jesus doing this and and dying for us, there was no holy like, the Holy Spirit couldn't do that.
Amber Beels:He wasn't able to inhabit a human all the time. Like, he would come upon people, like, in the Old Testament for certain things, like I believe he came on Samson to give him that strength, and he came upon different people again in the Old Testament, but he couldn't stay there. That wasn't his promise at the time. And the reason why he couldn't stay there was because we were unholy. We were not righteous and something like that cannot house the Lord for a long period of time because he, he just can't, he can't stay there.
Amber Beels:So when Jesus sacrificed himself and died for all our sins, this was the new covenant that the G, that this was the new covenant, that the Holy Spirit would come and reside in you and never leave. And that is his promise that he will never leave you no matter what, no matter what you put him through, no matter what happens, he's not gonna leave you, because he made that promise to you, which is incredible because if you really think about it, like, I know we just go through our everyday lives, you know, because we have we're busy. We do things, you know, like I own a business. I also do a lot for my church. Like my schedule is pretty full.
Amber Beels:And sometimes we can just get caught in the minutiae of things and kind of forget that you carry around the Lord of the universe, you carry around His living spirit within you, and everything you do, you're subjecting Him to. And I talked about that in a few episodes ago talking about guarding your heart because you do house the spirit of the living God. He lives in you and how important that is. So He has your presence within you and He's also all around you, right? But sometimes, I don't know about you, but for me, sometimes I feel like I can't feel His presence.
Amber Beels:Sometimes I feel like He's left me. And that's not unique to me, because if you read the Psalms, he talks about that a lot. Like, why have you left me? Why, why did you leave me here? And he like, a lot of the Psalms are just Psalms of lament because I believe David suffered from depression.
Amber Beels:I think that was definitely a thing that he suffered with. Now he loved the Lord, like, he was close to the Lord, but he struggled. And I think it's in the scripture so that it can kinda be an example to us that if we feel like the Lord has forsaken us, if we feel like, I just can't feel him right now, That is normal. Like, that happens. It's what we do with it that really makes a difference.
Amber Beels:Like, how do you respond not feeling the presence of the Lord? And I feel like there's different kinds of presence that the Lord will reveal to you. And I recently got to experience a different level of his presence that I had never experienced before. And I'm gonna reference The Ah of God by John Brevere. That is a that is a book.
Amber Beels:Obviously, I I know I reference John Brevere a lot. I am a fan, I guess. I went through his course. I have his app. I listened to his podcast.
Amber Beels:I read his books like John Biver, if you're listening, I am a fan. But the latest book that he just came out, at least the latest book as of now in September, Well, by the time this comes out October of 2024, the awe of God was released, I believe this year or last year, but it was recommended to me by a dear friend, Marilyn. Shout out to Marilyn. You're amazing. She actually just let me her book, and then I was trying to, like, wanting to give it back.
Amber Beels:And she's like, no, just pass it forward. So that's just the amazing heart that Marilyn has. But I read that book and it was mind blowing. It was another level of, wow, what am I missing here? Like, how did I how did I not know all these things?
Amber Beels:And I feel like a lot of us, and I'm included in this, I used to be anyway, where we just depend on our pastors, we depend on our church for our own spiritual growth. And that's not that is not the role of the church. The role of the church is not to spoon feed you the knowledge and the character of God. Like, yes, church is amazing, and you should be attending and finding a community that you can serve because we were not to be islands. We were meant to come together.
Amber Beels:We're a body, like, a body needs the hands and the eyes and the feet and everything. Like, we the reason why we were given a complete body. Right. And same thing for the Christ, the, the body of Christ, it's the same thing. We need each other to be able to edify one another in our growth, but we can't just strictly depend on that.
Amber Beels:You need to dive into the scripture, you need to invest in your own relationship with the Lord because honestly, that's the most important thing that you can do, the most important thing. And I know that's hard to put in perspective sometimes when you have kids, you have a family, you have a business, you have whatever, like, well, well, I gotta take care of my kids. I gotta take care of my husband. I gotta you know, whatever. Like, yes, those things are important, but Christ should come first.
Amber Beels:And the scriptures say, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. What he's talking about is he's talking about everything else, everything that you need, all your your provisions, your the things you you need to do in life. He's gonna provide those things. The first thing that should be on your to do list is spending time with the Lord and being intentional and growing your relationship with the Lord because the Lord is not gonna force you. The Lord is just going to patiently wait until you get your stuff together and you reach out to him or you're so desperate because we are designed to have a relationship with our creator, like that that's innate in us.
