The Presence of God
Dear Calvary Family,
I’ve been thinking about a concept for a couple weeks now regarding the presence of God. Matt Hemphill preached an excellent sermon about how John the Baptist said that Jesus will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He then showed how the presence of God filled the temple with fire when it was dedicated in 1 Chronicles 7. Then that culminates with Pentecost and the Holy Spirit filling the people with power and with tongues of fire upon their heads. Therefore, we are now the Temple. Our bodies are filled with the very presence of God.
In 1 Chronicles 7:1-3 we read, “When Solomon finished praying, fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple. The priests could not enter the Temple of the Lord because the glorious presence of the Lord filled it. When all the people of Israel saw the fire coming down and the glorious presence of the Lord filling the Temple, they fell face down on the ground and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, “He is good! His faithful love endures forever!”
After that sermon, Matt Doan and I were talking on the CalvaryLife Podcast about the presence of God. Where is God? Where is his presence? Is his presence absent if we don’t bring him there? This is such an interesting question to me when you really think about it because it gets richer and more complex the deeper you dive.
Of course, we believe the presence of God is everywhere. That is God’s omnipresence. He truly is everywhere at all times. That alone becomes more astounding the more you dwell on it.
However, it’s also true that we bring the manifest presence of God with us as believers who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
It’s like the 1 Chronicles 7 passage above. God is already everywhere, but God also showed us how his glorious presence filled the Temple that day both with cloud and with fire.
This is of great significance for us as followers of Jesus.
We know that God is omnipresent but we also know that when we enter into a conversation with someone, when we gather together to worship, when we pray with a friend, when we serve the needy, when we fix the sink with our dad, when we go to work each day, whatever we do we bring the manifest presence of God with us.
Our bodies and souls have incredible significance.
That’s also part of why I think it has been important to offer some opportunities to respond in worship and repentance these last couple of weeks and why we will have another opportunity to respond this Sunday. We bring our bodies forward in response because our bodies are the Temple of God. Our bodies contain the manifest presence of Jesus. Let us then honor God with our bodies in obedience to his commands but also honor God with our repentance in mind and heart to fully look toward him as we live each day.
This also seems to connect with God’s command for us to be baptized with water. It’s a physical and bodily response to what God has already accomplished in the spiritual realm. We have been baptized with the Holy Spirit at the point of our conversion, but we now sacredly and symbolically represent that in water baptism. You will have a chance to be water baptized on Easter Sunday, April 9th. Learn more and sign up for one of the upcoming Baptism Classes, exploring the biblical meaning of baptism and helping to prepare you to participate in this next step of your faith journey, at Calvarylife.org/Baptism
I encourage you to continue to dwell on the scriptures for there is richness and beauty and truth found in them even more as we meditate deeply. I encourage you towards repentance and bringing your full bodies with the manifest presence of God in responsive worship each week as we gather together.
May the Lord bless you and keep you,
Eric Wakeling