In God’s presence

by Maurice Pujol
Published October 24, 2006

Believers with a strong faith have no problem imagining a glorious time when they will one day be in the presence of God for all eternity. This awareness isn’t a whimsical thought or passing wish; it’s a solid conviction that faith brings.

A lot of religions offer similar promises. Some picture the faithful ending up the in the presence of a personal God, while others see the ultimate goal as a higher form of consciousness or a spiritual blending into a great life force that animates all of nature.

Christianity is different, though. It stands out among all religions, past and present, in that it teaches that believers can be in God’s presence in the here and now. It may be an imperfect fellowship with our Creator, as Paul said, like viewing God through a dirty mirror, but fellowship nonetheless.

This contact with God isn’t at all the same as is taught by the pantheistic religions, which see God present in all things, animate and inanimate. By “getting back to nature” or “getting in touch” with the spirits, pantheists hope to experience a foretaste of the vague bliss they foresee in eternity.

Some religions teach that this sort of blending with the spiritual will transform humans into gods themselves. All these religions head in the direction of idolatry, tending toward a worship of something other than God, either of the self, or of nature, or of some great impersonal life force behind the curtain of nature.

When Christians talk about being in the presence of God, they mean none of this. We believe God once touched the world in a special way, expressing Himself as Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh who lived among us. We also believe that not only did God create all things, but also that His will and His power keep all things in existence for their allotted times.

We also believe in a personal God, one whose attributes are dimly reflected in the best humanity has to offer. All that is good, noble and admirable in human beings come from God’s nature, for we believe we are created in His image.

We don’t believe we’ll ever become gods, or God’s equals. We do believe, however, that we are not yet fully human and that by accepting Jesus by faith, we will one day become the people God intended for us to be. We will be reformed according to the original blueprint lost after man first rebelled against God, set free from the flawed nature we have inherited as a result of this rebellion.

There is something quite unique we Christians believe about experiencing God in this life. We believe we can have direct personal contact with Him in our best moments, a relationship made possible by the presence of His Holy Spirit within us. We believe this special sort of experience gives us a picture of our ultimate home, perhaps even more than a picture. In our highest moments, we even get a glimpse of how it will be in eternity.

The great Christian thinker C.S. Lewis offered a wonderful analogy about how this “nearness” to God is experienced in this life. Consider, he said, a traveler who reaches a mountain peak with a great view of his comfortable home on the next peak. He can see home and can envision how wonderful it will be once he gets there, how he will be able to rest and to find comfort after a long, wearisome trip.

But the traveler still has many miles to go before he gets there, for he will have to walk a long path around the mountain he is on to reach the valley below. Then, he’ll have to take another path up the next mountain to reach home.

At the moment he sees home, he’s very near to it spiritually and emotionally. But there are still many miles to go before he reaches there, many paths to travel on which his view of home will be at times blocked. I might add to Lewis’ analogy that the road home often takes us over many mountains and through a lot of valleys. We get a good view of where we’re headed only when we’re on those mountaintops and have to walk by faith the rest of the time.

Because the Holy Spirit is within us, we have a great Guide for our journey. Jesus told His disciples that one of the benefits of His leaving the world would be God’s return in another mode, a promise that was fulfilled in short order at Pentecost. It was as though God could not be present in this imperfect world both as Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit at the same time.

I don’t know why this is, but it’s what Jesus indicates in the Gospel of John. Perhaps we aren’t ready to see God in His fullness. Both we, and the world, need more preparation for that glorious day when we will see Him as He is.

In any case, there’s no belief system quite the same as Christianity. We believe some very specific and significant things about experiencing God’s presence. Our beliefs are unique, and they attain this status because they are true.

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