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God is a presence…

• God is a hovering presence. Carolyn Jane Bohler
• God is a presence that I can never define but I could never deny. John Shelby Spong
• God is a presence, not a person. Rajneesh
• God is a spiritual Presence not only in the universe and nature, but also within each person. Tom Harpur
• God is not a person at all. You cannot worship God. You can live in a godly way but you cannot worship God – there is nobody to worship. All your worship is sheer stupidity, all your images of God are your own creation. There is no God as such, but there is godliness, certainly – in the flowers, in the birds, in the stars, in the eyes of the people, when a song arises in the heart and poetry surrounds you… all this is God. Let us say `godliness` rather than using the word `God` – that word gives you the idea of a person, and God is not a person but a presence. Rajneesh
• Spirituality is natural goodness. God is not a person; God is a presence personified in us. Spirituality is not a thing; it is the atmosphere of God’s Presence, goodness, truth, and beauty. Ernest Holmes
• There are many metaphors for God that point to God in the abstract, a Divine Presence that just Is: Music Itself, Directing Creativity, Spiritual Presence, Ground of Being, and the Source of Creative Good. My experience is that people who most consistently think of God in these “pure being” terms consider themselves to have a great deal of responsibility. God provides Directing Creativity, but it is up to them to receive what God offers and to use it wisely. Carolyn Jane Bohler

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…an inner presence…

• God is that inner presence which makes us admire the beautiful and consoles us for not sharing the happiness of the wicked. Eugene Delacroix
• God’s presence. . . is an inner experience that never changes. It’s a relationship that’s there all the time, even when we’re not paying attention to it. Perhaps the Infinite holds us to Itself in the same way the earth does. Like gravity, if it ever stopped we would know it instantly. But it never does. Rachel Naomi Remen
• His divine spark lives within me, a presence that will never leave. And I am but one of many tools He has at His disposal. If I cannot act – if I refuse to act – that is a choice I am allowed to make. He has given me life, and all I must do to serve Him is to live. Fully and with my whole heart. With this knowledge comes a true understanding of all the gifts He has given me. L. LaFevers
• Conscience is God’s presence in humans. Emanuel Swedenborg
• Honor is the presence of God in man. Pat Conroy

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…a presence that is right here, right now…

• There is a reason they call God a presence – because God is right here, right now. In the present is the only place to find Him, and now is the only time. Elizabeth Gilbert

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…a presence that is experienced in the heart

• When we have broken our god of tradition, and ceased from our god of rhetoric, then may God fire the heart with His presence. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Only in the heart can one experience the divine presence of truth. Kabir
• God is not something I think about but something I experience as an energy, a Presence. I do find it easier to pray to a female Presence or an androgynous Presence. Olympia Dukakis

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We are always in the presence of God..

• Don’t equate the presence of God with a good mood or a pleasant temperament. God is near whether you are happy or not. Max Lucado
• God is ever present. He’s in every breath, in every step. He’s here, always, always. Jill Scott
• We (Christians) are always in the presence of God. There is never a non-sacred moment! His presence never diminishes. Our awareness of His presence may falter, but the reality of His presence never changes. Max Lucado
• We are always in the presence of God, yet it seems to me that those who pray are in His presence in a very different sense. Teresa of Avila

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…even when we don’t feel it…

• I don’t always feel His presence. But God’s promises do not depend upon my feelings; they rest upon His integrity. R. C. Sproul

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…for God’s presence is everywhere…

• The whole of God is present at every point in space at the same time. Take time to meditate on this great idea. In other words, God doesn’t come and go. God doesn’t capriciously move substance from God’s supply “up there” to fill your needs “down here.” Nor does God answer prayer in some kind of coming forth. God is always present, totally present – as a Presence. Eric Butterworth
• Any place is sacred ground, for it can become a place of encounter with the divine Presence. David Steindl-Rast
• He finally understood that God’s presence was everywhere, at all times, and was experienced by everyone at one time or another. Nicholas Sparks

