Sarah Jakes Roberts - The Sweet Spot (01/17/2026)
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In this sermon, the preacher uses a personal tennis camp story about the «sweet spot» on a racket to illustrate finding life’s sweet spot through God’s presence, drawing from Exodus 33 where Moses pleads for God’s presence to accompany the Israelites into the promised land. The central idea is that true peace, power, and separation from worldly struggles come not from reaching the promise but from living in God’s moving presence, which provides rest, direction, and protection amid the wilderness journey. Ultimately, prioritizing and hungering for God’s presence over the promise itself positions us to hit life’s challenges without pain and manifest destiny with divine acceleration.
A Personal Tennis Story
So the year was 2001, and Venus and Serena were just beginning to really become popular. I was being homeschooled, I was in high school, and as part of our career curriculum, we had to have PE. Well, my parents aren’t necessarily athletic, so we had to find summer programs to fulfill our athletic requirement. I decided that I would do tennis because I liked the outfits, skirts, and matching tops and shoes. I had my beads, okay? 'Cause Venus and Serena had their beads, and it was like a little thing at the time. I thought that with an outfit and the beads, I would be on track to become a tennis superstar.
You guys probably don’t know how the story turned out, but evidently, tennis is not really my thing. The first day of camp, I realized that it’s really hard to play tennis; watching it is a lot more fun than actually playing it. 'Cause, like, you gotta be strong, you need hand-eye coordination, but that’s all right because, you know, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So everyone else had been at camp for years, and here I was with my beads, braids, outfit, and my recyclable water bottle attached to my hip, and I was ready.
Then I had my tennis racket, and you can’t just hit the ball; you have to have a form. I was working on it, and the coach told me, «You know, some people are called to be tennis players, while others are called to support the tennis team.» I really feel like you would be great at just making sure everyone has great spirit and morale. I’m still scarred by that, but he did explain something to me that I remember to this day: there is a place on the tennis racket called the sweet spot, and if you hit the ball at the sweet spot, then there won’t be a vibration through the handle that ricochets through your arm. See, because if you hit it anywhere else, it’s not that you won’t hit the ball; you may hit it, but you may have this stinging pain once you do because what affects one part of the racket can affect your entire body.
Finding the Sweet Spot in Life
The sweet spot—I want to talk today about us finding our sweet spot. When the balls of life and the issues of life start coming our way, I believe there is a way we can hit the ball in the sweet spot every single time. We know when we’re in the sweet spot because we’ve experienced it before. It’s when you make a decision that seems crazy to everyone else, but for some reason, you just know it’s right for you because you’re in the sweet spot. And we know when we’re not in the sweet spot too because we make one decision, and that turns into another decision, and then all of a sudden what should have been a simple decision turns into a mountain of issues because we weren’t in the sweet spot.
Have you ever found yourself searching for the sweet spot, wondering how you can get to a place where you can maintain your peace of mind, your identity, your confidence, your relationship with God, and still be current, cutting-edge, and creative? How can I find this sweet spot, this balance of being called but not quite there yet, being on the path to the promised land but not quite at the promised land yet—and still having peace in the midst of it all, the sweet spot?
Moses and the Israelites in the Wilderness
I want to tell you the story about someone you all know: Moses. Moses is searching for the sweet spot. When we find Moses in the text, he has delivered the people from Israel, and they are in the wilderness. Though he has delivered them, and God has shown Himself strong, for some reason, the people of Israel were having a difficult time breaking the slave mentality that was on their minds. They were having a hard time believing that even though God was with them back then, He would still be able to stay with them in the wilderness. You know how our life goes in these ebbs and flows, these highs and lows? We can remember when God was with us before, but for some reason, it just doesn’t feel like we’re connected to Him, that we’re in the sweet spot like we used to be.
Nothing is more irritating than not being in the sweet spot while seeing someone else appear to be in their own sweet spot. You know you have to overcome that jealous part of yourself and like their picture anyway when they just got their big break and closed on their house, found their man, and had their kids. There’s a part of you that knows as a Christian you’re supposed to like the picture, but then there’s that petty side of you—Petty Crocker, you know, who likes to bake petty cakes and serve them to petty friends and joke about other people’s misery. So you rise above yourself and like the picture because you don’t want your jealousy to stand in the way of your character, and you force yourself into the sweet spot.
