You can recognize God’s presence. It is typically not dramatic or earth-shaking.
By Craig Brian Larson
Last week in our church’s midweek prayer meeting I experienced the presence of God. After approximately fifteen minutes of our praying and waiting on the Lord, I unexpectedly had two clear sensations. First, it felt as though the spiritual atmosphere in and around me became lighter, as though there was a lifting. Second, my hands quickly became warm, as though flooded with more blood.
These sensations caught my attention, though unexpected and unsought, and I began praying about what God wanted me to do next because, although I have experienced both of these sensations before in prayer, they are not my everyday or everyweek experience, and the feeling was not usually as clear.
Often when I have this sensation in a meeting, I will begin laying hands on people, praying for them, and blessing them. I did not do that on this occasion, and perhaps I missed an opportunity because, although I did pray with a strong sense of inspiration for the remainder of the meeting, nothing extraordinary happened.
There is no doubt in my mind I experienced the presence of God in that meeting. But experiences like this are not the only way God manifests his presence. Some feel more powerful to us, some less, but they are all important, for God chooses how he works in us, and he has a purpose in each. In this article we will identify eight ways we experience the presence of God.
God’s presence is recognizable
Twice in his epistle, the apostle John says we know something by the fact that we actually recognize the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives. First John 3:24 says, “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” First John 4:13 says, “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” Both of these verses imply that Christians are able to recognize the Holy Spirit’s presence in their lives. That is, it’s not something we simply take by faith; rather, there are recognizable indicators of the Holy Spirit’s presence.
Grace
To recognize God’s manifest presence, we need to understand how the New Testament uses the word grace. The first use of the word is to describe the unmerited favor of God. That is, we are justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Though we have sinned and deserve only condemnation, God gives us kindness and salvation. (For example, see Ephesians 2:8–9.)
The second use of the word grace is to describe enablement. God gives ability. For example, Peter writes, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10). Here Peter refers to the ability and willingness to teach and serve others in a church as examples of grace, of enablement, that God gives people. In other words, if God’s Holy Spirit did not give this ability and motivation, people would not be able to do what they do.
Grace is an important word in this article, for it is a key idea in properly understanding the presence of God in your life. Whenever you experience the grace of God’s enablement, you are experiencing the manifest presence of God. His hand is on you. He is working for his good purpose. Don’t miss it. Respond properly and prayerfully. Don’t take for granted, downplay, or ignore the less dramatic manifestations of his presence. And at the other end of the spectrum, don’t fall into the unbelief that is blind and deaf to God’s extraordinary workings.
Let’s look now at eight ways we experience God’s gracious presence, beginning with the less dramatic (but all-important) and concluding with the extraordinary.
1. Grace for truth
Jesus’ 12 disciples had already been with him for several years and seen many miracles when one day Jesus asked them a crucial question: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matthew 16:13).
The identity of Jesus is obvious to believers today, but it was not so to the people of that time, and not even to the 12. They responded, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Notice that nowhere on that list is the correct answer. Jesus was doing and saying extraordinary things, but he was a man clothed with flesh and blood. At this point, his cross and resurrection could not even be imagined. Who he was was anyone’s guess.
Then Jesus pressed the question home. “Who do you say that I am?”
Peter responded. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Again, this confession is probably unremarkable to you. Of course he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Nothing earth-shaking or miraculous there. Important, yes, but such words and such a belief does not require God to come and manifest his presence. So we might think.
Jesus knew better. He responded as though Peter had just won the lottery. “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:17–19).
Over the top? No. Jesus is far more impressed by what Peter just confessed than by all the miracles he himself had done to this point. Jesus knew that fallen sinners cannot truly comprehend and believe spiritual truth apart from the supernatural working of God in their lives, that is, apart from a revelation from the Holy Spirit, apart from the Holy Spirit turning on the light in one’s human spirit—apart from the grace and presence of God. Jesus said God had “revealed” this to Peter.
On the scale of what matters in the long run, nothing could compare to this, not having blind eyes or deaf ears opened, not having crippled limbs healed, not walking on water. All these are powerful works indeed, and wondrous to see, but by themselves they don’t get your sins forgiven and your soul saved. That depends on faith in the truth about Jesus. And that depends on the miracle of a revelation from God. (Judas, for example, saw all the miracles and even heard the truth, but he never truly heard.)
The apostle Paul also recognized that it took the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit for a human to believe even the most fundamental truth about Jesus. Paul wrote, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). Think about that. Three words. The most basic truth about Jesus. You can’t say it with conviction unless you are “in the Holy Spirit,” that is, unless you are experiencing the presence of God. Don’t take that for granted. Don’t think you can learn spiritual truth like you learn geometry or chemistry. It’s supernatural.
On the road to Emmaus, two disciples of Jesus experienced the presence of God. Jesus had been crucified just days before. They had heard the report from the women who went to the tomb that they had seen the resurrected Lord, but the men did not believe it. As they walked on the road Jesus came and walked with them and explained the Scriptures to them. Later that day, he suddenly vanished from their sight, and they realized this was the resurrected Jesus.
Their next words are crucial: “They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?’” (Luke 24:32). Has your heart ever burned as you read the Bible, heard a sermon, thought about God, worshiped him, meditated on his names, or considered the most important ideas of the Christian faith (its doctrine)? That was supernatural. It was as supernatural as what happened to the 11 disciples when Jesus appeared to them a few hours later: “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).
Back in the book of Corinthians, Paul explained, “No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God…. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:11, 12, 14).
And so, whenever you read the Bible or listen to a sermon, and you understand and believe what the Bible says, you are in the Holy Spirit. God is present with you and in you. As 1 John 2:27 says, “His anointing teaches you about everything.” His manifest presence is changing your heart as surely as a pitch-dark room changes when the light is turned on. The grace he is giving you to understand and believe the truth is eternally important and should be greatly valued as what it is—supernatural—as wonderful as bread broken to feed 5,000.
