5 Things Christians Should Know about Omnipresence

It’s no surprise that when I was a child, I didn’t know the word omnipresence. In fact, I pictured God as a bald man with just a fringe of short dark hair behind his ears. I thought he lived above the sky and occasionally poked his head through the clouds to peek at what was happening in the world.

That’s far from what the Bible teaches us about God! Instead, God is Spirit and innately invisible to human eyes (John 4:24; Romans 1:20). He’s able to “see” everywhere in the universe at once. His ability to do that is what we call omnipresence. But omnipresence is often misunderstood. Therefore, here are 5 things Christians should know about God’s omnipresence.

1) Omnipresence means God’s presence fills the universe.

The word omnipresence isn’t in the Bible. But it describes something we do see in the Bible: God is present everywhere. For example, the prophet Jeremiah wrote, “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” (Jeremiah 23:24).

Similarly, David described God’s presence everywhere like this:

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 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

God is Spirit

Jesus said, “God is spirit” (John 4:24). So he doesn’t have a physical body like we do. Therefore, according to theologian Millard Erickson,

he does not have the limitations involved with a physical body. For one thing, he is not limited to a particular geographical or spatial location.

Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 267-8.

Scholars sometimes debate whether omnipresence has more to do with God’s ability to know everything that happens everywhere or with his power to hold all things together (Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3). What matters, though, is what God’s ability to be everywhere means for us.

What this means for us

God’s omnipresence is frightful for wrongdoers, for the Judgment will miss nothing. In fact, God even knows thoughts and intentions (Psalm 139:2; Hebrews 4:12-13).

But for his worshipers, God’s omnipresence means that he is never out of reach. When those who belong to him pray, he hears. When those who want to know him seek him, he responds. When we suffer, he knows. When we try to please him, he rewards.

2) Creation is not God.

Sometimes people think that if God’s presence is everywhere, creation must be God. In fact, those involved with the new spirituality (or New Age movement) hold this view. Alisa Childers explains:

One of the core principles of the new spirituality is that everything in the universe (including you and me) is made up of the same substance and reality. In other words, there is no separation between you, your dog, and the tree outside that your dog just peed on. This worldview is called pantheism and believes that “God” is a type of divine consciousness or energy that is one and the same with the universe, something we can tap into as we become more “enlightened.”

Alisa Childers, “I’m Not Religious; I’m Spiritual! New Spirituality,” in Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies, ed. Hillary Morgan Ferer, 202.

While creation reflects God, creation is not the Creator. Rather, the Creator made the heavens and earth from nothing (Genesis 1:1; Acts 17:24-25). Moreover, God “is never identical to those created things” (Vern S. Poythress, Theophany: A Biblical Theology of God’s Appearing, 167).

Even though many today embrace pantheism as new spirituality, it is an old idea, as C.S. Lewis pointed out:

Pantheism is congenial to our minds not because it is the final stage in a slow process of enlightenment, but because it is almost as old as we are. It may even be the most primitive of all religions.

C.S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study, 84.

That’s not the only reason people find pantheism attractive. The apostle Paul wrote that when humans abandoned God, they “worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).

What this means for us

God’s omnipresence does not mean he is identical to creation. Therefore, we worship the Creator, not creation.

God’s omnipresence does not mean he is identical to creation. Therefore, we worship the Creator, not creation. Click To Tweet

3) God has sometimes made his presence known via theophanies.

At certain significant times in history, God revealed his presence in a special way that humans could sense. For example, a cloud descended on the tabernacle and first temple at their dedications (Numbers 9:15; 1 Kings 8:10). These temporary manifestations are called theophanies.

But here’s the thing. A theophany doesn’t mean that God is present in just the place and time of the theophany. He’s still present everywhere even though he’s manifesting his presence in a special, intense way at a certain time and place (A.H. Leitch, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Merrill C. Tenney, gen. ed., vol. 4, s.v. “omnipresence”).

Theophanies serve specific purposes. For example, the cloud theophanies at the dedications of the tabernacle and first temple showed people they had a place they could go to meet with God in a special way.

Dr. Poythress puts it this way:

According to biblical teaching, God is present as ruler and Lord in all places and at all times (Jer. 23:24; Rev. 1:8). This universal presence of God goes together with his special presence with the people that are his.

Theophany, 200.

Additionally, the Holy Spirit now indwells all those who belong to God, and their bodies are his temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19).

What this means for us

While God is omnipresent, he is present with his people in special ways.

4) God limits how much his presence is experienced by humans.

C.S. Lewis described why God doesn’t make his presence known more often in his novel, The Screwtape Letters. There, a senior devil named Screwtape writes to his nephew Wormwood to teach him about their Enemy, God.

You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For His ignoble idea is to eat his cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve. He is prepared to do a little over-riding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better. He cannot “tempt” to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away his hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles.  Do not be deceived Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.

C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 46-7. Emphasis mine.

What this means for us

We can trust God’s promise to never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) even when we can’t sense his presence.

5) God will one day dwell with humans in a greater way.

God is omnipresent and has at times demonstrated a special presence with his people. Now the Holy Spirit indwells his people. But something more is coming. God will resurrect his people so that they can dwell with him in the new heaven and earth in a fuller, more immediate, and more palpable sense:

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Revelation 21:3

They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

Revelation 22:4

What this means for us

Those belonging to God’s kingdom will dwell with him forevermore, his presence with them in a glorious way. Hallelujah!

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Want to know more about God’s plan to dwell with humans? Check out my latest book, Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament.

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Books You Might Like

• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
• Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies, edited by Hillary Morgan Ferrer
• Miracles by C.S. Lewis
• Theophany: A Biblical Theology of God’s Appearing by Vern S. Poythress