Why You Should Stop Asking God to Show Up

There is an extraordinary leader in Peru who is doing great things with his team of missionaries. During a call recently, he told me that He did not feel like the Lord was present in their ministry. He said he had called out to God, invited Him into their space, but they were not getting any answers.

Of course, the problem with asking God to show up is that He is already there. He is not shackled by our permission; such a thing would make us God and He the servant.

My friend wanted something specific and God wasn’t doing it for him. And he went so far as to think that God was gone. We cannot control the presence of God, but we can decide whether or not we wish to perceive it.

One of the three things we can control is our perception. And this idea that God needs to be ushered into places is a poor one. And it needs to change.

For a myriad of reasons, we have developed compartmentalized world-views. Therefore, when we are praying for God to show up, we are asking for Him to enter a compartment. We are begging Him to infiltrate our lives in this arena. While this is noble, it is also conditional.

The better approach is to worship and thank God for Being Here, and There, and Everywhere along the way.

When we ask God to ‘show up’, we reinforce the patterned perception that He is not in all places and all things. In short, we are asking Him to change. To change the circumstance of His absence. The problem with this is that ‘His absence’ is a false perception birthed from our compartmentalized world-view

I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t this semantics? I mean, we all know what we mean by these statements.

I would argue that some semantics are more important than others. I’d also say that semantics reveal our perception. Whether I see an event as destructive or as an opportunity to grow, I am right. The power of my chosen perspective informs what I’m looking for, what I see, how I feel, how I think, and how I act.

If I perceive God’s Presence to be a special, unique circumstance, I lose the power of a Transcendent God. Even if He does ‘show up’, I have set myself up to idolize the place where He has arrived and subconsciously think Him gone when I leave.

Jesus is alive. He is alive within each of us. He is in all places. A change in perception will help us to know and see God more Transcendently. It will help us break free of our compartmentalized perception of God.

We can control our perception. We can choose a better way. Rather than asking God to show up when we want Him, like a genie from a rubbed lamp, let us acknowledge The God who was, is, and always will be. To see God in this way will change our perspective and usher us more toward holiness.

It is we who need to be changed. It is we who need to accept an invitation. ‘Me’ is the omnipresent voice in most of our lives and the God of the universe is occasionally offered a seat. This is a false perception and it is a subtle plague on the world. A proper understanding of God as the immoveable and us as the guests who either eat at his banquet table or do not may seem like subtle semantics, but it makes all the difference in the world.