Jehovah Shammah means "Jehovah is there."

"And the name of the city, from that time on will be:  The Lord is there" (Ezekiel 48:35).

This is the Lord's promise and pledge to His people that His presence would be with them.  Ezekiel was prophesying, probably while in captivity in Babylon.  At the time, Israel was falling continually into sin, and Jerusalem was about to go under.

So the Lord led Ezekiel to prophesy about a new temple, the likes of which the Lord's people had never before seen.  After prophesying about this temple, Ezekiel said, "The presence of the Lord will be there."

The people loved Jerusalem and the temple.  Now that the temple had been destroyed, they were full of sorrow and in Babylonian captivity.

Ezekiel's prophecy brought his people consolation and hope for the restoration of their land.  This was Jehovah's pledge of His presence in a glorious way that they could not imagine.

The Israelites were obsessed with having a natural presence of God that they could perceive through their senses.  But God's presence was not just an article that they could hang up in a temple.  He has always wanted His presence to be so much more than that.

God has always desired to have His presence with His people because He desires their fellowship.  God, Who created man and placed him in a beautiful garden, came down and walked and talked with him.  The presence of God was there because He wanted man's presence with Himself.  Jehovah Shammah wants to have fellowship with us.  He is present and alive in us  -  He is there.

All the man-made temples were very short-lived; God did not stay in the garden; the tabernacle was substituted with a temple; Solomon's temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; Zerubbabel's temple was destroyed by Herod; and finally sinful people crucified Jesus.  After Jesus' resurrection, those who received HIm as Savior and Lord became His temples.  We are now the temple of God.  When we invited Jesus into our hearts, Jehovah Shammah began to dwell in us:

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16).

"What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?  For we are the temple of the living God.  As God has said: 'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people'" (2 Cor. 6:16).

The Bible tells us that, from the very beginning, God wanted His presence felt.  He once spoke to Moses saying, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest" (Exodus 33:14).  Moses wouldn't go anywhere if he didn't know that God's presence went with him!  But we don't have to worry about that because He's in us.

His presence is there to feel what we feel and to take us through every situation.  His glory goes everywhere we go.  Glory always relates to shekinah, which means "to live in you."  That's why God said that He would dwell "in" us.  He said, "I will live in you, walk in you, and be your God, and you will be my people" (2 Cor. 6:16).

"Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand" (Psalm 16:9,11).

"Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the  foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.  In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit" (Ephesians 2:19-22).