What Does The Presence Of God Feel Like?

For many people, feeling God’s presence is one of the most profound and meaningful spiritual experiences. If you have ever wondered what it truly feels like to have an encounter with the divine, this comprehensive guide will walk you through the nuances of sensing and connecting with God’s essence.

If you’re short on time, here’s a quick answer to your question: Feeling God’s presence often manifests as a deep sense of peace, joy, love, connection, or transcendence that goes beyond normal human experience.

A Deep Sense of Peace and Calm

When we feel the presence of God, it can bring an amazing sense of peace and calm to our lives, quieting worries and anxiety. According to the BibleStudyTools, God’s presence comforts us like a mother comforts her child (Isaiah 66:13).

Feeling Wrapped in Unconditional Love

In God’s presence, many describe feeling wrapped in unconditional divine love. It’s an acceptance beyond anything we can fathom. Worry and fears no longer flood the mind when we know we are fully known and fully loved by our Heavenly Creator. There is a release to just be ourselves, flaws and all.

Quieting of Worries and Anxieties

With the noise and chaos of everyday life, it can be challenging to still our minds. Yet inviting God’s presence helps halt the spinning hamster wheel of constant thinking. A transcendent peace begins to wrap around us like a warm familiar blanket when we surrender and acknowledge a Power greater than ourselves is in control.

According to the 700 Club, releasing burdens to Him lightens our load.

Slowing Down of Thoughts and Mental Chatter

Trying to suppress or ignore our thoughts often makes them scream louder. But shifting focus to connect with God places a filter on the chaos. We recognize feelings and worries yet also sense a profound depth of stillness behind the scenes.

Cynthia Heald, author of Becoming a Woman of Grace said it can feel like “coming back to the haven of His presence again, like entering the eye of a storm.” In the absence of striving, there is rest. As thoughts begin to slow, we open more to simply receive God’s love.

Profound Feelings of Joy and Bliss

Feeling light, uplifted and ecstatic

When in the presence of God, many people describe feeling an incredible lightness and euphoria. It’s as if a heavy weight has been lifted and you are suddenly walking on air. There is a feeling of being carefree, uplifted and full of joy.

Some describe it as being high on life – completely energized and blissfully content. The sensations are similar to the “runner’s high” but exponentially more profound. You feel physically lighter, almost weightless or floating. Mental clarity increases along with creativity.

There is no limit to the possibilities of what you can achieve.

Being overcome with divine ecstasy is a transcendent rush. A feeling of exhilaration and rapture surges through your entire being. Some mystics describe it as a “divine drunkenness” – they are inebriated on the presence of God. It brings such euphoria that you can hardly contain yourself.

Some spontaneously belt out melodies or break out into song and dance as creative expression of their bliss.

Spontaneous laughter or tears of joy

In the presence of God, joy can be so overwhelming that it leads to spontaneous outbursts of laughter or tears. After fasting for a prolonged period, St. Ignatius of Loyola began having powerful spiritual experiences during which he would weep with sheer joy for hours on end.

Such a display of emotion may seem uncharacteristic for the normally stoic founder of the Jesuit Order, but it demonstrates just how moved he was by being in communion with the Divine.

For many devotees, these bursts of laughter or sobs are a cathartic release of a lifetime’s worth of tension. In God’s presence, worries and anxieties accumulated over the years can evaporate in an instant. This brings tremendous relief, spurring spontaneous fits of mirth or tears.

Laughter also represents joy bubbling up from within – it just cannot be contained. The inner joy resonating through every cell of your being surfaces through childlike laughter.

A glow or warmth in the heart

A common sensation of God’s presence is a glowing warmth in the center of your chest, as though your heart is radiating light. Saints from many traditions describe a flaming heat or fire in the heart when connecting with the Divine.

St. Augustine wrote about a “sweet fire” of love that “sets our minds ablaze” when experiencing God. St. Teresa of Avila described an angel piercing her heart with a golden spear, causing a rapturous pain that “burned sweetly.”

The beloved 13th century Sufi poet Rumi wrote extensively about the ecstatic “fires of longing” ignited by unconditional love of the Divine.

Modern seekers also report a glowing heat or flames around the heart when embracing the presence of God. Some also perceive an invisible “force field” of energy surrounding the body, with the most intense glow around the chest area.

The warming presence resonates through the body down to a cellular level, energizing you with divine radiance. Beyond the physical sensations is the profound feeling of unconditional love and acceptance which melts even the hardest hearts.

A Sense of Being Loved and Connected

Feeling intimacy with all of creation

When we feel the presence of God, a profound sense of intimacy and connection with all of creation arises within us. We realize that we are not isolated beings, but are fundamentally interconnected with all living things.

There is a deep sense of oneness with nature, animals, and our fellow human beings. Boundaries soften as we feel that we all flow from the same Divine Source. This intimacy extends even to inanimate objects, as we sense the aliveness within all matter.

Author Richard Rohr describes it beautifully: “We gradually realize that nothing stands outside of our loving concern, not because everything belongs to us but because we belong to Everything.”

Sense of oneness and unity

In the light of the Divine presence, superficial differences and separations between people dissolve away. We transcend the illusion of separateness and experience the truth that we are all One. There is a profound sense of unity with all races, religions, and cultures.

