The Practice of the Presence of God

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That it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times: that we were as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action as by prayer in its season. (21) Having found different methods of going to God and different practices to attain the spiritual life in several books, I decided that they would serve more to hinder than to facilitate in me what I was seeking—which was nothing other than a means to be wholly God's. This made me decide to give all to gain all; so after having given all to God in satisfaction for my sins, I began to live as if there were no one in the world but Him and me.” (p73) On the surface, such an approach sounds very simplistic, or even selfish. However, the same day I read those words of Brother Lawrence, I read almost the exact same idea expressed by another Carmelite from 200 years earlier. In describing the transforming union that a soul undergoes when it finally achieves oneness with God, St. John of the Cross writes, “And here lies the remarkable delight of this awakening: the soul knows creatures through God and not God through creatures.” (p189, Fire Within, Thomas Dubay, S.M.)

Entering the Presence of God | Book | Derek Prince Ministries Entering the Presence of God | Book | Derek Prince Ministries

When we are in doubt, God never fails to show us the right way to go, as long as our only goal is to please Him and show our love for Him.” As a Christian husband and father of one (and another on the way), I am moved by the practical principles for religious devotion to Christ that are laid out in this book, but I do wish that they were not hypocritically represented by a clergyman who divorced himself entirely from life amongst lay people. It sets a terrible precedent when Jesus said,"no one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light" (Luke 11:33). Brother Lawrence was a man of humble beginnings who discovered the greatest secret of living in the kingdom of God here on earth. It is the art of “practicing the presence of God in one single act that does not end.” He often stated that it is God who paints Himself in the depths of our souls. We must merely open our hearts to receive Him and His loving presence. I was disappointed to learn that really only about half of this book was written by Brother Lawrence. The first section contains a series of "conversations" recorded by someone who had spoken with Brother Lawrence and the last section was a short biography of his life. I found this biography to be so inundated with bad theology and an almost worshipful view of Brother Lawrence that it left a severe distaste of the entire book. Many have heard of Brother Lawrence's quote about peeling potatoes to the glory of God. This book is a collection of his letters dealing with the topic of practicing God's presence.So I agree with him that being with God can make paradise available even for the sufferer, not because the suffering is a gift, but because God's presence is the ever promised gift even despite suffering.

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In the next section of the book, we are given sixteen of Brother Lawrence's letters—mostly written to a nun, but also one to a priest and several to a lay woman. All of these further elucidate how one is to advance along the path toward our ultimate goal, full and total communion with God. The book concludes with a group of Brother Lawrence's maxims. BL writes that to practice the presence of God, the heart must be empty of all else--Christ alone shall dwell there. Read 1 Cor 7:32-35. Do you think that Brother Lawrence had an advantage or disadvantage by living in a monastic community? Do you and I have an advantage or disadvantage, in practicing the presence of God as husbands, fathers, grandfathers?God does all of this so that he can be our God and we can be his people (Gen 17:7; Ex 6:7; 29:45, Rev 21:3, etc.). At the heart of the covenant, then, is a relationship—one that is decidedly on his terms. God enters into his creation to create a people and a place for his presence. And so the covenant is as the Lord declares at Sinai: “I will dwell among the people of Israel and be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them” (Ex 29:45-46). 7. The presence of God is the means and end of redemption.