Being in the presence of God
In my prison ministry at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut I often have people in my Bible study groups who feel that God is far away. Because of the mistakes they’ve made in life, because of the crimes they’ve committed that got them into prison, because of their sins, and sometimes because of what others have done to hurt them, they feel completely separated from God. They do not see themselves in the presence of God.
Now, I can see why things might seem this way if you think of God as the Big Man in the Sky who notices every tiny mistake you make and takes pleasure in punishing you for it, and whenever you sin, turning His back on you. That may seem far-fetched to some people, but I’ve met folks who, more or less, basically think of God in this way.
They get this idea from part of a verse in Habakkuk. The prophet, referring to God, says:
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Habakkuk 1:13 NIV
The problem is this verse is often taken to mean that God can’t tolerate looking at evil and so He turns away and separates Himself from someone when they sin.
Not being in the presence of God
And you can find this kind of language in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament when the Children of Israel repeatedly break the commandments of God, generation after generation, and adopt the worship of idols, among other things.
In fact, in the book of Jeremiah, God is described as divorcing Israel, separating Himself from the people because of their sins. This is God speaking:
I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Jeremiah 3:8 NIV
But just a few verses later God also says:
“Return, faithless people,” declares the LORD, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion. Jeremiah 3:14 NIV
In inviting His people to return to Him, God makes it clear He did not turn away from them. He didn’t go anywhere. They turned away from and abandoned Him. But He was always present with them. They just couldn’t see it because of the blindness of their hearts toward God.
You are always in the presence of God
Now, that may be how you feel when you sin, that God is far away and has turned His back on you, but nothing could be further from the truth. You are still in the presence of God, even if you don’t feel it.
Just think about it for a minute. Because God is actually everywhere, even when you or the Israelites turned away from Him, He was and is always present.
David explains this beautifully in his song to his chief musician:
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take up the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will take hold of me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
Even darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You. Psalm 139:7-12 NASB20
David makes the point that you are always in the presence of God, no matter where you are, no matter what you’ve done, no matter what has happened to you.
Have you ever felt separated from God?
Has there ever been a time in your life when you felt separated from God, for whatever reason, that He was far away, maybe even ignoring your situation and your prayers for help? You may have even felt you deserved to be separated from God because of something you did. But that is just not the case.
Whatever the circumstance was, or if you’re having those feelings right now, you were never separated from God and never can be. Even at your lowest point, you were, are, and always will be in the presence of God.
When God looks at you, He doesn’t see the sins you’ve committed, the mistakes you’ve made, as part of you. He sees right through all that to how He originally made you in His image and likeness.
And because of that, God makes this promise through the prophet Jeremiah,
I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. Jeremiah 31:34 NIV
If God will not remember your sins, why should you consider for even a moment that they can separate you from Him?
When I felt separated from God
There have been many times in my life when I have felt far away from God. It usually has been because of something I did I shouldn’t have or something I didn’t do I should have. Sometimes it was just because I was absorbed in my own problems.
Way back in grade school, I was not a very athletic kid. I couldn’t run very fast or throw the ball very far. I was so focused on my lack of ability. But I never prayed about it. I never turned to God for help. I felt far away from God, from feeling loved and cared for by Him. Unfortunately, these feelings went on for decades.
I’ll share just one more example when I felt separated from God. Several years after I was married, my wife and I were in a store and there was an altercation with the sales lady. She wouldn’t sell me exactly what I wanted, but insisted, because of company policy, that in order to buy what I wanted, I had to buy something that went with it, which I did not want. So I ended up buying both items and I was not very pleasant with the employee.
When I got home, I was furious. My prayers, if you could even call them that, were full of self-righteous indignation and self-justification. But I was far from God in my heart, even though I was appealing to Him for help.
I wrote a very mean spirited letter to the company, which fortunately I never sent, and I kept trying to come to terms with what had happened. Eventually as I got my injured ego out of the way, I did start to feel a little repentance for the way I behaved, and humility began to creep into my heart. I finally was able to forgive the sales lady and the store for their policy.
Redeeming the past in the presence of God
Looking back on these two situations where I did not feel God’s presence at all, I’ve had to look at them in a different light.
Even though I wasn’t aware of it at the time, all through those years of feeling far from God because I was absorbed in my physical limitations, at moments when my ego ran wild with self-righteousness, and many other situations when I was not obeying God completely, God was, nevertheless, right there present with me.
I’ve gone back to each of these events and, in my mind, I’ve had to admit and consciously acknowledge that God was present with me, that I was in the presence of God at the time, even though I wasn’t aware of it.
This has given me a very different perspective and an unexpected sense of peace. God was always there loving and supporting me. Just thinking about my past in this way has made me feel closer to God now, as well as back then.
Think about a time when you felt separated from God, or that God felt far away. If it’s something in your past, take a gentle time travel trip back to that situation. Now this may sound a little strange at first, but just give it a try.
Getting a new perspective on the past
Imagine you’re watching the event take place but you’re just an observer with a powerful advantage over who you were then. You know now that God is everywhere and that this is true in this past event, even though you didn’t realize it at the time.
You’re not trying to change the past, you’re just getting a more spiritual perspective on it. God was there with you at that moment you felt abandoned, unloved, or hurt regardless of whether it was you or someone else that did something inappropriate.
You have always been in the presence of God.
Now you may be thinking: Hey James, if God was there, why didn’t He make Himself known to you? Well, He probably tried but I didn’t notice.
Revisiting the past with this awareness that God was present, can change the way you interact with what happened, whether it was yesterday or 20 years ago.
Moses knew he was in the presence of God
There are so many situations in the Bible when someone felt the presence of God.