Amber Beels:And so when you don't know the Holy Spirit, you don't know the Lord, there's a void in your life. And this goes for everybody. I don't care who you are. Like, you are gonna be trying to fill that void with anything, with money, with relationships, with family, with things. Like, whatever it is, you're gonna try to fill this God shaped void in your life with the only the things that you have available to you or that you think you have available to you and that is worldly things.
Amber Beels:That is relationships, money, items, pets, whatever it is, like, you that is what you're gonna be doing because that's all you know. But when the Lord created all of us, he created us with a void because we're in a fallen world. Because before the fallen world, we were designed to have a relationship with Him. Adam and Eve got to spend every day with the Lord. They walked in the garden with Him, like they knew Him.
Amber Beels:They walked with Him. And that was His intention for all of mankind, for all of us to be that close, that intimate with Him, to just walk in the garden with Him. But because of the world we live in, obviously, that did not go to plan. God's plan is the best, but, you know, we, we tend to mess that up sometimes. All the way from Adam and Eve, it's there's nothing new.
Amber Beels:Right? So his presence, going back to that, in this book that Jean Bavier wrote, and I'll put it in the show notes where you can get it. Again, it's amazing. He talks about how to truly be in the mighty presence of the Lord is a completely different feeling than just normal everyday life doing your thing. And he gives examples of, like, being on mission trips, and the Lord reveals his presence, and, like, people are writing him lezz letters years later talking about, wow, I really felt, like, the manifest presence of God, and it was just amazing.
Amber Beels:And I read that, and I was like, you know what? I've never experienced that. I have never experienced the Lord on that level. And now I have felt his presence. I have felt his comfort, especially after my miscarriage.
Amber Beels:I I felt his comfort. I felt a peace. Like, those of you that know that peace beyond understanding that I have felt that many times in in the times that I really needed it. And those times are amazing. Like that peace is like nothing else and that joy is nothing else.
Amber Beels:However, this presence that John Brevere describes as the mighty presence of the Lord, where you are weeping because you are in front of the almighty God, or you're shaking or your heart is pounding, whatever it is. To that point, I had never experienced that. And I talk about this a little bit with my episode with Dan Jordan. Shout out to Dan. If you haven't listened to his podcast, his podcast is amazing.
Amber Beels:It's called What's Up Church, and we sponsor his podcast, and it's just a blessing. I I really love it. So I had him be a guest on mine. I believe that's episode 3, 2 or 3, something like that. So it's one of my first ones.
Amber Beels:But, yeah, I talk a little bit about that. But I really wanna dive into that presence today and what that experience was like in that everybody should be pursuing that presence and that it's not something to be scared of. Because I don't know about you, but for me, I have been through some spiritual things and those have been traumatizing for me. And so I didn't really want anything spiritual. I didn't wanna deal with anything in the spiritual realm because I had dealt with some of the dark stuff and I was like, you know what?
Amber Beels:I'm I'm good. And so it took me, like, over 10 years to kind of like work through that. And the Holy Spirit, man, the Holy Spirit is so patient because he he was so patient with me in that, like, you know, trying to heal through that and and getting me to get used to anything spiritual because he's my father. He's he only wants good things for me. And so he wants me to experience this whole other part of my faith that I haven't, that I've, that I've built these walls up because I'm scared.
Amber Beels:And that's not of the Lord. He didn't want us to be afraid. We're supposed to be of a sound mind, somebody that trusts Him. And that's one of the things that I really wanna touch on today is trust and faith. Because in order to have that mighty presence of the Lord, you have to have trust and you have to have faith in the Lord.
Amber Beels:And they go hand in hand, they are not the same thing. I know sometimes people use them interchangeably because it's such a nuance difference that it can be easy to kinda just use them interchangeably, but they are different. And so I kinda wanna differentiate the difference right now so that we can move on to the presence and what that looks like, at least what that looked like for me. And in the book, if you read it, he goes on and he explains it. And my experience was very similar to that experience.
Amber Beels:So I think, you know, that there's gonna be commonalities in experiencing the mighty presence of the Lord. And I actually did a a sermon. I have preached at my church some, a few times now, I wanna say 5 or 6 times. And I remember when my pastor asked me to do it the first time, and I was just like, yeah. No.