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…and in everything

• Creation is thus God’s presence in creatures. The Greek Orthodox theologian Philip Sherrard has written that “Creation is nothing less than the manifestation of God’s hidden Being.” Wendell Berry
• Every place is filled with the presence of God. There is not an inch of space, not a moment of time, that God does not inhabit. John Ortberg
• I understand Being in all and over all, as there is nothing without participation in Being, and there is no being without Essence. Thus nothing can be free of the Divine Presence. Giordano Bruno
• There is a divine purpose behind everything – and therefore a divine presence in everything. Neale Donald Walsch

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God is a presence that is one with us and one with all

• In our contemplative tradition, God is not a presence that is separate from us but rather the energizing Reality that makes us humanity. God is the presence of love at the heart of creation, and the presence of life at the center of human beings, in the heart of all matter in the universe. Doug  Hammack
• In God there is no duality. In that Presence “I” and “we” and “you” do not exist. “I” and “you” and “we” and “He” become one…. Since in the Unity there is no distinction, the Quest and the Way and the Seeker become one. Mahmud Shabistari
• The problem is that the overwhelming sense of presence that dominated the experience was not simply that of “a” presence. There was also a clear experiential sense of a multitude, perhaps infinite in number. Ordinary dichotomous logic would reasonably ask an either/or question: “Well, which one was it: a singular presence or a multitude?” The logic of mystical experience answers in terms of both/and: “There was a sense of a singular, unitary presence and also a sense of a multitude. It is also extremely important to note that, although there was a sense in which the multitude was distinct from the unity, there was also a sense of Wholeness in which the unity and multitude were One.  Douglas W. Shrader

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God wants to be a sacred presence in our lives

• God has spoken very boldly about his desire to be a presence in our lives. If I want to heal the ache and loneliness in my own life, one of the things I need to do is get away, alone with God. . . . In the silence God will speak to you most powerfully. Too often his words to us get muffled, lost, or covered by the crowd of many noises both inside and outside of us. We must have a quiet heart in order to hear God’s distinctive message to us. Tim Hansel

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The presence of God is the greatest gift

• God’s present is his presence. His greatest gift is himself. Max Lucado
• Grace is the offer of God’s ceaseless presence and irrational love that cannot be stopped. John Ortberg
• If you have God’s presence, you have favor. One minute of God’s presence can accomplish more than 20 years of your striving. Heidi Baker

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The presence of God brings great rewards

• The presence of God is the finest of rewards. Yann Martel
• The importance of coming into God’s presence is worth overcoming all obstacles along the way. Aiden Wilson Tozer

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Nothing else compares to the felt presence of God

• There is absolutely nothing in ordinary human experience to compare with the joy of the presence of the Love of God. No sacrifice is too great nor effort too much in order to realize that Presence. David R. Hawkins
• Nothing in or of this world measures up to the simple pleasure of experiencing the presence of God. Aiden Wilson Tozer
• God’s presence is all that matters. Francis Chan

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The presence of God brings peace and calmness

• Peace comes not from the absence of trouble, but from the presence of God. Alexander MacLaren
• The presence of God calms the soul, and gives it quiet and repose. Francois Fenelon
• True peace comes not from the absence of trouble, but from the presence of God and will be deep and passing all understanding in the exact measure in which we live in and partake of the love of God. Alexander MacLaren
• Your serenity matters to heaven. God’s presence encapsulates your life. Max Lucado

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The presence of God brings joy and fulfilment

