Gollum and Freedom

In the second part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, there is a scene where Gollum, a character that has become somewhat of a troll or monster because of an evil ring, and Sméagol, who is Gollum’s true self before he was corrupted by the ring, are conversing. Gollum is harassing Sméagol, making it clear that Sméagol would be dead if it weren’t for Gollum. At this point, Sméagol has a revelation. After Gollum asserts his protection and care over Sméagol, Sméagol says these words about Gollum’s care:

“Not any more.”

What Sméagol realized was that he had a new master, Frodo, who now takes care of him and that he no longer needed Gollum/the Ring. So Sméagol commands Gollum to leave and never come back. And so Gollum leaves. And so Sméagol, rejoicing, is free.

This seems to me an almost exact parallel of Paul’s words in his letter to the Roman Christians:

"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves, whom you obey? You have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness/God." My paraphrase of Romans 6:15-23

Note: Sméagol’s freedom was in the context of a new master, a good master, a better master. He no longer belonged to Gollum, but now belonged to Frodo, and sought the pleasure, protection, and care of his new master.

With the Christian, we are set free from sin by our union with Christ, through faith, expressed and experienced in baptism. We who believe in Jesus spiritually died with Jesus about 2000 years ago. Yet, in the goodness of God, we didn’t (spiritually) experience the crucifixion, but instead the RESULT of the crucifixion, Christ’s death and burial. In other words, we do not reenact the crucifixion when we are baptized, but instead we reenact the burial AFTER the crucifixion. We experience the burial, resurrection, and ascension. We are one with Jesus. What is true of Him is true of all believers.

Jesus died once and for all to sin (self centered self gratification.)
We are one with Jesus.
Therefore we died once and for all to sin. (To “die to” something or someone means we become “unresponsive,” like dead bodies are to those who are alive. So we become “unresponsive/uncontrolled” by self centered desire.

According to Paul in Romans 6-7, neither sin nor the law of God own us, define us, or determine our actions any more. We no longer need the law to watch over us or make known to us that sin is our master (which was the law’s purpose) because sin is no longer a master of a believer. We no longer are subject to sin as a master, or a boss, or one who controls us. We died to them both, sin and the law of God, or external rules or codes. As a wife is free from her husband if she dies, and a slave is free from a master if he dies, so I am free from the law and from sin. We are free indeed from sin by a new master, the Lord Jesus, just as Sméagol was freed from Gollum by a new master, Frodo Baggins.

Now we only need to know it and consider it so, just as Paul said in Romans 6. Sméagol realized his new relationship with his new master. I realize mine and consider this my new reality.

• I rejected the law as a husband.
• I rejected sin as a master.
• I presented myself to the Spirit of God as His slave to obey Him. I am His slave. I will obey Him. I no longer serve God according to the old way of the written code (the law) but according to the new way of the Spirit.  Amen.

I am free; free to choose my master.
I choose the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Consider this:
As I said about God in my first blog (through faith in Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit, that you can be as close to God the Father as you want to be,)

So I say about our new natures in Christ: through faith in Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit, you can be as like God the Father as you want to be.

Your closeness to God is up to you.
Your likeness to God is up to you.

How does a free person act?
Or how should a free person act?

Note what Paul says to the Galatians:

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1 

Paul makes an analogy of cattle being connected together by their necks, bound together and controlled by a wooden mechanism called a yoke so that both may be driven in working a field. So, we are not to let ourselves be controlled or bound any longer to external rules/laws, which were given to expose our sinful intention.

Note again the words of Jesus:

"Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:34-36

Christ set us free to indeed BE FREE. But free to do what? Like we see with Sméagol, we are now free to serve God, to belong to God, to be like God.

"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature]; rather, serve one another humbly in love." Galatians 5:13

Sméagol used his freedom to serve Frodo, not just to “do what he wanted.” This is not true freedom, for neither creation nor salvation is for us to do merely what we want. We were made for God, to please Him; to be what He made us to be and to do what He made us to do. This is why He created us. This is why He saved us. This is our purpose. This is who and what we are.

I ask the Holy Spirit to help me to make this as practical as possible.