And what should you do in response? Believe. Trust. Obey. Share.
2. Grace for Christian virtues
In general there is one time of day when I am least likely to sense the presence of God. It is when I wake up during the night. And it is no coincidence I’ve had more fearful, selfish, unbelieving, tormented, greedy, rash, and quitting thoughts in the middle of the night than at any other time. There is a direct correlation between the condition of my heart and the manifest presence of God in my life.
But the middle of the night is not the only time that my flesh can take over, and God can seem far away. If my wife and I argue about something on Sunday morning and I have lingering feelings of anger, I am not going to sense the presence of God in church until I forgive. If discouragement or jealousy or self-pity settles into my soul, God will seem far, far away.
When the flesh, that is, the sinful nature, controls my heart, the Holy Spirit is not in control, and his manifest presence fades. Galatians 5:17 says, “The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other.” The one that rules is the presence that is manifest and felt.
When God first chose Saul to be king of Israel, the prophet Samuel met with him and revealed God’s selection. Samuel revealed a sequence of events that would happen to Saul, including an encounter he would have with a group of prophets. Samuel predicted, “Then the Spirit of the LORD will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man” (1 Samuel 10:6).
Here we see God’s mighty Holy Spirit presence rushing upon Saul and manifesting in two ways: the spiritual gift of prophecy and the spiritual transformation of his soul. Unfortunately Saul later rebelled, disobeyed, and hardened his heart against God, and the Holy Spirit left him, but at this point the transformation was real. We see this new presence of God in his life manifested particularly in the courage he showed on several occasions to step out and lead Israel in battle against its enemies, despite shyness and a low opinion of himself.
God’s mighty presence turns you into another person. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). When the Holy Spirit fills your soul, you act like Jesus rather than Satan.
God’s presence feels like God’s character. It feels like love, peace, righteousness, wisdom, and joy. I opened this article describing a time when I felt God’s presence physically, but that is not the typical way a Christian experiences God’s presence. Typically we will recognize God’s powerful presence by the fruits of the Spirit in us, by godly virtue. As Paul told Timothy, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7).
John wrote, “If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12). When God abides, he is present. When your heart is moved with compassion for a needy person, that is Christ living in you.
Paul wrote, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7). When the supernatural peace of God replaces anxiety in your soul, that is the presence of God.
When you show me a godly person, you’re showing me God’s grace—God’s manifest presence—in a person. Notice again the connection of the Holy Spirit’s powerful presence with Christian virtues in these verses: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13). “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).
So do not discount the grace of a Christlike heart. The healing of the soul is just as supernatural as the healing of the body, though both are of course important. If you leave a church service, or conclude your daily devotional time of prayer and Bible reading, filled with love, faith, peace, joy, hope, humility, and a passion for holiness, you have experienced the manifest presence of God. You are filled with God. This is more common than spectacular manifestations of God’s presence and far more important in God’s sight.
3. Grace for reverence
I completely surrendered my life to Jesus when I was 19-years-old. I had grown up believing in Jesus and had a tender conscience toward him, but when I went away to college that gradually receded.
Then, at a hotel, on a trip to Iowa for a gymnastics meet, I walked into the room of a teammate and found him reading the Bible. It occurred to me I needed to read the Bible, so I went back to my room and began reading the Gideon’s Bible in the dresser drawer. I don’t remember what part of the Bible I was reading, but what I will never forget is how I suddenly became gripped with a sense of the fear of God. My soul was overwhelmed with the awareness that he is the Lord of everything, and I was not living as though he was Lord. I bowed my head and tearfully confessed my sins and made him the Lord of my life.
That kind of fear is not natural to human nature. In fact the opposite is true. Have you ever read the Book of Exodus, how God delivered Israel from Egypt by unleashing ten terrible plagues on Pharaoh and Egypt and their idols, and wondered, What was Pharaoh thinking? One after another, the plagues brought the nation to terrible misery and utter ruin, yet time and again Pharaoh would harden his heart and say no to Moses’s demand that he let the people go. Then, even after losing his own firstborn son to the final plague, along with every other family in Egypt losing their firstborn son, and allowing Israel to leave, in no time he sends out his chariots and soldiers to bring Israel back. Pharaoh, what are you thinking? What has to happen for you to learn your lesson, for you to fear God?
What must happen is supernatural. Even suffering the most terrible judgments and seeing with one’s own eyes the awesome wrath of God, fallen human nature will not sincerely fear God. Unconverted people might temporarily fear consequences, but they will not have the authentic reverence God deserves. That is what biblical history reveals over and over again, from Adam, to Cain, to Lamech, to the mysterious “sons of God,” to Israel and its series of fallen kings—even including Solomon—to Judas, to the Pharisees, to the antichrist and the people suffering the final Tribulation who even in those terrible times will blaspheme God and refuse to repent of their wickedness (Revelation 16:9, 11, 21).
The apostle Paul wrote about mankind’s natural refusal to fear God. His conclusion about the human condition unaided by God’s grace is this:
“We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one….There is no fear of God before their eyes.’” (Romans 3:9–12, 18)
This is the normal state of fallen humanity. Even believers who follow their flesh will lack the fear of God and continue in sin apart from God’s grace. What else could explain the way non-believers and believers alike ignore God’s commandments about sexual morality, about taking God’s name in vain, about slander and lust and greed and coveting and impurity? Scripture warns that we reap what we sow. God warns “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Yet people act as though God is someone to be trifled with, as though they will never stand before a holy God and give account for every single thing they have ever said and done and receive full justice.