• Heaven is the presence of God. Christina Rossetti
• In Your presence God, I’m completely satisfied. Phil Wickham
• It is the Divine Presence that gives value to life. This Presence is the source of all peace, all joy, all security. Find this Presence in yourself and all your difficulties will disappear. Mirra Alfassa
• Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
• An hour spent in the presence of God brings the purest joy known to man. E. Stanley Jones
• Since I was introduced to the practice of God’s presence, which in turn led me into the contemplative way, I have nearly always felt so rich, so blessed, so sincerely full of “enough.”…I believe it is on this robust, overflowing …contemplative pathway that one gains the joy and serenity to be generous. Brian D. McLaren
• Trying to be happy without a sense of God’s presence is like trying to have a bright day without the sun. Aiden Wilson Tozer
• You cannot be in the presence of God and be bored at the same time. For that matter, you cannot be in the will of God and be bored at the same time. Mark Batterson

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The presence of God brings insight

• Wide awake to the presence of God, I realized I had been so focused on asking why a good God allowed bad things to happen that I was missing out on the nearness of God all along. In becoming preoccupied with the why, I was missing the who. Margaret Feinberg

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The presence of God brings transformation

• Only God’s presence can change people’s lives. Priscilla Shirer

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The presence of God opens us to love

• God’s presence is not just Light, and Life, but Love. And Love invites, but does not compel. Frederica Mathewes-Green
• Love by its presence, like God by His, makes everything not necessarily clear or right or even good, but acceptable. Whereas in its absence, as in His, there is no hope. Virgilia Peterson
• Then emerged the exquisite onset of a state of consciousness in which the mind melted and became silent. A Presence—timeless, gentle, yet infinitely powerful—pervaded, and its overwhelming Love replaced mentalization. David R. Hawkins
• When you are in the presence of unconditional love, that is the optimum environment for your heart to open, because you feel safe, because you realize nobody wants anything from you. The minute that heart opens, you are once again letting in the flow. And that flow is where you experience God. Ram Dass
• When you rest in presence and pure awareness, sometimes everything is experienced as love because you’re connected with all that is, and love is simply the nature of being. Jack Kornfield
• Then Circled by the golden light of God’s Presence and His promise, Paul and Sierra walked side by side along the trail that lead toward the campus and on toward their Future. Robin Jones Gunn

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The presence of God brings creativity

• Where God’s presence is no longer a tenable proposition and where his absence is no longer a felt, indeed overwhelming weight, certain dimensions of thought and creativity are no longer attainable. Rudolf Steiner

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The presence of God brings authenticity

• The more conscious of God’s presence the more I feel like being myself, the less conscious of His presence, the more I feel I need to prove myself. T. Kendall

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The presence of God brings strength

• The realization of God’s presence is the one sovereign remedy against temptation. Francois Fenelon
• The ubiquity of the Divine presence is the only true support, and I am sometimes astonished how persons, who evidently do not possess that grand source of consolation, keep up their spirits under trials and difficulties. It must be owing to careless tempers and nerves of brass. Hannah More
• We only learn to behave ourselves in the presence of God. C. S. Lewis

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The presence of God is always what we need

• The vision of the Divine presence ever takes the form which our circumstances most require. Alexander MacLaren

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Seek God’s presence

• Live more quietly. Live more seeking God’s presence in your own heart. Goswami Kriyananda
• The search for God’s presence was much of a mystery as God himself, and what was God if not a mystery? Nicholas Sparks
• We don’t seek God’s power, we seek His presence. His power & everything else we need is always found in His presence. John Wimber

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Realise God’s presence

• A constant realization of the presence of Spirit will provide a sense of Divine Companionship that no other attitude could produce. Ernest Holmes
• A realization of the Presence of God is the most powerful healing agency known to the mind of man. Ernest Holmes

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Become aware of God’s presence

• God is at the tip of our scalpels, our screwdrivers, our computer terminals, our dust rags, our vacuum cleaners, our pencils and pens. He is with us in our wheelchairs, or on our hospital beds, when all we can do is sit or lie flat. When we envision Him and His purpose in what we do, then we begin to grow aware of His presence in the middle of it. We are able to engage in our inward conversation with Him as we work, naturally, without strain. He becomes our partner, our collaborator. Sue Monk Kidd
• Having the reality of God’s presence is not dependent on our being in a particular circumstance or place, but is only dependent on our determination to keep the Lord before us continually. Oswald Chambers
• Life should be a constant vision of God’s presence. Alexander MacLaren
• We cannot attain the presence of God. We’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s missing is awareness. David Brenner