If you were a slave to sexual desire, or to use a modern word, you were “addicted,” and you believe in Jesus, the old person that you were, who used to be addicted to sex (or drugs, or alcohol, or whatever) died with Jesus 2000 years ago, spiritually speaking. A new, free, unaddicted/unenslaved you was reborn; “born again.” The new you, being free, now has a choice: to live for drugs/sex/alcohol/whatever, or to live for God. If you used to have sex outside of marriage, you now get married. If you used to do drugs to cope with reality, or to experience heightened reality, refuse to go to drugs and go to the Spirit who is in you, for it is written:

“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Psalms 34:8
“In your presence, there is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures forever more.” Psalms 16:11
“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger; he who believes in me will never thirst.” John 6:35

Jesus promises to fulfill those who are seeking satisfaction; those who long for fulfillment. He is our satisfaction (bread of life ;) He is the one who fulfills our desires (your thirst.)

Sprite says, “Obey your thirst.” Paul says no longer obey your thirst, but obey the Spirit in you.

Taste and see. With God there is complete joy and eternal pleasure. No man or woman, no matter how physically attractive can give you complete joy and eternal pleasure, by their very finite nature. No drug or drink can do this either. But here is the problem.

Sex does feel good. So does the buzz of alcohol. So does the high of drugs. These are “tried and true.” If you go to the porn site, or meet someone at the bar who will go home with you, and you have sex, or stimulate yourself, you have a guarantee that it will feel good. If you drink the right combination of drinks at the bar, you have a guarantee of the buzz. If you get a good quality of drugs, you are guaranteed a high. These are the best experiences you know of. These experiences come fairly easy, if you know the right drink, drug dealer, or man or woman or web page. You know where to go or what to do. At least it seems like this.

But the truth is, you don’t have a guarantee that you will go home with someone, or that if you do it will be enjoyable; or even if it is, that you and that person will have a good, lasting, committed relationship; or that you won’t contract a disease; or that you won’t conceive a child that you are not ready to care for.

You don’t have a guarantee that the same amount of alcohol will give you the buzz. In fact, you know, or should know, that your tolerance will increase, and that you will have to drink more alcohol for the same effect. The same is true for drugs. And the evil of it is, you will NEVER be able to duplicate “the first high/buzz.”

And even if you find “the perfect fantasy” on the “perfect web page,” the fact is, IT IS A FANTASY, NOT A REALITY. You aren’t really having sex, and you will most likely never meet the man or woman you are fantasizing about. And even if you do, and even if you have sex with them, you have the same uncertainties that you have of taking someone home from the bar. You have even more uncertainties because a porn star, by definition, is not going to be committed to just you, and by definition may have diseases and sickness due to his or her lifestyle.

So, nothing and no one gives you the guarantee of heavenly ecstasy and bliss that you seek. No one except God, for His presence is heaven, and His presence is eternal.

Now, this is not a “high/buzz/orgasm to infinite degree. I repeat and emphasize,
God is not a high/buzz/orgasm. He is not just a super sensation. He is a person. Yet He is the very satisfaction of our spirits, souls, and bodies.

This satisfaction is lasting and not circumstantial. Scripture calls it “perfect peace,” or “a peace that surpasses all understanding.” Paul calls it contentment no matter what. Jesus calls it “never hungering, never thirsting.”

This is a spiritual experience, but it is very real; indeed, it is reality. It is experienced in soul and body as well, but is also experienced in spite of any sadness of soul or sickness of body.

The struggle here is trusting God. The other things have “come through” for us before. Pornography is indeed a pleasing escape from reality. Romance novels (which I consider the female version of pornography) have the same effect. Both men and women get to experience intense pleasure with the other that they may not be experiencing in reality. Even married couples, if they are not getting from their spouses the “bliss” they want, can always go to a website or pick up the latest “steamy” novel on the shelves.

Alcohol and drugs have come through. They have given relaxation, release, and even “fellowship.”

