HIS PRESENCE.

 

Ever thought of a life lived in the presence of the best thing that ever happened to you, yet not perceive it all the while; and therefore never experience the best thing that could ever happen to you? That's a life lived in the Presence of God, unaware of it and therefore inexperienced with Him. Fun and chilling fact: He is right here right now, but also right there right now where you are. He is everywhere; something we call omnipresent. Movies, books, and the physical life in general have conditioned us to only believe in what we see. It's hard to say God is here when we can't see Him. "Show Yourself, if You're real..." we say. 

I dare say that yes, God can reveal Himself via physical manifestation whenever and wherever He pleases. I have learned that He doesn't show up because we asked Him to; otherwise who would be God here, Him or us? His will overrides ours by immeasurable heights. His ways... well, Isaiah 55:8-9 says, For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts (AMP). 

Furthermore, Jesus says in John 14:21 The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him](AMP).

I tend to imagine that in the unseen realm around us, a spirit may pass right before us or even through us, yet we do not perceive it unless we are sensitive in our spirit. Small wonder Jacob awoke from such a phenomenal dream in Genesis 28, and in verse 16 said, Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. Notice he still said 'is' even after waking up, to imply that the Lord's Presence did not depart after the dream, it remained there with Him. In the dream God tells Jacob (vs.15) that He is with him and will keep Him wherever he may go. What a wonderful experience! 

I was reading about God's Presence in a chapter of a book called 'The Pursuit of God' by A.W.Tozer (pgs.36-42). With each chapter I'm enlightened to new possibilities and the depth of who God is. At the beginning of the chapter was highlighted a verse, Psalm 139:7. Reading through to verse 9, David expresses in awe how there is not a place he can go where God's holy Presence would not be with Him. And then in verse 10 he tells God:

It was such a confirmation to read through the chapter, because the next post I was working on from my_truepoet on instagram was exactly on this verse. How timely is our heavenly Father. I had been trying to write on it but it just kept feeling untimely. How the Holy Spirit indeed helps us not to miss the timeline of Father. 

The post was a screenshot from a daily devotion on YouVersion from around February 18 2023.

 And every season I read this, I grow deeper in understanding the depths of what God is ever trying to tell us. Read Acts 17:27. How I pray that we live life aware of God's Presence right with us wherever we go. That we realise that growing more and more intimate with Him and drawing close to Him is never a matter of distance or space, but of the awareness of His ever near presence. In Jesus precious name, amen.

Love, Serene Steph,