I didn’t understand the omnipresence or immensity of God until I was nearly 500 miles away from my mom, and Mom was in a coma.
Even if I’d been standing by Mom’s hospital bed, I might as well have been a million miles away. She couldn’t hear me. I couldn’t reach her.
But God could.
This truth gripped me as I sat in Florida and prayed to the God in heaven for my mom in Georgia.
“Lord, I can’t reach Mom to tell her all that’s in my heart, but You can. There’s no place we can go that You are not already there. Fully there. You’re fully here with me, and You’re fully there with Mom. Not even her coma can separate her from You. You can reach her. Please, Lord, let her know I love her.”
My distant prayer taught me much about the glorious attributes of God’s omnipresence and immensity.
The Omnipresence of God
Omni means “all,” thus, to say that God is omnipresent is to say He is “all present.”
God’s presence is not like ours. We have a physical presence that takes up space—a fact we become keenly aware of in elevators and subways.
God, on the other hand, is a spirit (John 4:24). He doesn’t occupy physical space.
By the way, even though we sing about God having the whole world in His hands, God doesn’t have hands. Since we can’t relate to being a spirit, but are intimately acquainted with physical bodies, we describe God’s being and actions in human terms.
We describe God in ways we can understand. In other words, we use anthropomorphic language.
Since God’s presence is spiritual in nature, there’s no distance between God and us. We don’t have to physically come into His presence. We’re already there. We just can’t see Him.
When our bodies die, however, we’ll see Him face to face. We’ll step into a different dimension.
We’ll shed our bodies—our coats of flesh—at death and step into eternity as spiritual beings because our body dies, but our spirit (our soul) lives forever.
(Christians live forever in God’s love. Unbelievers live forever in God’s wrath. Which is why we must share the gospel and never stop praying for our loved ones to believe the gospel while there’s still time!)
The Immensity of God
The immensity of God means that wherever God is, He’s fully there. He’s fully present. He’s listening when we speak.
If you’ve ever been with someone who was physically present but mentally far away, you understand the value of this attribute.
God isn’t nodding His head but thinking about what He’s going to do later. He’s laser-focused on us at all times.
On all of us at all times.
Even if we’re in a coma.
Wrap your brain cells around that.
God’s Immensity and Omnipresence As Seen in Scripture
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.
—Psalm 139:7–10
♦
“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 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 23:23–24
♦
“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”
—Proverbs 15:3
♦
“Thus says the LORD: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?'”
—Isaiah 66:1
♦
“The Lord is high above all nations,
and his glory above the heavens!
Who is like the Lord our God,
who is seated on high,
who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?”
—Psalm 113:4–6
♦
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’”
—Acts 17:24–28
♦
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
—Psalm 32:8
♦
“For his eyes are on the ways of a man,
and he sees all his steps.”
—Job 34:21
♦
“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
—Matthew 28:20
♦
“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
—Deuteronomy 31:8
Consider this question and Dr. John MacArthur’s answer: Is heaven big enough to be God’s home?
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