105 Immanuel: God In Us

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be Mary - to have the Son of God growing inside you? Can you imagine Him becoming bigger and bigger until He just had to come out?  What would that have been like?

In a very real way, that’s exactly what God wants to happen in you. He wants to put His very presence within you so you can bring His presence into the world. 

Immanuel can live in you if you will open up to Him.

There is a famous painting inspired by the words of Jesus from Revelation 3:20. Jesus is standing at a door knocking. There is no doorknob on the outside. The door must be opened from within. 

So it is with our lives. Jesus desires to come in, to have a relationship with us. He knocks persistently. But will we open the door to Him? Will we invite Him in?

If you open up to Immanuel, He will come to live in you.  

As Immanuel grows in you in a healthy way, He will flow out of you in a wonderful way. 

There comes a time in the spiritual life of those carrying Immanuel within when He grows to the point where He just comes out. Love, kindness, and peace are is no longer forced. They naturally flow out of our lives.

But sometimes things can happen to choke off the flow of the Spirit living within us. 

When Immanuel is not carried in the right way, He will be delivered in a wrong way. 

When we engage in sinful behaviors and refuse to repent of them as the Spirit within convicts us (and He will do that), The Bible tells us that that Spirit can be quenched… choked off.  And when that happens, He is unable to flow through our lives and out into the world in a healthy way.  

Are you engaged in some behavior that you know is displeasing to God?  The way to remove that blockage is through repentance - changing one’s mind and direction.  

Ask God to do a thorough examination regarding your actions, your attitudes, your thoughts, and your motives.  Then take some time to see what He might reveal.

When something comes to mind, you’ll be faced with a decision – to excuse your behavior, to rationalize your words, to minimize the wrongness…or to admit your failure and repent of that which is choking off the flow that you so desire and the world so needs to see.

Text: Luke 1:26-38

 Originally recorded on December 9, 2012, at Fellowship Missionary Church, Fort Wayne, IN.