Universally Present

To most people God is not a reality.

God may be an inference. God might me a deduction from evidence; but He is not a reality in an individual's life.
Others know of God by hearsay. Some say that He is an 'ideal.' Some say that our concept of God is the absolute thought of what goodness is, or beauty or of truth.
God may be these things to individual people - but He is not a Living Reality.

Yet, on a human level - it is very difficult to love an ideal; it is hard to be eternally loyal to a principle. This notion of God being anything but a Living Reality stands opposed to Scripture which reveals a personal God to the vast of humanity who will seek Him.

While God dwells in His Creation and is everywhere, not in the sense of pantheism but in the truth of omnipresence, God must be known through a personal experience. 
In the notion of Pantheism, God is described as being the Sum of all that is created. Therefore, a leaf or a stone has the same characteristics and value because 'God is in them.'
This thought degrades the incorruptible glory of the Living God.

The truth is that God is real, absolute and final - all other realities that we may know in life are contingent upon Him. And the Bible assumes that men can know God to the same degree of intimacy and immediacy as any other person. There is no point nearer to God than any other point; therefore, wherever we may be, whoever we may become, there God is as well and is available to us.

This begs the question - 'If this is true, why do Christians know so little of God?' 
That's a good question, it makes me wonder why we settle for so much less than He wishes to give.
It is a question that I cannot answer.

The object of the Christian faith is an unseen reality - God Himself. 
Our worshiping heart has not created God; He has found the heart and has awakened it through regeneration. It is in this renewal that we find the Living God in a personal experience.
From this encounter, we realize that God is inescapable - a truth known since the beginning of time. When Adam sinned in the Garden, he did the unthinkable act of trying to hide from the presence of God.
David later tried to escape the presence of God.
Neither succeeded because God is inescapable; this truth only becomes real when our hearts have come alive in regeneration. It is there too, we learn restoration with God happens only through repentance and faith.

When Jacob was in the wilderness, he realized a universal truth, 'Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not.' 
Like Jacob, many of those who call themselves Christians do not know God is here; what a grand difference it would make if they knew He was present, knew He was near, and knew Him as a Father knows a child. It would be a difference that would shake the world.

Yet, we have settled for so much less and have demanded for so little in our generation that knowledge of God and true brokenness over the state of the world has gone by the wayside.
We are in a generation of the push-button. A time period of instant everything - from oatmeal, to instant ovens called microwaves and the abomination known as instant coffee. We have machine-like methods.
The slow cultivation of the relationship with our Living, Personal God is cast aside, and we are all suffering because of it in the church.

Our suffering may evidence itself by extremely loud music from the instruments in a worship service. It may be seen in the video clips preachers use instead of proclaiming the gospel. You can also see it in the numerous sermons preached in the 'how to' line instead of the 'thus says the Lord' line.

From these things, Christians do not know the Living God; they cannot.
Their lives are too shallow and are focused inwardly with a hollow religion. Worship is intended to be entertaining and 'fun;' away with the mourner's bench of old and in with an LCD projector.
And what we see has bee the glorification of men using salesman type methods - all of which, when combined with the other things going on in our churches, are nothing less than a huge mistaken identity for the power of spirit when it is actually the power of the spirit of men.

If God is the Living Reality of the Ages - Why do we settle for so much less and why do we know so little of Him?
I don't know the full answer to the question but I do know that we have all contributed tot he state of church and we all stand guilty.

One thing I do know - all that God has ever done for any of His children, God can do for all of His children because God does not have favorites. The evidence of this is my own body; I was healed just like any miracle from the New Testament.
I have found that the difference in our era is not with God, but with us. The saints are not alike; we are different from person to person. Yet, God is the same.
God, being the same, may require us to go back to the very beginning of our faith so that we can learn once again what it is like to experience a solid relationship with God Himself.

In the beginning...GOD, and it is here we all must begin.
God is the beginning of all things spiritually or otherwise; any activity, church service, mission or desire within the body of Christ which does not begin in God and end in His glory - is wrong and out of His will. 
Our faith in Him is not an imagination it is a reality which has been reckoned by His Spirit; without this power, we are nothing and will accomplish nothing for His namesake.

This weekend is Mother's Day and millions of Mothers will be honored. 
We take one day a year to honor our mothers and many men will, and we will give little thought to our Living God who is universally present. In fact, most will honor their mothers over this weekend more than they will honor their Lord in a year.
What does that say about our personal need to return to a personal experience with Him?

Friend, it must start with going back to the beginning in your walk - back to God Himself and that personal, real experience with Him. It goes back to God awakening your heart for Himself; you coming alive in Him and seeing and knowing Him by faith as never before.
In this - the world becomes more clear and God is more real.
In essence, you come alive in a humdrum world; you become something greater than before, better than ever.
And if this describes you then you need to describe to another person that they too may come alive in Him and know His universal presence in their lives.

Until next time, try to win one for the good guys.