Les had recently come to the Lord. As his knowledge of the faith was very limited he invited me to his home - to answer his many questions. On arriving, I found that he had also invited ten others, all believers. I was given the "lazyboy" chair and sat with my feet up answering their many questions.
"Pastor, teach me how to pray" said Les. I began to talk about prayer being conversation with God, our heavenly Father. Then I stopped and asked them: "Do you believe that the Lord is here at this moment?"
They all replied in the affirmative. "Yes, the Holy Spirit is here, but it is hard for us to conceive just what a spirit is like".
"You all know that God became a man two thousand years ago, so that we might understand something of His love. Well, let us consider the Holy Spirit as a man, the Christ, seated here among us this evening".
With those words, I pulled an empty chair alongside me and said, "Imagine that the Lord Himself is sitting on this chair". It was meant to be just a teaching illustration, but little did I know that the Lord had others plans for us that evening. It was not until later that we realised that bringing the chair in had closed the circle.
I also began to chuckle as I realised that I had sat up from my "lazyboy" position, as I looked at the chair. "See", I said, with a grin, "even our body language speaks when we pray. I'm sure I would not have remained slouched in the chair if the Queen had come into the room - but then, a far greater than she has promised to be here!"
Turning to the chair, I spoke to the 'imagined' man present, expressing my love to Him and thanking Him for my salvation. I invited Les to speak to the 'chair' as an exercise to understand the fundamental simplicity of prayer. He began to speak, thanking the Lord for visiting his home and for giving him salvation, even though, for many years, he had turned his back on the Saviour. Others followed Les in addressing the 'chair' - but something wonderful was happening.
We all began to feel a presence filling the room, and we realised that this was no idle exercise. The Lord Himself was present with us in reality. Tears filled every eye, flowing down unhindered onto shirt fronts and blouses. An awesome silence lingered after the last guest had spoken. We had met the Lord!
Things were different in our church after that. The next morning Les prayed his first public prayer in our morning service and everyone present knew that Les was in communion with his God. Those present that wonderful evening became the core of our Praise & Worship group and the church began to experience a deep sense of His presence among us each time we came to corporate worship.
Worship in spirit and in truth is only possible to those who know an intimacy with the Lord who is in our midst. I believe it sadly true, that more often than not, we ignore Him as He is seated among us.
Like Bro. Lawrence of old, we must learn to practice the presence of God.
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Gareth Evans ( - )
Gareth Evans is an itinerant pastor/teacher with a burden to minister to the hurting church his ministry website is Gareth Evans Ministries. Formerly a Physics teacher in the UK and Canada, he became a pastor with the Christian & Missionary Alliance in Canada in 1979. In 1991, he was invited to serve as pastor on board the M/V Anastasis, a medical, missionary ship operated by Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Since leaving that ministry four years later, Gareth has traveled to many countries, encouraging pastors and missionaries.He is married to Anne and they have three married daughters, nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Gareth and Anne live in Victoria, in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. Some of his main burdens is to mentor young men to see them walk in the anointing of God and soar on wings as eagles. He has also prayed for revival and moderated many revival conferences across the world.