by Del Hungerford
When you first hear the words “practicing His presence,” that all seems easy enough, right? Well… maybe not so much. I’ll take myself for example – when I first heard that phrase, I thought I had an idea of what it meant but soon realized that I was totally clueless. How so? Well, because I didn’t know HOW to practice being in God's presence.
Over the last few years, I’ve talked with several people who ask me how to see better in the spirit and/or engage the Kingdom Realms of heaven. Several conversations later, I’m beginning to realize that people don’t understand practicing. How do you truly “practice” God’s presence? Well, let's explore the "art of practicing."
NEWS FLASH! If you're not good at being consistent, now is a good time to learn that craft. If you're one who starts something and gives up easily before something is completed within a reasonable amount of time, then it might be worth your while to take each situation before God and ask what's causing the problem. It may be as simple as you tend to have too many things on your plate or as complicated as a trauma from childhood. You never know unless you ask for revelation.
Trust me, an issue with being consistent generally has nothing to do with your personality. It's more than likely related to habits, your thought processes, what you believe about yourself (or don't believe), how you were raised, trauma, or a few other things that stop forward motion in its tracks. "Practicing is fun!" no musician ever says in the beginning. We tend to give up when things get hard. But, that's the time when we should be pushing forward. So, let's do this! Determine that you CAN be consistent and start with the small things. Add more "responsibility" as you become more consistent in the small things.
OK, with that out of the way, let's explore practicing from a professional classical musician's perspective...
Practicing His Presence
Most of my readers know by now that I’m a music teacher. That means I play a musical instrument and have spent many years learning how to perfect the art of playing that instrument. Because I was a band director, I learned to play all of the band instruments – many of them just good enough to be a step ahead of the students. My main instrument is the clarinet with my secondaries being piano and saxophone. I have three degrees in music and played professionally for many years. I used to joke with my college students that I spent more years in a practice room than they’ve been alive.
I’m probably not overestimating that either… it’s the truth. To be a good classical musician, you have to practically be married to your instrument and a practice room. Ahhhh... the joys of our practice building, Ridenbaugh Hall, on the University of Idaho campus where I spent hours of my life practicing scales and arpeggios, just like the Aristocats.
In a conversation with a young man, he’d been trying to see with his spiritual eyes but struggled with the “how to” in doing it. Yes, he could see things but often doubted what he saw. My questions to him were “Do you spend time every day going to meet Jesus? Do you write down what you see and hear? Do you go back and ask for more revelation into what you previously saw and/or heard?” Not surprisingly, his answer was that he’d not been consistent. Key word here… CONSISTENT.
Let’s take a look at the typical classical musician’s life… As an undergraduate, I spent a minimum of four hours a day in the practice room. There were times that I’d literally spend my entire practice time on three or four measures, gradually moving the metronome up notch-by-notch until my hands were screaming “enough already!!!” I didn’t care… they had to obey me and if that meant doing it over and over until they cried “Uncle!!!,” I was going to do it. Pretty much, all the way through my doctoral program, I had the clarinet in my mouth at least 10 hours per day. By the end of the day, my chops (slang for embouchure) often felt like raw hamburger.
Fast forward to my teaching career… Part of learning to be a musician is getting some basics down. Some of those basics include “scales and arpeggios.” Whatever you start learning, it’s going to take more time at first but you have to get the patterns in your hands and brain as well as setting a routine. The more consistent and accurate you become, stuff gets easier and takes less time. All of my new students would come in each fall and were hit with “you have to play all scales and arpeggios for a grade at the end of the semester.” I loved the look of torment on their faces when I said this (sinister laugh here…). The point is that those students who did it EVERY DAY by starting slow and gradually speeding up, had their scales and arpeggios (cue up Aristocats movie scene…) at a solid performance level by the end of the semester. Those students who were NOT consistent, struggled. As students improved, playing scales and arpeggios became second nature to them.
How do you transfer all of this information to the spiritual? That’s easy… you do exactly the same thing that I describe with learning scales/arpeggios to anything spiritual you’re learning. It’s called “do it every day.” When I first started learning to see in the spirit, I saw very little but… I kept at it. The more I did it, the more I saw.
NOTE: My goal has always been intimacy with the Father. If that’s not you’re main goal, you’re in trouble. And, I don’t say that lightly.
In my “Mountains, Gates, and Castles” class, I teach people HOW to practice and find time to practice even with a busy lifestyle. I guess it’s time to ask the hard question… “how bad do you really want this?” If you’ve been listening to teachings and haven’t been practicing on a daily basis, you won’t see much change. You’ll have all this stuff crammed into your brain but have little practical experience in how to walk it all out.
What if you doubt what you’re seeing and hearing? You imagine seeing yourself with Jesus where you're seated IN HIM on the throne of your life. I talk about what that looks like in the Mountains, Gates, and Castles class, too. In the Bible, John heard a voice that said “come up here” so he went into the presence of God. Here are some other materials I have that might assist you on your journey:
- Maturing as a Mystic (book) where I talk about the Christian maturing process similar to that of going from kindergarten all the way through college. You generally don't skip grades and can be at different levels for various subjects. The Christian walk is often very similar.
- Maturing as a Mystic: Workbook is where I put a bunch of stories that are followed by some activations. You get to practice!
- Transforming Mindsets (book) is where you get to see the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of my life as I went through a transformation process of being very ill to where I am today. Guess what!? It took practice!
Bottom line… if you want to learn how to function in the spirit realm, you have to build a relationship with the Father just like you do with friends and family. Reading the Bible will only get you so far. You know the Father by spending time with Him, not just reading about Him. You do that by spending time in His presence or… practicing His presence. If you don’t do this daily, then it’s gonna be a lot more difficult.
Everything comes at a cost. So, what are you willing to “pay?” A time commitment of practicing and being in His presence is a good place to start. The rest often falls into place once you get some habits established. What do I see as the biggest road block for people? They give up too soon and don’t seem to have the drive to keep at it. Sorry, but the microwave mentality of “I want it now” doesn’t work in Kingdom principles. I would reiterate that the first cost will involve time. What are you willing to set aside to develop a relationship with God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit? Some of it may be easier than you think. It’s just a matter of changing some thought and behavior patterns.
Are you ready to practice His presence? And, if you find these blogs helpful, please share them with your friends and on social media!
