How do worshippers experience God's presence?The Scriptures mediate the presence of God to us -- the Bible not only teaches us, it produces spiritual effects when applied by the Holy Spirit. (Heb. 4:12, Acts 20:32, 1Cor. 1:18)
How does the Bible mediate God to us? -by creating, rekindling and promoting faith in us. (Rom.10:14,17, 1Thess. 2:13) Assurance and conviction grow from faith. (Heb. 11:1)
So then, the preached Word of God and the visible Word of God (displayed in the Lord's supper) are potentially electrifying corporate worship events. We can experience the spiritual presence of Christ and spiritual communion with God. These are realities, apprehended only by faith. Jonathan Edwards said God glorifies Himself before faith-filled men by "appearing to their understanding and communicating Himself to their hearts."
What is this "presence of God"? Remember, we walk by faith, not sight. (2Cor.5:7, Rom. 8:24-25, 1Cor. 13:12) We should not demand a full vision of now, but surely "God is more than just a logical deduction from Bible texts." We can expect God to speak (not audibly, but spiritually) when the Bible is proclaimed faithfully because we believe that the Bible is the supernatural and immediate revelation of God's mind to His people. The voice of God in the soul of man is the very essence of entering into God's presence. Albert Mohler: "Worship.....is the act through which the people of God direct all their attentiveness to hearing the one true and living God speak to His people and receive their praises."
Hearing God this way is actively offering Him worship. It is presenting to God a broken and submissive heart. It is honoring God with an expectant faith. It is reverencing God by displaying dependency. Intentional spiritual engagement like this is not a passive experience; it is the deliberate hungering for and hanging upon God's very words that marks Word-based worshippers (Matt. 4:4).
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