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He is not far
This article will be about the presence of
God in our lives and His communication with us. Regarding
His presence, Acts 17:27-28 tells us:
Acts 17:27-28
"so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that
they might grope for Him and find Him, THOUGH HE IS NOT
FAR FROM EACH ONE OF US; "FOR IN HIM WE LIVE AND
MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING"
Sometimes, we think that God is ..... up
there, and between Him and us there is a tremendous gap.
Nonetheless, this is not what really happens. As His Word
makes clear: THE LORD IS NEAR TO EACH ONE OF US and in
Him we live and move and have our being. In other words,
wherever you are right now, the Lord fills the place. He
is very close to you! He is by you, NOW.
1. I
Corinthians 2
Concerning the topic of God's presence and
His communication with us, in I Corinthians 2 we read:
I Corinthians 2:9-12
"But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear
heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things
which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God
has revealed them to us through His spirit. For the
spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit
of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the
things of God except the spirit of God. Now we have
received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is from God, that we might know the things that
have been freely given to us by God."
[NKJV - KJV]
It is impossible to know something from
God without having His spirit. Without His spirit, we
would be in complete ignorance of Him. However, PRAISE
THE LORD THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN. In order not to be in
ignorance, God gave us His spirit, so that we may know
the things He has granted to us. As the Lord said in
another place:
John 15:26, 16:13-15
"But when the comforter comes, whom I shall send to
you from the Father, the spirit of truth which proceeds
from the Father, he will testify of Me........ When he,
the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all
truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but
whatever he hears he will speak; and he will tell you
things to come. He will glorify Me, for he will take of
what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the
Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that he will take
of Mine and declare it to you."
[NKJV-KJV]
The comforter, the spirit of truth, is
here today. IT IS IN EACH ONE OF US THAT BELIEVES THAT
JESUS IS LORD AND GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD (Romans
10:9-10). It was given to tell us the things to come - to
glorify the Lord and lead us into all the truth. This is
not a supposition, something that....may perhaps happen.
It is something that HAPPENS! It is the reality of each
born again believer that walks in fellowship with God.
Turning again to I Corinthians we read:
I Corinthians 2:16
"For who has known the mind of the LORD that he may
instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ."
and again in Isaiah:
Isaiah 54:13
"All your children shall be taught by the LORD"
and Philippians 2 continues:
"for it is God who works in you both to will and to
do for His good pleasure."
We have the mind of Christ! We are taught
by the Lord. It is God who works in us to will and to do
for His good pleasure.
Concluding the above: the Lord has given
us His spirit to communicate with us. This spirit is here
TODAY. It is in every born again believer, and has been
given so that we may know what God has prepared for us.
We are no longer in ignorance. We now have the comforter,
the promise of the Father that has come to guide us to
all truth and tell us things to come.
2. The
still small voice
Leaving for a moment the New Testament, we
will go to I Kings 19. There we find Elijah, a prophet of
God, who being persecuted by Jezebel, walked for many
days to finally arrive at Horeb. There the Lord met him
and verses 9-13 tells us:
I Kings 19:9-13
"And there he went into a cave, and spent the night
in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to
him, and He said to him, "What are you doing here,
Elijah?" So he said, "I have been very zealous
for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel
have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and
killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and
they seek to take my life." Then He said, "Go
out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD." And
behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind
tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces
before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and
after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the
earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD
was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small
voice. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped
his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the
entrance of the cave."
We sometimes think that God can be found
only in the impressive occurrences of life, in
"earthquakes and fire". We ignore perhaps that
He is also in the routine things of everyday life. Of
course there will be unique situations in life. Yet, the
Lord is not in them only. For the believer that walks in
fellowship with God, his mind is the mind of Christ. As
we read in I Corinthians 2:16
I Corinthians 2:16
"For who has known the mind of the LORD that he may
instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ."
