5th Gear: Seeing Jesus’ Abiding Presence

5th Gear: Seeing Jesus’ Abiding Presence

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God wants to bring us beyond the point where we need signs to discern His guiding hand. Satan cannot counterfeit the peace of God or the love of God dwelling in us. When Christ’s abiding presence becomes our guide, then guidance becomes an almost unconscious response to the gentle moving of His Holy Spirit within us. ¹

Recently, I was asked to pray at the beginning of a wedding reception. I started my prayer this way:

“Jesus, I do not pray that you be with this couple as they begin their journey through life together; I pray that they know you are always with them.

“And I do not pray that you love them; I pray that they always know you love them perfectly.

“And, finally, Jesus, I do not pray that you display your power in their marriage, but that they know and even see your power every day of their lives – in the details of their day-to-day living.”

In essence, I prayed that they live with the absolute confidence and the sacred assurance of Jesus’ perfect presence, his perfect love, and his perfect power.

I hope you can see that my prayer is intended to drive home to the couple these facts. Because there will be many times when they – and we – will not feel these statements to be facts. In those times of uncertainty and stress, we likely feel these statements are nice truisms, yes, but, “Where is Jesus now??”

The newly married couple will certainly experience this, as will all of us. The question … the challenge … is, “Can we see Jesus despite our feelings?”

“For we live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)

This is an oft-quoted passage, but hold tight while I challenge this idea:

When we have put into practice seeing Jesus with us, as we walk and talk with him throughout the day, fear, anxiety, and doubt tend to diminish. And why? Well, how could they stay in control when we see – yes, see – Jesus right there with us?

These days I walk by sight, along with my faith. After walking with Jesus for thirty-one years now, and experiencing his perfect presence, his perfect love, and his perfect power in my life, over and over, as well as in the hundreds of lives around me, I would have to be a myopic, utterly blind and not-very-bright knucklehead to not see him all around me.

Yes, he is that obvious.

In closing, and moving forward, I offer this prayer from the Holy Spirit, through Paul, about your walking by sight – with the eyes of your heart enlightened:

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope – the confident expectation – to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his saints, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Ephesians 1:17-19 Bold and Italics added)

May you come to see that following Jesus is not a “hope-so religion,” but a “know-so relationship.”

1. Dallas Willard  Hearing God