"God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and completely delightful that He can, without anything other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, mysterious and deep as that nature is." -AW Tozer
Who can flee from His Presence when the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? As the the wisdom of Solomon testifies, "the Spirit of the Lord fills the world?" The omnipresence of the Lord is one thing, and is a solemn fact that is necessary to His perfection; the manifest Presence is another thing altogether. It is from that presence which we have fled. So the life of man upon the earth is a life away from the Presence, which is our right and proper dwelling place, our first estate which we have not kept, the loss of which is the cause of our unceasing restlessness. God made us for Himself: that is the only explanation that satisfies the heart of a thinking man, whatever his wild reason may say.
Who is this God? He is eternal, which means He antedates time and is wholly independent of it. Time began in Him and will end in Him. "In the beginning God." He is immutable, which means He has never changed and can never change in any measure. To change He would need to go from better to worse or from worse to better, He cannot do either. He is omniscient, which means He knows in one free and effortless act all matter, all spirit, all relationships, and all events! He has no past, He has no future. There is no place, there can be no place where He is not. Always, everywhere God is present. Finally, He's sovereign, in total absolute control of all things at all times.
God wills that we should push on into His presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held, it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of everyday. The flame of His Presence was the beating heart of the Levitical order. The greatest fact about the tabernacle was that Jehovah was there; a Presence waiting inside the veil. Who is within the veil who dwells in fiery manifestations? It is none other than God Himself, "One God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth, and all things visible and invisible." The world is perishing for a lack of knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and God is in us.
AW Tozer (The Pursuit of God)
Spinoza wrote of the intellectual love of God, and he had a measure of truth there; but the highest love of God is not intellectual, it is spiritual. God is spirit and only the spirit of man can know Him really. I chose to post this because I was reminded of just how precious and holy the Presence of God is. It is indeed something to be experienced, and only the deepest parts of eternity in the heart knows the Presence of it's God. In His Presence there is no need and every burden is lifted. The world has a way of stealing your joy, beating you down, taking your time and wearing you out. At times our identity becomes worthless in the sea of pride, ego, and materialism. The day to day grind can be thankless, painful, and without reward...but there is a place, and there is a joy that cannot be taken from you. The world didn't give it, and the world can't take it. The reward is the Presence of God Himself. That is fullness!
"Those who come to God must first believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."
