Then David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader. 2 And David said to all the assembly of Israel, “If it seems good to you, and if it is of the Lord our God, let us send out to our brethren everywhere who are left in all the land of Israel, and with them to the priests and Levites who are in their cities and their common-lands, that they may gather together to us; 3 and let us bring the ark of our God back to us, for we have not inquired at it since the days of Saul. 1 Chronicles 13:1-3 NKJV 

The single reason for Saul’s maladministration and lost of the kingdom was—he didn’t seek the presence of the Lord. Unlike Saul, David’s first order of business was to bring back the Ark of God, i.e., bring back the presence of the Lord. And, when there was famine in the days of David for three years, year after year, David sought the presence of the Lord (2 Sam. 21:1). When David sought the presence of the Lord, he became acutely aware of the answer instead of being acutely aware of the problem. He shifted his consciousness from awareness of famine to an awareness of God’s presence. He brought his attention back to a consciousness of the presence of the Lord. Like David, we need to bring it back!

Consciousness is focused attention; an awareness of self, others, and one’s environment; it has also been called the superego (Sigmund Freud). One’s consciousness can be molded to be problem-conscious or God-conscious (1 Tim. 4:1-2). When our conscious is aware of the problem only, we need to bring it back to a consciousness of the presence of God.

When you seek the presence of the Lord—when you bring God back consciously. You’ll begin to feel that you know that God is on the scene to manifest a mighty blessing to answer your famine. You’ll know that God is not there just as an intellectual truth that you assent to, but He’s there because you sense He is there. Sort of like what you experience when you “pray through.” You feel that you are there in God’s presence.

So, how can you know you’re conscious of the presence of the Lord when you’re experiencing a problem?  First, you know God is on the scene when the presence of God has more of a reality than the problem (Ps. 16:11); second, you begin to feel joy and gladness, and then,  you find something in your circumstances to give God thanks for instead of just complaining about your problem (1 Thess. 5:18).  When you are conscious of the presence of the Lord, God will speak to you, somehow in some way (2 Sam. 21:1c).  The ultimate secret to success in life is to seek the presence of the Lord (Ps. 34:10). Just bring it back!