“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6
When we worship the Lord, in private or in a group setting, we often sense Him roll into the room and into our hearts with His glory. For me, it is an experience of being lovingly overtaken by His majestic Presence and sensing being overwhelmed by the greatness of His power. I have even sensed a spiritual rumbling and heard the rushing sound of wind in the presence of God. In these moments, it is obvious that God is Someone to awe and His power is something to respect.
Some may try to compare or counterfeit this experience by overwhelming people with lights and sound or with a euphoria of emotions. It can be an incredible experience, but trying to somehow ascend to God is not the same as being overtaken by God Himself.
There was a time when I sense this feeling of being overtaken by God, and I thought of the word in Psalm 23:6 that is translated “follow.” The work in the Hebrew gives us a deeper understand of being ardently pursued and caught by God. The word is a picture of being chased by God, running after us, until we are consumed by Him, completely immersed and surrounded in the arms of our Father. It’s an amazing feeling, a feeling that causes us to continue to draw after Him so that we can experience God drawing after us, that wonderful feeling of abandoning ourselves so that we be caught by God in the spirit. This is the place where we can so easily hear His voice or receive a miracle. It isn’t dependent on our goodness, but on His goodness.
It was in this same space that I thought of a song that sings about God’s goodness and mercy “running after me.” I sensed God swelling up around me, even sensing the vibration of His power. Then, the worship team began to sing this song, and wow, God’s power was felt intensely all around the room. It’s His glory.
In Luke 5:17, Jesus was teaching, and it says, “the power of the Lord was present to heal them.” In the Greek, the word is “eis,” meaning, “entrance into,” referring to direction and limit. The power of God entered into the room and people were healed. They were overtaken.
Application: In Jeremiah 29:13-14 God tells us to seek Him and we will find Him. Seek His Presence, and you will find Him and be found by Him. We are made to know His glory, and we taste and see His glory when we pursue Him.