Amber Beels:But, you know, I prayed about it, and I had to be obedient and the Lord was like, you need to do this. So I did, and since then, pastor Shane has asked me a couple of times to to go up. But one of the I think it was my second sermon I talked about this, but the difference between faith and trust. And the name of my sermon was From Anxiety to Purpose, talking about, you know, I feel like all of us struggle with anxiety to some level just because our world is just full of just bad stuff, and we get anxious about it. Right?
Amber Beels:And and how do we respond to that? That was my sermon. But in it, one of my points was trusting the Lord, and I differentiate between faith and trust. And I wrote, trust and faith go hand in hand. It's the confidence that God can and will do what He says in His word.
Amber Beels:That is trust. And then what I did is I had a demonstration. I had a prop, which was a chair. I had it on the stage, and I said faith recognizes that a chair is designed to support the person who sits on it. So that is faith, recognizing that the Lord is gonna do something, that He has the capability of doing it, he is designed to do it, he has said he is going to do it, and trust demonstrates the faith by actually sitting in the chair.
Amber Beels:So trust is demonstrating your faith. Trust is the action. Faith is the belief. So those are the two differences. So having faith in the Lord is knowing that, yes, I believe the Lord is gonna come through for me in this situation, and trust is acting as if he already has by demonstrating your faith, by actually sitting in your chair, sitting in the chair of the Lord.
Amber Beels:So that those are the two differences between trust and faith. And you need both, like I, like I just said, they go hand in hand. And one of the things that John Bevere says in the book, one of the fastest ways to get into the presence of the Lord is to remind yourself and just be in this place of recognizing who the Lord really is. So the first time I did this, and I think I've mentioned this a few times, like, where I go to spend time with the Lord as I sit on my floor in front of my fireplace, and I just play worship music in my AirPods, and I worship him. And then after I worship him, I then, you know, tell the Lord exactly what I have questions about or what I wanna kind of focus on.
Amber Beels:And and then I pray in the spirit. And then afterwards, I'm silent and I just let him speak to me. And that's when he starts talking. And sometimes he answers my questions, sometimes he does not. And sometimes he talks about other things because he has an agenda too.
Amber Beels:And I have to remember that, that like when I come to him, it's not always about what I wanna talk about. I have to care about what he wants to talk about because it's more important, honestly. It really is. So this one time after I had read the book, I think I had gone through chapter 3, and I was like, okay. I'm gonna try this.
Amber Beels:I'm gonna try this. And so, again, John Muir says that you need to, like, just sit and just remember who the lord is and maybe just say it in your head. And so that's what I did. I sat there, and I was like, lord, you are awesome. Lord, you created the universe.
Amber Beels:And I started just imagining him like creating the world and him being outside of time and him just desiring to create us and not only create us, but have a relationship with us. And I just started thinking about all these things and I had worship music playing. And then I told the Lord, I said, I expect you to show up. Lord, I believe you are the almighty God. I believe you created the heavens and the earth.
Amber Beels:I believe you created me, and I believe you want a relationship with me, and you want to you want me to experience you on a whole new level. So I expect you to show up, and I am not leaving until you do. And then I was quiet. Music was still playing. I just sat there.
Amber Beels:And I I'm gonna be honest. I mean, I I was a little scared because I had no idea what to expect. Other than I knew he was gonna show up, but I didn't know how I was gonna react. I'm a very sensitive person, so a lot of the times I cry, so I kinda was like, okay. I'm probably gonna cry or, you know, whatever.
Amber Beels:I don't know. Am I gonna hear something? Am I going to feel something? Am I gonna have a bit like, I I had no idea. All I knew was that he was gonna show up and that I was scared.
Amber Beels:Like, even after all this time, I was still like, I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't know. Like, what do I do? Like, I'm I'm scared that he's gonna, like, touch me in a way that is gonna, like, freak me out or, you know, but I don't know. Like, we get in our heads and we create problems that aren't even there yet.
Amber Beels:I mean, I don't Do you do that? I mean, I do that all the time. So I'm sitting there and just all of a sudden, it took about 5, 10 minutes, I think. I was just sitting there and I was just waiting. And all of a sudden, I just got this overwhelming, just downpour.
Amber Beels:I don't even know how to explain it, but it I just felt like the holy spirit was just covering me, and it was heavy, but not in a bad way. And it was like tingly, and my heart started pounding, like, out of my chest pounding, like and I started hyperventilating. And I was like, like, I'm trying to like catch my breath and I'm just feeling this overwhelming feeling of the presence of the Lord. And to my surprise, I did not cry. I did not cry.
