Friday, June 16, 2023

OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD!

 

God's Omnipresence ?

Is God Everywhere - if so, How?

                                                    by

                                            Keith Hunt




     It is written that God made man in His image, after His
likeness. He did not make mankind with "spirit" as He is made
with Spirit (John 4), but from the dust of the earth (Genesis 1).
Yet it is said that God made these two physical mankind creatures
after His likeness. 
     We have various emotions, because God does. You can read
about the Eternal's love, His longsuffering and patience, His
joy, His laughter. You can read in the Bible that the Lord
sometimes cries, that He can be sad, that He can be jealous. You
can read about God's caring and protection, and you can read that
He sometimes gets upset and even angry.
     We humans have what is often termed "the universal language"
- music. Even if we do not play a musical instrument, most of us
enjoy listening to music, maybe different types yes, but we still
all in the main enjoy music. It seems to be just built into us,
to enjoy music, and why not for God invented music and He has it
playing in heaven, with the voices of angels singing. 
     Yes, He made mankind in His image after His likeness.

     We like houses, trees, rivers of water, and animals. So does
the Lord. God had and still has, all these types of things in His
place of living, the place we refer to as heaven. The book of
Revelation gives us a glimpse of what heaven looks like, as well
as the heavenly Jerusalem and the very throne room where God the
Father sits on His throne with Christ Jesus at His right hand.

     We enjoy all these things because God does, and He made us
in His likeness.

     I have proved in another study (Does God have a Body?) that
the Eternal does have FORM and SHAPE, like unto us humans, for He
made us after His image and likeness. I have proved before that
He is a very real PERSONAL INDIVIDUAL BEING but made of
everlasting glorious SPIRIT.
     We can only be in ONE place at any ONE time, and so it is
with the Lord God, for He made us in His image, to be like Him.

     His personal being of form and shape can only be in ONE
place at any ONE time. Oh, to be sure He can move from place to
place, from here to there, way quicker than you and I can. 
Probably as fast as the speed of thought, which would make the
speed of light (186,000 miles a second) look turtle speed slow in
comparison.
     From the book of Ezekiel we learn that God is much like us
in how He likes to travel around at times. Most of us like nice
cars, maybe a James Bond type to travel around in would be our
ideal.  If you are like me, maybe a super looking golden horse
with white main and tail, one like the late Roy Rogers moved
around on (Golden Cloud was its registered name, but Roy named
him Trigger), would be your choice to go place to place on. Or,
maybe you like motor-bikes, or the peddle bikes. Some of us like
to move across oceans in those huge floating fancy hotels we call
Ocean Liners, or perhaps a sail boat would be your choice.
     Well, God likes and has a fancy mode of travelling the
universe at times, a kind of super sonic flying throne room with
strange looking creatures and far-out space age sounding wheels
and whatever. It is described in the book of Ezekiel. A very
interesting book to read, and one that has great prophetic
meaning for us toda. 

     God, I guess could just WISH or WILL Himself to be here or
there in the universe, and be there at the speed of thought, but
it's more fun to travel in a super sonic space age machine, is it
not? Many of us would think so, and it seems so does God, for He
is like us, or He made us like Himself. He enjoys other modes of
travel than just willing Himself to be there, maybe He likes to
see the sights along the way, as we do, after all He made those
mind-blowing sights we now can see as never before with our Hubble
Telescope.

     God is a literal Spirit personal being, living in a literal
Spirit city in heaven called the Holy City, the heavenly
Jerusalem. The Lord has form and shape, somewhat like unto
us. Hence He lives in one place at one time, and He as a personal
being cannot be everywhere in the universe at the same time. He
enjoys at times moving around this vast universe that He created.
At times He uses His space age flying machine with some of the
spirit creatures He made at the helm, to travel His universe.