Think of Moses and the way God spoke with him.
The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Exodus 33:11 NIV
This is possible for you and me today, just as much as it was for Moses. And what about when Moses asked God to show him His glory?
And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. Exodus 33:19 NIV
Think of that for a moment. Moses saw all God’s goodness. He knew he was in the presence of God.
Have you ever asked God to show you all His glory? If so, what was it like? If not, what are you waiting for? It can’t be a casual or insincere request. You have to be spiritually prepared to receive it. But there’s nothing stopping you from being in God’s presence the way Moses was.
Jesus lived every moment in the presence of God
The best example of someone who was consciously in the presence of God, of course, is Jesus.
Jesus was so completely aware of constantly being in God’s presence he could say,
I and the Father are one. John 10:30 NIV
And he prayed for you and me to have this same relationship, this same awareness of being in the presence of God, that he did.
I love something Jesus said to a group of people he was trying to help.
I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence. John 8:38 NIV
Let that sink in.
Jesus knew he was in the Father’s presence. Everything he tells us is what he saw in God’s presence.
He confirms this when he explains
Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. John 5:19 NIV
It sounds really obvious, but it bears repeating: Jesus had to have been in the presence of God to see what He was doing.
You can be in God’s presence just like Jesus
And the beautiful thing here is that, to some degree, you and I can experience this same awareness Jesus did because, as Paul promises in
we have the mind of Christ. 2 Corinthians 2:16 NIV
We have the awareness of Christ that we are in the presence of God.
Now I can imagine someone listening to this episode might have some reservations about what I’m saying. What about those places in the Bible where God punishes sinners and sends them out of his presence? I’m thinking specifically of
He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might… 2 Thessalonians 1:8, 9 NIV
That sounds pretty final doesn’t it? It sounds like God is going to shut out some of His children from His presence because of their sins.
But it’s always important not to build your whole theology on just one or even a few Bible verses but take into consideration all the Bible has to say on a given topic.
Jeremiah revisited
Let’s come back to that verse from Jeremiah I quoted earlier. I actually only shared the last part of it, about God forgiving sins and not even remembering them. This is the whole verse:
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:34 NIV
God is saying through Jeremiah that everyone will know Him, and because they know Him, their sins will be forgiven and not even remembered.
The verses in 2 Thessalonians imply those who do not know God will perish, but Jeremiah says everyone will know God and their sins will not be remembered.
Is this a contradiction? Or is it a different perspective on what will happen?
Certainly all the evil doing, evil thinking, and evil speaking will perish and cannot be in God’s presence. Nothing unpleasing to God can enter the kingdom of heaven.
All these verses, taken together, are a promise that no evil will ever be in the presence of God in His kingdom .
God is working on a deep level
We live in challenging times. With all the local and global crime, the political and religious wars at home and abroad, it sometimes may seem God is far away. But God is very much present working on a deeper level than most of us are aware of, bringing evil to the surface, exposing it for what it is, and preparing it for destruction.
This is what the presence of God does. Yes, it strengthens, heals, guards, and guides us. But it also exposes and destroys evil, in our individual lives and on a more cosmic scale encompassing the whole world.
This is a recurring theme in the Bible, the superiority of God’s power over the material world.
Referring to how God delivered the Children of Israel after they left Egypt, the Bible says,
The [Red] sea looked and fled, the Jordan [river] turned back; the mountains leaped like rams, the hills like lambs.
Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, Psalm 114:3, 4, 7 NIV
God’s presence causes the material world, a material perspective and approach to life, to tremble, to crumble, and dissolve.
Earth is in the presence of God too
Another Psalm describes this with powerful imagery.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Come and see what the LORD has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46:1-3, 6-11 NIV
Doesn’t that sound like what’s going on in the world today? From the material world’s perspective, things look pretty devastating. But God is present. His presence is redeeming His creation. And you and I have a role to play. Our job is to be still, and know God, to be in His presence, and watch Him be exalted.
You are in the presence of God
Whether you’re dealing with something in your personal life or something on a larger scale, it’s important to remember you are always in the presence of God, no matter what happens.
God is everywhere. You can’t do anything to get away from Him. Because God is everywhere, there’s no place you can be, on purpose or accidentally, where God is not already present.
Paul makes this so clear in his letter to the Romans.
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31, 35, 37-39 NIV
You are never separated from God or God’s love for you, which was and is manifested through Christ. You are in the presence of God, now and always. And you have the ability to be aware of this.
Whenever you feel God is far away, remember this prayer of affirmation—and say it as often as you need to: I am in the presence of God.
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
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Bible References
Habakkuk 1:13 NIV
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Jeremiah 3:8 NIV
8 I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries.
Jeremiah 3:14 NIV
14 “Return, faithless people,” declares the LORD, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion.
Psalm 139:7-12 NASB20
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
9 If I take up the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will take hold of me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
12 Even darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.
Jeremiah 31:34 NIV
34 I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.
Exodus 33:11 NIV
11 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.
Exodus 33:19 NIV
19 And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence.
John 10:30 NIV
30 I and the Father are one.
John 8:38 NIV
38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence.
John 5:19 NIV
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
2 Corinthians 2:16 NIV
16 we have the mind of Christ.
2 Thessalonians 1:8, 9 NIV
8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might…
Jeremiah 31:34 NIV
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Psalm 114:3, 4, 7 NIV
3 The [Red] sea looked and fled, the Jordan [river] turned back;
4 the mountains leaped like rams, the hills like lambs.
7 Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
Psalm 46:1-3, 6-11 NIV
1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see what the LORD has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Romans 8:31, 35, 37-39 NIV
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