We’re going to start in Exodus 33:11. I already explained the background of the story. Moses built a tent outside the camp where the Israelites were because he needed a space to meet with God and mediate on behalf of the Israelites for why they needed God to go with them. The Israelites built a golden calf and began to worship idols. God said, «You know what? I’m going to let you all still enter the promised land, but I’m not going to go with you.» He’s too good to strip us away from the promise, but He says your promise no longer has My protection on it. That’s why you can see some people be successful, or seemingly successful, in life but know that they don’t necessarily have the relationship with the Lord that you have. Don’t let appearances fool you. You can have a promise and no protection. You can have a large bank account and still cry yourself to sleep at night. You can have the appearance of a happy marriage and still be fighting. You never know what happens behind closed doors.
We see people’s highlight reels on our social media and then judge our real life based on what they represent. They built this golden calf, and God says, «Here, I’m going to let you all still go to the promised land, but I’m not going with you.» Moses says, «Listen, I’ve already stuck my neck out further than I ever thought possible. Now you’re telling me I have to lead the Israelites into the promised land without You? I could have never done any of this without You; You cannot leave me now!» He begins to pray to God.
Face-to-Face with God
The Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face as a man speaks to his friend. Have you ever had a conversation with God like He was your friend? It’s really liberating because for the longest time, I thought that in order for us to pray, we had to have this proper formation and use a certain language. But if you mess around and let God really be your homeboy, like really be your friend where you can tell Him that you’re going through depression, where you can tell Him you’re unsure that these daddy issues won’t leave you alone, if you could ever really talk to God like a friend, you would be amazed at the level of intimacy you would begin to feel—not just with Him, but everything connected to Him.
The text says that the Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face. This doesn’t mean that Moses actually saw the face of God, but it meant they had such a connection that he realized in that moment that everything in front of him had been God-ordained. When you come to a place where you look at the things in front of you as God’s face speaking to you, it changes the perspective in which you deal with things. You stop wondering why this is coming against you and start asking God, «Who am I supposed to be in this season? How am I supposed to handle this because I know that Your hand is on my life in such a way that anything that comes in my path has to be a part of Your plan? So let me be face-to-face with You in this moment.» I dare you to change the face of your enemy to the face of your God and say, «How is this person supposed to serve the vision and plan for my life?»
So the Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face as a man speaks to his friend, and he would return to the camp; but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. This is interesting because Joshua is his servant; he’s supposed to go with Moses wherever he goes. Yet the glory of God was so intense in that moment that even when Moses left, Joshua had to stay in worship. I thought this was such an interesting dynamic because although Joshua was Moses’s servant, Moses served him an opportunity to become closer to God. It made me wonder, what am I serving the people in my life? When they are connected to me, do I bring them closer to God, closer to manifesting their purpose?
What Are You Serving Others?
Have you ever thought to wonder, what are people serving you? Have you ever had a conversation with someone and after the conversation ended, you felt a little bit darker than you did before? What did they serve you in that moment? This is such a reality check because misery loves company. So often, we build friendships based on bonds rooted in bitterness. That means we can have friends we are only close to because both of our boyfriends are cheaters, or we can have friends we connect with only because we both like to go out and get drunk and forget what happened the night before. We call that friendship because relationships, regardless of whether they’re good or bad, are about reciprocity. So you have to ask, what do I receive from being connected to you?
In toxic relationships, we receive impartations of bitterness, darkness, and pettiness. We learn to no longer reach for our higher selves; we become stagnant in relationships that have no purpose. When was the last time you qualified the relationships connected to you? You see, relationships that are purposeful should leave you like Moses left Joshua in the face of God. When you finish talking to me, you ought to feel like God is working things out on your behalf. You should be able to pick up the phone and call people and say, «You know what? I know it seems like things aren’t working out; I know you don’t know what’s going on, but God has a plan. As a matter of fact, here’s a sign that God has a plan: He’s going to use me to bless you; He’s going to use me to speak a word of encouragement into your life, and together, we’re going to climb this mountain.»
Do you have people in your life who are climbers or people who are pulling you down? Do you have people in your life who are committed to your growth or would rather see you stay in the same mediocre position they are in because it makes them feel comfortable? I had this friendship years ago, and it dawned on me that our friendship was at its best when my life was at its worst. That meant that anytime my life began to evolve into something better, there was a disconnect in our friendship. We didn’t have the connection points we once had when we were both messed up but laughing together and struggling yet supporting one another. So what we had was the truth that the only thing that could keep us together was if one of us, or both of us, stayed miserable. Destiny pulls things apart, and so often, we grieve the things that are stripped away from us that we don’t miss the fact that if we would have stayed connected to it, we would have never manifested what was on the inside of us. God wants you to stop crying over the things He pulled away from you so that He can give you what He wanted you to have instead of what you were willing to settle for.
