LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Superior Bond
The glory of Christ's presence in us is the bond that makes unity possible.
Gonzalo Sepúlveda
"And I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one as we" (John 17:11). "I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me" (John 17: 23).
We can see that the Lord's intention is the same in both the above-mentioned verses. Those "that they" in v. 11 "that they may be one" and in v. 23 "that they may be perfected into one" are the same; however, there is a difference between the two in regards to the Lord's position. In v. 11 the Lord says: "I am no longer in the world", "and I come to thee", so His position is heavenly, whilst His position in v. 23 is much closer, because He says "I in them"; the "them" referring to us here on earth.
Glory be unto to the Lord for His heavenly position! Resurrected from among the dead, He was received up in glory; and there He is today, at the right hand of the Father, all-powerful, governing everything, because all power has been given Him in the heavens and on the earth; angels, principalities and powers are all subject to Him. How blessed, how beautiful our Lord Jesus is, glorified in the heights above!
In heaven and in us
However, brothers and sisters, if we only focus on the vision of the heavenly Lord Jesus, and if all our faith is placed on Him up there, to a Lord who left us, and if our hope is always to receive something from heaven, then we would be very close to having a faith in the style of the Old Testament. Jews like Nehemiah said: "I prayed to the God of heaven" (Neh. 2:4), or Isaiah: "Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might quake at thy presence" (Is. 64:1). They always hoped that some power would descend from heaven to fix things here on earth. Let us use Psalm 103:2 as an example: "Bless Jehovah, O my soul, And forget not all his benefits"; our attention is immediately centered on "his benefits" that we might obtain from the God who is in heaven.
Brothers and sisters, how much of our Christianity, how much of our service to the Lord, is marked by this? We are constantly surrounded by these blessings and we ask for more and more; but, this means all our attention continues to be focused on the Lord that is up in heaven. However, this still doesn't fill the full measure of our faith, because the believer will always remain on the earthly plane and the Lord will always remain in the heavenly one.
Although our service and worship to the Lord in heaven is true and legitimate, we would be at a great loss if He was only there. So, is it necessary to ask: And what about us here on earth?
He said: "Yet a little while, and the world beholdeth me no more; but ye behold me: because I live, ye shall live also. In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (John 14:19-20). The Lord is in heaven, yes, but He said that He would also be "in" us. Let us continue reading now in John 14:21: "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him". Judas then asks: "Lord, what is come to pass that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?"; his mind resists this possibility, because the disciples could not see how it could be possible for the Lord to show Himself to some and not to others.
However, this is a language from heaven pronounced on the earth: "If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him". We should all memorize these words and meditate on them, asking the Lord to make us experience the power that they contain: "we will come unto him, and make our abode with him". What do you think, brother? Is this a promise or a reality in you?
Brothers and sisters, if what we will obtain is the dwelling place of God Himself by the Holy Spirit in us, how will we not keep His Word! What is contained here is so valuable. May the blessed Holy Spirit help us powerfully to assimilate these immense riches!
Brothers and sisters, the Jews had the other part; the Lord who is in heaven, but they only had that. Now you and I have a double privilege: together with having Him in heaven, we also have this blessed grace: the Lord Himself coming to live in our hearts: "I in them!". Hallelujah! This was something absolutely incomprehensible for men before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ on the earth.
The prophets and kings of the Old Testament only had the Holy Spirit living in them temporarily, but in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ this is completed: "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works" (John 14:10). Let us look to the Lord Jesus Christ. His experience was that the Father lived in Him, and it was He who did the works. He wants you and me to live this as well.
How is it possible for the Lord who is in heaven at the same time to be here with us? How is it possible for the Father who was in heaven, at the same time to be living in His Son who was on earth? This can't be understood mentally and there is no human science that can explain it, but this is the heavenly science: what was a reality in our Lord Jesus Christ must be and is a reality in us His believers!: "I in them", our Lord said, and that's good enough for us.
Always present
Dear brothers and sisters, now let's look at John 16:32: "…Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me". "the Father has not left me alone", our Lord was saying. All His disciples could abandon him, Peter could deny him, Judas could betray him, but He could always say: " the Father is with me". He wants us to be conscience of the fact, to familiarize ourselves with the truth of the glory of His presence in us.
