The Presence of God

Acts 2:3-4: They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Being a Christian is about much more than believing certain truths or behaving in particular ways. At it’s heart, it is about relationship with the living God. This relationship is not something that is just true in theory, but it is lived out and experienced by the believer as we encounter his presence. As the first disciples were gathered on that Pentecost day, God’s presence came upon them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  

The presence of God: When the Bible speaks of the presence of God, it does so in a few different ways. At the most basic level, God is always present everywhere (omnipresence), and it is not possible to run to a place where he is not (see Psalm 139:7-12). There is another sense in which God is present with believers in a particular way. Jesus promised in Matthew 28:20 that he is with us always, to the very end of the earth. Finally there is manifest presence of God, where his presence is experienced and appreciated by the believer in tangible ways. It is this manifest presence that David longed for in Psalm 27:4, and that Moses would not go into the land without in Exodus 33:15. When the Old Testament speaks of God’s ‘face’, this is the same Hebrew word (panim) as his presence. The High Priestly blessing of Numbers 6:26 that God would turn his face to you is a prayer that you would experience the manifest presence of God. As tongues of fire appeared and rested on the believers at Pentecost, they encountered God’s presence in this manifest way that they could experience tangibly. This kind of experience of God is something that is available to us today, and is something we should hunger for and seek after, both in our gatherings together and also into our weeks.

Filling with the Holy Spirit: We are told that the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit as the tongues of fire came upon them. Their encounter with God’s presence was not momentary, but God’s Spirit came to dwell within them. There is a sense in which every believer has the Holy Spirit (see Romans 8:9), and it is impossible to turn to Christ without the Spirit. But there is another sense in which the filling of the Spirit is something that each of us needs. Through the book of Acts we see a number of features of the filling of the Spirit. Firstly, it is often dramatic and sometimes accompanied by spiritual gifts like prophecy or tongues (Acts 2:4, 19:6), natural phenomena like the earth shaking or rushing winds (Acts 2:2, 4:31), or exclamations of praise and joy (Acts 10:46, 13:52). Secondly, it happens in the context of mission, and is an empowerment to witness for Jesus (Acts 4:31). Thirdly, it is often accompanied by the laying on of hands (Acts 8:17, 9:17). Fourthly, it happens in lots of different settings, and sometimes to the same person more than once (e.g. Peter – Acts 2:4, 4:8, 4:31). We should go on being filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18 has this sense), and should not think because it is something that we have experienced in the past that we do not need a fresh filling now. There is no fool-proof method or formula to be filled with the Spirit, but there is the simple promise that Jesus made in Luke 11:13 that the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.       

Response: Pray for people to be filled with the Spirit. Create a moment for people to respond and receive this prayer (with laying on of hands) personally, rather than a generic prayer over the congregation.