Moses Pleads for God’s Presence
The text continues: Joshua is still at the tabernacle, and this is what I love because Moses gets even more in-depth with his conversation with God. In verse 12, it continues: «Then Moses said to the Lord, ‘See, You say to me, „Bring up this people, ” but You have not let me know whom You will send with me.’“ Moses says to the Lord, „You gave me this gift. You gave me these talents. You gave me this opportunity, but You haven’t told me how I’m actually going to be connected to other people in order to bring it into manifestation. It feels like I’m on my own. You haven’t explained to me how all things are going to work together for my good. Who’s going to help me? I don’t have the degree. I don’t have the finances. I don’t have the family. I don’t have the support system. All I have are these gifts, talents, and dreams, and I feel like You promised me something, but I want to know who You will send to help me because I’m out here in the wilderness.“
Moses is not in the promised land but not quite in Egypt either; he’s in this funny in-between stage—not quite fully who he knows he can be, but thank God he’s no longer back where he used to be. Ever since he began to free the slaves from Israel, he had this inkling down inside of him that there was a promised land. Even when he saw chains, there was something in his mind that said these chains are temporary; there’s a promised land waiting for me. Have you ever had to remind yourself that the current chains around you are actually temporary because there’s a promised land waiting for you?
That the financial struggle is just temporary? That when God gets finished with you, you’re going to have an overflow and be able to give like never before? That this idea of climbing the ladder is only temporary because in a moment, you’re going to be creating ladders for other people? I wonder if you’ve ever had to remind yourself that this is just a season. Moses says to Him, „You told me to do this; You said this. You told me to bring up this people, but You have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name.’ I’m confused because I feel like You spoke a word to me, but You haven’t manifested that word in my life.“
Have you ever asked God to check the clock? 'Cause I’ve been in this thing for a while, struggling for a minute, and I should be further along than I thought. I told everyone that this was going to happen for me, and now I don’t even have anyone here to help me get to the next level. Who’s going to help me? Who holds the key to tomorrow? These questions plague our minds. Am I good enough? Will I surpass where my family started? Will I be the example this culture needs? Is this thing on the inside of me a crazy idea, or did you tell me that I had something this world needed?
„Bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name.’ How could You know me and not tell me? You have also found grace in my sight.“ So, You told me there’s favor on my life. God wants you to know that He can know and not show you what He has for your life.
God Knows but Doesn’t Always Show
God is capable of knowing something but not showing it to you because if He showed you, you would be so excited about what is revealed that you’d stop working like the person who didn’t know. You see, God is developing a hunger down on the inside of you, He’s developing a pattern, and if I told you the end before you even got there, you’d stop working because you’d just know you were going to get there. But your work and your struggle are part of the blessing. I need you to remember these dark days because you’re going to have encounters with other people who need reminders that the promised land still exists.
God says, „I can know you and not show you, because you don’t walk by sight anyway; you walk by faith.“ Have you ever forgotten your faith glasses in the car on a sunny day? Just me? Okay. Have you ever forgotten, in the middle of a struggle, when you started getting desperate for answers, that you don’t look to man for answers? Your answers come from heaven. You should have been looking up, but instead you thought a person was going to hold your key, and that’s why you cried when they walked away. You had too much of your promise invested in their presence, and that’s why we have these wounds we’re unable to forgive. We place so much of our promise in someone else’s presence that when they walk away, they take everything we poured inside of them with them.
We think they’ve left us empty, and that’s why you feel powerless when you should be empowered. Because when someone walks away from you, it means that they have left room for the right person to get into position. So Moses is having it out with his friend, the Lord. Verse 13 continues: „Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You, because I want to understand You. I want to understand Your mind, Your thoughts towards me, and that I may find grace in Your sight.“
This is so phenomenal because he’s asking for the impossible. He’s asking to understand God. I’ve been so guilty of doing the same. I try to modify myself so it’s not me asking to understand God fully, but just as it relates to me. You don’t have to tell me nobody else’s plan; that’s their business. I don’t want anything to do with that. What I’m worried about is Your plans regarding my life. Can you please show me Your way? Show me the path; show me the strategy. Help me understand how I’m supposed to go from last place to first place like You promised. Help me understand how a lane is going to be created for me when I can’t even get on the highway. Help me understand how I’m going to find my way.