So the devil will attempt to make leaving these things and going to God extremely difficult. If God does not “come through” with a stronger high/buzz/orgasmic experience then those mentioned, then He is not “as good as” sex/drugs/alcohol. But again, the “goodness” of these things in and of themselves is a lie from the devil. And we all know this deep down inside. We all know that we can’t drink/do drugs/have sex all day every day. These surely are not the purposes of life. The pleasure in them may give glimpses of eternal pleasure, when they are experienced legitimately. (I don’t know the legitimate experience of drugs, but it seems as though they mainly enhance pleasure hormones already in our body, given by God.) And even the legitimate experience of these pleasures will leave one “hungry” or “thirsty” as Jesus said. Again, the reason for this is that these things are finite objects of creation, and not the Creator, for whom we were made.

It takes trust. It takes a “denying of our selves.” We must, at first, allow our “needs/desires” go “unmet” in these areas. We must deny ourselves the pleasures of sex/drugs/alcohol/any other controlling pleasure. And we must go to God instead. When we feel lonely or scared or unsatisfied in human relationships or stressed out, instead of pulling out the cigarette to relieve anxiety, we pray. Prayer becomes the lollipop or patch used instead of the cigarette, if you will. Jesus becomes the one you call at night when you have a “crack dream.” Jesus becomes the one who keeps you company when you are lonely, instead of the woman on the porn site, or the man in the romance novel. Jesus becomes the drink that “clears your head” after a hard days work. Whenever you would go to these, you go to Jesus instead. Jesus becomes the one you “vent to” when you are so angry with your husband or wife or children that you think you will explode or hit or say something you regret and can never take back. The Book of Psalms in the Bible is an excellent example of the prayers of people who were angry or weary or experiencing anxiety. With God, we can express all emotions, and He will hear them, understand, correct them, clarify them, when no one else may be able to take them, or even want to take them.

In Romans 6, already mentioned above, Paul says that you are to give yourselves to God in the same way you gave yourself to sin. I know from experience the patience and endurance of seeking sinful pleasure. I wouldn’t give up. I kept trying until I found whatever temporal experience I looked for. Some will endure the first experiences of smoking, which I hear are anything but pleasing, in order to become smokers. Some will literally lie, cheat, steal, and kill for the high of drugs, giving up family, friends, job, and property. Note the drug addict is doing for drugs everything Jesus requires of His true disciples: again, they give up themselves (appearance, health, sanity,) their families and property.

Listen to the words of Jesus:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
“If anyone comes to me and does not take up his cross (accept rejection, suffering, and death), he cannot be my disciple.”
“If anyone comes to me and does not forsake all he has, he cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 14:25-43

How many of you have stayed up all hours of the night in the pursuit of happiness? How many have gone from relationship to relationship, no matter how many hurts have been experienced? We try and try and try again. We, like Gollum, pursue the seductive rings of power in our lives, even if they mean our death. We pursue. Relentless.

Yet will we pursue God with this same tenacity? Did we really have a guarantee the first time we had sex outside of marriage (or in marriage,) or the first time we smoked or drank, or whatever? Didn’t we do it and pursue it by faith, because of what we had heard? Notice how subtle is the devil. What does he require? Faith. What does God require? Faith. The devil simply wants you to take him at his word, to believe his lies. The hook in his bait is that he is promising your pleasure, or fun, or success or popularity, or whatever you want. God is promising Himself, and making it clear that He is what you really want, but that IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU, BUT ABOUT HIM. His focus is NOT ON MAKING YOU OR ME HAPPY NO MATTER WHAT. His focus is on you and me being what He made to us be and doing what He made us to do, NO MATTER WHAT. And in doing this, you will find true happiness.

Will we stay up all night for Him if necessary? Will we spend whatever money is necessary? Will we keep coming to Him like we kept coming to him or her? Will we simply “taste and see that He is good,” just like we tasted and saw that alcohol was good?

If we are to be free, we must want to be free. We must give ourselves to our newfound freedom to serve God just as we gave ourselves to serve ourselves. We must know and accept our new Master, rejecting our old masters, just as Sméagol rejected Gollum and accepted Frodo as his new protector and provider. I write these words to myself as well as to you, for these truths are what I need and desire more than anything right now. Peace to you. May God make them true in experience for me and you.

In Jesus name.
Amen.

Where is God? Part 6: Conclusion-The question

(Part 6 of 6)
Why were Peter, James, and John in the "inner circle" of Jesus?

