NEARNESS

Kevin J Walkinshaw

John 14: 23; 15: 5; 14: 15-17

Galatians 4: 6

I had a simple impression, beloved brethren, following our brother's service in the preaching yesterday, as to God's desire for nearness. I thought of these scriptures and how, speaking simply, God could not come any nearer than He has, to abide with us, to abide in us. We will come on to speak about the Holy Spirit, perhaps particularly, that He is with us and in us and abiding with us. God could not have come any nearer to us; and it continues; it remains. It is not something that comes and goes; when God makes His abode with us, it is forever; it is something that remains. If there is any lack of nearness, if any distance comes in, it is on our side, because God's desire is to be near to us. As our brother reminded us in the gospel, God's desire is for nearness.

These scriptures came to mind as they all reference this word, “abode” or “abide”. The first section speaks of the Father and the Lord, “we will come to him and make our abode with him”. What an amazing thing that is, that divine Persons would make their dwelling with us. There is a condition, is there not - “If any one love me, he will keep my word”? Well, it is a challenge for myself, how much I love divine Persons, how much I love the Lord. There is no lack on the divine side: the Lord has proved His love beyond any measure, beyond anything that we could ever think of. It says here, “If any one love me”. The result of it is that if we love the Lord Jesus and keep His word, the Father will love us and will come to us and make His abode with us. It is a wonderful, amazing thing that divine Persons would desire to come so near and to make their dwelling with us. It is not something that will come and go from the divine side; it is an abode; it has that sense of it. It is something that remains and is settled, a dwelling place.

Further on, in chapter 15, the Lord speaks again, speaking of Himself as the vine and us as the branches. “He that abides in me and I in him”; what a condition, what a privilege that is, that we can abide in the Lord and He in us. You may wonder at these things. Divine Persons are so great, so glorious, ruling over all, and yet the Lord desires that we abide in Him and He in us. Again, it is an abiding thing, not something that comes and goes. The Lord does not desire that. The Lord will not come and go. We might, but this is an ongoing position and it says, “he bears much fruit”. I take that challenge to myself. How much fruit am I bearing? If we abide in the Lord, we bear fruit; there is no doubt about it. And He says, “without me, ye can do nothing”. Well, how often we prove that; without the Lord we can do nothing. We might try. I often try to do things myself, but this sets it out clearly: “without me ye can do nothing”. The Lord's desire is to abide with us and us with Him.

Then I thought I would touch on the blessed Holy Spirit. We have been reminded, have we not, that God has sent out His own Spirit into our hearts, His own Spirit to be with us? How could God get any nearer, than He would send His own Spirit to us, to dwell with us, to abide in us? As it says in chapter 14, “he abides with you, and shall be in you”. God's desire for nearness is such that He would send out His own Spirit to dwell in our hearts, to be so near, to be with us and in us, to help us, to guide us; as has been said by others, to cause us to think and to feel how God thinks and feels about matters. You wonder at that, that God would desire to be so near that we might feel things as He feels them and think about things as He does. That is how near God desires to be with us.

That final scripture came to mind: “God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts”. How could God come any nearer? He sent out the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, “crying, Abba, Father”. These were simple thoughts that came to me following our brother's word; God's desire for nearness. All three divine Persons are involved in this, that they would desire to make their abode with us. And the Holy Spirit “in our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. We could speak about sonship, the nearness that God desires in that. We have spoken of it many times: no distance, but peace and liberty and freedom and nearness in God's house.

May we be encouraged by these things and may we all desire to abide more with the Lord, for His Name's sake. Amen.