Week 3 – Where can I go from your Spirit?

Sacred Insight: Application
How can you apply this scripture to your own life in accordance with God’s will?

Psalm 139:

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
 Where can I flee from your presence? 8  If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
 if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
 if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me,
 your right hand will hold me fast.

You know that creepy feeling you sometimes get when walk into a dark room? When your eyes haven’t adjusted yet to the darkness and you don’t know really know what you’re walking into? These moments are always a good time to remember that God is with you. Not just in those dark rooms, but in dark times. 
Times when we feel alone. Times when our friends are nowhere to be found. Times when everything we’re used to suddenly changes; we experience the death of a loved one…a new job… a serious injury or illness in the family.
Remembering that, no matter the circumstance, God is with us in everything.This promise is all throughout the scriptures.

Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isn’t that beautiful? To know that the most powerful being, the Holy Creator, the One who holds the world and everything inside and outside of it, in his hands, is actually in your corner. 
How can this be, you ask? God is always with us through his Holy Spirit, who lives inside those who believe in Him. And He has sent His angels to protect and minister to us, as well.

John 14: 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

Hebrews 1:14
Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

Knowing that God is always with us, now think about what you see in your mind’s eye when you pray. I know that sometimes when I pray, I picture the clouds and imagine a heavenly being up there listening, nodding, laughing at my oh-so-hilarious quips, and possibly taking notes. But the truth is, God isn’t just up in a cloud somewhere – He’s right next to me walking alongside me, He’s below me holding me up, He’s above me lifting me up. He is surrounding me from every direction. In fact, a more accurate way to think about God would be to think about air. Air surrounds us, we breathe it in, we breathe it out. This is how God is – as close to us as a molecule of oxygen, cycling in and through and around us, giving us breath, being present, living within us.

The omnipresence of God can be a hard concept to fully embrace because we tend to cast God in roles that we can easily visualize with our limited understanding – like movies that depict God as an old man with a cane and a long white beard – basically a slimmer and more elderly version of Santa Claus. 
While it’s normal for us to want to take difficult concepts and mold them into ideas that fit neatly within our understanding, we have to accept that God is… not that. He is beyond our understanding and He defies the laws of physics that we are bound by.

Job 11:7
“Can you discover the depths of God?
Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?

1 Corinthians 13:12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.

 It is only through faith that we can believe in God’s incomprehensible and continuous presence. Faith is the tool that allows us to unravel the beautiful and sacred truths of Psalm 139.

How can you apply this scripture to your own life in accordance with God’s will?

Despite knowing that God is with you at all times, why do you think we sometimes feel alone or abandoned? 

How can we reconcile our flawed thinking with God’s constant presence?

How does knowing that God is omnipresent fit in with the God who knit us together in our mother’s womb? 

Live It Out:  Just as God is fully present with us, be fully present with the people around you this week. Make a concerted effort to listen deeply, to be actively present, and to ask questions rather than speaking opinions. In short, be the love of Jesus in how you show up to others.