Amber Beels:I was in shock. That's the best way that I could put it. It was I was in shock. I was like, oh, man, he's here. Oh, he's here.
Amber Beels:And I'm like, just hyperventilating. My heart is pounding, and the Lord's just like, be still. And I just it was the verse that came to mind was be still and know that I'm with God. Just be still. And so I was like, okay, I'm not saying nothing.
Amber Beels:I'm just just sitting here and my arms got tingly and he starts moving my arms, which is weird. But I was like, I told myself, Amber, do not move. Do not move. Just let him do whatever he he wants to do. And so he ended up moving my arms into, like, a praying position, and he moved me back.
Amber Beels:So I I sit on the floor, like crisscross applesauce, and there's my coffee table behind me. And he kinda pushed me against the coffee table, and he lifted my head, and he made my hands into kinda like a prayer, like, position. And I sat there, And, eventually, my heart calmed down. I wasn't hyperventilating anymore. And I just sat there in the presence of the Lord.
Amber Beels:And it was just crazy. It was crazy. But it was crazy good. Because, like, again, never felt that way. I felt the peace.
Amber Beels:I felt the comfort. I have felt all those other things before, but I have not felt the manifest presence of the mighty presence of the Lord. Oh man, do I recommend it? Because after I experienced that myself, after reading about it and then experiencing it myself, it puts everything into perspective. It puts everything into perspective.
Amber Beels:It makes that, you know, seek first, the kingdom of the Lord and everything else will be added to you. It makes that verse make sense because when you feel the mighty presence of the Lord, nothing else matters. Nothing. Like, yeah, you still care about those other things, but it just really realigns everything for you and it makes you realize that the king of the universe wants to spend time with you. You should probably be intentional with that.
Amber Beels:And so I highly recommend that book, The of God by John Brevere. Again, I'll put it in the show notes. You could check it out. It's an amazing, amazing book. And to get there, I wanna talk about practicality, because I don't know about you, but I always ask the Lord.
Amber Beels:Okay. Great. But what does that look like? Okay. You want me to do that, but what does that look like in my life?
Amber Beels:Because I want to I am serious about implementing it, and so how do how do I do that? And so John Bevere, he breaks it down really well in the book, and I'm only gonna hit a couple of them, the ones that really stood out to me, and that was to say yes, be obedient to the Lord all the time, even when it doesn't make sense. Like even when everyone else in the world is like, what are you doing? Why are you doing that? If the Lord tells you do it, you need to do it, even when it doesn't make sense and even if you never realize why it why he wanted you to do it.
Amber Beels:Because a lot of the times, you'll get that answer of like, this doesn't make any sense, but then, like, years later, you're like, oh, okay. Yeah. I see it now. But sometimes it never does. And that's where the faith and trust come in of like, Lord, I know you have all the best intentions for me.
Amber Beels:I know you have my life in your hands. I know that you already know what's gonna happen, and so I trust you even though right now what you're telling me to do makes no sense. But I'm gonna do it because you're telling me to. And it's not because it's not just because he's telling you to. It's not because he is like a drill sergeant and you need to obey him no matter what, no questions asked, like, that's not that's not our father.
Amber Beels:He the reason he tells you to do things is because they're what's best for you, even if it doesn't make sense. So, like, if he tells you like, hey, you need to be celibate before you get married. There is a reason for that. There's a reason that he doesn't want you to do that. It's not because he's being mean.
Amber Beels:It's because he knows what that means if you're fooling around. Like, he knows what's going on if you do that. He knows what might happen if you do that. He tells you to do something and it doesn't make sense, like, oh, you're not supposed to, you know, he tells us to respect our parents, and sometimes that's really hard to do. To, you know, respect your father and mother, even if they've been kind of a jerk to you.
Amber Beels:Like, there's a reason why he wants you to do that. Even if it's hard, even if it doesn't make sense, like he wants you to do those things because he knows the consequences if you don't. It's not just because he's being, you know, strict father over here. It's because he truly, truly loves you and he knows everything. He knows how this plays out.
Amber Beels:Right? And he wants what's best for you. He wants the best life for you. He wants to bless you. Like that is all things he wants to do.
Amber Beels:So so being obedient to him, that is definitely one of the things that helps in allowing yourself to be surrounded by his presence. Another thing is to fully be intentional with your relationship with the Lord. And for me, what that looks like is time. You know, we talk about tithing money, 10% or whatever percentage you do of your income should go to the Lord. Well, I believe that's the same thing for time.
