The Divine Presence: Omnipresence & Manifested Presence

After the children of Israel worshipped the golden calf and suffered the loss of about 3,000 men, God told Moses to go ahead and take the people into the Promised Land. However, God said that His presence would not go with them. God would send an angel ahead of them to drive out the inhabitants of the land, but God’s presence would not go with them.

“And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way” (Ex. 33:2f).

Moses pleaded with God, and God agreed to go with them. “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest,” God said (Ex. 33:14).

Moses was not content to go forward without God’s presence, and neither should we be content to go forward without God’s presence in our life. “If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence,” Moses said (Ex. 33:15). What’s the point of going forward in life without the presence of God? Life is pointless without the presence of God.

Moses’ desire for the divine presence was not just for his own personal benefit. Moses’ concern was for God’s reputation. Moses realized that it was the divine presence that distinguished the people of Israel from the rest of humanity. Yes, the commandments of the Torah set Israel apart from the other nations, but Israel also needed the divine presence to set them apart.

Moses said, “For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not in that Thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth” (Ex. 33:16).

Moses realized that obeying God’s rules was not enough to set Israel apart from the rest of humanity. God’s rules were and are important, but we need more than God’s rules. We also need God’s presence.

There are two aspects of God’s presence. In one sense, God is omnipresent. He exists everywhere in the universe. There is no place inside or outside the universe where God does not exist. This omnipresence of God is expressed by David in Psalm 139:7-10:

“Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.”

That is God’s presence in a general sense. There is another aspect of God’s presence that can be called God’s manifested presence. Manifested means revealed, unveiled, shown. God’s manifested presence is not necessarily visible or audible to the physical senses. Most often, God’s manifested presence is manifested to the spiritual senses. We intuitively hear an internal voice that is not audible to our physical ears, or we intuitively see an internal vision that is not visible to our physical eyes. If we are spiritually sensitive and in tune with the Holy Spirit, that inaudible voice or that invisible vision can be so strong and so real to us that it may as well have been audible or visible to our physical senses.

Sometimes God’s presence is manifested through “divine appointments.” We unexpectedly encounter someone or something in such a way that we know the encounter was orchestrated by God. Unbelievers might dismiss these manifestations as mere coincidence, but we know God was at work, setting things up and leading our steps.

We always have God’s omnipresence with us, but we also need His manifested presence with us. One of the Messiah’s names is Immanuel, God with us. We experience God’s manifested presence through the indwelling of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.

“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you... But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:15-17, 26).

This abiding presence of the Holy Spirit as Yeshua (Jesus) describes in the above verses is the Biblical norm that we should experience. If we do not experience this manifested presence of the Lord, then our faith consists of little more than a list of rules, ceremonies, customs, and traditions that we do by rote. It is the manifested presence of the Lord through the Holy Spirit that makes our faith more than just a list of rules that we follow.

The rules are very important and should be obeyed, but our faith consists of spiritual reality, not just rules. It is the moving of the Holy Spirit that creates this reality. Just as the Holy Spirit moved in the darkness upon the formless face of the deep in Genesis, and God spoke into existence the physical reality in which we live, so the Holy Spirit moves in the spiritual darkness of fallen humanity’s chaotic, confusing condition, and speaks spiritual reality into our lives.

God’s commandments set us apart from the rest of humanity to some degree, but it is God’s manifested presence through the moving and the anointing of the Holy Spirit that makes our faith real. The Holy Spirit makes it real first of all to us, and then to the people that we hope to reach with the good news of God’s love for them. Read again what Moses said to the LORD about the importance of His presence going with them:

“If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not in that Thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth” (Ex. 33:15f).

In practical terms, how can we get and maintain the anointing of the Holy Spirit? What can we do to experience the manifested presence of God more frequently and more intensely than we do? It is not some deep, mysterious secret. The primary means to experiencing the moving and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit can be summarized in just four words:

Give Time to God.

We give time to God by spending time in prayer and in studying the Word. The Apostles said, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).

Even if you are not an apostle who devotes all his working hours to prayer and to the ministry of the Word, you can still give time to prayer and to the Word. “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him” (John 4:23). Not in spirit only, but also in truth; not in truth only, but also in spirit. Not by spending time in prayer only, but also by spending time in the Word; not by spending time in the Word only, but also by spending time in prayer.

