“…and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
God with us. What an amazing revelation! With all the paintings and descriptions of God on His throne, we tend to have an image of God as someone far up and far off. The Bible describes Him as the “King of Glory” because His dwelling is in Heaven. But Jesus, the “Son of God,” is different– He has dual residence.
Ephesians says God “…raised [Jesus] from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (1:20). Yet Jesus Himself declared that “…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 14:23). And Paul told the Galatians, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!'” (Galatians 4:6). In other words, although Jesus is sitting victoriously by His Father in Heaven, He is also abiding in your heart.
I don’t question how He does it, all I know is that Jesus has the divine ability to be with God at His right hand and, at the same time, with us wherever we go. He is Emmanuel, “God with us.”
So maybe we need to be a little more aware of this fact.
What I mean is, in order to walk in the victory God intended for us to have on earth, I believe Christians need to become more “God-inside-minded”!
There are so many scriptural references to this. For example:
Paul said, “O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections” (2 Corinthians 6:11-12).
In other words, the only ones holding us back from walking in the fullness of who God is ourselves.
The Message Translation of this verse probably says it best: “We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way” (2 Corinthians 6:12).
As a whole, this is the problem with the Body of Christ. Our lives aren’t small. We’re just living them in a small way.
Think about it. We are the “BODY” of Christ. Christ isn’t small. Jesus Christ is magnificent! He is Head over all. So what kind of out-of-proportion picture are we when our “Head” is awesome, amazing, and massive, but the Body sees itself as small and insignificant?
Let that sink in a bit and we’ll talk more about this next time. And remember, YOU ARE NOT SMALL because YOU have greatness living within you!