One day, after I graduated from highschool, I wanted to know why Peter, James, and John, three apostles of Jesus, were closer to Jesus than the other nine apostles. (Indeed, why was John closer to Jesus than Peter and James?) I wanted to know this so that I could follow their example, so that I too may be close to Jesus.

On this day I was in an airport. While I waited for my flight, in the Bible, I searched the letters of Peter, specifically looking for the place where He spoke of the transfiguration of Jesus, the time when Jesus took him, James, and John on a mountain and let them see Him in His glory. I then searched the first letter of John, where He described seeing, hearing, and touching Jesus, and testifying of this first hand experience of the Savior. Finally, I searched the letter of James. At the time I didn't know that this James was not the brother of John, but instead was the brother of Jesus. (In other words, the James who was in Jesus' "inner circle" was dead, and the one who wrote the epistle of James was not the one I was focused on.) Yet God still used this search to give me the answer I sought.

I read through the letter of James and came to this verse:

"Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you."

And then it happened: The Holy Spirit spoke to me; clearly and simply:

"You can be as close to God as you want to be."

There it was, and there it is. They were closer to Jesus BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO BE!

There was no special quality or righteousness they possessed, no work that earned this privelege. They simply wanted to be close to Jesus, and they wanted this more than the rest. And John wanted this more than Peter and James. I searched the gospel of John to see if I could find evidence of this. What I saw was the assumption of the apostles, particularly Peter, that John was the "disciple Jesus loved." This being so, when the apostles wanted to know who Jesus referred to as His future betrayer, Peter nudged John to ask Jesus, while the rest feared to ask. John was sitting close to Jesus when this happened, resting his head on Jesus' chest. It seems as though John may have been the only disciple who remained with Jesus til the very end, being the only one mentioned at the cross; being the one Jesus left to care for His mother, even above His natural brothers.

And Peter clearly showed evidence of intense devotion to Jesus throughout his time as a disciple, being willing to die and kill for Jesus, though his heart failed in his denial. It was Peter who received the revelation of the Father concerning the identity of Christ. And it was Peter who walked with Jesus on water.

James and John, with their mother, requested to be on each side of Jesus' throne in the kingdom. Though the others were angry with this request, none of them seemed to protest the closeness of the brothers, or the close relation of the three, to Jesus. None of them seemed to protest the fact that Jesus would take Peter, James, and John to witness things that the others did not witness. The three were close to Jesus because they wanted to be.

Finally,
Please listen to the words of a prophet in the Old Testament:

Now the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded,
and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the LORD is with you when you are with Him And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. 2 Chronicles 15:1-2

According to the prophet Azariah,
When is the Lord with you?

THE LORD IS WITH YOU WHEN YOU ARE WITH HIM!
Please, once again, note the condition:

IF YOU SEEK HIM...

Key word: IF

It is up to you now, the one who has read this far. If YOU seek Him, HE WILL LET YOU FIND HIM!!!

Draw near to God, AND HE WILL DRAW NEAR TO YOU.

YOU CAN BE AS CLOSE TO GOD AS YOU WANT TO BE.

It's up to you now.

It is up to you.

Peace to you in the Name above all Names,

In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

Who died for us and rose for us,

So that we may be reunited to God as His children,

both now and forever!

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Where is God? Part 5: Those who have and keep His commandments

(Part 5 of 6)

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
John 14:21-23 ESV

This is the promise and the condition I spoke of in the last blog.

Where is God?
He is with those believers in Christ who have and keep the commandments of Christ.
And what are these commandments of Christ?

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:12-15

John, the apostle Jesus loved, the one most intimate with Him, wrote these words in his gospel. At the end of John’s gospel he gives the purpose of the gospel he wrote:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:30-31

So the purpose of John’s gospel is that the one who reads it may believe in Jesus and have life through believing. And the commandments of Christ, according to John’s gospel, are to love one another as Christ loved us. Yet again, John makes this clear. Observe these words from John’s first letter:

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. I John 3:21-24

Jesus promised that whoever has and keeps His commandments will be loved by the Father and Son, and that the Son would manifest Himself to the obedient one. And, again, the commandments are:
Believe in Jesus.
Love as Jesus loved.

