Wherever you go, God is there. The theologian A. W. Tozer wrote, “God is everywhere here, close to everything, next to everyone.”[1] In his classic work on the attributes of God, Stephen Charnock called this God’s “essential presence.”[2]

God’s intimate omnipresence began at creation when Yahweh stooped down to breathe the breath of life into man. Even after Adam and Eve’s sin, God did not abandon them. His presence remained with those who sought after him. He is a God who neither leaves us nor forsakes us. He is a God who is there, a God who will always be there.

Ezekiel 48:35
The circumference of the city shall be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The Lord Is There.

Ezekiel is writing about the New Jerusalem, our heavenly dwelling. He calls it The Lord is There, in Hebrew, Yahweh Shammah. Strictly speaking, this is the name for a city. However, it describes God’s power and presence in a way that can be equated with God’s name. This passage emphasizes the power of God’s inhabitance. Every believer can experience that promise of God’s presence.

In 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul wrote, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” Paul puts this truth in the form of a rhetorical question to emphasize the weight of the statement. When a person trusts in Christ alone as the only way to have a relationship with the living God, the Holy Spirit takes up residence within. God, through his Spirit, lives in us. The New Jerusalem will be called Yahweh Shammah; The Lord is There. And today, every believer can look at their reflection in the mirror and say, the Lord is here!  We can live empowered by the presence of the Almighty God!

Father,
Thank you for your presence. Thank you for the promise that you will never leave me; you will never forsake me. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who lives in me and gives me the strength to obey, convicts me of sin, and empowers me to do what you have called me to do. I thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

[1] A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (HarperOne, 1961), 74.
[2] Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, Volume 1 (Robert Carter & Brothers, 1853; reprinted by Baker Book House Company 1979), 374-375.