July 10, 2014
“If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.”1 An abode is a place where someone lives. So They will come and make Their home with us, as some translations render that verse. Jesus is saying that if we love Him, we’ll keep His words, and that the Father will love us, and that They—Jesus and the Father through the presence of the Holy Spirit—will come live in us.
To be a fruitful Christian, according to what Jesus taught, is to live in Jesus and to have Him living in us. And the more we live in Him, and the more we relinquish our nature to His Spirit dwelling in us, the more of Him will shine through us. His thoughts, His attitudes, His actions and reactions, will more and more become our own. When we make decisions, they will be the decisions He would like us to make. We will take on more of His characteristics, more of His love, kindness, meekness, and all the other fruits of the Spirit. We will be more like Him.—Peter Amsterdam
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In the secret of His presence there is peace. “In the world you shall have tribulation,” our Master said, “but in Me you shall have peace.” It is said that a certain insect has the power of surrounding itself with a film of air, encompassed in which it drops into the midst of muddy, stagnant pools, and remains unhurt. The believer is also conscious that he is enclosed in the invisible film of the Divine Presence. … To be in God is to be in a well-fitted house when the storm has slipped from its leash; or in a sanctuary, the doors of which shut out the pursuer.
In the secret of His presence there is purity. The mere vision of snow-capped Alps, seen from afar across Geneva's lake, can so elevate and transfigure the rapt and wistful soul as to abash all evil things which would intrude upon the inner life. What shall God’s presence do for me, if I acquire a perpetual sense of it and live in its secret place? Surely, in the heart of that fire, black cinder though I be, I shall be kept pure, and glowing, and intense!
In the secret of His presence there is power. My cry, day and night, is for power, spiritual power. Not the power of intellect, oratory, or human might. These cannot vanquish the ranks of evil. Thou sayest truly that it is not by might or power. Yet human souls which touch Thee become magnetized, charged with a spiritual force which the world can neither gainsay nor resist. Let me touch Thee! Let me dwell in unbroken contact with Thee, that out of Thee successive tides of Divine energy may pass into and through my emptied and eager spirit, flowing, but never ebbing, and lifting me into a life of blessed ministry, which shall make deserts below like the garden of the Lord.—F. B. Meyer2
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I heard of a Quaker lady who had to spend half an hour every day sitting quiet and doing nothing calling it her still lesson. I wish we could enjoy such a half-hour daily in God's presence; our still lesson would be one of the most useful lessons of the day. “Be still and know that I am God.”
In times of difficulty, be still! Hast thou not heard His voice saying: “This is the way, walk ye in it”? He is thy rock, and rocks do not shake. He is thy high tower, and a high tower cannot be flooded. Thou needest mercy, and to Him belongeth mercy. Do not run hither and thither in panic! Just quietly wait, hushing thy soul, as He did the fears of His friends on the eve of Gethsemane and Calvary. “Rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him.” “Be still, for He will not rest, until He hath finished the thing this day.”—Mrs. Charles Cowman3
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Are you too busy? Are you in too big a hurry? Is your work too important to stop for a few minutes of inspiration and refreshing from on high, spiritual renewal, physical rest, a little love feast with the Lord? If you’ve missed a trip into the temple of His Spirit today, you’ve really missed something! You’ll not last long. You’re going to wear out. You’ll never make it if you don’t stop for a while under the dome and look up at His starry sky and the peace and tranquility and mighty moving of the spheres, and hear their music.—Up there where all is perfection, perfect order, and harmony and peace!—David Brandt Berg
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One hour of real communion with God is worth more than a lifetime of everything else.—Waterbury
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You will show me the path of life: in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.—Psalm 16:114
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Start your day with time with Me, and then let that time and My presence linger throughout the day. Before your day begins, commune with Me in quietness and confidence. There, in those quiet moments with Me, you will find your strength, your peace, your power and love and anointing for the day.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
Published on Anchor July 2014. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.
Music by Michael Dooley.
1 John 14:23 KJV.
2 From “In the Secret of His Presence,” http://articles.ochristian.com/article11791.shtml.
3 Streams in the Desert, Volume 2 (Zondervan, 1977).
4 NKJV.
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