One of the questions I regularly get asked is, “What do you mean when you say you can sense the presence of God right now?” This is usually followed by, “Isn’t God everywhere? Isn’t it incorrect to make statements like God’s presence is in this place right now?”
I love questions like these because it means the person asking the question is thinking! So let me clarify. It is absolutely true that God is omnipresent. He is in heaven, all throughout the earth, and even in hell at the same time. That’s right. God is even in hell! According to Psalm 139:8 David said, “If I make my bed in hell you are there.”
God exists everywhere, but while He exists everywhere, His presence isn’t discerned equally everywhere. Think about it, do people sense His presence the same way in hell as they do in heaven? Absolutely not! And while we can never outrun God’s presence, one of the top priorities of every believer should be to actually experience God’s tangible presence on a regular basis.
So back to the original question, what do we mean we when say we sense the presence of God? The Greek word for presence is prosōpon which means face. In other words, when we say we sense His presence, we are literally saying God’s face is near.
For most of us, the people we put our face near are those we are close to or intimate with. Sensing the presence is speaking of intimacy where we draw close to the maker of the universe and He draws close to us! We were always called to see face to face with God. This is why 2 Corinthians 3:18 says:
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
This verse says we do this with unveiled face. Nothing covering our face and nothing covering His. Intimacy in its simplest form!
I’m passionate about the presence of God because I realized years ago I can’t change Brian. Even studying the Bible, I would see very little change until I learned how to encounter the presence of God. I’m all in on the word of God, but all word and no spirit and we dry up. On the other hand all spirit and no word and we blow up, but if we learn to put the two together we will grow up!
We need the manifested presence of God in our lives to transform. One of my favorite examples of this is King Saul in 1 Samuel 10. Samuel prophesied over Saul that he would come upon a group of prophets with flutes and stringed instruments who were worshipping and the spirit of the Lord would come upon Saul and transform him into a different man.
Wow! What an awesome way to change! Getting in the presence of God during anointed worship and allowing the Holy Spirit to give you a new heart! Changing from the inside out by simply encountering the presence! I’d be willing to bet all I have if Saul would have encountered the presence of God on a regular basis he would have never rebelled against God!
The same is true with you and me! We need to encounter the presence of God on a regular basis! It must be our top priority! This can be done in a number of ways including reading the Bible until God takes words off the page and they begin to speak life to our heart, praying in the spirit until we sense Him, or worshipping Him with reckless abandon until we know He is near!
The presence of God is what we born for! It’s all that will satisfy! I pray you some amazing encounters with God this week!
