Seek His presence over the pressure

Abba placed on my heart a message to His bride: “Seek My presence over the pressure.” I felt His invitation so clearly that it was almost like He was gently placing His hand over mine. He was asking us to pause, to stop rushing through decisions, to still our hearts long enough to hear His voice and receive His direction. He showed me that if I don’t yet have an answer it may not be because He is silent, but it may simply be because it is not His will to give it yet.

But then He showed me something that pierced my heart. His people are unable to discern distraction from distance. He is always near but they are losing His answers not because He is withholding them but because the enemy has filled our lives with endless noise. We are filled with fear, news, social media, endless scrolling, endless work and worry. All of it demanding our attention. Our minds are so full and our hearts are so restless, that we rarely create space to hear the whisper of the One who loves us most. It reminded me of His words: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). And I realised stillness is the very ground where intimacy grows, but stillness is what we fight against most.

He gave me a vision that was both beautiful and sobering. I saw a girl walking on a narrow path that led directly to the throne. In her hands she carried an old clock, its hands set at 12:00. With each step toward the throne, every passing minute opened new roads to the left and right, paths of distraction that looked easier, quicker, more appealing but had evil lurking deeper down the paths in the shadows. At 12:06, she turned aside onto one of those roads and she never reached the throne.

And Abba spoke: “I am the Maker of time, the Giver of time, the One who holds every breath, and every moment. But My people are not using their time for Me.” My heart sank. How often do we live like time belongs to us, when all along it is His gift? And this, these paths that seem easier and quicker lead us astray, away from His presence and in some instances straight into sin. The word says “My times are in Your hands” (Psalm 31:15), and yet we act as though our minutes and hours are ours to control, to fill, to waste. And here lies the conundrum of free will.

He reminded me of His character. He does not push, He does not intrude, He gives us free will and He waits. He waits patiently, lovingly and diligently. The Hebrew word for wait carries the meaning of “to intertwine, to braid together”. And in my spirit, I heard Him say, “I am waiting for My people to intertwine with Me. To stop for just a moment. Just stop, and wait on Me.” And as He spoke, Isaiah 40:31 came alive: ““But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] will gain new strength and renew their power; They will lift up their wings [and rise up close to God] like eagles [rising toward the sun]; They will run and not become weary, They will walk and not grow tired.”

It undid me. He waits for us but not only does He wait, He promises to renew our strength, to raise us up, to not be weary and to not feel so tired. The God of Heaven and Earth, who spoke creation into being, waits with expectancy for His people to choose Him, He delights when we come, He treasures the moments we set aside for Him and then he rewards us.

And yet, often we treat His presence casually? We rush in like a whirlwind, making demands, laying out our lists and then rushing out again before He has even had the chance to respond. And then we leave, disappointed, muttering “He doesn’t hear me. He’s not speaking.” But He was speaking we simply didn’t wait long enough to hear.

When I think of the moments when His voice has pierced deepest, the encounters that have marked me forever; not one of them came in rushing but came in waiting. They came in the silence, in the consistency of choosing Him over every distraction. Some took days and some took weeks. But every one of them required my heart to search, to lean in, just as He promised: “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). It was never about the length of time, but the quality of attention, the purity of intention and the posture of a surrendered heart.

But waiting is hard for us. Our culture is wired for instant results, for quick fixes and fast answers. Our brains crave dopamine hits and the satisfaction of immediacy. The art of waiting feels awkward, foreign and even frustrating. Yet Abba is using waiting to train us. He is teaching us how to quiet the world, how to silence the lies and how to fix our gaze on Him alone so we get to know His voice. “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). Learning to wait is learning to recognize His voice in the midst of all the noise around us.

He gave me another picture. This time of a family waiting outside a baby delivery room. They had been there for hours, listening, longing, waiting for that one sacred sound: the first cry of new life. They weren’t distracted, they weren’t scrolling their phones, they weren’t shouting at the mother to hurry, they simply sat in silence, in patience, in anticipation. And then, when that baby’s cry filled the air, joy erupted.

This is the kind of waiting Abba is inviting us into. Waiting with expectancy, waiting with patience, waiting with hearts tuned only to Him. Because He promises “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore, He will rise up to show you compassion. Blessed are all those who wait for Him” (Isaiah 30:18).

Don’t let the enemy steal your time with endless noise. Don’t let fear, headlines or busyness keep you from the throne. The call is not to hurry but to slow down and to turn aside from the distractions, to linger a little longer each time, to listen and to wait in His presence until His whisper breaks through like that newborn cry.

He is waiting for you. And when you wait for Him, you will find that He was there all along, ready to speak, ready to lead and ready to fill you with the peace and direction you long for.

Shalom.