Presence can be defined as being in a particular place or the state of being present. The God we serve is omnipresent. His Spirit is everywhere at the same time. However, the power, the glory and the weight of God can yet be felt very strongly in a particular place so that one can say that God certainly is there.
In Genesis 28:10-19, Jacob was going to Haran to meet his uncle in order to escape the wrath of his brother Esau and to look for a wife. He got to a certain place called Luz at night and slept.
In his sleep, he had a dream and saw angels of God ascending and descending on a ladder and God stood above the ladder to address him. God told him that the land he was lying on will be given to him and his descendants; that He will be with him; and that He will bring him back to Canaan after his sojourn.
When Jacob awoke, he made a crucial statement. He said, “Surely God is in this place and I knew it not. How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven”. So Jacob made an altar to God there in the morning and renamed the place Bethel – meaning House of God.
We are very grateful to God that He has always shown that He is with us from the inception of our Assembly. We have seen His moves within us in many ways and in many instances. God is however reassuring us in this seventh month of this year, that henceforth His presence will be more real in our midst and in our lives, so that we will certainly be able to say that our Assembly is undoubtedly a house of God and a ‘gate to heaven’. May the Spirit of God fulfilled this in Jesus name.