Re-aligning our experience of God with the way God actually is
Experience should always have a role to play in our attempts to better understand God and God’s activity in the world. Experience can help us determine the validity of a certain theological idea about God when we test the idea in the real world of everyday life.
If it seems to work with reality, we can have confidence that we’re heading in the right direction. While experience can never be the only or even the most important tool we use in our search for understanding, it can move us closer to the truth when used in conjunction with scripture, tradition and reason.
However, there are moments when the language we use to speak about God and God’s activity in the world is out of sync with the way God actually is, requiring us to re-adjust our language.
For instance, many of the spatial categories we use to speak of God’s presence in the world, categories that often place God “up there” are mis-aligned with the way the biblical story actually speaks about God. In fact, such categories reflect a deistic approach to God that distances him from life in the real world.
While we can often be heard praying for God to “visit us,” to come down from “up there” somewhere and make his presence known, we soon realize that such prayers simply don’t work with what the biblical narrative actually says about God; a God who, through Christ, by the Spirit, is always with us, never leaves us, and lives within us.
As we reflect on the discontinuity between how we sometimes act towards God with the way God actually is, it shouldn’t take too long for us to come to the conclusion that the language we often use to speak about God and God’s activity in the world doesn’t make sense when compared to God’s own self-revelation in Christ, by the Spirit.
Jesus changes everything
If the biblical story, particularly the New Testament, presents us with a God who is with us, in us, and for us, why do we so often use language that speaks of God as being away from us? Why do we pray for God to come down?
The person of Jesus, God’s enfleshed icon, changes the way we see and experience God. The birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus has forever changed the way we understand who God is and what God is really like. Jesus’ incarnation and the Spirit’s constant, active presence in the world tell us that God is always with us.
If Jesus himself spoke of the ever-present nearness of God’s presence in the world via the Spirit, why do we so often ask God to “come down” and “visit us”?
We may not always be aware of Gods ever-present nearness, but God is always and equalling present to all (omnipresence). If God is with and in us by the Spirit, calling on God to “visit us” doesn’t make sense of what we’ve come to know about God’s abiding presence. With this in mind, maybe it’s time for us to form new habits and to foster new language that more faithfully reflects the way God actually is.
An open invitation
I believe it is appropriate to invite God into our lives and activities. However, we need to remember that God is already here and our invitation should simply reflect our voluntary willingness to open the door to God’s already ever-present nearness.
We seek God’s presence as an act of our free will. Our action does not activate God’s presence, but opens us up to experience God’s already-existing presence.
If God is already where we are, calling on him to “come down” and “visit us” doesn’t make sense. If, however, we invite God’s presence into our lives as we voluntarily seek him to move within his already, constantly abiding presence, then we are at that point more closely aligned with the way God really works in the world.
Asking God to “visit us” loses its meaning and significance when we take the time to more closely align our experience of God with the way God actually is.
It is impossible to visit someone when we are already fully present with them. And, The same is true for God. If God is fully present with and in us, asking him to “visit us” loses real meaning. If anything, we need to be made more aware of God’s already, abiding presence, which is an entirely different thing altogether.
Opening ourselves up to God’s constantly abiding presence is a much better direction . In this case, we voluntarily create space for God’s abiding Spirit to act and move on our behalf.
God didn’t “show up” as though he was otherwise occupied and distant from us. No, his presence was already with and in us; we simply exercised our free will to invite his already-abiding presence into the midst of our circumstances.
Opening the door from the inside
Walking with God and seeking God’s presence in our lives should be something we strive for everyday. Despite what some believe, God is not distant, unattached and uninvolved in our lives. He is always present and ever open to move and act in and through us.
However, love demands choice, which when applied to our relationship with God, means that though God is always present, we need to daily open the door of our life to him.
God doesn’t open the door from the outside – we open the door from the inside, which is why it is absolutely essential that we open ourselves up to experience God’s abiding presence in the everyday moments of life.
Maybe it can sound something like this –
God, I open myself up to experience your already abiding Spirit today. Lead, guide and direct my steps. Grace me with wisdom, insight and discernment for the journey forward. Amen.
When we voluntarily, and without coercion, open ourselves up to God’s abiding presence in our lives, he will be more than willing to answer our prayer. Our invitation unlocks the door from the inside and opens us up to experience God’s ever-present Spirit.
So, send God an open invitation – everyday.
Invite him to make you more aware of his ever-present nearness.
Invite him into your life to lead and guide you towards his very best dreams and goals for your life.
Invite him to mold and shape you more and more into someone who increasingly reflects the characteristics of his Son, Jesus.
And, you know what? He will.
God’s ever-abiding, ever-present nearness will never change. Love requires this. Love desires this. Love is defined by this.
So, we no longer need to ask God to “come down” from somewhere because God is always with us and in us. Instead, we should pray for God to make us more aware of his already abiding presence.
And, as we pray, the already, always-near, abiding presence of the Spirit, who lives within us, will awaken us to God’s presence and show us that he is never more than a whisper away.
Dear Readers:
ChristianWeek relies on your generous support. please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.Thank you, from Christianweek.
About the author