Historical differences and conflicts between groups fade into the background when God’s love illuminates the core truth that we are all children of the same Creator. As we rest in unity consciousness, we gain a heightened awareness of our deep interconnectedness.

We realize, as spiritual author Eckhart Tolle puts it, that “The ‘I’ is part of a greater ‘We.'”

Feeling known and understood

In the presence of the Divine, many people experience a profound sense of being truly known and understood. On the deepest level, we feel totally accepted, recognized, and compassionately embraced by God, without judgment or conditions. What a freeing experience!

We can relax into our authentic selves, without pretense or hiding. We feel safely held in the heart of unconditional love. Many report feeling intimately known by God in a way that surpasses any human relationship.

There are no barriers; we experience what the Sufi poet Rumi describes as “the place where everything is music.” This brings tears of joy and gratitude. Research by the Pew Forum shows that over 80% of Americans report feeling God’s presence in this deeply intimate way.

Moments of Awe and Wonder

Deep appreciation for beauty and goodness

When we experience deep awe and wonder in the presence of God, it is often when we contemplate something truly beautiful or good. According to research by psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt, awe involves “vastness” and “accommodation”.

In the spiritual context, we feel awestruck when we perceive the vastness of God’s glory, goodness, love or creativity. Our minds have to expand and “accommodate” these extraordinary perceptions. We are left speechless, captivated and transformed.

These moments suspend our selfish concerns and instill an expanded sense of self. We may feel tearful in appreciating the preciousness of life.

For example, beholding a stunning sunset, a newborn baby or acts of great human kindness can fill us with awe of God’s creation. Christians believe that God is the Divine Artist. Contemplating great works of art, music and literature allows us to appreciate God’s gifts in humanity.

Experiences in nature such as standing before the majestic mountains, listening to the roar of the ocean, and gazing at the boundless night sky give us a sense of our smallness compared to the vastness of God’s creation.

Feeling small yet connected to something greater

Paradoxically, spiritual awe involves feeling humbled yet hopeful at the same time. We recognize our insignificance yet interconnectedness with all of life. Researchers describe this as the “small self” and the “interconnected self”.

The vastness we perceive overwhelms the ego and personal concerns of the small self. Yet we also feel lifted – that we are blessed to participate in something larger than our individual existence.

Standing before the ruins of an ancient civilization or sacred site, we may visualize the countless people who have come before us on the eternal journey of spiritual growth. Silently communing with nature, we sense that everything on our planet is interwoven in a beautiful but fragile web of life.

During worship at a temple, mosque, synagogue or church, we feel part of an ancient tradition connecting us to past and future generations.

A sense of amazement and marveling

Moments of awe make us pause and take notice. We are jolted out of the monotony and concerns of daily life. A 2021 study by Christine Li-Grining and colleagues found that experiences of awe were associated with reduced stress and rumination.

By immersing us in the present, awe provides respite from worrying about the past or future. It renews our sense of curiosity and vitality.

Watching a brilliant sunset or meteor shower, we may exclaim “Wow!” in sheer delight. Seeing our child take their first steps or master a new skill amazes us at their rapid development. Marveling at the intricacies of a butterfly’s wing or the symmetries of a snowflake, we appreciate the wonders of God’s intelligent design.

Witnessing acts of forgiveness, compassion and sacrifice touch our heart. These moments stop us in our tracks, uplift our spirit and remind us there are always new surprises in God’s creation.

Transcendence and Expansion

Rising above normal perceptions

When we feel the presence of God, we may experience a sense of rising above our normal perceptions and limitations. This transcendence can give us an expansive perspective in which we see things in a new light.

We may feel lifted into a higher state of awareness where we have clarity about life’s deeper meanings. Our normal worries may seem to fall away as we connect with something greater than ourselves. This expanded perception allows us to see the bigger picture and understand our place within the grand scheme of things.

We may feel awe and wonder at the immensity of creation.

Feeling outside time and space

The presence of God can give us a feeling of timelessness, being outside of normal space-time dimensions. We may experience eternity, having no beginning or end. Our sense of past and future may dissolve into an abiding now.

With normal mental chatter quieted, we may feel fully present and aware in the current moment. This timeless awareness can allow for deep peace and stillness. We feel anchored in an eternal present, unbound by the constraints of time.

There may be a sense of infinite space, limitless and all encompassing. Our normal perceptions of space seem to expand outward without end. We may feel held in this infinite, luminous awareness.

Sense of infinite possibilities

When we feel immersed in God’s presence, we may have an empowering sense of infinite possibilities. We see our challenges in a new light, realizing that all things are possible with God. Limiting beliefs about what we can accomplish begin to lift away.

We understand on a profound level that we are deeply loved and supported to fulfill our divine potential. This emboldens us to pursue our dreams and act on inspiration. We feel called to be our highest and best selves, to boldly create the life we are meant to live.

With God, we see that the only limits are those we place on ourselves. This sense of living in infinite possibility is deeply renewing and empowering.

Conclusion

The presence of God can be sensed in many profound ways that go beyond our typical human experience. While the full depth of these divine encounters can never be completely captured in words, the feelings of peace, joy, love, connection and transcendence provide a glimpse into the mystery of God’s abiding presence.

When we open our hearts to receive it, we can be filled and transformed by the ultimate source of all beauty, truth and grace.