The Need of Christians to Live in God's Presence

I bought a 1400 page book that is 12 of Andrew Murray's books compiled into one.  Andrew Murray is one who understood that salvation is a gift of God, the breath of life that God breaths into a dead man who has no hope of saving himself, but that there is also a proper human response to this new life.  Or in other words, he understood the purpose for which God breathes new life through faith in the act of salvation and he always encouraged Christians to live this new life.  This is the end of the first chapter of his book "The Two Covenants".

The great lack in our religion is that we need more of God.  We accept salvation as His gift, but we do not know that the only object of salvation - its chief blessing - is to make us fit for and bring us back to that close relationship with God for which we were created and in which our glory in eternity will be found.  All that God has ever done for His people in making a covenant was always to bring them to Himself as their chief, their only good, to teach them to trust in Him, to delight in Him, and to be one with Him.  It cannot be otherwise.

If God is indeed nothing but a very fountain of goodness and glory, of beauty and blessedness, then the more we can have of His presence, the more we conform to His will, the more we are engaged in His service, the more we have Him ruling and working in us, the more truly happy shall we be.  If God indeed is thereby Owner and Author of life and strength and of holiness and happiness, and can alone give and work it in us, the more we trust Him and depend and wait on Him, the stronger and the holier and the happier we shall be.  And that only is a true and good religious life, which brings us every day nearer to this God, which makes us give up everything to have more of Him.  No obedience can be too strict, no dependence too absolute, no submission too complete, no confidence too implicit to the soul that is learning to count God Himself its chief good, its exceeding joy.

In entering into covenant with us, God's one object is to draw us to Himself, to render us entirely dependent on Himself, and so to bring us into the right position and disposition in which He can fill us with Himself, His love, and His blessedness.

"...do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us...Come near to God and he will come near to you." - James 4:4-10
"...seek first his kingdom and his righteousness..." - Matthew 6:33
"...without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." - Hebrews 11:6