What must happen to overcome this irreverence toward God is a work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes, “He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). The Holy Spirit must convince people about the issues that should cause people to fear God, their sins, their unrighteousness in God’s sight, the judgment of God that is coming. The Holy Spirit must convince people of the holiness of the one true God.
Therefore, when you experience both a head and heart knowledge of the holiness of God, and sincere reverence for him, and you fear doing anything that would incur his judgment, that is the presence of the Holy Spirit in you. When you experience true conviction of a particular sin and a willingness to repent, that is the presence of the Holy Spirit. And oh what an all-important grace that is.
4. Grace for liveliness
The presence of God that brings spiritual vitality is something I unmistakably experience—or don’t experience—every single week. That’s because I am a pastor of a church, so I lead worship services and other prayer meetings every week. Frankly, some of them are lively and energetic, and some drag along. In some God feels very present, and in others he feels far away. In some attenders do not need anyone spurring them on to participate enthusiastically, and in others people are passive and even bored.
I’ve learned I cannot predict or control this. No matter how much I pray and even fast for the meetings, no matter how hard I work to prepare, God’s presence is up to him. And usually it really is a matter of the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit, not just how much sleep people had the night before or how tired they are from work, although that at times comes into play. I can usually feel in my spirit whether a meeting will be alive even before it begins.
Spiritual vitality that comes from the grace of God does not happen only in church meetings. You do or do not experience it every day, all day, with regard to your motivation to seek the Lord and obey his commands, read the Bible, pray, worship and sing to God, and serve others in love. You are spiritually zealous or disinterested in spiritual things. You are stirred to seek the Lord, or spiritually flat.
I’m now going to quote a passage in Scripture that illustrates the relationship between vitality—life—and the Spirit of God. You may be tempted merely to scan it, but I urge you not to make that mistake even if you’ve read it many times before. I quote the full excerpt because it will have its deepest effect on your spirit if you read it slowly in full. It is the picture of a river flowing from the temple of God, and of course the river is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit:
“1 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 2 Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side.
“3 Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. 4 Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. 5 Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through.
“6 And he said to me, ‘Son of man, have you seen this?’ Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 7 As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other.
“8 And he said to me, ‘This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. 9 And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes.
“‘10 Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. 11 But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt.
“‘ 12 And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.’” (Ezekiel 47:1–12 ESV)
The manifest presence of the Holy Spirit of God brings life, energy, zeal, dynamism, vitality, to your soul and to the gatherings of God’s people. He dispels human lethargy, heaviness, and deadness.
This is why the apostle Paul would begin and end his letters with the blessing/prayer, “Grace be with you.” He was saying, may God enable you by his presence to live this Christian life; may his Holy Spirit empower you to be spiritually alive.
5. Grace for boldness
Another way we recognize the presence of God is when Christians have courage to speak the Word of God regardless of potential hostility or harm to themselves. The presence of the Holy Spirit gives boldness.
Early in the history of the church, the religious leaders seized the apostles Peter and John for healing a lame man and then preaching to the crowds that gathered about the resurrection of Jesus. The Jewish leaders put them on trial and asked, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”
Peter did not answer tactfully. “Let it be known to all of you,” Peter said, “and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10–12 ESV)
That was not a statement written by a public relations firm to win the favor of those in power. But it was a bold statement of the truth. And before the author of Acts gives us Peter’s words, he tells us that Peter was “filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 8). Boldness and the presence of God go together.
After the religious leaders consulted together about what to do with Peter and John, they ordered them to stop preaching Jesus, threatened them, and then released them. Peter and John returned to the church and reported what had happened. The church lifted their voices to God and prayed that he would give them boldness to keep preaching the gospel. What happened next was earth-shaking: “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
The presence of God and fearlessness go together.
Fifteen hundred years later, in the early days of the Reformation, a young German monk caught the attention of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church when he began writing and preaching that people are saved only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, apart from religious acts of penance. Eventually he was excommunicated and brought before a Church court, where the Church scholars demanded he recant his writings. If he did not, he would be given a death sentence and likely end up burned at the stake.
Facing that threat would get your attention. The monk asked for time to consider his decision. One day later he took his stand before the reassembled court and declared:
“Your Imperial Majesty and Your Lordships demand a simple answer. Here it is, plain and unvarnished. Unless I am convinced of error by the testimony of Scripture or by manifest reasoning, I stand convinced by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God’s word. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us. On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me.”
The monk, of course, was Martin Luther. Where did he get the boldness to take such a stand? From the grace given by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
6. Grace-enabled “flow”
When God is present, there can be an inspired, streaming flow of whatever he is manifesting.
Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit” (John 7:37–39 ESV).
The presence of the Holy Spirit can flow like a river. The water just keeps coming from its source. There is a flow of ideas, words, feelings, energy, guidance. Whatever we are doing with God at that moment can become easy and natural.
Not that we always experience this, not that the absence of flow means the Holy Spirit is absent, but when there is a flow of spiritual inspiration the Holy Spirit likely is present in a special way.
Jesus said, “When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” (Luke 12:11–12 ESV). That’s flow. Jesus said the words will be there when you need them.
That’s what happened to Peter on the day of Pentecost, when he stood up and spontaneously explained to the crowd that gathered what was happening. After recording some of his words, the author of Acts writes, “With many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them” (Acts 2:40 ESV).
When I speak to others in a gift of prophecy, I experience a flow. I begin speaking with an idea or a few words that I feel have been revealed to me, not knowing what I will say after the first sentence. Then the words and ideas just keep coming, and sooner or later the flow stops.
I vividly remember one especially inspired time of praying over all the attenders at one Sunday worship service. I laid hands on people one by one and prayed as I felt led of the Lord. After praying for a half-dozen people, I was interceding with a level of inspiration I had never experienced before. God was showing me things and inspiring me with faith that kept getting stronger and stronger. When I was finished, I even went back to pray again with some of the earlier people in line because I felt they had been shortchanged by not being in the later flow.
