Scripture is very clear that God is “in all believers” AND He is also omnipresent (present everywhere), which means He is “in earth and heaven.”

In Ephesians 4:6 we are told that there is “one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and IN YOU ALL” (NKJV). The apostle Paul is writing this epistle to “the saints at Ephesus” (see Ephesians 1:1); in other words, to “believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.” In this verse Paul is teaching them that God is “in you all.” What a precious truth this is! Earlier in this book Paul spoke of believers as God’s temple: “In whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for A DWELLING PLACE OF GOD in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:21-22). Think of it, dear fellow-believers, just as God was pleased to dwell in a literal temple in the land of Israel (see 1^st Kings 8:10-13), so He is has now taken up residence in believers. We are the temple of God and He dwells in us! But notice that His dwelling in us is “in the Spirit,” which simply means that He dwells in us “by the Spirit.” This is confirmed in 1^st Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” When the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost to indwell believers (see Acts 2:1-4) He formed them into the church (the “body of Christ”) and they became the “temple of God.” From that moment on every new believer is “added to the church” (Acts 2:47) and thus the temple of God continues to grow (as we saw in Ephesians 2:21-22).

The apostle John also spoke of how “God is in us.” We read of this in 1^st John 4:12-13, 15: “No one has seen God at any time. If we love on another, GOD ABIDES IN US…By this we know that we abide in Him, and HE IN US, because He has given us of His Spirit…Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, GOD ABIDES IN HIM, and he in God.” Again, John makes it very clear that God only abides (dwells) in believers (those who “confess that Jesus is the Son of God). And just as Paul taught that it was “by the Spirit” that God dwells in us, so John says He is in us “because He has given us of His Spirit.”

Now it is equally true that God is in earth and heaven. Jeremiah 23:23-24 declares, “Am I a God near at hand, says the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him? says the LORD; DO NOT I FILL HEAVEN AND EARTH?” King Solomon echoed this same truth on the day that God came to live inside His earthly temple: “But will God indeed dwell on earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built” (1^st Kings 8:27). The truth of God being omnipresent is beyond our feeble comprehension, for we are “finite beings” with limited understanding. But God is “infinite”; He is without limit in all of His attributes, including His ability to be present everywhere at the same time. As we think of how awesome He is and that “the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him,” it should humble us to the dust that He has made us His temple and LIVES IN US by His Spirit. (244.1) (DO)