„That I may know You, and that I may find grace in Your sight, and consider that this nation is Your people.“ He said, „Now, just so You know, my last little thing is that there are people connected to me—not my people, Your people—the voices, the lives connected to the vision that’s down on the inside of me. You see, because you’re not just in this for selfish gain; you’re in it so that lives can be changed and light can be awakened in other people. I could understand if I just wanted this so that I could be fat and rich, sitting somewhere balling. But no, this isn’t about that. This is about me changing the world. I’m not greedy; I’m not selfish. I want to do something on Earth that glorifies You. But You won’t even help me understand how I’m supposed to be there, so I just want to remind You, God, that there are people waiting for my promise.“
My Presence Will Go With You
In verse 14, it continues: „And He said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest, ’“ which is not exactly what Moses asked for. Okay, so it’s like you don’t want to talk back to your parents, but they misunderstood who you were going out with, and so He says to him, „You know, show me Your way. Show me how You’re going to do this. I want to know You. I want to know I have favor in Your sight, and these are Your people. I’m not doing this for selfish gain. This isn’t about me; this is about Your people.“ And He says, „My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.“
There were two things I noticed about this: the promise wasn’t going to come just by asking questions. The promise was in the movement. „My presence will go with you.“ My presence is on the move; my presence isn’t staying in this place waiting for you to get all your questions answered. My presence isn’t stagnant while everyone else’s presence is moving. Can you catch the rhythm of the presence? „My presence will go with you.“ My presence does not stand still; it goes with you.
So if you want to move, you’re going to have to put one foot in front of the other. You’re going to have to max out where you are on this level. You’re going to have to make the best out of a bad situation. You’re going to have to make excellence your norm. „My presence goes; my presence moves; my presence doesn’t just stay still.“ The ocean is evidence that the presence moves. The Earth is rotating right now; it’s evidence that the presence moves. He’s not into things standing still; that’s what you want to do. That’s what people do when they let you down. But when you come to a point where you start telling people, „I’m going to get it done whether you say yes or no, because I’m in the presence, ” and the presence moves, it means that you can’t stop me because the presence moves. It creates a lane for me.
The presence says go, and that’s when I fall in line. You can say no, but you’re going to have to move out of the way when you say it because the presence said yes. When the presence said yes, it doesn’t matter what the bank says. When the presence says yes, it doesn’t matter what the audition says. When the presence says yes, it doesn’t matter who says no. When the presence says yes, then generational curses are broken, and when the presence says yes, it doesn’t matter what the statistics say. When the presence says yes, everything connected must go or be left behind. Not only is the presence going to go with you, but it’s going to give you rest while you move.
The presence isn’t going to let you sit down and be still and say, „No, you have to go, ” but you’re going to move in such a way that you’re going to be rested even while you’re moving—that it’s going to look like you’re hustling up on something, but really, this is just you skimming the surface because the presence is with you. When the presence is with you, there’s a certain swag you have about yourself. When the presence is with you, there’s a certain peace you can have when you walk into rooms. When the presence is with you, there’s a certain rest that gets down in your spirit. There’s the presence hovering over those willing to go.
It’s go time; it’s go time! I’mma say it one more time, because someone just needs that extra push. The presence says it’s go time. The presence says, „I’m not going to tell you the plan; all I’m going to tell you is go.“ The presence says, „I’m not going to tell you the strategy; I’m just going to tell you to go, and as you go, I’ll reveal things along the way, but I’m not going to reveal them while you stand still, because while you’re standing still, everything around you is moving. Everything I created is on the go.“
He said, „Put on your running shoes, baby, because it’s time to go.“ The presence said when you step into alignment, you’ll accelerate in such a way that eyes haven’t seen, ears haven’t heard. The presence said go just like that. And He said, „My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.“
If Your Presence Does Not Go
Then verse 15 continues: „Then he said to Him, ‘I’m going to hold You to this because if Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.’ Don’t give me a promotion; don’t give me the bank account; don’t put my name in lights. Don’t make an idol out of me. If You’re not going to go with me, then I don’t want any of it. If You’re not going to be in the room with me when I’m in those meetings, then don’t give me any of it. If Your presence doesn’t go with me, then I’ll stay right here. If Your presence doesn’t go with me, then I’ll stay right here. I don’t need the mansion; I don’t need the cars; I don’t need a building; I don’t need a support system if I have to spend that at the expense of Your presence.