And how did Jesus love? He laid down His life. Therefore, once we believe in Him, we are to lay down our lives for God and each other just as He did. This may not mean physical death, though it very well may come to that. But it does mean that you totally give yourself to God and give up your self in all of your human relationships. When you do this, Jesus promises to manifest Himself to you, to be with you in a way that you can experience with your senses, for that is what “manifest” means.

Believe in Jesus.
Love like He did.

The apostle Paul agrees concerning the commandment of love:
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:8-10

Love fulfills the law of God, the 10 commandments, and, according to Paul, ANY OTHER COMMANDMENT! The law and the prophets, meaning all of the scriptures in Jesus’ day, according to Jesus Himself, all hung on these two commandments:
You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus said that there were no other commandments greater than these.

And yet again, Paul commands the Galatians to follow the Spirit, and tells them that the result of following the Spirit will be love, expressed in joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (These are called “the fruit of the Spirit,” which is the one fruit of love expressed in 8 ways.) Paul said that those who follow the Spirit are not subject to the law, and that there was no law against the fruit of the Spirit (love.) He told the Galatians the same thing he told the Romans, that the law of God was summed up in one word-love: loving your neighbor as yourself.

The character of Christ is manifest in the fruit of the Spirit.

And when His love is the motivation of your actions, then gifts of the Spirit will be the means by which the love of God is made known. Notice what Paul says about the gifts of the Spirit:

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. I Corinthians 12:4-7

Paul calls spiritual gifts “the manifestation of the Spirit.” This is very powerful. When the gifts of the Spirit are used as expressions of the fruit of the Spirit, then the Spirit of God is manifest. The basis for this statement is the whole teaching of Paul concerning spiritual gifts in I Corinthians 12-14. In chapter 13 he establishes the truth that love is to be the pursuit of the believer, and that believers should desire spiritual gifts as the means to love each other, for he had already told the Corinthians that “love edifies.” So in chapter 12 he makes it clear that all of the gifts are for edification. The word “edify” means to build someone up in their faith; to energize or charge their faith like a battery. Paul says that love does this. And he also says that spiritual gifts are given for edification. Therefore, spiritual gifts are given as expressions of God’s love. And when they are used in this way, God is manifest. At last, notice this:

In the Law it is written, "By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord." Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
I Corinthians 14:21-25

When spiritual gifts are used properly, when they are used from the motivation of love, it will be known that God is really among those who believe in Jesus.

If you have not already done so:
Believe in Jesus. This means that you accept these truths:

You have known God through creation and your conscience.
Yet instead of acknowledging, thanking, worshipping, and serving Him, you have worshipped and served yourself and anything or anyone else that fulfills your own desires.
Thus you have become your own God, and you have lived as though there is no God. The consequence of rejecting God, your Creator, is death, for separation from your source of life is by definition death. The consequence of rejecting the King of all creation is the death penalty, for treason and rebellion in a kingdom are punishable by death alone. You are like a rebel wanted for insurrection.
And you are like a leaf with a will. You willingly plucked yourself from the Tree of your Life. You may be a freshly plucked green leaf, you may be a brown leaf, or you may be a crinkly leaf. But a plucked leaf you are, and all plucked leaves are dead.
But God loves you and does not want you to remain separate from Him. He expressed His love for you by taking the penalty for you. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, God in the flesh, to die for your rebellion and to rise for your reconnection to God, so that you may become a child of God and live forever with and for God. This is heaven. To live without Him is truest hell.

So what you must do is:
Admit that you have lived as though there is no God.
Admit that you are in a state of separation from God, and that you deserve this.
Ask God to forgive you.
Accept who Jesus is as the one who died for you, and as the one who gives you a new beginning in life, eternal life, and as the one who now owns your life, the one who is your Lord. Say these word:
“I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that He died for my sins. And I believe that He rose from the dead. And from this moment forward, Jesus is Lord. Jesus is the Lord of my life”

According to the word of God,
"The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Romans 10:8-11 NIV

If you have just done this, you are now saved! You are now a child of God!


Now, from now on,
Love like Jesus loves. Become God’s servant, serving Him above all others, and serve people as you would want people to serve you, even those who don’t like you, or even those who may hate you.