We have the mind of Christ! This mind does
not work only sometimes, nor its function is necessary
linked with "earthquakes and fire". Christ is
not somewhere where He cannot be found. He is in us. By
being in unity with Him, His mind becomes our mind and
His thoughts our thoughts. As we saw in Philippians:
Philippians 2:13
"for it is God who works in you both to will and to
do for His good pleasure."
God works in us to will and to do for His
good pleasure. We don't need to struggle to hear from
Him. Yet, we do need to be in fellowship with Him. We do
need to allow Christ to "dwell in our hearts through
faith;" so that we may know "what is the width
and length and depth and height and to know the love of
Christ which passes knowledge; that we may be filled with
all the fullness of God."
3.
"That Christ may dwell in our hearts"
As we saw in the above, God has given us
His spirit and we have the mind of Christ. However, the
fact that we have the mind of Christ does not mean that
we also put it in use. In the same way, the fact that we
have holy spirit does not mean that we also walk in the
spirit. This becomes evident by the many
references-admonitions of the Word of God to walk by the
spirit, the new nature and not by the flesh. Really, in
Ephesians 3:14 - an epistle whose first verse makes clear
that refers to believers ("to the saints who are in
Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus") - we read:
Ephesians 3:14
"For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to
the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might
through His spirit in the inner man, THAT CHRIST MAY
DWELL IN YOUR HEARTS THROUGH FAITH; that you, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the width and length and
depth and height - to know the love of Christ which
passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God."
Despite the fact that Paul speaks to
"saints and faithful to Christ Jesus", he still
prays that CHRIST MAY DWELL IN THEIR HEARTS. This in turn
means that the fact that one is a believer does not
automatically imply that Christ dwells in his heart,
exactly as the fact that one has holy spirit does not
automatically make him spiritual (see for example I
Corinthians 3:3-4). As the Word says in Romans 8:
Romans 8:5
"For those who live according to the flesh set their
minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live
according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit."
Where one sets his mind on, depends on how
he lives. We cannot live according to the flesh and at
the same time have our minds set on the things of the
spirit. Continuing in Romans 8:
Romans 8:6-8
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is
enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of
God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the
flesh cannot please God."
Those that live according to the flesh,
have the mind of the flesh and what the flesh minds is
enmity against God. Life and peace have only those that
have the spirit, AND ALSO HAVE THE MIND OF THE SPIRIT.
And as Romans again says:
Romans 8:9-10
"But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if
indeed the spirit of God DWELLS in you. Now if anyone
does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if
Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but
the spirit is life because of righteousness."
We are not in the flesh if the spirit of
God
DWELLS in us (see ftn.1). It is the inhabitance of Jesus Christ
in our hearts that that brings life, peace and all the
other that compose the fruit of the spirit (see Galatians
5). Turning again to Romans 8:
Romans 8:12-14
"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the
flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live
according to the flesh you will die; but if by the spirit
you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
FOR AS MANY AS ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THESE ARE
SONS OF GOD."
With the above, our aim is not to doubt
our standing in Jesus Christ. What we do want however, is
to make clear that life, peace and communication with the
Lord is not the result of the existence of the mechanical
parts (spirit) only or even of the accurate knowledge
about them. It is also required the inhabitance of Christ
in our hearts, the mind of the spirit. The Lord is not
only interested to see us receive the spirit but also
WALK BY THE SPIRIT. The communication with the Lord
should not be thought as the communication of two
separate parts. I believe it does not only have
significance "how many words" one has heard
from the Lord but also the unity one has with Him. As the
unity with Christ is realized, out heart will have
Christ; our mind will be the mind of Christ and our
thoughts will be His thoughts. In such a case, we no
longer speak for a simple communication - that can anyway
exist even between two parts with no relationship with
each other - but for something much deeper, something
that includes communication: WE SPEAK FOR FELLOWSHIP. It
is within such a framework that I believe one should see
the communication with God and it is within this
framework that this is realized naturally and without any
struggle.
Tassos Kioulachoglou
FOOTNOTES
1.
Remember here Paul's
prayer for believers: «THAT CHRIST MAY DWELL
IN YOUR HEART THROUGH FAITH» (return where
you stopped)
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