His Presence- Part 3: Manifest Presence
In my previous two posts, we discussed the omnipresence of God and His abiding presence. Today we will wrap up our discussion on God’s presence by talking about His manifest presence.
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. John 14:21 (KJV)
The word manifest in the Greek is emphanizo, which means to exhibit in person, disclose, appear, declare plainly, show. As we have Jesus’ commandments and keep them, we demonstrate that we love the Lord. In return, the Lord will show Himself to us.
As we receive God’s Word into our hearts, as we study, understand, and know it by revelation, keeping and obeying it, we will experience the manifest presence of God. We will feel God tangibly. We will sense His touch, His presence, physically. When the manifest presence of God is here, it affects our physical senses. We can feel His touch, hear His voice, see His face, and even smell His fragrance. The more Word we take in and live out, the more of God’s manifest presence we can experience. Because Jesus is the Living Word, as we love and honor the written Word, Jesus will honor us with His presence. The more we love Jesus and worship Him, He will manifest Himself to us. No one will have to tell us Jesus is here because we will know by His manifest presence.
When we get out of the Word, disobeying it and getting out of love, we cut ourselves off from the manifest presence of God. We end up quenching the Spirit, putting out His presence in our lives. The presence that we once experienced is no longer felt. So, as we love God’s Word, we love Jesus- and the Trinity will come and love on us by manifesting themselves to us. We can have as much of God’s presence as we choose, based on how much we do John 14:21.
