I think all Christians would confess the omnipresence of God – that He is everywhere at once. Yet He is normally thought of as being at a distant place in the far away heavens only. We are going to look at a few Scriptures concerning His omnipresence and, hopefully, we will receive a greater awareness of His nearness.
John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Some translations read, “God is a Spirit,” which is incorrect. God is not a Spirit; He is Spirit. For example, a spirit can travel from one place to another, for it is not omnipresent. God, on the other hand, is everywhere at once. Listen to what David said: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. Psalm 139:7-10.
David said it so well. God is in all places – not merely all places on earth but also throughout the heavens of heaven and all galaxies. God is eternal, too, and there is no time in eternity. This is what the writer of Hebrews meant when He said, “He who comes to God must believe that He is” (Hebrews 11:6).
Do you always see God as He who is? Can you relate to Him in the present when you read the history of the Old Testament? Can you relate to Him in the present when you read prophecies that indicate a future manifestation? If you can relate to “God who is” and experience His presence, then you are also experiencing the presence of Him who was and who shall be. Do you understand? For example, the covenants God made with Abraham can be a present reality to you through a present relationship with God who is eternal. The same concept is true of the future. Since God is eternal, a present relationship with Him can put you in touch with the future. There is no future with God. He is eternal. Everything of God that is future with us is a present reality with Him. Thus, your connection with promises and fulfillments of the future are made through your relationship with God. Through Him things of the past and the future can become a present reality. Of course, you must understand we are talking about a relationship with God in His eternalness. Knowing that He is eternal because you have accepted it as true is not the same thing as a relationship with Him in His eternalness. Also, you may know that He is omnipresent because the Bible says so and you believe it, but that doesn’t mean you have a relationship with the omnipresence of God.
Deuteronomy 4:39 Know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
When Moses says that “the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on earth beneath,” he is speaking of the Lord’s omnipresence. It is important to understand why Moses also says to “consider it in your heart.” It is only with the heart that one can relate to and experience the omnipresence of God. Jesus spoke of this when He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). Jesus is not saying you will see God with your eyes if your heart is pure. It is the heart that sees God, not your natural eyes. He is talking about a revelation of God that comes because of a pure heart. The Apostle Paul also makes mention of this in his prayer for the Ephesians: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. Ephesians 1:17-21.
Jesus had entered into the omnipresence of God. He was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of God in heavenly places. He entered into the omnipresence and eternalness of God, and this is what Paul was praying for the Ephesians. Is it possible that we can enter into that, too? God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7. Can you accept what Paul is saying here? Can you believe this kind of access is given to us?
Jeremiah 23:23 Am I a God near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off?
Moses had said, “The Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on earth beneath” (Deuteronomy 4:39), and here God says through Jeremiah, “Am I a God near at hand and not a God afar off?” He is on earth and in heaven; that is, near at hand and afar off. If He is at hand, why do so many Christians choose to only think of Him as afar off? Our thinking needs to change, and it will only change when we begin to experience His presence. Since God is omnipresent and eternal His Kingdom is omnipresent and eternal, too. Jesus said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Even so, many preachers today draw their time line charts and place the Kingdom of the Lord in the future. Why do they do it? They do it because they are not experiencing it. They have chosen to make it afar off. Listen, the things of God are not perceived with the senses of man; they are spiritually discerned. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. I Corinthians 2:14.
Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God does not come with observation” (Luke 17:20). He does not say the Kingdom of God has not come; He says it doesn’t come by observation. He had already said it was at hand (Matthew 4:17). He is saying that the natural man will not be aware of it for it is discerned spiritually.
God is omnipresent and so is His Kingdom. Man tends to only think of God and His Kingdom as being in the future. He does so because he can’t see either with his eyes. God and His Kingdom are invisible. If we are waiting to see the Lord and His Kingdom with our eyes, we are waiting in vain. The things of God’s eternalness are only revealed to the pure heart. We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. II Corinthians 4:18.
Our next passage of Scripture is taken from the Apostle Paul’s ministry to the Greeks at Mars’ Hill in Athens.
Acts 17:22-23 Then Paul stood
in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are
very religious;
23 For as I was passing
through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with
this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship
without knowing, Him I proclaim to you.
The Greeks worshiped many gods. However, they knew there was a Supreme Being. So they set up an altar to the One they did not know. The fact that an altar was set up to God suggests that they endeavored to worship Him. It is not enough to be religious; we must know the Omnipresent God and many Christians, as well as those Greeks, do not.
Acts 17:24-25 God who made
the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not
dwell in temples made with hands.
25 Nor is He worshiped with
men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath,
and all things.
God does not dwell in temples made with hands. He does not dwell in what man has made, only in what He has made. It makes no difference how beautiful and luxurious your church buildings are – He doesn’t dwell in them. It is people that He wants to dwell in. The temple He dwells in is a temple made up of living stones. It is called the many-membered Body of Christ.
Acts 17:26-27 And He has made from one blood every nation of
men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their
preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 So that they should seek
the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is
not far from each one of us.
This is the verse we have been looking for. Verse 27 tells us how to know God and to have a relationship with His omnipresence and eternalness. He is omnipresent and so close to us. Yet we cannot see Him or sense Him with any of the natural faculties of man. It is with our heart (spirit) that we must know Him. You will have to learn how to grope for Him with your spirit until you learn His presence. Until you learn to discern the presence of the Lord with your spirit, you will not really know Him. You may have memorized long portions of Scripture, have a very disciplined prayer life, and be very faithful in other disciplines of a religious life, but you will not know the presence of the Lord until you learn how to discern His presence with your spirit. When you do your whole concept of Christianity with change. You will find yourself being lifted out of the time-line history of man into the eternalness and omnipresence of God. No one can tell you how to find the presence of God with your spirit. That is why Paul says to grope for Him and find Him. Learn to know your spirit. Learn to control your spirit. Learn to discern with your spirit. Work at it until you learn how. Seek the Lord; grope for Him until you learn to serve Him with your spirit. God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of His Son (Romans 1:9). God is omnipresent and you can find Him. You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13.
Copyright © 2004 by Henry DuBose