“Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One Who goes with you.
He will not leave you nor forsake you.”
DEUTERONOMY 31:6
God’s presence does not fluctuate, coming and going. Nothing in the New Testament suggests this. The whole emphasis is on His unfailing presence. Even God’s name is given as “Yahweh Shammah,” the LORD is there (Ezekiel 48:35). God is with us as He has always been and will always be.
PROPHESYING THE BIRTH OF JESUS, THE BIBLE USES THE name “Immanuel, God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Scripture gives us many explicit assurances of the Divine presence. God will never leave us alone. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me . . . ” (Psalm 23:4). “The Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake: because it has pleased the LORD to make you His people” (1 Samuel 12:22). The LORD told Moses, “I will certainly be with you,” and to Joshua He said, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you” (Exodus 3:12; Joshua 1:5). Psalm 146:6 declares, “He remains faithful forever.” The Lord is faithful to us.
We are special–given the opportunity for an intimate, personal relationship with the Creator and Lord of the heavens and the earth. Through the Holy Spirit we fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. This is the blessedness of the Christian faith. No other deity or god offers such closeness. We are loved!
JESUS PROMISED HE WOULD ALWAYS BE WITH US! WHAT manner of man is this? His presence is fellowship. Theologians use the words “Divine immanence.” That is not what Jesus promised. “Immanence” means God pervading the world. The atmosphere pervades the planet, but God is not an atmosphere. The Bible speaks of fellowship with Him. We can’t have fellowship with an atmosphere. Christians have a Communion Service. In it, we partake of His life. This is an example of the wonderful personal intimacy between the Creator and His creatures. This is the exclusive hallmark of the Lord of heaven and earth. That is impossible for anyone except the one true God, and there is nobody beside Him. That is the special thing about God. He is near to each and everyone (Hebrews 13:5).
God is not present in a general sense–for everybody together and yet for nobody in particular. He is not divided in proportion to individuals. His presence is not regulated by our importance. He is fully with each one of us, and that is how He is with the whole gathering. We do not generate or attract His presence. He already is. “I AM.”
CHRIST’S WORDS WERE, “WHERE TWO OR THREE ARE gathered in My name, there I am” (Matthew 18:20). He did not say ‘I will come,’ but ‘there I AM.’ How He pre-empts our gatherings is part of the glorious mystery of our God. We don’t create or attract His presence by meeting with one another. He doesn’t come because we are there. WE come because He is there. “Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be” (Genesis 49:10 KJV). The ‘two or three’ could be any two or three meeting in His name—believers. It can be within a family—even a husband and wife. He does not withdraw from the domestic circle. Family concerns are His concerns. Christ first came to us in a home—that of Mary and Joseph.
God is with us in His fullness, not in percentages. The Spirit of God does not withdraw or retract, evaporate, diminish or leak away. He abides (I John 4:15). God has not covenanted to be with us sometimes, but always.
THE SPIRIT OF GOD DOES NOT JUST TURN UP, LIKE THE congregation on Sundays. He does not wait until we have prepared for His visit with suitable songs. We do not need to pray for God to be there, because He is there—ALWAYS. He is fully there! He would never make His redeeming work dependent on our emotional state, which goes up and down like an elevator in the Empire State building—one moment on the ground floor and the next in the clouds. God’s sun never sets; He is always at the highpoint, in noon position.
The Lord’s presence is ACTIVE and not passive. He is not with us like a shadow–mute, void of all power, forgettable and contributing nothing to our existence. He is like the Sun, from which we can’t and dare not escape, whose power and radiance brings life to our very existence.
WHEN THE SPIRIT OF GOD COMES UPON YOU, THERE IS evidence of a changed life and a constantly changing life from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). Your life can’t stay stagnant; that is adverse to the very nature of God. The Lord of the winds will calm the storms. The Prince of Peace will bring peace into your life. He will heal your body, bless the works of your hand, bless the fruit of your womb and transform you into a living witness. The presence of God is discernible; it has definite impact. The LORD said, “I will certainly be with you,” and Jesus said, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Exodus 3:12; Matthew 28:20). Jesus kept His promise. “The disciples went out and preached EVERYWHERE and the Lord worked with them . . . ” (Mark 16:20 NIV).