I would start with thanksgiving, then I would move onto praise - praising Him for his attributes and power. Then after a while the anointing would change and I would worship - and the presence of God would really start to increase. I practised this for a long time until I started to feel God's presence continually. I believe that this is a key part of abiding in Christ.
At the time I had a major orphan spirit and therefore a major striving, performance-orientation problem. I was always trying to please God, and seeking Him from a place of lack, and this even affected my worship. I thought I had to worship a certain amount each day to 'earn' His presence.
Free Gift
Since then I have learnt that enjoying His presence is a free gift for everyone - purchased on the cross for us 2,000 years ago. I didn't need to perform for it. It is His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. Just like we receive forgiveness as a free gift, so also we receive every other blessing as a free gift, including walking in His presence. The manifestations only increase when we worship because our faith starts activating what we already have by grace.
I have learnt that, whether we feel it or not, we are in His presence continually. The Bible tells us that we are seated in the Heavens with Christ, united in our spirits with Him. We are one with Christ! We are in Christ, and He is in us! Therefore, our spirit man is both on earth but also in heaven at the same time, in Christ - on that basis we are continually in the atmosphere of heaven whether we know it or not. We are always in the Glory.
Receiving these truths by faith helps one to walk in His presence continually.
Our calling as believers is to love Jesus with all of our hearts, and to walk with Him in relationship. I want to hear His voice, feel His presence, know His heart and see His face. Seeking the presence of the Lord is one aspect of loving and walking with Jesus.
Atmosphere Shifting
Once I learnt to walk in His presence continually, the Lord taught me how to shift atmospheres. I went to a park early one morning by myself and sat on a bench and sang over the park for about 40 mins. When I'd finished, the atmosphere over the side of the park I was in shifted - light and glory filled the park. It was incredible. I then met some friends and we did some prophetic evangelism in the area and it was so much easier to do because the atmosphere had already shifted.
Another time I was sent to work in an extremely difficult organisation. It was the hardest atmosphere I had ever experienced, with the most demoralised people I had ever met. The air was rock hard. But God reminded me of the ark of His presence - which had been captured by the Philistines and taken into their pagan temple which was used to worship their God Dagon. The next morning the priests came to the temple and Dagon had fallen on his face. They stood him up again. The next morning he had fallen down again and his head and hands had fallen off! Idols fall when His presence is brought into an area.
So the next day I went up to an empty meeting room and started praising Jesus and worshipping and exalting and giving Him high praise, until I felt something shift. It only took 30 mins. I then went downstairs to my desk, and an hour later I felt the atmosphere break and I got Holy Spirit laughter at my desk for a couple of hours. The next day someone came into the office and said that the atmosphere had changed. After that the other employees started being more sociable and friendly and the whole place opened up.
When we host and usher in the presence of God, we can powerfully affect the atmosphere around us.