There is an important lesson here for those who want to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit. When the flow comes, follow it. Don’t choke it off. Don’t stop prematurely.
7. Grace bringing physical sensations
One of the most familiar stories in the Gospels is the account of Jesus’ healing the woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years, but there’s something in this that Westerners can easily miss. The woman touched Jesus, immediately received her healing, and then this happened: “Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my garments?’” (Mark 5:30 ESV)
How did Jesus perceive power moving from his body to hers? We don’t know for sure because the Scripture doesn’t tell us, but most likely he experienced a physical sensation. I say this is likely because Christian history—in particular the history of great spiritual awakenings and revivals, as well as the testimonies of ministers used in the gift of healing—are filled with stories of Christians saying they had physical sensations when the Holy Spirit came upon them or worked through them in a special way. This is not always the case, and it is obviously subjective, but it is reported too often to ignore.
One author lists the following physical sensations reported by people attending such meetings: heat, electricity, power, trembling, weakness, or a weight upon them.
I think it’s likely Christians often have physical sensations like this, actually from God, but it never crosses their minds that it could be something spiritual. They either don’t pay attention, or they dismiss it as having a physical cause. That is the way people trained in Western education systems think.
I saw a video last week of a missionary to Taiwan named Cina Silva who testified of being healed of torn ligaments in her ankle. She was in a meeting, and when the speaker came to the podium, he greeted everyone with the words, “Jesus is here to deliver and heal.” Cina reported, “As soon as he said the word ‘heal,’ this power surge went into my foot and across to the other foot and went up and down my body, twice.’” She was instantly, permanently healed.
8. Grace for what we recognize as supernatural
Finally, we experience God’s presence in things we clearly recognize as supernatural. Although all the graces described in the previous points are supernatural, requiring the power of the Holy Spirit, we usually don’t think of them as supernatural.
On the other hand, we recognize the clearly supernatural presence of God in miracles; physical healings; dramatic healings of the soul including deliverance from demons; the baptism of the Holy Spirit; spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues and interpretation, words of knowledge, supernatural signs and wonders, and visions and dreams and unusual messages from God.
These supernatural things are real, and they are not limited to the times of the Bible. They happen today regularly all over the world. When they happen, God is present.
This was true even for Jesus: “It came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them” (Luke 5:17 KJV).
Notice in 1 Corinthians 12:4–11 the emphasis on the Holy Spirit being present to manifest the supernatural gifts: “4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Corinthians 12:4–11 ESV).
Clearly, when supernatural spiritual gifts are manifesting, God is present.
Once my wife was driving on a four-lane road that was not a divided highway, and she was in the left lane of the two lanes going her direction. She heard in her spirit the words, Move into the right lane. She didn’t know what to think of this, and then again she heard in her spirit the same words. So she pulled into the right lane. In less than 20 seconds, some sort of jostling occurred in the cars coming from the other direction, and one of the cars swerved into the lane Nancy had been in a few seconds before. Nancy was spared from an accident by God’s supernatural presence in a voice in her heart.
During my sophomore year at Illinois State University, I made a decision one morning to ask a girl out for a date. I had been introduced to her once several weeks before, and I was interested in her. I decided to phone her later that night after working on an assignment at the computer lab. I was sitting in a computer room typing out my code with about six other students. The door opened to the lab room, and I glanced behind me. I did a double take. It was the girl I had decided that morning to ask out for a date. I did not have any classes with her. I had never seen her anywhere except for the time I was introduced to her (Illinois State had about 20,000 students). But here she was in a little room on the night I was planning to ask her out.
I had enough sense to know when God had set the table for me. I said hi and asked if I could walk her back to her dorm room when she was finished with her work. She said yes, and a year and a half later she said yes when I asked her to marry me. When you experience a clear providence such as this meeting, you know that God is present working in your circumstances.
Conclusion
God is present everywhere, at all times, though we do not see or feel him. But at specific times he manifests his presence in greater, perceptible ways for certain purposes.
Recognizing God’s presence helps us in many ways. It enables us to respond accordingly, to make sure we are fully attentive to him, to ask him what to do and listen carefully, to step out in faith, to work with him, to give thanks and worship.
Recognizing God’s presence can guide you and make you more fruitful in your work for him.
The book “The Practice of the Presence of God,” by Brother Lawrence, played an important role in helping me learn to pray and be aware of God throughout the day.
I have found that practicing God’s presence is one secret to having a deeply satisfying, personal relationship with him. In brief, it involves being aware of him all through the day.
I have not arrived, I still have much to learn, but normally that describes my life. I practice God’s presence, and I can say from experience it is the only way to live.
Here is the story of how I learned it and how you can too.
My story of learning to practice God’s presence
Two books have been crucial in teaching me how to practice God’s presence.
First and most important of course is the Bible. That is the basis for all true knowledge of God, an inexhaustible source of instruction about God and a means of fellowship with him. More on that later.
Brother Lawrence and The Practice of the Presence of God
Second is a book I read a few years ago that God used to teach an approach to practicing God’s presence through prayer.
There is a spirit to this book that affected my heart. Just its title, The Practice of the Presence of God, gave me a new way of looking at prayer.
If you have grave concerns about many tenets of Roman Catholic theology, as I do, you might reject the book before reading because the author was a French monk some 400 years ago.1 But I believe the author, Brother Lawrence, who was not a church leader or theologian, had a genuine relationship with God through faith in Christ, despite some wrong beliefs.
Several people have translated the book, but I recommend the edition by Whitaker House, published in 1982. You can get it on Kindle or in paperback at Amazon, or from Whitaker House.