If Your presence doesn’t go with me, then don’t bring me up from here. Here, I’ll stay right here. I’ll be comfortable right where You have me. I’ll be excellent right where You have me. I’ll worship right where You have me. I’ll praise Your name right where You have me because Your presence is more important than the promise. Your presence is more important than the promise. Your presence, Your presence—Your miracle-working presence, Your wonder-working presence, that presence that caused me to have peace when I was on the edge of depression, that presence that flew away suicidal thoughts, that presence that manifested something on the inside of me that saved my family—if I can’t have that, then I don’t want it.
If I can’t have that, then don’t give it to me. I need Your presence; I need to know that I can reach up to heaven, and I need to know that heaven can reach down to me. I need Your presence. When you get hungry for His presence, you won’t be hungry for anything else. When you get hungry for His presence, you won’t have those questions about when, how, and what are we going to do and how is it going to work out because His presence is the answer to all of those things. In His presence is the strategy you need for your promise to be manifested. In His presence is everything you’ve been asking for.
You have to recognize that the presence is like a present that you have to be willing to unwrap, and you have to recognize that even when you unwrap another layer, there’s another level yet for you to unwrap. So if things aren’t making sense, you have to know that you just need to get deeper in the presence because you know in the presence there’s focus. You know in the presence there’s clarity. You know your blessing is in the presence, and if you don’t feel His presence, then you’ve got to go a little bit deeper.
Separated by the Presence
Verse 16 goes, „For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the Earth.“ He said, „If Your presence goes with me, I’ll be in the world but not of the world. If Your presence goes with me, I’m going to be set apart. If Your presence goes with me, even when chaos and distress are hitting everyone else around me, I’m going to be separate. Your people and I—that means you and everyone connected to you—are going to bring people into the presence who didn’t even know they were coming. What God is doing on the inside of you is going to bubble and overflow until it saturates your city.
You can tap into the presence and bring your whole family; you can tap into the presence and bring your whole country; you can tap into the presence, and police brutality can end; you can tap into the presence and not care who is sitting in the Oval Office because you tapped into the presence. It doesn’t even matter what’s going on in the White House; all that matters is what’s going on in my house, and in my house, we tapped into the presence. So I don’t care what the economy says; I don’t care what the Dow Jones does up and down; CNN doesn’t report about my life because my life is in the presence.
If you would just tap into the presence, you would see that Your people and I are separate from all the people on the Earth. What he said is, „Show me where the sweet spot is. Show me how I can hit the balls that come my way in such a way that it ricochets, and I never miss and I’m never in pain after I hit certain balls. Show me where the sweet spot is because if I don’t live in the sweet spot, then I don’t want to have anything to do with it at all. I want to be separated from the norm. I want to do something powerful and significant because Your presence has empowered me to do what I want to be chosen. Many are called; few are chosen. Those who make a commitment to live in His presence make themselves choosable because it says no matter where I take you, no matter how I promote you, I know that you’re going to be in the presence, that you’re not going to be making decisions on your own, that you’re going to consult the presence.
Because you’ve consulted the presence, I can give you something because you’ve stretched yourself in such a way that now you have the capacity to receive what I can really do in your life. Someone needs to drop their expectations of where they were supposed to be in life and decide to expect the presence where they are right now. Because when that presence is on your expectations, things manifest down on the inside of you. Make the presence your norm.
Closing and the Presence as Sweet Spot
Stand with me; I’m going to close. If you don’t have to leave, please don’t. Someone is about to find the sweet spot. Someone’s about to find where they need to be in life in order to always have the right mindset, the right mentality. Somebody’s going to find out that they were never as lost as they thought they were. In the text, Moses speaks on behalf of the Israelites. He’s acting as a mediator between them and God. But there is a mediator who came on your behalf 2,000 years ago, and they put nails in His hands and hung Him on a cross. They did that because they knew there would be moments when you felt incapable, that you did not have the strength, that you didn’t have the connections—that you were just in this world on your own.
So God sent a Savior whose wonder-working power is still in effect on January 11th, 2017. His decision to get on that cross, to be buried for three days, and then resurrect was so you could be raised up too, so you could find the sweet spot, so you would have the opportunity to live in the presence, even when it seems like your life is in chaos.
