Practicing the Brilliant Presence of God
Practicing The Brilliant Presence of GOD
PRACTICING THE BRILLIANT
PRESENCE OF GOD
12-Lesson Class with James W. Goll
Your heart was created for the Presence of God.

It’s one thing to believe God’s presence is in you, it’s quite another to experience the joy of deep and abiding intimacy with Him.

The presence of God is meant to be more than just an occasional event or a passing spiritual high—you are meant to live in daily awareness of God’s brilliant presence.

There is a journey into the special place God has for you. It is not found in busyness or the hustle and bustle of spiritual activity, it is found in Jesus’ words, “Abide in Me.”

There is only ONE who will satisfy you—and that is God Himself.

But how do you abide in God’s Presence? What are the keys to finding a deeper walk with God? How do you experience communion with the lover of your soul?

Scripture and church history have left a trail blazed by the lives of men and women who have learned the ways of quieting their souls to enter the secret place of greater intimacy with God.

For over four decades, James Goll has passionately followed these paths and personally discovered the joy of encountering God’s brilliant presence.

In this class, James will lead you on the road to true intimacy, teaching you the riches of abiding prayer through Quieting Your Soul before God, Listening, Waiting, and Watching in Prayer, The Ministry of Fasting, Contemplative Prayer, and more.

If you want to follow the ancient paths God has given you to abide in His brilliant presence in moment-by-moment awareness, you won’t want to miss this class!
In this class you will...
  • Learn to quiet your soul and turn your gaze on the beauty of the Lord
  • Experience the power and joy of contemplative prayer
  • Develop friendship with God by learning to wait and watch with Him
  • ​Receive step-by-step guidance in meditative approaches to prayer
  • ​Discover how to guard yourself against excesses and counterfeits
  • ​Identify obstacles to developing your inner prayer-life and how to overcome them
  • Deepen your heart’s intimacy with God and understand the fire of His love
  • Follow the trails of Jesus-lovers who discovered the inward paths to abiding in God’s joy-filled presence and carried it to those around them
  • Embark on an inward journey that will release outward displays of God’s glory wherever you go
smiling woman holding coffee
Class Lessons
     Overview of the Practicing the Brilliant Presence of God 12-Lesson Class

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Practicing the Brilliant Presence of God class

Lesson 1: The Inward for the Outward
In this opening lesson, you will search out the treasures of “Christ in you the hope of glory” and learn the purpose of cultivating the beauty of your inward life with God. God wants you to grasp so much more than knowledge about Him. He wants you to “know Him.” This lesson will set the stage for you to embark on your own inward journey in passionate pursuit of God’s brilliant presence so you can release outward displays of His glory wherever you go. 

Preview: Lesson 1

Lesson 2: Quieting Our Souls Before God: What True Communion Requires, Part 1
True intimacy with God cannot be fully realized without quietness of body, soul, and spirit. An atmosphere of stillness is essential for the believer in Jesus to enter the experience of His deep, communing love. But it’s not easy. Most of us are accustomed to a constant stream of inward and outward stimuli. When we attempt to quiet ourselves, the chaos of the world presents itself in a swarm of distracting thoughts! In this lesson, you will discover the value of stilling your soul, waiting on the Lord, and disciplining your mind so you can behold the Lord in contemplative prayer.

Preview: Lesson 2

Lesson 3: Taking Every Thought Captive: What True Communion Requires, Part 2 
This lesson gives you the nuts and bolts to follow through on the previous lesson. Becoming still before the Lord cannot be hurried or forced. It must be allowed to happen. But there are things you can do to silence the thoughts running through your mind so you can turn your attention completely toward Jesus. You will learn the practical steps from Scripture that spiritual leaders have developed for disciplining your mind to eliminate distractions and focus on God’s presence.

Preview: Lesson 3

Lesson 4: Listening, Waiting, and Watching in Prayer
Like Mary of Bethany, listening, waiting, and watching position you to worship at the feet of Jesus. They are integral to the art of communing with the Lord. This lesson takes each of these skills in turn, laying a biblical foundation for their practice and teaching you how to engage, what to expect, and how to overcome hindrances to perceiving His presence. The Biblical promise is that as you apply yourself to these disciplines, you will see the face of Jesus and the radiance of God’s light will shine upon you.

