Too often we tend to impose the limitations of man upon God. God is not man; He is Spirit (John 4:24), and will not accept man’s limitations. Various Christian sects will have their particular set of doctrines for God to conform to. However, God does not conform to religious concepts. He will not allow Himself to be placed in captivity by man. He will not conform to man’s theology.
God is omnipresent; He is everywhere. And He will not be confined to any particular place in heaven or in earth. The farther astronauts go up in space the farther away some Christians want to put God. He is not just some super-intelligence in far away space that has the ability to know what is happening on earth.
It is important for us to thoroughly understand that God is Spirit, and since He is Spirit He is omnipresent. The moment we begin thinking of Him in humanistic ways we close ourselves off from Him. Our access to God can be eliminated by how we think of Him. The following scriptures should help enforce our awareness of His omnipresence.
Deuteronomy 4:39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
God is not in the heavens only; He is also upon the earth. The fact that Moses says to “consider it in thine heart” means that this needs to be a heart revelation and not just head knowledge.
Psalm 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there.
This is one of David’s psalms. He, too, was aware of the omnipresence of God, and that there was no place he could go that God wasn’t there also. David was continually aware of being in the presence of the Lord, because he had a revelation of His omnipresence. With only a mental knowledge you will tend to forget that you are in His presence at all times. It is only when His omnipresence is a revelation to your heart that you will have a continuing awareness of His presence.
Jeremiah 23:24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.
God fills the heavens and the earth. There are no secret places to Him. No matter how far one might go up in space, God is there. And He is just as close to you if you go nowhere at all. There is no point on earth or in the heavens above where you will be closer to God than at any other point.
Acts 17:27-28 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might
feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us:
28 For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as
certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.
Paul says that God is so close to us, that if we would just feel after Him, we could find Him. Of course, we must understand that he is not speaking of feeling after God with our natural hands. God is Spirit, so we must feel after Him with our spirit. Do you know how to do that?
While God, being omnipresent, is so close to us, He is still virtually light-years away from us. How can He be so close and yet so far away? He is on a different realm. God is Spirit, meaning His presence is a plane of spirit. As long as we are only aware of the natural realm, we are vastly distant from Him. It is only when our spirit begins to ascend from one plane of spirit to another that we gradually become aware of His presence. As we do, we are changed into His likeness. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. II Corinthians 3:18.
John 4:35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
The disciples could only see the natural fields that were yet four months from harvest. But the spiritual fields were “white already to harvest.” The disciples did not have an awareness of the spiritual realm where the harvest was found. They could only see that which was on the natural realm.
So Jesus tells them to lift up their eyes. We have two sets of eyes. We have our physical eyes, which enable us to see in the natural. We also have the eyes of our heart, meaning the eyes of our spirit (Ephesians 1:18 NASB). There are many levels of spirit, and the disciples had the eyes of their spirit on a much lower level and could not see the harvest. It was necessary for them to lift their spiritual eyes. Notice that Jesus did not bring down the level of spirit the harvest was on, but required them to lift their spirit to the level of the harvest.
People tend to want God to come down to their level to bless them, but they will have to move up to where God is blessing. Some people feel that God just isn’t doing anything today. That’s because they are on a lower level. They need to rise up to where God is functioning. Why does God seem to be moving in some churches and not in others? Is it because He loves some more than others? No, He is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). It is just that some churches have neglected to move up to where God is moving.
James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.
If we want to know the Lord, that is, to draw closer to Him, then we must take the initiative. If we will draw nigh to Him, then He will draw nigh to us.
When Abraham interceded in behalf of the people of Sodom, the scripture says that “Abraham drew near,” and then he began to speak to the Lord (Genesis 18:23). There wasn’t a particular physical place that Abraham needed to be to draw nearer to the Lord. He drew nearer with his heart, with his spirit, and the Lord heard him.
One thing I have noticed in churches where I have ministered is that many of the people don’t know how to draw nigh to God. They have not been taught how to lift up their spirit to higher levels. Neither do they know how to appropriate from the Lord. That is the fault of the shepherds. They are not leading the people into more of God.
Jesus tells us that God is Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Some seem to feel they are worshiping in the spirit when they shout their praises. Others feel they are when they sing their praises spontaneously, and some just sing hymns. Any of those methods could be, but usually they are merely soulish. Regardless of the mechanics we use, it is necessary to touch the Lord. We must learn how to ascend, level after level, until we have a revelation of the Lord. That is what Paul meant when he said to “feel after Him, and find Him” (Acts 17:27).
Copyright © 1996 by Henry DuBose