I also highly recommend Harold Myra’s 40-day devotional on the book published in 2017 by Discovery House, available in Kindle and paperback. It contains devotions written by Myra (former publisher and ceo at Christianity Today) and a modern paraphrase of The Practice of the Presence of God.
I’ve reread it numerous times because it affects my heart. I feel God’s love and am stirred to relate to him personally.
The best book
Throughout my life I have practiced God’s presence through a daily devotional time of Bible reading and prayer, which I still do.
I love this more than a good meal. It is my reference point for knowing God in my mind and spirit.
I know what it is like to feel his presence because in these times of devotion I hear his voice in Scripture. And that is a sure plumb line.
I know what the peace and the thoughts of God feel like in my soul because I have experienced them so often in these times alone with him. I typically invest 1–2 hours a day alone with God.
For much of my life, regrettably, I did not always carry God’s presence with me throughout the day, even though I was a pastor and an editor of Christian publications. I could have a great hour alone with God in the morning but then go all day without pausing to pray again.
I could fall into lingering fear, selfishness, resentment, or despair.
Learning to practice God’s presence has changed that.
Catching fire
In recent years there has been another strong influence on how I practice God’s presence. I’ve learned from several people much more about how to walk in God’s anointing.
Essentially this involves expressing ongoing verbal praise and thanksgiving throughout the day when possible, with a conscious effort to tune into God and maintain a sense of his presence.
Here is what that looks like. As I walk down the sidewalk, or wash dishes, or take a shower, or have some other unfocused time, you will hear me singing quietly, or saying phrases like “Hallelujah, thank you, Lord, hallelujah, praise you, Father, for your mercy, hallelujah, holy, holy, holy is the Lord” and so on, or praying in tongues.
And with this praying, there is urgency, intensity, fire, passion. Connection with God.
I learned this by praying with others and sensing their spirit. This too is God’s presence.
It is more than a thought about God, but a feeling for God that is expressed verbally. And it is more than human emotion, for God’s Spirit inhabits our praises.
The Spirit of God flows like a river and burns like a fire.
Footnote
I believe strongly in the truths of the Reformation, that we are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Are you finding it hard to know what to pray all day? Here is how to prevent boredom and repetition when you pause often during the day to talk to God.
Those who decide they want to practice God’s presence by pausing frequently during the day for brief prayers can run into a problem. What do you pray all day? After a while how do you keep from feeling bored and repetitious? How do you maintain this?
The answer is to use the full gamut of prayers described in the Bible. This article lists 12 kinds of prayer you can do briefly.
12 Ways to Pray
Express your love and devotion. This is a four-word pause: “Lord, I love you.” Or extend the prayer by telling why you love him. God wants to hear this all the time. He is affectionate and delights to receive your affection. Jesus said the first commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Mark 12:30, italics added).
Affirm your trust. Your faith is of ultimate importance to God. He delights in it. So we say things like, “Lord, I trust in you.” “I will not fear.” “You are my provider.” “You are my rock, my shield, my fortress, my deliverer.”
Give thanks. Once we adopt a grateful attitude, we find unlimited things large and small for which to thank God. He enjoys hearing every one. He never tires of it, never says, Enough already with thanksgiving.
Ask for help. Express your dependence on God, as in “Lord, I need you. Help me do this.” God doesn’t want us to rely on ourselves in anything. Ask for help in every part and project of the day, no matter how small.
Dedicate what you have and are doing to the Lord. This is a statement of purpose. “Lord, I am vacuuming the house now for you.” “Lord, I dedicate my body to you and your glory.”
Declare faith in God’s promises. In this we go beyond a statement of trust to affirm our belief in specific promises in Scripture about how God acts toward his people. “God will give me victory in this trial.” “The Lord is my healer.” “My God says, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’” “The Lord will supply all my needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” God delights to hear that we believe his Words are true, and he wants us to speak confidence in his words even if we are struggling to feel it in the moment.
Praise the Lord. Take pleasure in him. Recount the various aspects of God’s glorious character, nature, and works. We can learn how to do this especially from the Book of Psalms. “You are my God.” “You are my Father.” “I praise you, O God, for you are my Savior, my rock, my king, my helper, my peace, my strength, my comforter, my advocate.” “Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, the Mighty One, the Holy One!”
Everything God has done is available to us for praise. “God, I praise you that you parted the Red Sea.” “Jesus, I praise you that death could not hold you in the grave.”
Surrender everything. Whether for the first time or the hundredth, give what you value to God. “Lord, I surrender all my money and savings to you. It is yours. I am a steward of it.” “Lord, I surrender my family again today to you. They are yours.” We also surrender jobs, possessions, body, abilities, time periods.
Confess and repent of sin. In the course of every day we think and feel, say and do, wrong things. As soon as we realize it, we should confess them to God and ask forgiveness. Then ask him to help us turn from sin and walk uprightly. “Lord, I confess feeling resentment toward my friend just now. Forgive me and help me to love and help her.” We can pray this sincerely in 10 seconds, and if we feel a transgression was so serious that we need to talk more about it with God, we can do so later in the day when we have time.
When tempted, ask Jesus to help you overcome. In this case, we are praying before we sin. It is when we most want to sin that we least want to pray, but it is not a sin to be tempted. Even Jesus was tempted. So no matter how strongly we feel the urge to sin, we bring it to God and ask him to keep us from succumbing. Hebrews 2:18 says, “Because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
When ill, ask for healing. Whether we are suffering the minor aches, pains, and chronic ailments that beset our bodies, or a serious cold, or a life-threatening disease, God wants us to bring them all to him as often as we feel the need. He ultimately is our healer, while doctors and medicines are means that he chooses to use and bless. But he wants and deserves the glory for all healing, and he wants us to depend ultimately on him for it. So bring every headache, indigestion, or serious disease to him in prayer.