Brother, everyone may defraud you, but He will never defraud you; everyone may be unfaithful, but He never will. Everything around you may collapse, but what we have received, or rather, whom we have received, will never change, He will always remain within us. "Never" and "always" are words which are only attributable to God. We cannot affirm that a man will never sin, but we can affirm that God is eternally holy, and that He will never sin. Our God is faithful and always just.
The Holy One lives in you, brother, the Righteous One lives in me. Dear brothers and sisters, he said: "I in them". It is true that He is up there. It is impossible to deny this, who would dare to attempt to? Nobody can dampen the glory of our Lord, but if we were always looking toward Him in that position, we would lose the glory of His presence here in us now.
Christ or "something"?
Let us look at John 14: 28. There is a small phrase here: "I go away, and I come unto you". Before He had said: "I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you". Blessed Christ! We have been called to experience the same thing that He lived. For there is no other way that you and I could never end up being holy, except that Christ Himself come to be our sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30). If during our lifetime we think that the Lord will give us holiness, or that we will achieve holiness as "something" separate from him, holiness as "something" that I obtain by my efforts, by my abstinence, then most probably I will fail.
Many Christians lie sprawled out in the desert of their defeats because they failed to meet the demand: they tried to be holy by their own strength more than by the "help from the Lord of heaven". This has the appearance of being spiritual, but is nothing more than religious language. If we still don't see our Lord Jesus Christ as the Holy One who lives in us, we will fall time and again, because we will be fighting alone against enemies that are greater than us.
But brothers and sisters, just as the Father did not leave our Lord Jesus alone, nor will He leave us. "I in them", "Christ in us" is holiness itself responding in the face of any necessity. On the other hand, there are those who seek power. They say: "Brothers and sisters, we need power, we need to seek the power of God". The power of God is good and necessary, but it is not "something" separate from Him, because the Word says: "Christ, the power of God and wisdom of God" (1 Cor.1:24). Brother, if you want power, you can obtain it; Samson also had it but soon lost it. If you look for it, you can obtain it, but experience has told us that we can also lose it. Brother, you can lose power, but you can't ever lose Christ... ever! Power may be "something" that is lost, but if your power is Christ, Christ will NEVER be lost. I received Christ in my heart... and since He arrived He has never left! Hallelujah! Brothers and sisters, we have a treasure here: "I in them". He is holy, he is powerful.
Christ in the apostle Paul
In Acts 9, the Lord appears to Saul and is blinded by the vision. Jesus was still "outside" Saul at this moment. Let us look at 2 Corinthians 13:3: "seeing that ye seek a proof of Christ that speaketh in me". Where is the Lord now? The Christ who used to be outside Paul, had now come to live within him. How glorious, brothers and sisters! How easy it is to say it, but let us meditate on this fact: the Lord came to live here, inside us.
Let us confirm this truth by continuing to read 2 Cor. 13:3: "seeing that ye seek a proof of Christ that speaketh in me; who to you-ward is not weak, but is powerful in you". He speaks in Paul and is powerful in us! Brother, if you declare this, it will do you good, it will bring health to your soul and strength to your spirit. Let us proclaim it time and again. I don't know if to say it laughing or crying, or simply thinking it: "The Lord is powerful in us". If you are fearful or sad because you don't have the power to overcome, if you are grieved by your weaknesses, isn't it better to confess it as such and keep His Word?: "The Lord is powerful in us".
Let's also read 2 Cor. 13: 4: "for he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth through the power of God". It is true that He lives there in the heights; Satan also knows that He is powerful in the heavens and cannot even draw near to that place, but the enemy will come to the weak and immature Christian who only think they have the Lord up in the heavens like the Jews of the past, and will humiliate them. But now, when Satan comes to you, if you take hold of this truth, he must confront Christ who is powerful in you!, " For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him through the power of God toward you ".
Let's also read 2 Cor. 13: 5: "Try your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves". May this word examine our hearts: brothers, are we still in Judaism? Have we truly come to find rest in our faith? May the Lord free us from having a religion of temple meetings. This word tells us: " Or know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you? unless indeed ye be reprobate ". What a beautiful expression, brothers and sisters! "Jesus Christ is in you". How beautiful; Jesus Christ is in us! This should be proclaimed whilst looking at one another in the eyes, and to always have it present with us.
The power and the presence
One more verse to conclude this word, 2 Peter 1:16: "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty".
Brother T. Austin Sparks, in one of his books, deeply regrets that the Greek word "parousia" has been translated here as "coming" and not as "presence". The word "coming" is inappropriate because it removes the true sense of the text. Although the word "parousia" is related with the coming of the Lord in many parts of the New Testament, it is also used several times in the sense of "presence". So the text can be read this way: " For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and PRESENCE of our Lord Jesus Christ ".
In the gospels we can see how the presence of the Lord always produced changes, always revolutionized the situation. For example, when the Lord was on the mount (Matthew 17), nine of His disciples stayed in the valley and there fought to liberate a demon possessed young boy without success. When the Lord arrived at the scene, the boy's father came and told Him that His disciples "could not cure him" (17:16). What frustration! This is part of the history of the church, an impotent church faced with the forces of wickedness. The disciples asked the Lord "why could we not cast it out?" (17:19). We always place our attention on the prayer and fasting mentioned in this context, but we almost always forget Christ. Please! If the demon didn't come out it was because He was not there; the presence of the Lord was enough and they fled. The power and the presence of the Lord was the solution to the problem.
When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask the Lord: "Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another?", he responded: "the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed", etc. (Mt. 11:6). Of course! The Lord was present, so the illnesses had to flee. The tempest was not a great problem; Christ was present, and that's why the sea calmed down. In front of the tomb of Lazarus, the Resurrection was present, so the result could be no other than life that conquers death. This is what we need as the church today; the power and the presence of the Lord. If there is something that we should pray for in the churches it is for this; for a new and powerful conscience of the greatness of Christ's glorious presence in each believer. How we need to familiarize ourselves with the glory of this truth that is so clearly presented in the Scriptures and so real in the person of our Lord!
It is true that the Lord is in heaven, but that is not the whole true. He was saying: "I'm going away and I'm coming back". He is here, brothers and sisters; here right now with us! Is His presence enough for us? I must admit that many times I feel affliction deep down in my spirit when I hear some brother in a meeting say: "The Lord wants to do great things with you", or "He will do great things with us". When? Some time in the future? What are we speaking about? journeys? miracles? crowds?
But, dear brothers and sisters, once again we are ignoring Christ; we reduce Him, putting the experiences, those "great things" above the Lord Himself. But, the greatest is already here in us and with us! Christ, and only Christ; He is infinitely greater than all those "things" over which many Christians toil today. May the Lord forgive us! We want things and more things, better still if they are spectacular, and the Lord says: "you have forgotten me". Nobody is greater than the Lord!
If He is present, a universe can be created and all hell be condemned. Christ is here, the One who is greater than all is here. Let us bless His Holy name.
Brother, if you have Christ, if you have gained him (Philippians 3:8), you will have everything: anointing, power and all the extras. But heed this warning, beloved brother: you will be crushed, your flesh will be dealt with, the cross will operate not leaving anything of yourself. All appearance of godliness, all natural kindness (not only what you consider to be bad); whatever doesn't belong to Christ, will all be flattened. But it doesn't matter, let us live the cross, let us suffer those dealings to the point of death of our "self"; and what we will gain will be so great, so valuable: it will be Christ Himself.
Our unity
Brothers and sisters, the unity of those who are His is the Lord's intimate desire. But how is unity achieved? It certainly won't come through an agreement over doctrines, emphases or practices. It won't come because we read the same Christian writers. Unity will only be possible with our living out the words of our Lord: "I in them, that they may be perfected into one", because the bond between us is not human sympathy- I could be the most unpleasant or unfriendly person you know. But, over and above all human considerations, a bond exists between you and me that is superior to everything and that is CHRIST IN US. Not only Christ's teachings, but His person.
Brother, you came to a person. You don't follow Christianity, you follow Christ. You have committed yourself to a person, as one who gets married. Your wife or husband is somebody who continually lives with you. The Lord said: "The Father dwells in me". The Lord Jesus is a person and He lives in us. We have dealings with him. Everybody may defraud us, fail us or disappoint us, but this faithful and holy Person never will. Oh, brothers and sisters, we should not know anything but Christ!