     He is in so many ways like unto us, but with ONE GREAT
exception. He has a Spirit power/nature that comes from His very
being, flowing out from Him, that can indeed be in the ENTIRE
universe that He created IF He desires to send it out to cover
that entire universe.
     We then need to ask ourselves the question, "Does God send
out His Spirit to cover the entire universe all the time and at
the same time?"
     Is that Spirit power nature (2 Peter 1: 3, 4) SEEING
everything for Him that goes on in the universe and somehow
playing it all back to Him? Does that Spirit power nature
HEAR everything that is said (or certainly meaningful) in the
universe and relating it back to Him?
     Well, from the example given to us from the very word of God,
from Genesis 18, the answer to the above question would be a
resounding NO, as shocking as that may seem to some from their
theological perspective of what God is and what God does.
     From Genesis 18  (and also note Genesis 11: 4-6)  it would
seem that God has WILLED Himself that some things (maybe many
things) He and His Spirit will NOT hear or see. It would seem
that we can conclude that His Spirit does not AUTOMATICALLY
act as some giant TV screen, or radio signal, transmitting
everything that is happening on this earth or in other parts of
the universe (if the example in Genesis 18 is to be applied to
the universe at large)  back to Him in heaven.

     And let's stop and think for a moment.  Sure we can suppose
God could have willed Himself to see and hear everything going on
in the universe every second of time. We could suppose the Lord
could have willed Himself to personally act upon everything He
wanted to act upon...you know, doing it personally, by Himself
all the time. Oh, yes, He could have willed Himself to have it so
from the beginning, willed Himself to have it as "a one man show"
as we call an act where only one man does everything. But then
if so, there would be little need to have created angels to run
here and there, doing this and that, serving us humans and all
the other things angels do as shown in the Bible.

     No, the Almighty had WILLED Himself NOT to hear or see it
all, all the time, or do it all personally all the time, for in
so doing He would have still been only Himself (or as the Godhead
is TWO personal beings), it would have still only been two beings
running the whole universe, still a pretty lonely and demanding
job, especially if you decide to create millions of individual
humans who could need help for many individual needs each day. Then again
some would argue God could do all that, look after it all, via
His Spirit, and yes, I guess that could be so, but then as stated
before, if so, why bother creating millions of angels to do
things.

     Quite frankly, God did not WANT it to be that lonely of a
job, running this whole universe and serving the millions of
humans He would create on this planet called earth. He did not
want the work of running and caring for all this universe to be
so demanding on Himself. He wanted to share the work-load with
others. He wanted to see the joy in other minds and on other faces, of
doing something, looking after something, and being pleased
they were doing a job well done. He was going to create a vast
universe that He did not want to govern all by Himself. What fun
is it if you build and create a huge complicated machine, that
some parts of it can reproduce and multiply endlessly, and you
personally have to oversee and do everything in way of
maintenance and care and individual needs of a machine that can
endlessly reproduce itself? 
     Looking after such a machine for the rest of eternity could
be quite demanding and still with only two of you (the Godhead
being two eternal beings - see my study on the Holy Spirit)
pretty lonely still. Why, after the six days of creation in
Genesis one, God decided He would like a day to rest (not that He
gets physically tired as we think of work and rest), and why not
IF He should so desire, after all to work, work, work all the time
for all eternity and to not have some time off to relax and enjoy
what you have worked at, would be all work and no play as we say.
And God being like us or we being like God, means that God likes
to play at times, have some fun, take time to relax, go for a
trip on His special favorite flying machine to parts of the
universe we have yet to discover through our Hubble telescope. 
     Yes, we like having time off, and having others whom we trust
as responsible, look after our estate and work. So it is with God
for He made us in His likeness.

     Now of course IF God personally sets His mind on some Human,
then as David in the Psalms said, where could that human go to
hide from God or get away from His presence. God has His Spirit
that could be in all the universe at the same time IF He so
chose it to so be. Or, God could will Himself to be with that
human in a very personal way for as long as it would take to do His
will with that human. 
     Jonah tried to run from God, not wanting to do what God
wanted him to do, but He could not. God used either one or both
of the above to be with Jonah, and just could not find any place
to hide from God.

