Have You Learned to Remain With God, or Are You Still Visiting Him?

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

Psalm 91:1 NKJV

There is something beautiful in the word dwell. The Hebrew carries the idea of sitting, remaining, settling and inhabiting. This is not describing an occasional encounter with God. It is describing a place in which you have made your home. You are no longer arriving and leaving. You are learning to live there.

The Hebrew word translated dwells is yashab. It carries the meaning of sitting down, remaining, settling and inhabiting. Later in the same verse, the word translated abide comes from lun, meaning to lodge or remain through the night. In John 15, Jesus uses the Greek word menō, meaning to remain, stay, continue or endure. These are different words, but the invitation running through them is beautifully consistent. Take up residence. Do not merely visit.

It is possible to pray every day, read Scripture faithfully, worship deeply and seek God’s guidance, yet still relate to His presence as somewhere you visit. You enter when you need comfort. You seek Him when you need direction. You draw close when life becomes difficult. Then, without even realising it, you return to managing your thoughts, feelings and decisions on your own. You love God and know that He is with you, but you may not yet have learned how to remain with Him.

This often happens because you believe you must bring God the right response. You may reject a thought before understanding where it came from. You may silence a feeling because you believe it should not be there. You may rush towards certainty because not knowing feels unsafe. Without realising it, you have moved out of relationship and into self-management. You are trying to resolve alone what God is inviting you to explore with Him.

Abiding takes you deeper. The question begins to change from, “How do I get back into God’s presence?” to, “How do I learn to live from the relationship I already have with Him?” 

This is a very different way of relating to God. You are no longer trying to find your way back to Him every time something unsettles you. You are learning that you can remain with Him while you experience it.

You can think in His presence. You can feel in His presence. No matter how ugly it seems to you or sinful. You can bring your questions into His presence and explore what is happening within you while remaining connected to Him. You do not have to understand everything before you draw near. You draw near because you do not yet understand. God is not threatened by your questions or frightened by your emotions or behaviour. He is not waiting for you to organise yourself before you come to Him.

One of the greatest pressures you may carry is the belief that you should know immediately. You should know what God is saying. You should know what a particular feeling means. You should know which decision to make. When you do not know, fear begins to rise and creates pressure to reach a conclusion. You may then mistake urgency for guidance or accept the first answer that relieves the discomfort of uncertainty.

Discernment rarely grows through pressure. It grows through relationship. Abiding gives you somewhere secure enough to remain while you discover what is true. You do not have to know immediately, react immediately or decide immediately. You can stay with God and allow what is hidden to become visible. You can notice what is happening within you without immediately agreeing with it or pushing it away.

This is an important part of spiritual maturity. Maturity is not always having an immediate answer. Maturity is having the capacity to remain present with God when the answer has not yet become clear. It is being able to hold uncertainty without panic and to explore without fear. It is trusting that God remains with you throughout the process of discovery, not only when you finally reach a conclusion.

Abiding asks for something deeper than the right response. It asks you to remain honest and present within the relationship.

Trust does not grow because you command the wounded places within you to behave better. Trust grows as those places encounter the character of God. You do not have to remove your fear before coming to Him. You can bring your fear into the relationship. You do not have to overcome disappointment before remaining with Him. You can begin to discover Him within the disappointment.

When you believe you have left God’s presence, discernment becomes something you must accomplish. You work harder to hear Him and search for more confirmation. You become increasingly afraid of making the wrong decision. But when you know how to remain, discernment happens within relationship. God is with you while you understand the question. He is with you while you recognise what is influencing you. He remains with you as you discern what is true and decide how to respond.

Abiding is not simply another step in the process. It surrounds the entire process. You frame the question with God. You recognise what is happening with God. You discern what is true with God. You choose your response with God. This removes the pressure to manufacture certainty because the goal is no longer to make a perfect decision. The goal is to respond freely and wisely from within your relationship with Him.

Jesus gives us this same invitation in John 15 when He tells us to abide in Him. The word carries the meaning of staying, continuing and remaining.

Jesus is not saying, “Understand everything first.” He is not saying, “Find the right answer and then come back.” He is saying, “Stay with Me.”

Are You Ready to Go Deeper?

You may already know a great deal of biblical truth. The difficulty often lies in recognising what is happening within you and knowing how that truth applies when fear, old wounds or conflicting thoughts begin influencing your response.

Your Journey to Wholeness was created to help you understand those deeper inner processes. It will help you recognise what is influencing you, discern between the reactions of your soul and the leading of God’s Spirit, and respond with greater clarity and confidence.

This is not about gathering more information. It is about developing the capacity to live from the relationship you already have with God.

If you are ready to move beyond visiting God for answers and learn how to walk with Him through the whole process of transformation, Your Journey to Wholeness will guide you through that journey.

Discover Your Journey to Wholeness here: https://yourjourneytowholeness.thinkific.com/courses/Your-Journey-to-Wholeness