Amber Beels:We should give the Lord our time. If he truly is all that matters, if he truly is the most important thing in your life, then you're going to make time. I know a lot of the times it's hard because you have so much on your plate. You're serving, you have a business, you have a job, you have kids, you have pets, you you know, whatever it is, like, he knows you're busy. I know that most people are busy, but if you're intentional with your growth, if you're intentional with serving the Lord and putting him first, then you're gonna make time.
Amber Beels:You're gonna put it in your calendars, carve out, you know, 20 minutes, an hour, however much you can spend time with him. Put it in your calendar. I I have a calendar because I need I have too much going on. I will forget. So put it in your calendar and make it a habit.
Amber Beels:It takes, I think, 30 days to develop a habit. So you wake up every day and you do that in the morning, every day with your coffee or tea or whatever you drink, then it's gonna be normal for you. It's gonna be something that you do all the time, something that you look forward to. And if you don't do it every day, you're not gonna beat yourself up about it either because it's all about your heart posture. The Lord wants your heart.
Amber Beels:So say, one day, you just didn't get there. You weren't able to sit on your couch or at your desk or wherever and spend your time with the Lord. Like, the Lord's not gonna chastise you for that because he knows that if you had any other choice, if you had enough time, you would have been there. It's more about your heart posture and wanting to spend that time with him and actually doing it, but it's okay if it doesn't happen every day. I don't do it every day.
Amber Beels:I wish I did, but do I do it more often than not? Yes. I do it probably 5 days a week. That's my goal, is around 5 days a week, spending time with him and give him that time and that intentionality. And that's just me going in his scripture.
Amber Beels:That's just me reading my devotional and praying and and doing the things. That doesn't include time where, you know, I sit on the floor and I worship him. That's on other times. And, honestly, I need to do that more, but I try to do that once or twice a week, but I would love to do it way more. But a lot of the times it's that like 1 or 2 in the morning.
Amber Beels:I can't always do that. So but the point is you're intentional with your time and your heart is in the right place. You are seeking the Lord. And I'm telling you that once you experience his presence, his mighty presence, you're gonna wanna do that more often. You're going to want to know him on that level more.
Amber Beels:I just recently did it again a couple of days ago, and the Lord spoke to me and said, I missed you. And I just I just broke down. I did cry at that point because I missed him too. Like that level, it's been a minute since I've been there. And he told me he was like, you don't have to wait till 1 or 2 in the morning to do this.
Amber Beels:You know, you could do this other times of the day. And I'm like, yeah, I know. I need to just, just carve that time, put it in my calendar and just do what you preach Amber and actually do it. So that's something that I'm working on, But he knows my heart, and he knows that I wanna be there, and he knows that I will make those changes because I do desire to know him on that level. And so my my prayer for you guys is that you experience him in that way, because that that is the holy spirit manifesting himself in a mighty way.
Amber Beels:I know a lot of the times we view him as the comforter and the person who lives in us and the convictor and all of that, but he's also mighty. He is a mighty member of the trinity. I mean, he's the fingers of God. He's the one that actually formed stars and did all the things. Like, he's the the laborer of the 3.
Amber Beels:He is mighty in power. And when you get to experience that level of him, that side of him, it's it's just crazy. It's good. It's so good. So I pray that you do that.
Amber Beels:Read that book. It's so good. And even if maybe you don't have enough time to read the book. Okay. Do the things that I've I've mentioned.
Amber Beels:Really just sit down, remember who the Lord is, put some worship music on, get your head in the right space, and talk to the Lord and say, I expect you to show up today. I expect you to show up, and I and I'm not gonna leave until you do, Holy Spirit. I know who you are. You're the God of the universe, and you're almighty, and I'm ready to experience you on that level. And he'll show up.
Amber Beels:He will. Just buckle up. Alright, guys. Well, I hope that this message blesses you. I hope that you take something away from this.
Amber Beels:Share it with somebody. If it you know, you learn something new, share this episode with somebody. If one of my past episodes have helped you share the podcast, I could really use your help in that area to make sure that this podcast gets out to everyone that isn't that this podcast gets out to everyone that it's intended to reach. So that's where I need the body of Christ. Come on, hands and feet.
Amber Beels:Click share. Alright, guys. Well, I hope you have a great week, and I'll see you next week.
