A. God dwells in three places: the universe, the third heaven, and the body of every Church Age believer.
B. God indwells every believer.
1. The indwelling of God the Father is taught in Jn 14:23; Eph 4:6; 2 Jn 9; Phil 2:13. The Father indwells as the author of our portfolio of invisible assets, grantor of the escrow blessings, mastermind of the protocol plan.
2. The indwelling of God the Son is taught in Jn 14:30; 17:22-23; Rom 8:10; 2 Cor 13:5; Gal 2:20; Col 1:27; 1 Jn 2:24. Christ indwells the body of the believer as the escutcheon of the royal family of God, as the Shekinah glory to guarantee blessing to the believer, and as a guarantee of eternal security.
3. The indwelling of God the Holy Spirit is taught in Rom 8:11; 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19-20; 2 Cor 6:16. The Holy Spirit indwells us to make our bodies a temple for the indwelling of Jesus Christ as the Shekinah glory, as well as to provide a power base for spiritual dynamics. God the Holy Spirit teaches us doctrine, Jn 14:26; 16:12-14; 1 Cor 2:4-16.
C. God dwells in the heavens.
1. The heavens include three categories.
a. The earth and the atmosphere around the earth.
b. The stellar universe including the planets.
c. The third heaven which is outside of the universe.
D. The Omnipresence of God.
1. God, in His eternal and infinite essence, is everywhere.
2. This is reduced to two categories: immanence and transcendence.
a. The incomparable divine transcendence is eternally prior to and exalted above the universe which he created. God in the total of His divine essence is above and beyond the universe and at the same time indwells or fills the universe. Transcendence means that the whole of God is superior to and outside of the universe. Hence, the phrase “the third heaven” in 2 Cor 12:2.
b. Immanence means that God fills space with His presence, sustaining it and giving it value.
3. God is omnipresent and ubiquitous. This is not pantheism. (Pantheism says that God is a stone, a tree, a mountain.) Pantheism denies the person of God.
4. Omnipresence refers to all three persons of the Trinity. Jesus Christ holds the universe together.
5. In transcendence, God is prior to and above the universe which He created. In immanence, God indwells all space. The fact that God is both immanent and transcendent means that God’s omniscience knows simultaneously and eternally every circumstance and situation of life, while God’s omnipresence is a witness to every situation and every circumstance of history as it occurred.
6. Because God is immanent, heaven cannot contain Him, 1 Kg 8:27; Acts 17:24.
_
© 1992, by R. B. Thieme, Jr. All rights reserved.