Experiencing God’s Presence
Prayer: Dear God, open my heart to receive what you want for me. Amen
Of all things a spiritual journey promises, possibly the most basic is an awakening to living in the presence of the divine. The universal truth is, all people and all of creation live and abound in God’s presence all the time. It is inescapable because God has created, given birth to, all things, and the divine DNA is indelibly imprinted on everything that exists. Therefore, by virtue of our very existence we live in God’s presence whether or not we are aware of it, acknowledge or deny it. It is a true blessing coming from simply being alive.
The important issue logically following is whether we ignore it or celebrate it. The way we use this information is critical because it directly determines the quality of our lives. There is a direct connection between consciously experiencing God’s presence and having a fruitful and fulfilling life.
It is highly desirable to become increasingly attentive to living in God’s presence. It should occupy our attention and remain in the back of our minds at all time. We should put it on recall - set an alarm to remind us regularly of this exciting reality - to say to ourselves: “At this very moment I am in the immediate presence of the Holy One.” “Hello God. Thank you for inviting me into you presence so I can be with you in everything I do.”
It might be helpful to make clear there are different degrees of awareness. If I were to coin a word to describe this phenomenon it would be awareostat. It would measure the degree of awareness we have at any given time of being in God’s presence. Hopefully, it would also have the ability to raise the degree of awareness. Thereby, we could activate our spiritual lives and put them into the growth and development mode. We are capable of growing in the awareness of being in God’s presence.
Awareness is a fascinating phenomenon. It functions in many facets of life. It operates as an unfolding epiphany. It’s how we learn. We have little epiphanies and big ones, all having to do with awareness. Learning math is an obvious example. We first learn one plus one equals two - then two plus two equals four - then six divided by two equals three. The realities of value never change, but our awareness of those realities grow as we learn.
That identical process can be applied to our awareness of living in God’s presence. It comes as we practice it. Awareness evolves with experience.
It comes down to getting to know God better as we spend time with the Holy One. There are countless ways of doing this: prayer, meditation, quiet time, quick snatches of saying “hello God”, inviting God to be with you in a moment of stress, holding before God someone who needs healing, comfort or redirection, or just reminding yourself you are in God’s presence and relishing the moment. As with all relationships, spending time together is necessary for a healthy relationship.
