Mathew 1:23(NLT) tell us “’Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’’” The name Immanuel describes God’s heart concerning His children. From the very beginning, His intention was to have a family and to dwell among this family. Before Adam and Eve lost their holy state, He communed with them in the Garden of Eden. God has always wanted to be with His people in a very intimate way. The name ‘Immanuel’ was given to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. His name signifies God’s desire to care for us and to be with us.
John 1:1-2(NLT) says, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God.” Jesus Christ is the Word of God in the flesh. He embodies everything that God is. The existence of Jesus Christ did not begin when he was conceived in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ has always been a part of the Godhead bodily; which is Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is as much God as is the Holy Spirit. The three are one, just as the three parts of us are one.
Genesis 1:26 tells us that we are made in God’s image. We are spirit, soul, and body. Human beings have three parts. All three parts of us have different functions, but they operate as one.
God’s Word is everything. He elevates His Word so high because His Word cannot be broken. It is truth, and it cannot fail. God is 100% faithful to His Word. If He says that He will do something, He will do it without fail. This is a guarantee that we can count on with our whole beings. The one thing that we see very early on, in the book of Genesis, is that God stays and empowers wherever His Word is obeyed, trusted, and honored. His Spirit will not hang out where His Word is not trusted and honored.
You might say, “Well, I thought God was everywhere present.” This is true. God asked the question in Jeremiah 23:24(NLT), "Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” Everything belongs to God, and He fills everywhere. He is not bound to one place, and His being has no limitations. He sees all and knows all. So, He may choose, in His sovereignty, to be wherever He chooses to be; and He chooses to be everywhere present, but His desire is intimacy. He wants to abide and dwell among us continually and to have us dwell and abide with Him.
God wants to empower us with His love, strength, and power. He wants to do this through the Holy Spirit. It is not enough to have God around us, He desires to be IN us so that we can know Him as intimately as He can be known. This is God’s great desire. He seeks to empower where He dwells. He wants a relationship with us, but He will not violate our free-will choice to have it. He fills the space around us, but He will not make His home inside our temples without invitation.
God desires to dwell inside of us so that He can care for us, guide us, and have communion with us; but we must invite Him to live inside our body temple. In John 16:7 (NLT), Jesus Christ told the disciples, “But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.” The advocate is the Holy Spirit. None of us can imagine how privileged and blessed the disciples were to actually get to walk and talk with the Son of the Living God. Yet with all the teaching, miracles, and healings that they witnessed at the hands of Jesus Christ, He told them that it was better that he ascended to heaven so that they would receive the Holy Spirit.
This tells us so much about how important it is that we receive the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Because of Jesus Christ, we are able to have the Holy Spirit inside of us. We have a way to be close to God as His children, and this is what God planned long ago. Before Jesus Christ came to earth, we had the Holy Spirit around us, but not in us. When Jesus Christ came to earth, he prepared us to receive this miraculous gift. He enabled a connection between our Heavenly Father and us through the person of the Holy Spirit. Now, through our new birth reality, God is not only with us, He is in us, empowering us with His love, strength, and power.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
“God is With Us!” written by Vince Mack. Blessing Beads and More© 2016. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.