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See God’s presence

• Vision is the ability to see God’s presence, to perceive God’s power, to focus on God’s plan in spite of the obstacles. Charles R. Swindoll

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Feel God’s presence

• As hard as I have tried to remember the exact moment when I fell in love with God, I cannot do it. My earliest memories are bathed in a kind of golden light that seemed to embrace me as surely as my mother’s arms. The divine presence was strongest outdoors, and most palpable when I was alone. Barbara Brown Taylor
• As you enter the “kingdom of God” you shall then see, no longer “through a glass darkly” but in the unshadowed sunlight of the Divine presence, that “all things” did “work together” for your personal and eternal good. Arthur W. Pink
• I feel the presence of God when I feel the essence of divinity in anything and everything around me. Neale Donald Walsch

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Come into God’s presence

• A believer longs after God, to come into his presence, to feel his love, to feel near to him in secret, to feel in the crowd that he is nearer than all the creatures. Ah! dear brethren, have you ever tasted this blessedness? There is greater rest and solace to be found in the presence of God for one hour than in an eternity of the presence of man. Robert Murray M’Cheyne

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Connect to God’s presence

• Man is lonely mainly because he has been disconnected from the Divine presence. James Johnson

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Be pervaded by God’s presence

• So a man must be pervaded with the divine presence, and be shaped through and through with the form of the God he loves, and be present in Him, so that God’s presence may shine out to him without any effort. Meister Eckhart

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Believe in God’s presence

• If we must “feel” God’s presence before we believe he is with us, we again reduce God to our ability to grasp him, making him an idol instead of acknowledging him as God. Craig S. Keener

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Experience God’s presence

• Any place is sacred ground, for it can become a place of encounter with the divine Presence. David Steindl-Rast
• Change the focus of the eye. When you have done that, then the end of the world as you formerly knew it will have occurred, and you will experience the radiance of the divine presence everywhere, here and now. Joseph Campbell
• Don’t come into the presence of God to impress Him with something He gave you! T. D. Jakes
• Each day presents a new opportunity to experience God’s presence. Aiden Wilson Tozer

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Sense God’s presence in yourself and all beings

• Once there is a certain degree of Presence, of still and alert attention in human beings’ perceptions, they can sense the divine life essence, the one indwelling consciousness or spirit in every creature, every life-form, recognize it as one with their own essence and so love it as themselves. Until this happens, however, most humans see only the outer forms, unaware of the inner essence, just as they are unaware of their own essence and identify only with their own physical and psychological form. Eckhart Tolle

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Religions and spirituality are a path to the awareness of God’s presence

• All Religions are vehicles and a path to God’s Divine Presence. Bayazid Bastami
• I want the presence of God Himself, or I don’t want anything at all to do with religion… I want all that God has or I don’t want any. Aiden Wilson Tozer
• The sense of the Presence of a higher and friendly Power seems to be the fundamental feature in the spiritual life. William James

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Spend quality time in God’s presence

• Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how. Thomas Merton
• Let the presence of God INVADE you today. Kari Jobe
• The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice. Blaise Pascal
• If we wish to make any progress in the service of God we must begin every day of our life with new eagerness. We must keep ourselves in the presence of God as much as possible and have no other view or end in all our actions but the divine honor. Carlo Borromeo

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Feel God’s presence through prayer

