God Wants To Live Inside Us

God Wants To Live Inside Us

Because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.

Galatians 4:6

WHEN MY WIFE AND I STARTED DATING, I was in law school in Illinois, and she was in college in Buffalo, New York.^a Yes, it was the dreaded long-distance relationship. This was a time before cell phones,^b when you had to pay for calls by the minute. Our phone bills rivaled the gross national product of some small countries. We couldn’t afford them, but we were in love, and mushy feelings were involved, and we had to talk.

Even better were the occasional visits. She would take the train^c to visit me, or I would drive to see her. We would be together for a few days, and all would seem right with the world. But then we would separate and there would be weeping and talk of “I can’t live without you” and “How will I live until I see you again?” and “Oh no, someone is bringing a cat on the train.”

Eventually, after several years of tortured dating, we got married. Finally we moved to the same place and were able to always and fully be together.

Moving

God, who had always lived in a separate place and had made only cameo appearances in burning bushes and clouds of fire, came to earth in the person of Jesus. God was now hanging out with people. Jesus was called “Emmanuel”—which means “God with us” and was a perfect nickname because it was perfectly and wonderfully true.

Then Jesus was crucified. To all who watched, not only was God dead, but he was no longer with us. His presence was no longer on earth.

But the story took an exhilarating turn when Jesus walked out of the grave. God was back. He was with us again!

Then the story took what seemed to be a bleak turn. Jesus announced he was leaving. He was going back to heaven.

This seems like an odd choice. If I were Jesus and I had risen from the dead, I would go to as many places as possible. I would want everyone to see that I was alive. I’d make appearances on TODAY and The Tonight Show. I’d have T-shirts printed up with “Jesus World Tour” on the front and the dates and cities where I’d be appearing on the back. But that’s not what Jesus did. He rose from the dead, stayed forty days, appeared to hundreds of people (but not everyone), trained his disciples for ministry, and left.

His followers must have been heartbroken. But before he died, Jesus had told them something that should have been very encouraging: “You grieve because of what I’ve told you. But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.”^d

Remember, God is one God who exists in three distinct persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. “The Advocate” is a nickname for the Holy Spirit.

The idea is that God being with people wasn’t over when Jesus left. Emmanuel was not going to end. The story of God is a story of his increasing intimacy with people. When Jesus left, it wasn’t God moving away. God actually moved closer, because he moved inside of us, through his Holy Spirit.

And, Jesus says, it is actually better to have the Holy Spirit with us than to have Jesus with us.

Better?

Why is having the Holy Spirit in us better than having Jesus here?

First, because when Jesus was here, he lived as a human, and that involved some limitations. For instance, as far as we know, Jesus was never in two places at the same time. So if Jesus had stayed around forever and done a continual world tour, maybe you would get to see him once a year when he stopped in your town. But the Holy Spirit is not limited in that way, so you can be in the presence of God all the time.^e

And it’s not only that you get more time in the presence of God but also that the presence of God gets in you. During Old Testament times, God seemed distant. With the arrival of Jesus, people could see and touch God. But when Jesus left, God came much closer and became far more intimate. The Bible teaches that when people choose to give their lives to God, God gives his Holy Spirit to them. The Holy Spirit moves into and takes up spiritual residence in believers. So not only do we get to be in the presence of God all the time, but we also get the presence of God in us.

Having the Holy Spirit is also better because through his presence in us we get access to God’s power. Jesus told his followers, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”^f It’s like Jesus knew the mission was too big for his followers, so he provided the Holy Spirit so they’d engage in the mission with God’s power. And the mission God has for us—sharing Jesus with the entire world—is so big that we need God’s power in us through his Holy Spirit.

It’s not just the mission God has for us that requires God’s power; so does the life God has for us. God has called us to live holy lives, and to put it mildly, that’s not something we’re good at. We have this human nature that pulls us toward sin. That’s why God put his nature inside us. The apostle Peter writes,

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.^g

Do you really need the Holy Spirit? If you want to live a holy life, you do. It’s only through sharing in God’s divine nature that we can overcome our human nature.

Power?

God has given us his Holy Spirit so we can have his power to live holy lives and carry out our mission. Now it’s up to us to plug in to that power.

There are a bunch of verses instructing us to “be filled with the Holy Spirit” and to “walk by the Spirit.”^h The idea seems to be that having the Holy Spirit inside you doesn’t necessarily mean you’re accessing God’s power. You need to stay plugged in.

How? We’ll talk about that in days to come, but for now, congratulations! Reading the Bible and praying are two key ways we plug in, and you’re doing that right now. Look at you, being all awesome!

Keep moving in the right direction, and remember, you are not in a long-distance relationship with God. He is always with you and even inside you, if you’ve chosen to become part of his story.

Now What?

• Read Galatians 5:16-26.
• This passage makes it sound like we have a war going on inside us, two sides each pulling us in opposite directions. How have you experienced that? What are some of the things you could do to “live by” the Holy Spirit and let him guide you?
• Without the Holy Spirit living inside you, you wouldn’t have the power to live the life God has for you and that you really want to live. Thank God for the Holy Spirit, and ask him to help you to be aware of and reliant on the Holy Spirit all the time.