THE LORD’S PRAYER – WHERE IS GOD?

“Our Father in heaven…” Matthew 6:9

How difficult is it to talk to someone when we don’t know where He is? “Our Father in heaven…” we pray but where is heaven? For most of us heaven is “up there” but where – on another planet somewhere or in another galaxy or somewhere beyond the universe? This makes praying to a Father whom we can’t see and whose whereabouts we don’t know, much more complicated and unreal.

The God we address in prayer is unseen.  He is Spirit – John 4:24 and we cannot and must not try to create Him in our imagination. He has no physical form. We can know only Him by what He does and where He has been. We have to learn from God’s revealed truth about Himself what heaven really is.

There are Scriptures that indicate that heaven is not a geographical place but an unseen realm which is all around us but which we cannot see and only partially experience because we humans are flesh, imperfect and separated from that realm now. In Psalm 139:7, David cries, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” and Solomon lamented, “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built.” 1 Kings 8:27. According to Jeremiah 23:24, “’Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord” and the Apostle Paul confirmed, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28.

There are times when the veil between flesh and spirit thins out momentarily and humans can see into the spirit world. Elisha and his servant Gehazi were surrounded by the Syrian army in Dothan. Gehazi cried out in fear because they were trapped and at their mercy until Elisha assured him, “Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see. Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” 2 Kings 6:16, 17. The veil thinned just long enough for Gehazi to see with his eyes what Elisha saw by faith.

According to Genesis 2:7 God breathed into man the breath of life (His own ruach – breath, spirit) and man became a living being. Man, therefore, has in his lungs the very breath of God.

Just as we need to change our awareness from ourselves to God, we also need to change our awareness from God somewhere far away and inaccessible to a God who is as near to us as our breath. Prayer is therefore, first, becoming aware that I live in the environment of God. He is spirit, He fills the entire universe, and I am, therefore, immersed in His Presence like a fish in water.