     Yet, many humans God has NOT set His mind on, and they have
not set their mind on Him. They do not know Him and He does not
know them per se. Not in any real way and sense, He does know
they were conceived and born and came into this world, but that
for the most part may be as far as it goes. He is not dealing
with them in a personal calling way and they do not know Him and
do not want to know Him. God does with many of those individuals
NOT PERSONALLY see and hear all the evil and sin they are living
and practicing (again I refer you to the example of Genesis 18).
     Angels can and are often (if the situation calls for it) 
REPORTING to Him what is going on. In Genesis 18 such a crying
report came to Him about the sin being pracficed by people in two 
cities on this earth. 
      In human terms we would say that He could hardly believe 
what was being told Him about the full density of the sin of the
people in those two cities.  
He wanted to know (He obviously had willed Himself not to know 
everything going on on earth) if it was a bad as was being reported  
to Him by the angels. He decided to personally come and see it all for Himself. 
       He did not decide to use His Spirit as some satellite beam
machine to beam up to Him the sins of the people, and see it in
His mind or on some heavenly TV screen in His throne room. To be
sure, He could have done it this way. But it was not His will to
so do it that way or even some other way only known to Him. He
had willed Himself no such fancy technology to see the sins of
the people in those two cities, but for such, at least in this
case, He had willed Himself that He would have to go down and
personally see it all for Himself, see that it was as bad as the
angels had reported to Him.  

     So yes, God has a Spirit that CAN IF He wills, cover the
entire universe at the same time. But now, ask yourself, "Is it
always covering the entire universe all the time?"
I mean, what would the Spirit of God be doing say on the our
moon? Or what would the Spirit of the Lord be doing on or near
the surface of our sun, or out on the rings of Saturn? Yes, what
would it be doing, unless of course God was going to change
something with them or on them, as the Spirit did when moving
over the face of the waters that covered the earth in genesis
chapter one. But if the Eternal had no specific plan in mind to
re-arrange something with those objects, then it would do little
good being there, and maybe we could say it would be a waste of a
good resource. Remember that most of the planets and galaxies continue 
and are held in their function, doing what they do, by the
WORD of His power, so says the New Testament.
     Nevertheless, God can put His Spirit anywhere and everywhere
IF He so chooses and wills, for whatever reason He wills and
decides, to do whatever He wills and plans.     
In the most part I see that He does not will it to be so,
for He has created angels to be in a large way, His ears and eyes
and messengers for and throughout the universe, reporting to Him
things that need reporting, and many times doing the things that
need to be done that are within His will, plan, and purpose. And
as well as not doing things to stop this or that, which God has
decided to allow (He willed not to send angels to stop the evil
done in New York city on the now famous September 11th 2001. I'm
pretty sure God through at least His angles knew that some people
had in their mind and in their plans of actions decided to bring
this evil upon the people in those two Trade Center towers).

     God is everywhere via His Spirit and His angels, where He
has willed them to be. Yes, He could will them to be in every
corner of the universe, covering it all, at the same time. But,
as I read the Bible, that situation may not have yet ever
happened since the creation of the universe and mankind upon this
earth. For there may as yet never have been the situation that
needed such a willing of His mind.

     Some gang of druggies may decide to have a party bash one
evening at a certain location, having a binge, getting drunk,
high on drugs, and all the immoral sex along with it. Not one of
them God is dealing with in any personal way, and not one of them
God is calling to Himself and salvation. Not one of them is
concerned about God or thinking anything about Him, maybe they
all think God is dead or a figment of people's minds. 
     Could well be there are no angels around their party, and no
Spirit of the Lord hovering nearby or overhead. Could well be
that God does not know a thing about what is going on in their
little corner of the world, and just lets what will be, be.
Allowing whatever happens to happen.  Oh,  He could be there as
quick as the blink of an eye, if He or one or more of His angels
need to be there. Hence He is a God that can be anywhere at any
time, in any place, in all places, via His Spirit and angels. 
     He can of course be in that drug loaded party IF He
needed to be and so chose to be there for His will and purpose.
He personally through the second member of the Godhead (Christ
Jesus) was as Paul's party, to talk to Paul personally, on the
road to Damascus, but there again look at how God decided to use
Paul in His work on earth. 

     Some people just blatantly tell God to "go take a walk" or
"go fly your kite" and you know He indeed just does that
(probably has some pretty fancy kite to fly) and He is just not
anywhere in THEIR little playground.

     He can be in your playground, IF you will just invite Him to
come and share your life. He has even said He and His son Jesus
will via their Spirit live WITHIN you now while you are on this
earth, and then if you endure to the end of this physical life
with them, you will be granted ETERNAL LIFE and GLORY in their
family Kingdom.

     Take the time to read and study and meditate on the studies
I have for you under the heading  Salvation - Law and Grace. Take
the time to study the article I've written called "A Christian's
Destiny."  Your future can be something that is beyond human
comprehension.

           ……………………


                     Written June 2002  

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