• Become aware of God, in whose presence you are while you pray . . . John Climacus
• Granting that we are always in the presence of God, yet it seems to me that those who pray are in His presence in a very different sense; for they, as it were, see that He is looking upon them, while others may go for days on end without even once recollecting that God sees them. Teresa of Avila
• It is for increasing degrees of awareness that we pray, for a more perfect consciousness of the divine Presence. We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts. Aiden Wilson Tozer
• It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men. C. S. Lewis
• Prayer is essentially the practice of the presence of God, and that is the road to Heaven. There is no alternative. God is the only game in town. All other roads are dead ends. Since we must give our all to the one true God, we must not give any part to idols, to the many false gods that now bite away at our lives. Peter Kreeft
• Prayer is nothing else than a sense of God’s presence. Brother Lawrence
• Prayer is simply coming into the presence of God. Because when you come into the presence of God, even the things you don’t have matter a lot less. Harold S. Kushner
• Prayer requires that we stand in God’s presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable.. Henri Nouwen
• The purpose of prayer is to reveal the presence of God equally present, all the time, in every condition. Oswald Chambers
• When we pray, it’s the Holy Spirit Who makes the divine presence real to our spirits, and then we seem to ‘feel close’ to a living God. We are spiritually overwhelmed by divine glory. Chris Oyakhilome
• You don’t know how to pray? Put yourself in the presence of God, and as soon as you have said, ‘Lord, I don’t know how to pray!’ you can be sure you have already begun. Josemaria Escriva

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Feel God’s presence through worship

• Visitation of God’s presence is a byproduct of worship. John Wimber
• Worship is about encounter-coming into God’s presence. Jack W. Hayford
• Every time you open up your heart in obedience to God and worship Him with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul, our beautiful Lord responds with His magnificent presence.  Darlene Zschech

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Feel God’s presence through forgiveness

• In the presence of God, nothing stands between Him and us – we are forgiven. But we cannot feel His presence if anything is allowed to stand between ourselves and others. Dag Hammarskjold

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Feel God’s presence through stillness…

• Solomon warned us not to rush into God’s presence with words. That’s what fools do. And often, that’s what we do. Francis Chan
• Sometimes I just sit still and enjoy God’s presence. Joyce Meyer
• The important aim in Christian meditation is to allow God’s mysterious and silent presence within us to become more and more not only a reality but the reality which gives meaning, shape and purpose to everything we do, everything we are. John Main

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…beyond the realm of thought…

• The gift of darkness draws you to know God’s presence beyond what thought, imagination, or sensory feeling can comprehend. Richard Rohr
• What deadens us most to God’s presence within us, I think, is the inner dialogue that we are continually engaged in with ourselves, the endless chatter of human thought. Frederick Buechner

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…beyond the realm of desire

• Sometimes the very presence of God is barred by our presuppositions and our intense and constant desire for triumph. Ravi Zacharias

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Feel God’s presence through getting close to nature

• It has always been easiest for me to apprehend God in the natural world. I love to go to church, but when I really want to feel the presence of the divine I’m more likely to head up into the mountains. Bill McKibben

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Feel God’s presence through trial and difficulty

• Opposition doesn’t prevent the presence of God, it provides an opportunity to prove the presence of God. Steven Furtick

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Feel God’s presence through play

• Play is an expression of God’s presence in the world; one clear sign of God’s absence in society is the absence of playfulness and laughter. Mike Yaconelli

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Feel God’s presence by feeling your own inner presence

• What exists is a godly existence, a divine existence. God not as a person but as a presence certainly exists. But to understand that presence, you have to understand your own inner presence first, because it is from there that you can take off, it is from there that you can have the first glimpse of what godliness is. If you have not known yourself you will never know God. Rajneesh

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Feel God’s presence through right living

• We cannot enter into the presence of God while we are rebelling against God. Aiden Wilson Tozer

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Feel God’s presence through exciting the soul

• Excite the soul, and the weather and the town and your condition in the world all disappear; the world itself loses its solidity, nothing remains but the soul and the Divine Presence in which it lives. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Feel God’s presence through transcending the ego

• Do not feed your ego and your problems with your attention. …Slowly, surely, the ego will lose weight, until one fine day it will be nothing but a thin ghost of its former self. You will be able to see right through it, to the divine presence that shines in each of us. Eknath Easwaran