We often hear about the “Invisible God” of the Jews. Whereas the pagan worshipers of old had gods that one could see and feel, the Hebrew God was an invisible god that no one had ever seen.

And, for the most part, God is invisible. Good thing, too, since He tells Moshe that no human being can look upon His face and live. On the other hand, He does show Himself, now and then, in visions (Daniel and Ezekiel saw nearly His entire body) or directly, as He did with Moses.

Is God really invisible? Or, is it that we can’t see Him because we aren’t looking?

After all, what is invisible? When we are in the daylight we see the white light of the sun but none of the colors inside that light. When we go out into the sun we get a sunburn, but we don’t see the UV rays that are burning us. We can see the light, and we can feel the warmth, but we don’t see the colors or feel the burning rays.

Here’s the kicker- those invisible aspects of sunlight are not invisible. They can be seen; all you need is the correct filter. If you look through a special filter, such as a prism to see the colors or one designed to allow the frequency that the UV rays operate within to be visualized, we can see those here-to-fore “invisible” things. They may be invisible to normal sight, but they are real and with the proper filter they are no longer invisible.

God is like that. His presence can be felt, His works can be seen, and His existence is obvious. As obvious as a sunburn. But we don’t “see” Him. Yet, as I said before, Moshe, Daniel and Ezekiel all saw Him. He made Himself known, visually, to them. How is it that they could see and we don’t?

Think about Elijah and when he was being hunted. The story is found in 2nd Kings: the King of Aram sent his army to kill Elijah, who was able to foresee by God’s spirit the ambushes being set against the King of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) and when the servant of Elijah awoke and saw the troops surrounding the city, Elijah told the servant, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed to God and asked that He open his servant’s eyes. God did as Elijah asked, and then the servant could see the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Essentially, that which was invisible became visible because the servant was looking through a special filter- the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) enabled him to see the invisible army of God.

If we look for God through that same filter, I believe we will see Him. It may be as an angel, it may be as a vision, it may be as a normal human being who does His work in our life. God is real, God is present, and God is visible when we look for Him using the filter of the Holy Spirit.

We cannot see His face, we know that already, but we can see Him as clearly as the nose on our face if we just look hard enough. I see Him, in the beautiful sunsets and sunrises that remind me as I wake and as I go to sleep that God is a wonderful artist, and His presence is with me, always. I see Him in others when I see someone do something nice for another person, when I do something that I know I don’t want to do, in my flesh, but need to do because in my spirit I know I should. I see God whenever I see goodness, love and compassion in the world.

Don’t get me wrong and think that I see God all the time. That’s not true, because I am still sinful and weak. I never saw God at all before I accepted Him and Messiah Yeshua. He wasn’t just invisible to me, He was non-existent. Now He is real, I feel His presence, I see Him through the Spirit (occasionally) and because of this I know Him to be real.

Do you have the spiritual sight? Have you seen God? Again, let me emphasize: I am not saying you will see Him in totality, or as you see another human being. You will see His effect, His presence, His armies and maybe, if He chooses to allow it, His physical being (not the face- stay away from the face!) in a dream or vision. I haven’t seen that part of Him, yet. Maybe someday?

The truth is God is invisible because we choose not to see Him. It’s all on us, just as many don’t see His presence or His works because they refuse to accept His existence. I believe that many people who say they believe in God are just saying it. I have nothing to go on to justify that statement except my personal feelings, and my experience of having seen so many people who profess to believe in God do and say things that they would never do or say if they really knew the Lord.

If you are unsure about God, whether or not He really exists, or whether or not He really cares about you, take off the filter of the world and try to look through the filter of trust, faith, and the spirit. God will make Himself known to those that genuinely seek Him out. Don’t expect that one half-hearted request will get Him to drop everything and show up on your doorstep. He requires us to be faithful, which means to keep trying even when things don’t happen. Just keep at it, keep asking, and keep expecting, in faith, for Him to show Himself to you.

If you do that, I believe that He will show Himself to you. You need to keep looking through the proper filter to see Him. It took about 3 months of constant requests and prayer, when I was first saved, before He made Himself known to me. And when He did, WOW!! I felt His Ruach enter my body, and I was (for a second or two) totally ethereal. I was spirit, not flesh. That was nearly 18 years ago, and when I think about it or relate the story I still get chills and teary-eyed. It was a life-changing experience (I think I have a link to it somewhere on the Home page of this blog.)

Pray, be faithfully expectant, and ask God to let you see through the filter of the Ruach HaKodesh so you can see Him.

God isn’t invisible to those who want to see Him.