GOD ABIDES. At first this seems a simple topic yet it is huge. First, God is omnipresent, everywhere. No escaping Him. Yet His presence with His people is something more than that. The word used for “abide” is about persevering, a long stay, but the Bible tells of it as a personal experience, different from the idea that “He is here someplace.” It is communion and intimacy. How did that start?
Since God is not visible, He chose to make Himself known after the Exodus using a pillar of fire and a cloud:
Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted they set out. (Numbers 9:22)
The Old Testament is filled with dramatic descriptions of how God made Himself known. This is similar to the wind; we cannot see it but only see what it does in moving trees and other objects. Yet God had a better idea — He became a man and lived among us . . .
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1; 14)
The word used here is “pitched a tent” — God Himself, who once had His people build a tabernacle in the wilderness as a visible reminder of His presence and a place of worship, created another tent, this time a human body, the Person of Jesus Christ. How incredible! He this said about that abiding:
And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (John 5:37–44)
The Living Word of God — this man called Jesus — and the written Word of God are powerfully connected because both are God’s communication to us. Those who hear Him and believe Him become His special people, but not only that, we who believer also become His special dwelling place on earth.
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:12–16)
The evidence that God lives in, abides in, made His tent in His people is a confession of faith in Jesus Christ as God in the flesh, and the love that flows from His abiding presence out of us to the world around us.
GAZE AT HIS GLORY. This is overwhelming. The God of the universe, of all creation, who is awesome and holy makes His home in those who love and obey Him in faith. One illustration is simple: I am like a glove and He is the hand; I am nothing without Him. Foundational to that is Jesus who became a glove too! He did this to show those who believe in Him how we should live — yielded to the Hand, relying on the Father, the One who lives in us and promised to never leave or forsake us. As His child, I’m overjoyed that God abides in me — a totally amazing and totally life-changing reality.
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