God, Where Are You?

How many of you have had a really close friend?

How many of you have had a friend move away?

How many of you sought their new address?

 

Did you ever wish they could be there in a moment when you needed them? Did you long to see them face to face? To sit down and ask them questions you faced? Have you ever cried, longing for them right now?

How about God? How many of you feel as though He moved away? How many of you have sought His address?

Did you ever wish He could be there in a moment when you needed Him? Did you long to see Him face to face? To sit down and ask Him questions you faced? Have you ever cried, longing for Him right now?

Don’t you wish you could sit down with Him and know what He really thinks about things: What He wants you to do ,or to get answers to decisions that you need to make?

Jeremiah 33:3 is God’s Phone Number:

“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know “.

God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit in our spirit and I am grateful for that. But this week I wanted to meet with Him face to face. I wanted to know where He lives so that I could be with Him, not just to hear from Him. 

 “Let Everything Else Go” by Phil Keaggy speaks to this desire:

 “Oh I can't wait to see you Jesus, face to face,
Nothing in this world can take Your place.
All the pride of man laid low,
And all his works of gold,
Nothing can compare with what You are,
Let everything else go…”

The cry of my heart this last week has been to see God face to face. I had some decisions to make, areas I need Him to change; and I found myself literally crying wanting God to be with me, to answer me. 

And then I realized that hearing from Him is our agenda; but being with Him is His agenda. He, too, wants to meet with me.

So, where does God live? How do we really get in touch with Him? First; let’s look at God’s past address.

In Exodus 29:42-46 we read that the tabernacle in the wilderness was the dwelling place of the Most High God. In it we see a physical picture (type) of the spiritual reality.

But, because God has perfect order and man messed up, God moved to a new address. Fortunately, He has left a forwarding address: It is Isaiah 7:14 and John 1:14

“So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She’ll bear a Son and name Him Immanuel (God-With-Us). (Isaiah 7:14 MSG)

“The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
    the one-of-a-kind glory,
    like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
    true from start to finish.” (John 1:14 MSG)

Where is God’s perfect address? He dwells FULLY in Jesus

 “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9 NKJV)

Even though God lived in a perfect home in Jesus, He wanted His estate to be distributed. He wants to dwell in more than One. 

For that to take place, there had to be death. The death of Jesus assured an inheritance for the Sons of God. God had to once again give up His home.

Fortunately, He has left a forwarding address:

“If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!

I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.

The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”

Judas (not Iscariot) said, “Master, why is it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?”

Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.” (John 14:17-23 MSG)

                                                                                                        

Where is God’s address now? He resides in the hearts of those who have received Him by faith and have been born again.

 “Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.” (I Corinthians 6:19-20 MSG)

He resides in Christians. The Apostle John wrote:

 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12 NKJV)

Considering that, how do people see God reflected in you? Can they find Him in your life? The world is stumbling in the darkness trying to find God and we are the light (Matthew 5:14-16).

If we answer honestly, we must admit that our lives don’t always show that He lives in us. So much as it is dependent on us, some people may have trouble seeing who God is when they come to our “house”.

                                                                                                      

Fortunately, God is building a new home. He is going to move again, only this time it will be a permanent residence with NO FORWARDING ADDRESS And, He will take His family with Him. 

Where is God’s permanent address going to be?

“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)

Isn’t that exciting? Some day we will live with God face to face.

When all the world we know has passed away we will be able to get up each day and say: “Good Morning, Dad”

How do we know it is for all of us? Jesus said to His disciples:

“There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live.” (John 14:2-3 MSG)

You might be thinking; “That’s great for the future, but what about today? Where can I go today to hear from Him TODAY?”  

Well, He has taken of that. He has given His Holy Spirit who is a member of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). He is available to meet with you wherever and whenever you need Him because He, through the Holy Spirit, dwells in you!

And He will talk as a representative of the Heavenly Father:

 “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” (John 16:13 NKJV)

It is exciting that He wants to dwell in EACH of us through His Holy Spirit and ALL we have to do is ASK Him:

“This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!” Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.” It’s exactly the same no matter what a person’s religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.” (Romans 10:9-13 MSG)

We can know that God dwells in us if we have asked Him to dwell inside of us. He will never move away. We won’t have to look for His address. He will be there when you need Him.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson