The Presence of God (Examining the Presence of the LORD)

          Many of us wonder what it would be like to be in the presence of God (Yahweh, Jehovah, Elohim) himself the Lord of lords and King of kings, the mystery which we cannot fathom in its origin unless He spoke to us about His own self. Maybe in some distant future that information will be revealed to us, maybe not in our current state of reality. Well, the great news is that the Bible being the only Word of God and inspired by God himself tells us about God's nature when He has been physically present to humanity.
          The first questions to pose in examining the presence of God from knowing his power in the scriptures is are we spiritually ready for the presence of God. The second question to follow immediately is could we physically bare his presence, are we also physically fit.

          First, I will point-out the key terms about God's presence as described in the Holy scriptures from my studies reading it:

•  Does not tolerate and despises, and condemns sin; lawlessness, corrupt/immoral human behaviors in His presence
• Appears to specific parties or persons that meet His sought-out criteria
• Appears in any form of our natural Earthly elements
• Interacts in the most intimate ways possible with the party or person (Father figure)
• Keeps His party or person at a distance (for safety, maybe)
• Has never taken on human form (chooses to shows His true original state, maybe)
• May have stopped appearing to humans because we're too far in our human state of impurity (sin) to even bare His presence (maybe a factor)

In the following passage the presence of God appears to Moses:

Exodus 3:3-10

New King James Version (NKJV)

Moses at the Burning Bush (verses 1-10)

³ Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”

⁴ So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

⁵ Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” ⁶ Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

⁷ And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. ⁸ So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. ⁹ Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰ Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” (God's presence continues until chapter 4, verse 17)

The presence of the Lord is described as a heavy dark cloud:

1 Kings 8:10-13

New King James Version (NKJV)

The Ark Brought into the Temple (verses 1-13)

¹⁰ And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, ¹¹ so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

¹² Then Solomon spoke:

“The Lord said He would dwell in the dark cloud.
¹³ I have surely built You an exalted house,

And a place for You to dwell in forever.”

The presence of God is described as fire:

2 Chronicles 7:1

New King James Version (NKJV)

Solomon Dedicates the Temple

7 When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

The presence of God appears to Ezekiel in the form of fire/bright amber with an upper and lower body (but not a human) on chapter 8:

Ezekiel 8:1-8

New King James Version (NKJV)

Abominations in the Temple

8 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. ² Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color of amber. ³ He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy. ⁴ And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain.

⁵ Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

⁶ Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.”⁷ So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. ⁸ Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door. (God's presence continues throughout the remaining of the chapter)

The presence of the LORD is depicted as possibly to have been involving an air transportation vehicle, or perhaps something more complex than one can imagine here in this following passage:

Ezekiel 10:18-22

New King James Version (NKJV)

The Glory Departs from the Temple (verses 1-22)

¹⁸ Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. ¹⁹ And the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

²⁰ This is the living creature I saw under the God of Israel by the River Chebar, and I knew they were cherubim. ²¹ Each one had four faces and each one four wings, and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. ²² And the likeness of their faces was the same as the faces which I had seen by the River Chebar, their appearance and their persons. They each went straight forward.

  

In conclusion, God appears only to those that He needs to appear to (need-to-know basis). God must approve/conditions must be met in both the spiritual and physical sense for His Glory to dwell anywhere among our plane of existence. His presence right now on our own times in the timeline of human history would in many ways not fit to us if we see the why's and study the situations back in the times when He was physically appearing to us. God was active in human affairs in the physical sense as it was all according to His plans for humanity of course, and other reasons that we yet haven't been given. No doubt, God is always active in within all that exists in His creation even at this very moment. Although, right now He is in a passive and physically retreated inter-dimensional presence within our physical realm. Perhaps our DNA structure and spiritual make-up have changed in state as not to be able to communicate with God after the sin clock reached a certain stage. It may be that we would only be able to bare Jesus's presence for the time being soon to come. Jesus is precisely fit to interact with humanity being our Savior as we know and have felt through the scriptures and the Holy Spirit.
Moreover, if God were to appear to anyone right now they'd probably faint from His energy and Glory. Maybe even die instantly from various physical  properties being suddenly altered in the surrounding space (maybe). People would know God's physical presence from miles away from the energy alterations (perhaps another possibility). There are some Scientific explanations that can be drawn of course as to why God stopped physically appearing to humanity I'm sure. The scriptures have a lot of Science (and have always had) to dig into coming from the creator of all Science Himself. 


Something to note: one must remember that God created us under His own image (Genesis 1:26-27), so if He has appeared to humanity as something other than Human, which has been the case, then we can conclude that our likeness to Him would be more in the spiritual/intelligent sense than in the physical sense.


For more research on Ezekiel's vision read: Ezekiel Chapters 8 to 11 the Glory of the Lord departs at http://www.truthnet.org/Ezekiel/4-Ezekiel-8-11/Ezekiel-Chapter-8-11.htm
God Bless!
All Bible references are in thanks to biblegateway.com

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Proverbs 8:27 28
"When he prepared the heavens, I [was] there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep."
The Bible mentions "the fountains of the deep" several times. During the Flood, we are told, God opened the fountains of the deep, suggesting seismic activity. When God ended the flooding, we are told that God closed the fountains of the deep, suggesting that they continue to exist, albeit with less water than at creation."...read

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