Preview: Lesson 4

Lesson 5: Contemplative Prayer: What It Is Not
New Age, Eastern Mysticism, and self-help gurus all use words, phrases, and techniques that originated with Christian practices. For example, “centering” is a practice that originated with the Quakers and was later borrowed by secularists. Regardless of the various ways Christian practices have been borrowed and corrupted by counterfeit spiritual movements, they do not negate the validity or scriptural basis on which they are grounded. In this lesson, you will learn 9 simple tests to discern between biblical, Spirit-led contemplative practices and their illegal counterfeits. You will gain spiritual guardrails to guide your journey into the contemplative life and be empowered to reclaim the realms of meditation, contemplation, and revelation for His Name’s sake!
Lesson 6: Contemplative Prayer: What It Is
Prayer is being with Someone. It is communion with God Himself. In this lesson, you will explore the joys, goals, and rewards of contemplative prayer. You will discover the progressive steps and phases of contemplative prayer through the writings and testimonies of some of the Church’s great contemplatives. This lesson will inspire you to continue in prayer until you become one with God’s Presence and an expression of Jesus emanates in and through you.
a man sitting quietly enjoying a sunrise
Lesson 7: The Center of Quiet
In this lesson, you will learn 5 essential ingredients for the contemplative state, the 5 stages of becoming a friend, and 3 well-established practices that will lead you into the prayer of rest. These steps include scriptural references, definitions, and examples from the great contemplatives of church history as well as contemporary spiritual leaders. The goal of this lesson is to lead you through a progression of discovery to the place of quiet communion and perfect peace where God dwells within you.
Lesson 8: Journey into the Interior Castle
You are invited into the Father’s House! This lesson takes you on a journey through the parables of Jesus, the visionary experiences of the famed 16th-century-Christian mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila, and a contemporary vision of what God is doing in the Church. As a result, you will discover the joyful pathway of journeying into your own interior castle with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and better understand what it means to be a dwelling place of God.
Lesson 9: Christian Meditative Prayer
The Christian discipline of meditative prayer is almost a lost art among believers today. Christian meditative prayer is not a technique or a “new age” approach to meditation. It is pursuing communion with God Himself. In this lesson, you will discover why this spiritual practice is relevant to the Church today and learn ten different models of biblical meditation (along with seven practical guidelines) that will help you reap the powerful benefits of this type of communing prayer.
Lesson 10: The Fasted Life
While the blood of Jesus gives every believer entrance into the Presence of God, fasting and prayer are hallmarks of those who walk in deep intimacy with the Lord. In this lesson, you will be inspired through accounts from scripture and church history of those who lived fasted lifestyles and were met with extraordinary releases of God’s manifest presence. You will explore what it means to fast, the scriptural basis for fasting, and the 9 biblical fasts. You’ll learn practical aspects of fasting and how to cultivate a lifestyle that is passionate for His presence.
a person sitting on a bench reading their bible
Lesson 11: Towards a Greater Union
The goal of all things is union with God. It is abiding in and being aware of His presence. Union with God does not mean the loss of your individuality—rather, it brings about your full personhood. In union, you become all that God created you to be. In this lesson, you will glean from what Scripture and champions of prayer have revealed about the path to greater union with Christ. You will learn to follow the guideposts for this road-less-traveled in pursuit of God’s brilliant presence.
Lesson 12: Walking through the Tabernacle
The Tabernacle is an earthly shadow of the spiritual realm of God’s Presence dwelling in you. In this lesson, you will examine contemplative prayer through the lens of the Tabernacle of Moses and follow the progressive pattern of the priestly ministry revealed in Scripture. You will recognize your unique prayer anointing and explore how contemplative prayer fuels the fire on the altar of your heart. You will come full circle as your inward journey propels you forward for outward impact and effective ministry as you carry His presence everywhere you go. You will now be able to offer to others the ultimate purpose of prayer: God Himself and His Brilliant Presence!
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Blessings to walk in the brilliant presence of God!
James
James W. Goll
Founder God Encounters Ministries
Biography
James W. Goll is the founder of God Encounters Ministries and has traveled around the world sharing the love of Jesus, imparting the power of intercession, prophetic ministry and life in the Spirit. He has recorded numerous classes with corresponding study guides and is the author of numerous books, including The Seer, The Lost Art of Intercession, The Coming Israel Awakening, The Lifestyle of a Prophet and The Discerner. James is the father of four wonderful children with a growing number of grandchildren, and continues to make his home in Franklin, TN.
Practicing the Brilliant Presence of God
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