By doing these two things, you will reveal the character and power of Christ:
The fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.

And when people encounter you, they will know and declare that God is really with you and really in you.

Until we next connect…
Peace.

Where is God? Part 4: The Temple of God (cont.)

(Part 4 of 6)

Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
Exodus 33:7-11 ESV

If you asked an Israelite in the days of Moses, “Where is God,” the answer would be the tent of meeting, especially when Moses entered it.

Especially when Moses entered…remember that.

Moses said to the LORD, "See, you say to me, 'Bring up this people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.' Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people." And he said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." And he said to him, "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?" Exodus 33:12-16

Please note what Moses said! According to Moses, the man that God spoke to face to face, how was it known that God favored him and Israel? What made Moses and Israel DISTINCT FROM EVERY OTHER PEOPLE ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH?

THE PRESENCE OF GOD HIMSELF!

Where is God?
He is in His people individually.

Where is God?
He is with His people collectively.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. I Corinthians 3:16-17

In I Corinthians 6, Paul spoke of each individual Corinthian believer as a temple of God, each believer’s body. In chapter 3, in the quote above, Paul is speaking to the Corinthian church as a whole. The assembly of believers is the temple of God.

Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.
Matthew 18:18-20

Based on everything said so far, I would go as far as to say that the very definition of the church is:
Two or three believers gathered together in the Name of Jesus WITH JESUS HIMSELF AMONG THEM.

What do believers tell nonbelievers? We tell them that Jesus is alive and well, and that it is possible to have a “personal relationship” with Him. But where is He?

He is in those who believe in Him individually and with those who believe collectively.

What makes believers distinct, individually and collectively, from all the people on the face of the earth is not a doctrine or denomination, but a Person, in us and with us.

That means that when nonbelievers encounter believers, individually and collectively, they should encounter Christ Himself, in the believer individually, and with believers collectively. When you “go to church,” you should find Christ Himself in the temple of God. But is this what we find?

Where are the two or three gathered in His name? And what does it mean to gather in His name?

To gather in the name of Jesus is to gather under His authority, for His glory.

Jesus cannot lie.

If He is not experienced in the midst of the two or three who say they are gathering in His name, then they must not indeed be submitted to His authority for His glory. Jesus gave a very specific promise, a very specific condition for His manifestation. We will discuss this next time.

Until we next connect…
Peace.

Where is God? Part 3: The Temple of God

(Part 3 of 6)
And John bore witness:"I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." John 1:32-34 ESV

God, who sent John the baptist to baptize with water, told John that Jesus would have this distinction: The Spirit of God would descend upon Him and remain upon Him. Indeed, Jesus was born of the Spirit, and John knew Him as the One who would baptize with the Spirit. Please keep these truths in mind.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Romans 8:14

Jesus is THE Son of God.
Those who believe in Him are sons of God. (Though the term "son" is masculine, it applies to believing men and women, just as the term "the bride of Christ" refers to the church, consisting of both men and women. My wife is a son of God, and I, her husband, am a bride of Christ. Yet as her husband, I represent Christ, and she represents the church. These are spiritual truths that must be discerned spiritually.)

What distinguished the Son of God and each son of God is the Spirit of God.

Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? I Corinthians 6:18b-19a


Where is God? He is in His temple, the body of each believer of Christ. This is the very distinction of God's children. Again, the presence of God with a child of God is what distinguishes the child of God.

Observe:

• Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Genesis 5:24
• Noah walked with God. Genesis 6:9
• The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. Genesis 39:2-3
• But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the LORD was with him. And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed. Genesis 39:21-23
• Saul was afraid of David because the LORD was with him but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. And David had success in all his undertakings, for the LORD was with him. I Samuel 18:12-14
• But when Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and that Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him, Saul was even more afraid of David. I Samuel 18:28-29

It was seen and known that God was with Joseph and David. The presence of God with them distinguished them and gave them supernatural success.

What distinguishes a child of God is the Spirit of Christ in him.

What distinguishes a person of God is the presence of Christ upon her.

Where is God?
He is in a child of God, for the body of God's child is His temple, His literal dwelling place. Believe in Jesus, and become a temple of the living God. And if you are a child of God, revere God who is in you, and follow Him. (to be continued...)