When tired or weak, ask for strength. One of the more frequent promises in Scripture is that God is the strength of his people. That means God can give us emotional, physical, and spiritual strength that is not from natural sources, but from the Holy Spirit. It is supernatural. So we pray things like, “Lord, give me emotional strength to have this difficult talk with me employer.”
When you know what to pray
When you use all 12 prayers, you will find you have an unlimited number of brief prayers to fill your day to overflowing, and God’s presence will be real and regular.
If you were to add another kind of prayer to this list, what would it be? Share it below in the comments.
Habitual, brief pauses for prayer are the secret to practicing God’s presence.
Twelve habitual prayers
Practicing God’s presence involves developing a prayer habit based on about twelve prayers. We can develop them one at a time until they all become as normal as breathing.
They are not meant to be a list to walk through in sequence. Rather they are prayers that become a habit and find their natural place scattered throughout our day as led by the Lord and called forth by different situations.
For example, before I began writing this post I instinctively paused to tell God I cannot do this and need his help. This was not mechanical. It flowed naturally from my sense of need.
I have been admitting my dependence to God and asking for help for many years based on my beliefs.
I am convinced I cannot even think unless God gives me a rational mind from moment to moment (see Daniel 4), and I cannot know spiritual things apart from the Spirit of God, and I cannot formulate ideas in a helpful way without his wisdom.
That prayer is one way I practice God’s presence.
In upcoming posts we will explore twelve prayers. I suggest you focus on one or two a day to develop the habit and let others flow naturally as fits the occasion.
Don’t be mechanical. But regularly ask yourself, “How can I practice God’s presence right now?”
Having God and his Word in your mind, and on your lips if possible, makes him present to you, no matter what your emotions, what the condition of your spirit, or to what degree you sense the presence of the Holy Spirit.
The foundational habit
One habit makes the other practices possible.
It is the regular pause to pray, as often as possible throughout the day, for as little as one second to as long as you desire, but usually for five to ten seconds.
You can pray in your heart or aloud, with eyes open or closed, when you are alone or in a crowd.
You turn your mind to God and express one or more of these twelve prayers. And then you resume what you are doing.
Set a goal to increase your current practice. If you turn your thoughts to God once or twice in a typical day, increase to four to six times.
Perhaps set an alarm on your phone to remind you, or tie it to regular activities like meals, tea breaks, and getting in and out of bed.
When that habit is established, increase your pauses to every hour. Then twice each hour, then every ten minutes. Eventually you will settle into a frequency that is natural and comfortable.
As a complement to the time trigger for pausing to pray, also tie prayers to situations.
For example, when tempted, we can ask Jesus to help us overcome it (see Hebrews 2:16–18). Or when worries arise, we can declare trust in God.
Next week we will begin exploring the twelve prayers that provide variety and relevance in practicing God’s presence throughout the day.
Other readers and I would love to hear from you. Do you tend to pray in one devotional time a day or in brief pauses for prayer throughout the day, or both?
“Practicing God’s presence is one secret to experiencing all the New Testament promises.”
To grow in our knowledge of God and his ways we must learn to practice God’s presence. This is how we enjoy a personal relationship with God, rather than merely know facts about him.
The normal Christian life
Moreover, practicing God’s presence is foundational to the Spirit-filled life taught in the New Testament. It enables us to have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). It makes us aware of him throughout the day no matter what we are doing. We will have the fruits of the Holy Spirit in every situation (Gal 5:22–23). It is how we fellowship with God all day.
By practicing God’s presence we obey the Scriptures that tell us to “pray continually” and “give thanks in all circumstances” and “rejoice in the Lord always” and “do all to the glory of God” and “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and “cast all your anxiety on him” and “abide in Jesus” and “walk in the Holy Spirit.” (1 Thess. 5:17–18; Phil. 4:4; 1 Cor. 10:31; Mark 12:30; 1 Peter 5:7; John 15:4; Gal. 5:25)
The secret of overcomers
Practicing God’s presence is one secret to experiencing all the New Testament promises to those who are a victorious new creation in Christ.
If we are persistently sad, angry, fearful, and discontent, we are not practicing God’s presence. When we regularly feel empty and dry, we are not practicing his presence. If we often feel guilty, distant, and disconnected from the Lord, if we live in continual defeat before some sin or addiction, we are not practicing God’s presence.
God’s presence brings joy. Supernatural peace. Faith and confidence. Satisfaction, contentment, and fullness.
God’s presence is life. His presence is living water and bread from heaven. His presence gives strength and victory.
As we practice God’s presence, we sense his love and gracious intentions. We feel close to him and can bring everything to him moment by moment. He is at our right hand, ever before and around us.
And even when we feel nothing, we will know he is there and hears us. We will not have a sense of doubt and disconnection that makes us feel something is wrong between us and God. We can practice God’s presence even when we do not feel his presence.
Let me say that again because if you miss that you will often feel like a failure. We can successfully practice God’s presence even when we do not feel his presence. (More on that in upcoming posts)
So practicing God’s presence is one secret to the abundant Christian life.
Practicing God’s presence is well within reach
Thankfully it is not hard to do. It is not just for super saints or longtime believers. Even a new Christian can learn it.
Though not hard, it must be learned. We must build new mental habits, which take time.
If you put the teachings in this series into practice, in one or two months you will be well on your way to a transformed life. And then for the rest of your life you will keep learning more.
You will be stronger in the Lord than you imagined possible. You will defeat life-controlling habits. Your Christian life will work.
Does that sound too good to be true? Am I overpromising? I don’t think so.
Certainly we will experience trials, discipline, and struggles all our lives. Certainly we will have ups and downs in practicing God’s presence. We will always have unanswered questions.
