Is there a way in which you, as a believer, can deliberately "train" yourself to experience the Lord's presence in and around you?
Based on what I have recently learned from my own experience and the Word, I will share practical tips with you in the following sections.
Here is my first tip for you.
Spend focused time in the Lord's presence when you are alone.
In 1 Thess. 5:17 it says: "Pray continually."
If you think about it carefully, praying actually means nothing more than talking to the Lord who is in and with you. After all, from the Word, the Lord promises each of His children that He is with and in them. Therefore, it is only natural that we can also talk to Him.
Our prayer life is therefore this continuous communion with God himself, wherever we are, throughout the day or night.
It therefore does not matter whether we are alone or busy with the ordinary things of everyday life in our normal course of business. Because the Lord never leaves us or forsakes us alone, we can talk to Him at any time and in any place.
Whether we do it with our eyes closed or with our eyes open, it does not matter!
From my own life, I have discovered that to have this healthy and continuous conversation in prayer with the Lord in our ordinary life of every day, we must “practice” ourselves in this, where we are alone, such as in our inner room and in our alone time with the Lord.
I believe it begins with a choice to make time every day, disciplined, to be alone with the Lord, in which there is also time to talk to Him in prayer and worship. So that our thoughts will not start to wander so easily when we talk to Him throughout the day, and focus on Him.
If we look at the life of Jesus, we see what this looks like practically. But we also see it in the life of Paul.
For example, we read in many places how Jesus deliberately set aside time in the morning, or late at night, when everyone else was asleep, or going to sleep, so that He could be alone in prayer with His Father. (Mark 1:35)
Then we also read how He spoke to His Father many times during the day. (John 5:19)
Paul is another example of this. We read how he spent focused time in prayer in which he simply spoke to his Lord. (Acts 16:25, Acts 22:17)
Then we also read how he prayed during a normal day. (Phil.1:3-4, Eph. 6:18)
In my own life, “practicing the presence of God” began when the Lord spoke to me severely eight years ago about the fact that I was working hard and tirelessly in the ministry every day, seven days a week, up to as many as 17 hours a day, without stopping. See, I believed I was doing it for Him and was even “proud” of it!
Until the Lord caught me one morning in my quiet time and asked me: Why do you work like a slave seven days a week? Who instructed you to work like that without stopping? I didn’t tell you to do it that way!
Right then and there, the Lord instructed me to build a new disciplined rhythm into my life of going to bed at ten o’clock every night, so that I could wake up early in the morning, without an alarm, before anyone else in my household, fresh and rested, and then spend time with Him.
There, He could talk to me and I with Him. There, He could prepare me and get me in a good place every day, so that I could truly be an “ambassador” of His Kingdom throughout that day and be a mouthpiece for Him whenever He wanted to use me throughout that day.