Building up believers and the New Testament church

To Live Is Christ

Living in the Holy Place with God

We cannot know the truth or walk in it separate from God. This is revealed to us very clearly in the 15th chapter of John where Jesus says, "Separate from Me you can do nothing. You must abide in the Vine." Jesus Himself told His disciples that He did nothing separate from the Father. Jesus and His Father moved in perfect harmony and union. As sons and daughters of God, this is what God has called us to move in, and He has given us the ability in Himself. But we will have to come His way, and receive the Promise He has given of Himself--the Holy Spirit that would come to indwell us.

Everything Jesus did was in union with who He was. He never moved separate from His Father. He was always in union with His Father. As Jesus said in John 14, "Because I live, you shall live also." We may think living is just breathing, being alive in a natural way, but living is being alive in a spiritual way.

God has opened up the door to us, that we might come into the holiest of all--that is, into His presence--to live there, and to live in the union God has called us to live in, God indwelling man. It's no wonder that Paul calls it "a more glorious way" (II Corinthians 3). Man can have a form of godliness. Man can speak about Jesus, can speak about God, but yet not have what God designed for us. God's design is that He would come and indwell us and be our life. He has made every provision for this.

This is God's purpose for every believer. We are brought into this union with Him not by our own thinking or our own strength, but by the power and anointing of the Spirit of God which He has given. But we must avail ourselves of God's provision. We must choose. This is not something we are predestined to do. The predestination of God is that He has predestined all things to find their climax in Christ. But we must choose Him, choose to come to God. Our own works count for nothing; there is nothing we can do; but we choose. God has given us a choice. He gave Adam a choice when He made him, and Adam chose the wrong thing. Thus sin entered into the world. We too have a choice. Are we going to live as God has designed, experiencing Him day by day, or will it be a life in this world for our own pleasures and enjoyment?