By spending time in both prayer and the Word, you will maintain a well-balanced devotional life. This will bring the moving and the anointing of the Holy Spirit into your life and make Bible truths real to you, and then through you to others that you want to reach.

“Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you,” James said (James 4:8). If you believe this, then spend time drawing nigh to God in prayer and in the Word.

God “is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him,” Hebrews 11:6 says. If you believe this, then diligently seek God in prayer and in the Word.

“When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matt. 6:6). If you believe this, then spend time in prayer.

Yeshua said our Father will reward us openly. Openly means out in the open, where others can see it. When the blessing and glory of God’s presence in our lives is manifested openly, others can see it, and through our testimony they can know that God is real and the Bible is true.

Before others can see the glory of God manifested in your life, you must first see and experience the glory of God manifested to you. Exodus 33:11 says that “the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friends.” But even that was not enough to satisfy Moses’ hunger for God. Just seven verses later, in Exodus 33:18, Moses pleaded, “I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory.” As if Moses had not already seen enough of God’s glory in their face to face encounters!

The LORD agreed to show His glory to Moses, but apparently only as much as Moses could withstand. “Thou canst not see My face,” the LORD said, “for there shall no man see Me, and live” (Ex. 33:20).

Even though the LORD spoke with Moses face to face, Moses could not see God’s face in all its full, unveiled glory. The LORD placed Moses in a cleft of a rock and let Moses see His “back parts,” probably the afterglow of God’s presence, as the LORD passed by.

Moses’ experience in this cleft of the rock is the inspiration for the old hymn Rock of Ages. “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.”

In the Song of Solomon, the Bridegroom says to the Bride, “O my love, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely” (Song 2:14).

The “clefts of the rock” in this verse point us to the wounds of Messiah, the Rock of Ages who was pierced for us. When we hide ourselves in His wounds, we will see the afterglow of His glory as we spend time in His Word and in prayer. Our times of prayer are “the secret places of the stairs” that provide us with access into His glorious presence, where we hear Him say these words that the Bridegroom said to the Bride in the Song of Solomon. “Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.”

After Moses’ revelation of God’s glory from inside the cleft of the rock, Moses’ face glowed with the glory of God so brightly that he had to put a veil over his face when he spoke to the children of Israel.

Spending time in the divine presence will cause our faces to glow. We may not shine so brightly that we need to veil our faces like Moses did. And we will not be all aglow all the time. Like a glow-in-the-dark toy that gradually loses its glow and needs to soak up the light again, we need to enter God’s presence on a regular basis to recharge our spiritual batteries to maintain our glow. Even Moses did that. Each time Moses went into God’s presence, he removed the veil. (See Exodus 34:29ff.)

Our experience is also like that. “But we all, with open [unveiled] face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).

A healthy, well-balanced devotional life will make your light shine. Biblical truths will become more and more real to you as the years go by. And it will make your testimony of Bible truths more and more credible to those who see and hear you.

Some Bible believers think that unbelievers can be convinced of the truth of the Bible by human persuasion, or by our eloquence, or by our debating skills, or by apologetics, or by showing unbelievers that Christians can be cool and hip and non-judgmental toward sinners. But those are not the things that will cause unbelievers to become Bible believers. Rather, it is the power of God’s Word, anointed by the presence of God, that will convince unbelievers that the Bible is true. Let me share a story that demonstrates this fact.

Michael Rydelnik is a Messianic Jew who teaches at Moody Bible Institute. Michael was born and raised as a Jew in New York. He became a believer in Jesus at a young age. In his book The Messianic Hope, Michael tells a true story about himself. When Michael was still a high school student, the local Hebrew club was having a guest speaker, a rabbi named David. There were about 100 people at the event. After the rabbi spoke, he opened the meeting up for questions and comments.

Michael stood up and announced that he was a Jew who believed in Jesus because of the Messianic prophecies in the Tenach (Old Testament). Rabbi David asked Michael which prophecies pointed to Jesus as the Messiah.

Michael started with Genesis 3:15. Rabbi David said that that verse is not about the Messiah; it’s about how snakes and humans attack each other.

