SCRIPTURE READING
Psalm 139:7 (ESV); Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
Divine immanence refers to the fact that God dwells in His creation and is everywhere indivisibly
present in all His works. Basically it means that God is omnipresent, or present everywhere. God
is here; wherever we are, God is there; there is no place where He is not. God is everywhere; there
is no point that is closer or farther from God for God is in all places. Why does it matter if God is
present everywhere? What does divine immanence or God’s omnipresence mean for me? Let’s use
an illustration: when Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, he tried to do the impossible – hide from
God, but He couldn’t. David must have had a similar idea when he wrote today’s verse - Where
shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If God is present at every point
in space then we can’t even conceive a place where He is not. So what’s the big deal about all of
this? The point is that the Presence of the Lord and the manifestation of His Presence are not the
same. There can be one without the other. God is with us even when we are totally unaware of His
Presence. He is present everywhere, all the time. But if we are going to experience His presence
then there must be a surrender to the Spirit of God on our part. If we cooperate with Him in loving
obedience God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a
nominal Christian life and a radiant Christian life with the light of His face. So basically, it’s important
for us to understand that God is present everywhere all the time so that we can know that we can
experience Him every day, all the time!
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. How does God’s omnipresence make you feel? Do you feel good that you can’t escape His
presence or does this scare you a bit?
2. Do you feel the presence of the Lord in your life? If not, ask the Lord to show you areas where
you need to surrender to God.
3. Thank the Lord that we don’t have to lead nominal spiritual lives, that we can experience His
manifest presence every day!
