7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
Psalm 139:7–12 (ESV)
God is Everywhere. He is omnipresent, our $10 word for the week. Omnipresent carries the idea for most of us that God is everywhere. But what do we mean when we say this? Jesus tells us in John 4:24, “God is spirit.” Therefore, God is not physical. This then leads to the question of what “God is a spirit” means. The primary point would be that God is not physical. He does not have a body. When the Bible speaks of Him in human terms, such as his “outstretched arm” (Ex 6:6), it is using anthropomorphic language (sorry, another $10 word and in the first paragraph too. I will work to limit them.) This simply means, the Bible is using human terms we are familiar with to describe an infinite non-physical God who in many ways is beyond our understanding.
We need to remember God is a being who is in a category of His own. Even though angels are spiritual beings, God is not a super powerful angel. God, angels, humans, and animals are all in their own separate categories of being (see our article The No ). One of the many distinctions between angels and God is angels are never said to be omnipresent. Like humans, angels are at one specific location at a time (Dan 10:12-14). They do not exist in multiple places at once, nor is there any indication they have knowledge of multiple places at the same time. They are not all-knowing as God is, another distinction.
It’s intriguing that angels appear to have a spiritual form, or perhaps a spiritual “body.” In Genesis 18, we read of the account of “three men” coming to Abraham. Abraham gives them water, washes their feet, and prepares a meal for them. It turns out two of them are angels. These are the two angels that will go to Sodom and rescue Lot with his family before God judges the cities in that area with fire from the sky (Gen. 19). Amazingly, angels—even though spirits—take on human-like physical form. This is not just a physical appearance, for they eat, drink, and are touched (washing of their feet). This is but one of many occasions in the Bible where angels have a “physical” manifestation.
But what about the third “man” in the encounter? Well, now we get to the incredibly interesting part. The third person prophesies that Sarah will give birth to a son in a year. In Gen 18:10 it states, “The LORD said…” (see also Gen 18:13). Did you catch that? “LORD,” this third person is none other than Yahweh! Even in Gen 18:1 it states, “And the LORD appeared to him….” God, like angels, takes on a physical appearance! This is not just a vision or a ghost-like appearance, but a true physical manifestation. Like the angels, He drinks, eats, and is touched.
How do we reconcile this aspect of God with the Bible’s teachings about God being invisible (Rom 1:20; Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17) and no one has seen Him (John 6:46)? We know that even Moses was not able to look fully at God and live (Ex 33:20). While no one can see God in His full nature and essence, God has made Himself known in very rare cases in a limited physical presence. One such type of these appearances is as the “Angel of the LORD.” (We will be spending a couple of posts soon just on this topic.) Many, including myself, think these appearances are a pre-incarnation of God the Son. That is, Christ is the person of the Trinity who took on this kind of physical form before He became human, before He was born as Jesus of Nazareth.
This type of appearance of God is called a theophany (a visible manifestation of God), or when it is the second person of the trinity, a Christophany (a visible manifestation of Christ before His incarnation). (I know, sorry! I just used two more $10 words. They will be the last. Well, I hope.) Let’s be clear about two things. First, God did not become human in these appearances but took on a form which was similar to a human form. Second, God was physical and NOT a ghost. (See our Theophany articles).
We seem to have gone far afield from the point of this article: God is omnipresent. But I wanted to counter what we are about to look at in God’s “Everywhereness” with the fact God can also be at a location when He desires without compromising His attribute of omnipresence. He is not limited by a manifestation of Himself at a location to only that location. While He fills the Temple (I Kings 8:10-11), He is not limited to the Temple. Even King Solomon acknowledges, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27).
By omnipresence, we do not mean God is physically everywhere or even that He is everywhere in some kind of spiritual form. The false teaching of pantheism sees God as everywhere. In pantheism, god is everything and in everything. This is not the God of the Bible but a false god. Our God created everything but is separate and distinct from this creation. When we talk about God’s omnipresence or that He is everywhere, we really mean He is conscience of all places. There is no location where He is not aware of what is happening. He even knows what is going on in our hearts and minds. Jeremiah said, “Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.” (Jer 23:24).
What would it mean if God were physically present in every location? He would be in our closets, under our beds, out in the shed, even in the walls. He would have to be like a gas filling every room and space in the universe. To be everywhere, he would have to be right next to me, up in the corner of the room, in the drawer of my desk, and even in the computer I am typing on along with everywhere else all at the same time. It seems a strange way to think of this. He is simple (simple indicating complete, not made of parts), so it would not be parts of Him in all places but all of God everywhere at the same time.
Instead, the better understanding of God’s omnipresence is that God’s consciousness is everywhere. There is no place or location where He is not aware of what is happening. Even the things we think and feel are known to Him. When we say a silent prayer, He hears it. He knows everything that is and knows about everyplace that is. When we speak of feeling the presence of God in a special way at a particular time or place, it is not that God is somehow more there but that He manifests Himself to our perception in a “stronger” way, in a more immediate sense. It is a change in us, not in Him. We become more acutely aware of God, who has always been there.
Get the main point here. God, as spirit, is aware of everything that occurs in the universe. He experiences all that is happening as if He were at each location. There are never too many things happening for Him to handle. There are never so many people praying God cannot deal with each one individually at the same time. He is an amazing God!
One final thought. As we have learned of the Trinity, all attributes of God belong to all members of the Trinity in full. All three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—are omnipresent. All three are spirit. Yes, even the Son is spirit in His divinity. In His incarnation He took on a human nature, including a human body, and in His resurrection, a resurrected body. The Son did not become human for just 30 plus years, but remains both fully God and fully man, a God who is spirit as well as a physical human. He is both God thus spirit and man thus physical. When we cover Christ is a series of article dedicated to just Him we will talk about how His divinity and humanity work together during His earthly ministry. Here we are mostly speaking of God the Son post ascension.
I know we have covered a lot again. If you need to, read it again. Spend time thinking about God’s omnipresence. How does it enlarge your understanding of the members of the Trinity to know each of them is omnipresent? How does it change your view of God, knowing God is always there with you, aware of all that is happening around you and even in your mind and heart? Does it change your thinking to realize Jesus as God is spirit and as man has a human body (a resurrected body now)? Remember, we are seeking to think big thoughts for we have a big God. It doesn’t get much bigger than God being omnipresent.
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg
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