Jesus is right here with you

Listen to the song, “I Could Run Away” by Don Chaffer.

To reiterate some of our previous messages, you must first understand that the purpose of the Holy Spirit, living within you, is to glorify Jesus in you, through you, and in all things. Second, that God does want something specific in your life, which He does reveal to you through the written word of scripture and the living Word of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. They are one and the same. Jesus is with you, and He reveals to you what God wants. Jesus is right here with you.

I’m going to borrow from the testimony of my father-in-law, Frank Tallerine. Having been saved in his home and knowing nothing about the Bible, he had to discover many things, but he knew immediately that he had met Jesus the King. Frank recounts that in those early days, he would wake up and cry out, “Jesus, are you there?” to which Jesus would, in his heart, overwhelmingly respond that He was right there with him. That simple testimony has always struck me with the reality of the nearness of the person of Jesus Christ. Our Christianity is not based on rules, or even on doctrine or tradition, but has all of its foundations in a person. The person of Jesus Christ. He is with us, and His Spirit will never leave us.

16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

(John 14:16-18)

21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

(John 17:21-24)

Meditate on those scriptures. Know that Jesus is right here with you. If you have surrendered your life to Him, He indwells you by His Holy Spirit. That means He is here. That means when you wake up in the morning, you can cry out to Him and He will answer you.

We can encourage each other that Jesus is near and feel comforted by it, but with the realization that Jesus is with us, we cannot miss the opportunity to make a decision. Quite simply, if Jesus is with us and if He is able to answer our cries, will we wait upon our Lord and obey Him, or will we move out in the flesh from our own common sense? Not that we fall into the temptation of anxiousness over discerning God’s will for countless details that we likely don’t need to know. But we recognize that if we are in Christ, then He has called us and has spoken to our hearts at some point. What has He spoken?

Do you believe that this is true? Do you believe it in your heart and with your actions? Will you wait upon the Lord? In what corners of your heart do you act in your own logic in the flesh without realizing that Jesus is right here with you, and you can wait upon the Lord’s answer? Do you believe that God will speak to you? Or have we, for a generation, grown so accustomed to not hearing that we no longer believe that there is anything to hear? Are you able to wait upon the Lord?

1 “Do not fret because of evildoers,

Be not envious toward wrongdoers.

2 For they will wither quickly like the grass

And fade like the green herb.

3 Trust in the Lord and do good;

Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

4 Delight yourself in the Lord;

And He will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the Lord,

Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light

And your judgment as the noonday.

7 Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him;

Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,

Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.

8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath;

Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.

9 For evildoers will be cut off,

But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.”

(Psalm 37:1-9)