KINGDOM TRUTH #6: GOD HIMSELF CAME TO LIVE INSIDE OF US.
After everything God had done for us, to Him it still wasn’t enough. The curse of sin and death claimed our lives. And Jesus had defeated them. The lifeline between us and God had been severed. And Jesus had restored it. We were scarred by sin. And Jesus had taken it on Himself, giving us His own right standing before God in exchange. Covered in Jesus’ perfection, His robe of righteousness, we could now enter into God’s perfect presence.
But it still wasn’t enough for God.
The God of closeness wants more than us drawing near. He doesn't just want to hang out with us. He wants closeness. He wants oneness. He wants in.
God’s relationship within Himself—between the three Persons of the Trinity—is so intricate and intimate that its difficult to tell where One ends and the Others begin. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct Persons, yes, but thoughts, emotions, and essence flow seamlessly between them. They are Three, yet One. It’s friendship, fellowship, and closeness of the most complete kind.
To God, that’s what closeness looks like. Oneness. Intimacy. Union. A permanent, everlasting bond.
When Jesus set foot on earth, the God of closeness came closer to us. But to Him it wasn’t close enough. He wanted in.
So on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down from Heaven and moved into Jesus’ disciples. People who were once empty shells were filled with the Spirit of life. And today, when an empty soul invites Jesus into his or her life, the same thing happens—God’s Spirit of light and life moves in.
As a Jesus-follower, God's very Spirit lives in you. That means that we can hear His voice. It means that there may be times that we're not just thinking our thoughts, we might be thinking His. It means that we never face anything alone. It means that we have His power working in and through us. It means that when we're fully surrendered to Him, it might be hard to tell where He ends and we begin and the other way around. We're no longer separate entities.
Because of that, we have a totally different Source of life than we used to have.
Everything we do, even following God, comes out of the Spirit inside of us. Before Jesus, God-followers focused on obeying His laws in order to follow Him. Now, our focus has shifted. We focus on following Him, the Person inside of us, as He guides us to the ways of life. As we grow closer to God, spending more time with Him, learning more of His heart through His Word, we’ll learn to recognize the Spirit’s voice as He speaks up in us. And we’ll get better at following our Guide.
Before Jesus left, He told His disciples: “I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you” (Joh 14:18). He was speaking about the Holy Spirit. You are never alone or abandoned. Ever. If you could see reality, you would see the Spirit alive and well in you. Yet many of us still live as orphans.
Refuse to live as an orphan. When it comes to your life, God is always closer to you than your own skin. As a follower of Jesus you do not face anything on your own— and from now until eternity, you never will. Ask God to make His presence known to you. Ask Him to teach you to hear His Spirit in you. Ask Him to help you follow His lead. Ask Him to allow you to experience all of the fullness of what it means that He lives inside of you. He’ll answer that prayer because He wants closeness with you more than anything too.
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©2024, Walk Thru the Bible
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