The definition of omnipresence is infinity in reference to place or location. This is to say with the children’s catechism question (where is God?) that “God is everywhere.” The word omnipresence is clear by simple definition. The word “omni” means “all,” and we know what “presence” means. Put the two words together and we have the meaning of all present or everywhere present.
If you run a search for the word “omnipresent” on a computer or a concordance to see if it is used in the Bible, you will not find it. That does not mean that the concept is not biblical, it is just that the word is not found. So we have to look at the Scriptures to see if the concept of God being everywhere is in fact taught.
Psalm 139:7-10 – “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me”
This text simply says that God cannot be fled from because He is in fact “there” wherever a person goes whether it is in heaven or in Sheol.
1 Kings 8:27 – “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!”
2 Chronicles 2:6 – “But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him?”
These verses show that even the highest heaven cannot contain God. He is far beyond those heavens and fills all that we can know. It is He that calls all the stars out and calls them by name. “Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing” (Isaiah 40:26). The latest estimate of stars is beyond the imagination and the closest one is four million light years away. Yet it is because of the greatness of His might that not one of them is missing. He is the One who created them and He leads them forth by number. This surely requires an omnipresent God.
Jeremiah 23:23-24 – “‘Am I a God who is near,’ declares the LORD, ‘And not a God far off?’ ‘Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?’ declares the LORD”
However distant the heavens are, God fills them. Wherever the travels of man take him into space, he will never travel apart from the presence of God. The earth is a speck of dust in the universe and do we really think that the God who fills it is not completely everywhere on this planet? While men come up with theories and speculations of how to escape God, it simply can never happen. God is everywhere.
Acts 17:24-28 – “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children'”
This text shows us just how involved God is in the universe and in every person’s life. All of these things require that He is omnipresent. God gives to people life and breath and all things. One can understand that from a deist perspective if one stretched the issue, but imagine a God from whom we receive our every breath! He is present every moment and with every breath we should know that He is there and it is by His grace that we take a breath and are not in everlasting flames. It is in God that we live and move and exist. If for a moment it would be theoretically possible to step out of the presence of God, we would cease to exist. Our very existence is in Him.
Proverbs 15:3 – “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Watching the evil and the good.”
One application of this is that the LORD knows all that we do. His omnipresence means that He knows all the sin that takes place and all the good that takes place. All of our lives are lived in His presence and before His holiness. Men try to deny the omnipresence of God to escape that holy and all-knowing eye, but it is in vain. The LORD sees our every thought, desire, and even the intent of our thoughts and desires. All of our motives are present with Him and He knows the depths of our hearts better than we do. Whatever it is that we need to know He must reveal it since He alone knows all things. We must pray that God would give us understanding hearts as all we do is in His presence.
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