With Us

Before all things, God is. 

In that community that is Three-in-One, without beginning and that has no end, there was holy communion.  Divine communication, boundless love, and perfect fellowship exist between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

From the Holy Trinity:

– the fullness of spiritual riches,

– the intimacy of community, and

– the indescribable beauty of that holy relationship

overflowed with such abundance that God wanted to share it.

And so, in Genesis chapters one and two, we see God speak His creation into existence one day at a time.  On the sixth day, the final day of His creative work, God created the pinnacle of His creation, His masterpiece (Genesis 1-2).

Man.

Made in the image of God.  

God breathed life into his lungs, and His communion with man began.

God created and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It was God’s delight to fellowship, walk, and talk with them each evening in the garden. God was with them.

But sin entered the picture in the form of a serpent and the perfect fellowship between God and mankind was broken.

Our hearts ache when we read the Genesis account (Genesis 3). Adam and Eve had face-to-face conversations with God Almighty. They had a close and loving relationship with daily fellowship…but they believed a serpent’s lie and lost it all. How foolish.

Israel, God’s chosen people, was enslaved for over 400 years in Egypt, but it was not forgotten by God.  God raised up a great leader in Moses to shepherd Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. Every step of the way, God was with Moses and His people.

I the LORD dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.

Numbers 35:34

– God’s awesome power was displayed in the miracles performed and in the deadly plagues that led to Israel’s release by Pharoah.

– His presence was evidenced by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night as He led Israel out of Egypt and towards the Promised Land.

– Daily provisions of manna, quail, and water further evidenced God’s presence.

– God spoke with Moses regularly and even talked to the Israelites directly from the top of Mount Sinai (Exodus 19, 20).

God was with them.

I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God. Exodus 29:45-46

Exodus 29:45-46

But their fear, unbelief, rebellion, lack of faith, discontentment, and idolatry disrupted the fellowship and the communion that God offered to the Children of Israel. How foolish.

God sent Jesus, His Only Son – Who was, is, and always will be fully God – to earth to become fully man to dwell among the people of the earth. His purpose in coming was to repair the brokenness that has existed between God and man since the Garden.

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

1 John 4:9

Jesus came to die as the perfect, sinless sacrifice so that man could have life everlasting, and eternal fellowship with the Holy Trinity of God.

God walked among men in the form of the man, Jesus – fully God, fully man. God was with them.

For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell….

Colossians 1:19

But hard, rebellious, sin-filled hearts rejected the undeniable god-works performed by Jesus, the authoritative messages from the heart of God that He delivered, and the testimony of those whose lives were changed by Jesus. How foolish.

The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah.

Psalm 46:7

God was with them, but it wasn’t enough for Adam and Eve that God was willing to step from His throne into the garden to walk each day with them. Foolish Adam and Eve.

God was with them, but it wasn’t enough for the Children of Israel that God was willing to accompany them in the wilderness in a cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night, and as a thunderous voice from the mountaintop. Foolish Children of Israel.

God was with them, but it wasn’t enough for the many who refused to accept Jesus as the Son of God and rejected Him as the long-awaited Messiah of the Jewish people. Emmanuel, “God with us,” in human flesh preaching and teaching about His Father and the Kingdom of God. God, physically dwelling with and in His creation, was cruelly rejected and unjustly crucified. How did they not recognize Him? Foolish unbelievers.

It’s easy to criticize those we classify as foolish disbelievers found throughout the Bible. How could they be so blind? How could they be so ignorant? Adam and Eve, the Israelites, the religious leaders and throngs of people that followed Jesus, and other examples in the Bible – how could they not see that God was there – He was with them?

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

John 14:26-27

Then God’s Holy Spirit checks my spirit, convicting me with questions like:

– how many times have you made choices that you knew were displeasing to God?

– how many times have you followed your own rebellious heart and not obeyed your heavenly Father?

– how many times have you doubted, complained, protested, fostered ungodly attitudes, held onto an unforgiving spirit, or begged for something that Scripture or God’s Holy Spirit have told you is not best for you?

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

John 14:16-17

Then the realization sets in:

– God is not periodically visiting me as He did with Adam and Eve,

– God is not showing up around my home in a cloud or pillar of fire, and

– Jesus is not preaching and doing miracles in my town…

– God is LIVING IN ME!

100% of the time, God’s Holy Spirit is living in me!

GOD IS WITH ME!

I am without excuse. How foolish.

Jesus answered him, “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

From time to time do you need to remind yourself that God is with you at all times? There is great encouragement and strength in knowing He is ever present in your life. That knowledge also creates accountability and should keep you on high alert, ready to repent, reject, and remove those things in your life that are not pleasing to your Heavenly Father.

Thankfully, our God is gracious and forgiving. He knows our faults and frailties, and tendencies to stumble and fall. He will forgive and restore us when we come to Him in true repentance (1 John 1:9).

In Colossians, the Apostle Paul lays out a prescription for remembering that “God is with me” and the how-tos for living a life that pleases the Father (Colossians 3:1-4:2). I encourage you to read these verses prayerfully, writing down each of the things we are to “put off” and “put on” as believers in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 3:16 is a great summary of Paul’s instructions – I’ve underlined what I believe is the key:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:16

Praise God, He is with us!