But when we practice God’s presence, we walk through these difficulties as overcomers.
An apostle’s example
Paul describes this: “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” (2 Cor. 4:7–10)
And elsewhere, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:11–13)
And again, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:37–39)
This is the victorious life possible for those who practice God’s presence. We will learn how in upcoming posts.
Where do you find your sense of worth? If you were a boastful person, what would you boast about?
The LORD says, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me” (Jeremiah 9:23–24).
If a person boasts, it is because one of the strongest motivations in life is to find significance, importance, worth. We need to feel we have value. It is crushing to think that we are worthless or inferior to others. Whether we boast or not, we all pursue significance.
How we pursue self-worth
We need to be aware of how we try to get worth and how that affects our motivations.
Unfortunately, we may choose insignificant ways to get significance. We seek worth through success, or money, beauty, a chiseled body, knowledge, skill, achievements, power, position, love, fame.
None of these are wrong in themselves, but they do not add to our worth.
And they can be hard to get.
If we fall short of these, our ego will find something to take pride in, even trivial things. Things like whether our pants or shoes are in style. The success of our sports team. The brands we use and how much we paid. The speed and capacity of our technology. Our race, haircut, or knowledge of trivia. The ability to cook a particular dish. A collection of bottles.
We are so voracious for significance that we can take pride in literally anything.
How God gives self-worth
Jeremiah 9:23–24, quoted above, says that there is only one legitimate, effective way to find significance: by knowing God.
That is because God alone is intrinsically worthy, significant, and glorious, and he alone gives worth to his creation. When he gives worth, that worth is enormous.
When he speaks a word of approval or honor, then sooner or later every living human and angel will recognize that worth and likewise give honor. If God does not approve, if he dishonors someone or something, then it will pass away and be forgotten.
So boasting is okay under just one condition: if we are humbly boasting in our relationship with God, fully aware that God is the one who gets all the credit.
But in a sense, we proudly boast in the glory of God. We don’t feel second-rate because we find our worth in him or that he is second best to all the cool things to boast about in this world.
If you know God, if you know how to walk with him as he requires, if you know the wisdom he reveals in his Word, if you know Jesus Christ as Savior, if you know his character and nature, if you love him and delight in your personal relationship with him through prayer throughout each day, you don’t need to prop up your ego with the passing trophies of this world. You have the greatest significance possible.
Signs that you pursue your self-worth in God
What indicates that you find your significance in knowing God? Three things come quickly to mind:
How much you read the Bible
Whether you connect with God in prayer throughout each day
Struggling with feelings of inferiority or envy if you compare yourself to others
Would you agree? What would you add to this list? Contribute to the Knowing God community by sharing a comment below.
Last night a woman in our church told how God had just given her success on a large, important project at work.
She is a website architect working for a big downtown bank that hired her specifically to upgrade their site’s interface for those with disabilities.
One impossible job
But everyone with whom she directly worked told her: You can’t do this. You will fail. You don’t have the necessary intelligence for this.
Indeed, she agreed. She didn’t know how to do it.
No one knew how to do what the bank was asking. One technician told her he could not do in a year even part of what the company was asking to be done in six months. These were uncharted waters.
She feared what would happen if she failed. That she would lose her job and pay. That she would have to move away.
Unceasing prayer
So she called out to God. All day long, every day, she prayed fervently over every detail, every web page, every line of code. She literally wept and prayed. She felt small and vulnerable.
Butshe also had fierce conviction that God was great enough to help her with an impossible job. She kept crying out to God day after day, planning functionalities, writing code, telling her team of developers what to do. She worked hard. Day after day she received wisdom for one piece of the project after another. Every step and idea was a discovery.
And so, week after week, one piece, one page, one functionality of the website after another came together. Months passed and the progress continued. The hand of God was upon her, and he blessed her entire team.
Great success
With the deadline approaching they were ready to release their work. They were ready to go live with approximately eighty new web pages of cutting edge technology.
On the day of release they discovered one minor problem. Just one easily fixed bug. But everything else worked flawlessly.
Last night our website architect told this story and enthusiastically gave God all the glory.
Divine wisdom for impossible jobs
As she spoke, a Scripture came to my mind, and when she finished I read it.
The story is about a young man whom a pagan king recruited to serve in his court. For three years he received training in the language, literature, and wisdom of that culture. At the end of that period, he Daniel and three Hebrew friends were brought before the king for a final exam.
“And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom” (Daniel 1:20).
Proverbs 2:6 says, “The LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
2 Timothy 2:7 says, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”
Do you need to be a pastor to know God and his ways, to experience God working at your right hand?
No, you just need to have work to do. You need to sense your need of God’s help, to know that you can’t do anything apart from him. And you need to cry out to him with faith continually. To work hard. And then watch God work. In the end you will give him glory.
Relationships are interesting because people are interesting, and one reason people are interesting is they are not puppets. People are a wonder to explore and a challenge to know because we each have our own mind and will.
And because of that, relationships are dynamic, fluid, ever changing, like Chicago weather. Being a weatherman in Chicago is interesting; in San Diego, boring.
God has his own mind and will, and so he is anything but boring to relate to.
If you want a God you can control, master, limit to formulas, put in a box, and have all figured out, you’ll need to make yourself an idol. People make idols so they have some measure of control. We come to idols because we want some higher power who will do what we want. Idols are manageable deities.
The true God is not manageable.
People have written books about How to Manage Your Boss. That’s an interesting turnaround, and it’s something every employee would like to do. How sweet it would be to control the supervisor who controls you.
But you can’t do that with God. Forget about writing the book How to Manage God. It can’t be done.
Few would dare put that into words, but that is what we all try to do. We want to control our lives, and therefore we need to control God. We know he is superior to us, but we need to manage him if we are to have the life we want. So we set the agenda and schedule for how he works in our lives and see if we can persuade him to go along.
