A Good Word – Presence

Is God present?
Perhaps the most profound quest of the human psyche is a longing for divine presence, to see God’s face. The need to sense and even to see God is built into the human constitution. North African theologian, Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430) devised a thought experiment to reveal our yearning. To paraphrase, he asks, “What if God appeared to you and offered you whatever you wanted?” You make an initial list, and God says, “That’s all? Nothing is limited or prohibited.” So you add good health and deep friendships to your list. And God says, “Really, keep adding. Nothing is unconscionable, nothing is sin. Only you’ll never see my face.”
“Did you notice,” Augustine probes, “how your soul was aroused at the prospect of all you could have, and then it collapsed when God said you could never see his face? That sense of final loss proves your true and real desire is for God himself.” The pursuit of the presence of God is a core human desire.
Let’s briefly examine two theological aspects of God’s presence–omni and personal.
Omnipresence–Uncontainable and Unlimited
God’s presence is differentiated from human forms of presence—he is unconfined! Omni-, a Greek prefix, captures the concept of “all.” The expansive word, omnipresence, means God is everywhere, at all times. Omnipresence encompasses God’s unique trait to be present with his entire being without being confined to space or time.
Another way to describe omnipresence is ubiquitous: God is ever-present to all things. The technical term for God’s nearness to all reality is immanence, as opposed to his transcendence, which separates him from creation. Paul noted that God is “not far from any of us” (Acts 17:27; see also Isaiah 55:6).
God’s Spirit is unlimited in personal presence. God’s time calendar and space coordinates cannot be double-booked or overextended.
Personal Presence—Incarnation and Indwelling
Jesus, God Incarnate, is the gift of God’s unequivocal and unparalleled presence to the human race. His given name at his birth, the beginning of God’s historic incarnation on earth, is not only Jesus, that is, “Savior” (Matthew 1:20–21), but also Immanuel, which means, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23, emphasis added; see also Isaiah 7:14).
Immanuel in its Hebrew sequence reads, “With us, God!” God’s presence with people is concretized in Jesus—God’s gift of his very presence. Through the incarnation, God’s nearness to humanity is established in geographical location and historical occasion.
When believers receive the Lord Jesus as our personal Savior, we are not only saved from our sins, but we become those with whom he is—accompanied and assisted by God and assured of his personal presence.
Upon his intended departure, the Lord Jesus promised not only the “with-ness,” the nearness of God through the incarnation, but the “indwelling,” the “in-ness” of God through the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
In the OT, the Holy Spirit came upon individuals and groups temporarily. For example, Bezalel, a gifted worker was appointed and filled by the Holy Spirit (Exodus 31:1–5). The Holy Spirit also came on King Saul for his national responsibility, but then Holy Spirit eventually departed from Saul (compare 1 Samuel 16:14 and 19:23). These men functioned by the Holy Spirit until their assignment was over.
Examine, now and instead, this full offer, Jesus’s total guarantee: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. … But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:16–18, italics added). Two prepositions changed something major in the theology and experience of God’s presence–from “with us,” God went to “in us.”
Jesus promises that believers will be indwelled by the Holy Spirit. There is no concern of his withdrawing his presence. We will not be abandoned in our relationship or responsibilities. Indeed, all believers are endowed by the Holy Spirit with spiritual gifts to edify the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12), and His presence in our lives produces spiritual fruit in and through us (Galatians 5).
Jesus coming into this world in tangible presence, and God’s Spirit coming into us as individuals and a group1 assures us of his ongoing presence with us.
A nonpersonal God might as well not exist. The God of the Bible is not a theoretical abstraction, an imaginative idea, a mere principle, a wish fulfillment, a material idol, or an amorphous force. He is intensely personal and uniquely identifiable. He is able to relate to us as persons and invites us to relate to him personally. You can make certain to mark him “present” in the attendance roster of the human experience.
About the Contributors

Ramesh P. Richard
In addition to more than thirty years of faculty service, Dr. Richard is founder and president of Ramesh Richard Evangelism and Church Health (RREACH), a global proclamation ministry that seeks to evangelize leaders and strengthen pastors primarily of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. He has ministered in over 100 countries, speaking to wide-ranging audiences, from pastors in rural areas to heads of state. In partnership with DTS, RREACH launched the Global Proclamation Academy to equip influential young pastors from all over the world. Dr. Richard is also the founder of Trainers of Pastors International Coalition (TOPIC) and the general convener of the 2016 Global Proclamation Congress for Pastoral Trainers. He and his wife, Bonnie, have three grown children and three grandchildren.