Quite often I hear folks speak of this verse just quoting that times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. They totally omit the first half of the verse, which deals with repenting and returning to the Lord.
So many of the promises in the Word of God are written just like this...they are conditional. You may ask what I mean by that. For example Isaiah 1:19 says: "If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land." The promise is that you will eat the good of the land. The conditions are that you be willing and obedient.
What happens if you are not willing and obedient? Then you won't eat the good of the land. So this verse in Acts 3 is no different. The two conditions that must be met in order for times of refreshing to come from the presence of the Lord are to Repent & Return.
Repent is composed of two actions: 1. Sorrow for sin. 2. Stop going the way you are going and go in the opposite direction.
Return means to go again to a place you have already been. In this context it is talking about returning to the Lord, indicating that it might be folks that at one time were closer to God than they are right now. Face it folks, if you were ever more on fire for God than you are right now, you are backslid.
If we don't stop going in the wrong direction, and return back to Him, we really can't expect the "Times of Refreshing".
Once we get these two conditions met we are ready to walk in the promise...or are we?
Notice it says that times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. So if there is no presence of the Lord, there will be no times of refreshing.
No I know folks say well you know God is everywhere, He is Omnipresent. Yes indeed He is, but is that the type of presence that the Scripture is referring to here?
If it was omnipresence people would automatically be being refreshed from that presence. Now you and I both know that is not the case. So I submit to you that this text is not speaking about God's omnipresence, But His Manifest Presence!
In the Hebrew it is the word "Kabod", which means the weighty presence of God. Have you ever heard folks say: "Boy the presence of God was so thick you could have cut it with a knife"? You know as well as I do that in some of our meetings the presence of God is stronger than in others.
So our goal is the have as strong of a manifest presence of the Lord so that the times of refreshing will come. We obtain that by learning to repent quick and often. By returning to Him with all our heart. And finally hosting and honoring His presence. (the subject of our next Blog)
When we do these things...then...Times of Refreshing will come from the Manifest Presence of the Lord!
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