Intimacy With God

When Jesus met with his disciples for his final Passover feast he fully understood what was soon to transpire. The disciples, however, did not. They had no idea Jesus’ time as a human being would soon be over and he was preparing them to take over in his absence. His plan was to leave the work of the kingdom in their very incapable hands. He was also preparing them for a new intimacy with God that would make them fully capable.

They had no idea Pentecost was coming and what a tremendous difference it would make in the life of every believer and the world. Jesus knew, but they didn’t have a clue. Jesus told them later (John 16:7) “It is better for you that I go away....” No longer would the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—need to be the God “out there”. He would be Emmanuel—God with us! God within us! A new intimacy with God that the world had never before experienced, except in the life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He, Jesus, knew what it was like and he wanted us all to experience it.

No longer would Jesus, the son of the only true and living God, be limited to one time and one place. Instead of walking with these few disciples on the dusty roads of Galilee, he would soon be able to live in them through the indwelling presence of his Holy Spirit, and not only these first century disciples, but every other disciple on earth who would accept him as Savior and welcome his Spirit into their hearts and lives. Instead of one Christ living in one place, at one time on earth, we would have a race of “Christs”— living, loving, working, and serving everywhere his people would be. Paul later described this new “body of Christ” that was no longer limited to one human body, when, in Romans 12:5 he wrote “…in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” So wherever we go, Christ goes. Instead of being limited to one body, Christ knew he would eventually be present in millions of physical bodies in every culture, in every geographical area and in every era of world history!

We live in the best of times! The time of the indwelling Presence of the most High God, when everyone who accepts him becomes part of his spiritual body—one with every other believer in heaven and on earth! Every believer is in the family—a family made up of brothers and sisters of every race and culture.

The sad thing is that God’s plan is not yet accomplished. He desires all his children (every human being) to have the intimate relationship of his indwelling Spirit. Jesus asked all believers to pray for that to happen. He taught us to pray to our heavenly Father “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10(NIV) Jesus further clarifies God’s will in his teaching to Nicodemus recorded in John 3:16-17(NIV): “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Later Paul wrote that God “desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” (I Timothy 2:4(ESV)) and in II Peter 3:9 it is written the Lord is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

God created us to be eternal and wants everyone on earth to have this intimate relationship with him and begin the experience of everlasting life.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .and that's My View from Tanner Creek.