“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises, despite of Israel’s failures to keep their covenant with God in the Old Testament. He was God who became human so that he can model for us the abundant life that God had intended for us ever since creation. But more importantly, Jesus modeled for us what being in and carrying the presence of God is like.
We read John the Baptist’s testimony that when he baptized Jesus with water, he “saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.” The Spirit, descended from heaven like a dove, the symbol of peace, and rested upon Jesus and never retreated from him. Satan mocked and tempted him, yet though he was human, he was not tempted for he was filled by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus’ ministry was successful because of what he carried with him. Even in the Acts of the Apostles, we see the significant change—the boldness—in his disciples once they received the Holy Spirit upon them just as Jesus had promised them. And it’s the same promise and blessing for us even at this day and age.
In our salvation we received the Holy Spirit, the exact same force-to-be-reckoned-with power that brought signs and wonders in its midst. God never intended for Jesus’ resurrection to end at the salvation message. He never intended for the world to wait for Jesus’ second coming so that He could establish His New Kingdom. His Kingdom is here and now and we need to renew our minds and see that God is good, He has welcomed us into His Royal Family, and He wants us to live in abundance of the riches of His Kingdom that are available to us through Jesus Christ.
Now that we have been saved and have the Holy Spirit in us, we are to live a life of purity and power, walk in a place of being accountable for ourselves and the people around us, and pursuing after the heart of God. This positions us for more of what God wants to release through us when we have His Spirit upon us.
As Pastor Bill Johnson said, “The Presence [Holy Spirit] is within you in unlimited measure because through you He becomes released to find resting places.” The Spirit of God has always been looking for people to rest upon, not because they are worthy because of their sinlessness but because of the freedom that the Spirit can bring to that person once the Spirit shows up.
As a child of God, we need to start acknowledging and living the belief that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. What we carry is far greater than the evil that is in the world. Light is always greater than darkness. We need to see that we are bigger than Satan and any of his schemes because we operate with God in us.
In 2 Samuel 6:11 we see that simply having the Ark of the Covenant in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite blessed him and his household. He wasn’t even an Israelite! But because he was in the presence of the Lord, he and his household were blessed. But we have something far better than having the Ark of Covenant parked in our garage because we already have been given the same measure of presence and power of God through the Holy Spirit.
We carry peace and joy. We carry grace. We carry life. We carry love. We carry freedom. We are the salt and light. Once we acknowledge all these things, then it becomes more of “What can I bring more into the Kingdom of God?” rather than “What more can God offer me?” We have access to all of God’s resources for the sake of the world. We cannot be in His presence without being changed so when we start to carry His presence, everything around us just cannot help but be changed as well. The Holy Spirit doesn’t live in us because He needs a home. He is in us so that He can be manifest.
Activation:
This week, practice recognizing God’s presence in your life no matter what you are doing. See how He manifests when we minister to others and attempt to say what He is saying and do what He is doing. Jesus was able to heal the sick, raise the dead, drive out demons and cleanse lepers not just because of who he was but also because he was in constant communion with the Father in heaven through the Holy Spirit. Speak and release the Word of God because when we speak the Word of God, it is spirit and life and it will not fall to the ground until it performs that which it was sent to do.
Romans 8:11-13 (TPT) – “Yes, God raised Jesus to life! And since God’s Spirit of Resurrection lives in you, he will also raise your dying body to life by the same Spirit that breathes life into you! So then beloved ones, the flesh has no claims on us at all, and we have no further obligation to live in obedience to it. For when you live controlled by the flesh, you are about to die. But if the life of the Spirit puts to death the corrupt ways of the flesh, we then taste his abundant life.”
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