A Gift From Heaven: Christ In Us

LoveLetter August 2022

Hello Friends!

It’s August already!  Our summer was full, which is why I am just now writing this… June and July were busy with trips and birthdays. We flew to Idaho to visit family, so lots of cousins and aunts and uncles and in-laws. The kids loved having so much time with cousins, and the grown-ups had fun too, playing cards, drinking coffee, grazing all day, and remembering funny growing-up stories. Kind of felt like Christmas! It was really good to be there, and what a beautiful place Idaho is. We also took two other mini-trips, celebrating birthdays and our anniversary.

The summer has also been busy because we have been experiencing big transitions both with our school (Shane runs our music school) and here at home, since we decided to homeschool full-time this year. I was pretty desperate for some order to start happening around here, so I started early—August 1st—so we are four weeks in. (I think I just wanted summer to be done. LOL) But as we go along, I am really enjoying it and enjoying my kids, and I think, overall, the kids are enjoying it too…Although when their grandma asked last night if they liked homeschooling, one of them gave us a “thumb-sideways,” which of course is between thumbs-up and thumbs-down, and means, “kindof.”  The other child just said “not really” but I think deep down they both love it. LOL

Word of Encouragement 

Praying for you all today, and hearing these words:

Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col. 1:27)

For many months, this truth—that Jesus lives within me—has been highlighted to me. It comes to mind again as I have prayed for a word of encouragement for you. Jesus lives in me. If you love Jesus, He lives in you, too. He lives within us. Jesus abides in us.

Paul calls “Christ in you” the riches of the glory of a mystery. The riches of the glory of the mystery is that now, Jesus lives within us. This is a wonderful gift and a powerful truth, but it is not taken in or received by the natural mind because it is a spiritual truth.

1 Cor. 2 vs 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory…vs 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God…vs 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 

So this mystery — Jesus dwelling within me — is spiritually discerned.

Discerned by what spirit? My own? No—but by His Spirit, abiding within me. The Spirit of Christ Jesus living in me, reveals to my spirit the mystery of Christ (Himself) living (abiding) in me.

The Hebrew word for ‘abide’ is menō which means “to stay, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain.

Jesus uses the same word menō in John 14 when He is encouraging the disciples that He will not leave them alone but will send them the Holy Spirit.

And I will pray the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—“the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you (John 14:16-18).

He (the Spirit of truth) dwells with you and will be in you. At that time, it was Jesus, Himself, dwelling with them. Is He talking about Himself? Or the Holy Spirit?

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. As He speaks of sending the Holy Spirit, Jesus tells them that He (Himself) will come to them. So who will come—Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

Of course it is Both! Jesus, Himself, comes to us and dwells within us by His Spirit. It is the Spirit of Jesus that dwells within us, and remains (abides) in constant communion with our own spirit.

If Jesus, Himself, abides within us, then

1. We have access at all times to all that He is.

2. Our identity rests at all times in all that He is.

3. The spiritual power and authority of Jesus, God’s Son, abides within us.

4. Resurrection Life abides within us.

5. The Seven Spirits of God which rested on Jesus reside within us. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2).

6. The One who knows and loves us most, lives within us.

7. God loves us just as He loves Jesus. I in them and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me (John 17:23).

To me, the implications of this are astounding! Imagine how different we will be when we truly and fully begin to live in the revelation of this mystery. I know this is just the beginning—the introduction— to what God is unfolding for us.

He first began to highlight this treasure to me as I have been reading through the book of John. But he has been especially feeding my spirit each day concerning these things through a book by Silvia Gunter called You Are Blessed In The Names of God—it is so rich and full of insights into God’s heart toward us, and His love for us. I heartily recommend it to all. There is also a great weekly devotional word you can sign up for and other great resources to be found on her website at TheFathersBusiness.com

Also, I know I have mentioned him before, but I think Graham Cooke with BrilliantPerspectives.com also has some resources that expound on this truth.

Prayer

Lord, thank you for lavishing us with the gift of your Son —depositing His Spirit within us, that He Himself dwells within us and will be with us forever. Father, we desire more and more to understand this amazing truth with an ever increasing revelation of Your love for us. We want to live fully in Your love and to experience and live out what it means that Jesus dwells in us.

Heart Matters

From Silvia Gunter’s book You are Blessed in the Names of God:

“Romans 8:2 says in The Living Bible ‘For the power of the life-giving Spirit—and this power is mine through Christ Jesus—has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death.’ Spirit, you can release the soul from striving, frustration, conflict, and futility into the power of God’s name in you. Be blessed to integrate the soul with you in all you do, as you live from the life of Jesus in you. He did what he saw his Father doing and said what he heard his Father saying. Be blessed to do the same as you are freed in Him more and more. Invite Him to put in you His thoughts that will affect earth — creative thoughts, blessing thoughts, liberating thoughts that align with ‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’”

As you reflect on this passage, is there any ‘striving, frustration, conflict, or futility?’ in your life that comes to mind? If so, imagine with Holy Spirit (ask Him to show you) what it might look like to approach these areas of difficulty from a place of knowing that Jesus lives within you. He is our Helper (John 14:16) and comes alongside us to bring revelation, resolve and peace. But His life within us also continually changes us supernaturally. We are the righteousness of God because of Jesus. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor 5:21).

Consider again these implications of the truth that Jesus, Himself, abides in us:

If Jesus, Himself, abides within us, then

1. We have access at all times to all that He is.
2. Our identity rests at all times in all that He is.
3. The spiritual power and authority of Jesus, God’s Son, abides within us.
4. Resurrection Life abides within us.
5 The Seven Spirits of God which rested on Jesus reside within us.
6. The One who knows and loves us most lives within us.
7. God loves us just as He loves Jesus.

Pray and ask Holy Spirit to highlight one or more of these to you, and to give you new understanding and a change in perspective as you meditate on, and fully receive the gift of this truth.

I bless your spirit and pray that Holy Spirit will penetrate your heart with these truths in His own perfect way, bringing them to mind in the coming weeks and months, in your day to day. Be blessed with His peace and experience His joy at the ‘hope of glory’ that is ours in this gift, every time you remember that Jesus makes His home within you.

Love,

Chalis