Michael shared several other Old Testament Messianic prophecies, but each time, Rabbi David shot him down. The rabbi eloquently explained why each of those prophecies were not even talking about the Messiah, and therefore could not possibly be talking about Jesus. Michael was shot down again and again. He became sweaty and tongue-tied. He was no match for the fast-talking, eloquent, knowledgeable rabbi.

Afterwards, Michael felt miserable, disappointed, and angry. He was not angry at the rabbi, but at himself. Michael felt like he had gone there unprepared and overconfident. He felt like he had been given a great opportunity to testify about Yeshua, but had failed his Lord.

Fast forward 32 years. Michael was visiting a church in California and met an older Messianic Jewish believer. As the two men spoke, they realized the older man had been one of Michael’s teachers in high school.

“How did you become a believer in Yeshua?” Michael asked him.

“I went to hear a guest speaker at the Hebrew club,” the older man said. “I don’t remember much of what the guest speaker said, but I remember that there was a high school kid there with a Bible. He said he believed in Jesus because of Messianic prophecies in the Bible. The rabbi shot down every verse he quoted, but the kid wouldn’t stop. The rabbi said all those verses were not Messianic prophecies. But I thought to myself, They sound like Messianic prophecies to me. So I studied the prophecies for myself and realized Yeshua is our Messiah. Do you know who that kid was, Michael?”

Of course Michael knew. They both knew.

Whenever you share the truth of God’s Word, don’t let the Devil make you think that your labor is in vain. We are sowing seeds. The seed is the Word of God. Some seeds will immediately be snatched away by the Devil, some will fall on stony ground, some will fall among thorns. But some will fall on good soil and take root and bear fruit.

You might have to wait 32 years, like Michael did, to see the fruit of your labor. But you might not have to wait that long. When I was a new believer, I used to hang out late at night at a 24-hour truck stop with a few other brothers who were new believers. One night we went into the truck stop and saw Steve, a guy we knew in high school. Steve was sitting in a booth by himself. He saw us and invited us to sit down.

We were all carrying our Bibles with us, and started sharing our testimonies with Steve. We told him how we had gotten saved and were now having a wonderful time following the Lord.

Steve listened politely. He did not argue, but he seemed very uninterested and withdrawn. He had no questions and he gave no indication of wanting to discuss spiritual matters. It appeared that our testimonies had no effect on Steve.

About three years later, after I returned home from spending a year in Israel, I saw Steve again. Steve had gotten saved, baptized, and filled with the Spirit. He was attending the fellowship we were part of.

Steve told me, “Man, that night you guys came into the truck stop and talked to me, the Lord was really dealing with me. I was under really heavy conviction that night when you guys spoke to me. The Holy Spirit had me squirming in my seat.”

I was very surprised, because I had seen no outward sign that our words were getting through to Steve that night. To me it appeared that the seeds we were sowing were falling on the wayside for the Devil to snatch away.

When I found out how our proclamation of Biblical truths had affected Steve that night, it taught me to not make assumptions based on the immediate external responses of people when we share Biblical truths with them. What we see and hear on the surface is not necessarily an indication of what is happening below the surface, in the heart.

I had to wait three years before I saw the fruit of our sharing the Word with Steve. Other times I have not had to wait that long. One time I saw a young man standing alone in a park. I went to him and spoke to him about Jesus. In less than 30 minutes, he expressed a desire to give his life to the Lord. Rather than lead him in a repeat-after-me “sinner’s prayer,” I told him to pray to the Lord in his own words. He prayed and expressed a sincere desire to repent of his sins and follow the Lord. He was baptized that night. A few days later he gave his testimony to a crowd at an outdoor Christian concert. A few weeks later he went on a short-term mission trip to Mexico with a group from our fellowship.

Until you speak to a person, you never know how close they might be to coming into the kingdom of God. Cultivate a healthy, balanced devotional life by spending time in prayer and in the Word. Then share the truth of God’s Word with others and let the Word do its work. Whether you have to wait 30 years, three years, or just 30 minutes to see the result of your labor, sow the seed. The life is in the seed.

| DB

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Image: Psalm 111 by Daniel Botkin from his Psurrealistic Psalms art gallery. See this and all Daniel’s art pieces on his art website, DanielBotkin.com.