But the true God is way beyond us.
He is “the blessed and only Sovereign” (1 Tim. 6:15). He “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11). “Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth” (Psalm 135:6).
The world is his kingdom, not mine.
If that were the end of the story, we might not be happy.
God’s open-door policy
But there is more. For God invites us into a relationship where our desires matter immensely to him.
Though he is sovereign, he invites us to present our requests to him. He is a good Father who loves to give his children what they ask if it is in their welfare.
God is sovereign and holy, which is wonderful; he is also loving, fully open to our entreaties, good, kind, generous, gracious, relational, and completely approachable through faith in our perfect mediator Jesus Christ.
Put that all together, and you know he is both almighty and trustworthy.
Knowing him is never boring. Never shallow.
What it is to mountain climbers to scale Mount Everest is just a hint of the majestic experience that awaits us as we walk with God.
The ads that blanket your world
beckon you to trivial things. Here is the great, awesome,
and only worthy pursuit.
In my previous posts in this series, we saw that knowing God is the ultimate experience because he is good, perfect, personal, superior, both like and unlike us. In this post we see that…
Knowing God is the ultimate experience because he is mysterious.
People like mysteries. Once we understand something fully, we get bored with it.
So people like puzzles, mystery movies and books, mystery religions, mysterious people, conspiracy theories, and scientific explorations of the unknown.
We love what is new. We like going places we have never been.
This is another reason why knowing God is the ultimate experience. We can never know all there is to know about God.
He is infinite, different than us, and infinitely superior to us. He is inexhaustible and in many ways unpredictable.
Knowing God is like swimming in the deep end of the pool or in the ocean. Everything else we do in this life is like trying to swim in the kids’ wading pool, or in a puddle. We quickly exhaust its ability to delight, challenge, and inspire.
Every surfer is waiting for the ultimate wave. Every classical music fan is looking for the ultimate sound system and perfect album. Every gamer is looking for the ultimate video game.
But in this world the next big thing eventually loses its luster.
God’s Secret Name
There is always the unknown about God. He both reveals and hides himself.
In the Bible God reveals dozens of self-revealing names for himself so that we can know him. But the Bible also says of Jesus that “he has a name written that no one knows but himself” (Revelation 19:12). That means there are things about the identity of Jesus that he will never reveal to us.
We can understand many thing about his ways. Psalm 103:7, for example, says, “He made known his ways to Moses.”
But in many other ways his paths are beyond tracing out and unexplainable.
Romans 11:33–34 says, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?’”
Now that is interesting! That is challenging!
Knowing the Unknowable
Knowing God is like climbing a mountain on which you can never reach the peak.
Knowing God is like writing a book you can never finish because the more you write the more you understand, and the more you understand the more you realize you have yet to learn.
Knowing God is like reading a favorite author who you hope keeps writing more books. You enjoy her writing so much you never can get enough.
The more you know God, the more you see there is to him.
It’s like the experience of astronomers over the last several hundred years. The more they peer into the heavens and the better their telescopes become, the more stars and galaxies they find, the bigger the universe keeps getting.
Knowing God is like the experience of scientists exploring subatomic matter. First they found molecules and thought they had discovered the smallest elements in the created world. Then they discovered that molecules were made of atoms. They thought atoms were the smallest building blocks of matter. Then they discovered subatomic particles like quarks and bozons. What’s next?
If that is true of the material world, which ultimately is finite, how much more is it true of the infinite God?
Of God you can never say, “Been there, done that.”
The apostle Paul was getting at this when he prayed that you “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18–19).
God is the ultimate obsession. The more you know him, the more interesting he becomes.
The ads that blanket your world
beckon you to trivial things. Here is the great, the awesome,
and the only worthy pursuit.
In my previous posts in this series, we saw that knowing God is the ultimate experience because he is good, perfect, personal, and superior. In this post we see that…
Knowing God is the ultimate experience because he is both like and unlike us.
What attracts men to women and women to men?
Much of the spark of sexual attraction is the difference between the sexes, not only the difference between the male and female bodies, but also the difference in emotions and perspective. Men and women think differently.
But we are also the same. We share human nature. We are persons capable of conversation and creativity. We share in having mind, will, and emotions. We share in having dreams and hopes, loves and loathings.
You can love your dog, horse, or cat, but your relationship with humans has the potential to be far richer than what you can have with an animal (notice that I used the word potential).
We tend to make friends with people who have something strongly in common with us.
Like the electricity between men and women, knowing God is full of wonder because he is both like and unlike us.
Similar to God
God created us in his image, so we resemble him.
Like God, we are personal and relational. We are rational. We both have a will and make choices. We both are alive. We both are moral beings attuned to right and wrong.
Because God created us in his image, we by nature can understand many things about him intuitively as we think about him, and as we read about him in Scripture and ponder his creation.
Because we have much in common with God, we can have a deeply satisfying relationship with him. This relationship has the potential to be far deeper than we can have with any human, animal, or lifeless thing.
Different than God
But God is also very different from us.
He is divine, we are human. He is eternal and uncreated. We are short-lived and created. He created us; we did not create him.
So we are two infinitely different orders of being.
God has no limits. We are limited in every way.
God exists on his own, perfectly independent, with no need for anyone or anything but himself. We are completely dependent on him for everything, every heartbeat, every breath, for existence itself.
God is holy. He is other. He is unique.
And this makes him intriguing. This makes us curious.
Boom
Put these similarities and differences together and you have more than a spark, more than electricity—you have lightning and thunder.
You have the most exciting, interesting, and mysterious experience available.
Therefore, knowing God is the ultimate obsession.
We will look next Monday at more reasons why knowing God is the ultimate experience.