There are some people in this room, and I myself have been guilty of it from time to time, of living my life outside the sweet spot of surrender. The spot where we say, „Not my timing, not my will, not my plans, but Yours be done.“ You can trust God to allow His will and His plans to be done because He has plans to prosper you and not to harm you. He has a gift and a dream that is much bigger and better than anything you could think of. God says, „You’ve been thinking too low. You’ve been thinking too small, and that’s why I couldn’t answer your questions; that’s why I couldn’t do what you asked Me to do. Because I needed you to expand your vision, to drop the limitations and the boundaries, because there’s a sweet spot I carved out for you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. I knew where your spot was here on Earth, and God says it’s still reserved; it still has your name on it. Everything I promised you is going to come to fruition; I just have to get some things in line for you. I have to create a hunger on the other side of your destiny so that when you come, there is no question as to why we need you.“
He said He’s going to give you staying power, so you’ve got to keep working, you’ve got to keep hoping, you’ve got to keep believing, because His presence is on the go. When it passes by you, He says, „I want to see your faith at work.“ So when the presence sweeps you up, you bypass everything that you thought was standing in your way. The presence is coming like a flood in this room right now. The presence is coming like a flood in your situation right now. The presence is coming like a flood in your bank account right now. The presence is coming like a flood in your marriage right now. The presence is coming like a flood at your school right now. The presence is coming like a flood in your health right now. The presence is coming like a flood; a miracle is on the way.
God says, „Can you receive it? Are you ready for what I want to do in your life? Can you lift your hands like you’re going to receive something, because the presence is coming, and it’s looking for surrendered vessels? The presence is coming, and it’s looking for someone who’s ready to be molded and transformed. The presence is coming, and God says, „Open up your heart and receive it.“
In my presence, there is fullness of joy. In the presence of the Lord, there is fullness of joy. That means you can have the kind of joy that you don’t have to feel guilty about; you can have the kind of peace that resonates down in your spirit. The presence is coming. The presence is coming. It’s flooding your insecurities; it’s attacking those thoughts that have kept you down. It’s overwhelming those generational curses. I see the presence breaking chains off of you right now. I see the presence casting down strongholds right now. The presence is coming. Can you press into the presence? Can you press into the presence without me chasing you down, without the presence having to convince you? Can you hunger for the presence like never before?
The presence wants to change your life. The presence wants to change your definition of success. The presence wants to change how you see your circumstance; it wants to change how you see your past; it wants to change what you’ve gone through. The presence wants to transform you like never before. God said, „Open your mouth and begin to speak to the presence. Begin to put your doubts into the presence so that the presence can suck it up. God says to put your fears into the presence so that the presence can suck it up. God says to bring your family situations, to bring your mother’s issues, to bring your father’s issues, to bring the issues of your community into the presence. Bring the issues of this nation into His presence. Bring it into the presence, because God’s going to move, and when He moves, everything connected to Him is going to move too. Into the presence we go.
Altar Call for Hungering After Presence
I want to have a moment at this altar for people who want an organic thirst for the presence to be realized in their life. That they want to thirst for the presence even outside the walls of this church. That they want to live in the sweet spot even when they leave this place. Some of you can tap into the presence when here, but you have such a challenging time tapping into that presence when you’re away from here. Will you come to the altar? Because I believe that God wants to impart a supernatural release in your life—the kind of release that allows you to not just tap into the presence, but to recognize the presence is all around you. That the trees are His presence, that the mountains are His presence, that everything on this Earth that has been created, that every building you see started with a thought placed in someone’s mind, so it too is the presence.
When you begin to recognize that the universe is conspiring to make sure you constantly live in the presence, then you won’t have to be afraid anymore or intimidated by other people or situations, because you will recognize they too are in the presence. The presence wants to hover over you like a cloud; anything that enters your circle must enter into the presence first. That means God has to allow you access to me. If you hurt me, it was really to help me because God allowed you into my presence. If you brought me down, it was really so God could bring me up because God allowed you in the presence. The presence is a hedge of protection over your life. The presence is protection that says that everything that happens to me is actually happening for me.
If you’ve been struggling to believe that the presence is accessible to you, I want you to meet us at this altar, because I’ve been there too—where I thought the presence was for those special kinds of people who had done everything right or could pray down fire, or could preach down a room. I thought the presence was reserved for a certain kind of people, but I didn’t realize there had been Moseses in my life who had been mediating on my behalf, dragging me into the presence even when I didn’t realize it. So that one day I could access the presence on my own. You may see a few hundred people at the altar, but I see millions because I recognize that your coming into the presence just brought thousands, upon millions, of people connected to you.
You stepping into the presence influences not just you but everything connected to you. You just set somebody free because you came down to this altar. You just changed somebody’s life because you decided to step into the presence. You don’t even know how this moment has affected the lives connected to you, but I can guarantee you that because you’re in the presence, God is going to make sure you see it fulfilled and manifested in your life.