God is For, With, and In Us!

After the rebellion and subsequent fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, God chose not to abandon us but rather continued to reveal that He is God for, with, and in us!

God for Us

Throughout the Old Covenant (i.e., Testament) and into the New Covenant, God revealed that He is for us.

My enemies will turn back when I cry out to you for help; I know that God is on my side. In God– I boast in his promise– in the LORD– I boast in his promise– in God I trust, I am not afraid. What can mere men do to me?  (Psalms 56:9-11 NET)

The LORD is on my side, I am not afraid! What can people do to me? (Psalms 118:6 NET)

The LORD who commands armies is on our side! The God of Jacob is our protector! (Selah) (Psalms 46:7 NET)

What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31 NET)

With God, who never fails on our side, we are guaranteed to be successful if we do not quit or give up!

I am able to do all things through the one who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13 NET)

So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9 NET)

Because of this, in fact, I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, because I know the one in whom my faith is set and I am convinced that he is able to protect what has been entrusted to me until that day. (2 Timothy 1:12 NET)

With God for us, we can be courageous despite the difficulties or obstacles in our lives. We can be sure that God will give us His wisdom, strength, and ability to give us His victory over every situation if we ask! (1)

Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.   (Hebrews 4:16-5:1 NET)

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. (John 15:16 NET)

But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, since he is a double-minded individual, unstable in all his ways.  (James 1:5-8 NET)

Even when we rebel by choosing to sin, God remains for us! He desires to pick us up when we stumble and fall. If we repent to God for missing the mark (1), He will reconcile and restore us. Why? He is a good God who is not against us but for us!

The LORD is good– indeed, he is a fortress in time of distress, and he protects those who seek refuge in him. (Nahum 1:7 NET)

The one who covers his transgressions will not prosper, but whoever confesses them and forsakes them will find mercy. (Proverbs 28:13 NET)

Although a righteous person may fall seven times, he gets up again, but the wicked will be brought down by calamity. (Proverbs 24:16 NET)

Realize that the following verse from the Epistle of First John was not written to sinners but rather to Christians. Again, God wants to help us even when we make mistakes or make unwise choices.

But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9 NET)

We do not have to live defeated (1) lives because God is for us!

God with Us

For thousands of years, God communicated that He was for us through His prophets in the Old Testament. However, this revelation of Himself was limited by the fallen nature of the prophets. Consequently, God came in the flesh to personally deliver the message!

"Look! The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call him Emmanuel," which means "God with us." (Matthew 1:23 NET)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory– the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father. (John 1:1,14 NET)

After God spoke long ago in various portions and in various ways to our ancestors through the prophets, in these last days he has spoken to us in a son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the world.  (Hebrews 1:1-2 NET)

God the Word, the second member of the Trinity, chose to be born of a virgin woman called Mary (1) so that He might show us the Father while finishing the plan for our salvation!

Jesus replied, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be content." Jesus replied, "Have I been with you for so long, and you have not known me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? (John 14:6-9 NET)

The sin annihilating Shekinah glory of God was within and veiled by the temple of His flesh and blood body, thus allowing Him once again to walk with mankind, the creation of His love.

I tell you the truth, there are some standing here who will not experience death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." Six days later Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them privately up a high mountain. And he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. (Matthew 16:28-17:2 NET)

Israel had failed to bring the world (i.e., the Gentiles) to His temple, so God brought His mobile temple to the world!

Then he began to teach them and said, "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have turned it into a den of robbers!" (Mark 11:17 NET)

Jesus replied, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again."  Then the Jewish leaders said to him, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and are you going to raise it up in three days?"  But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. So after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the saying that Jesus had spoken.  (John 2:19-22 NET)

In addition, God the Holy Spirit (1) was with selected individuals under the Old Covenant, including the Apostles of Jesus.

But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son; you will name him John. Joy and gladness will come to you, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. (Luke 1:13-15 NET)

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She exclaimed with a loud voice, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child in your womb! And who am I that the mother of my Lord should come and visit me? For the instant the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled."  (Luke 1:41-45 NET)

Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever– the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you. (John 14:16,17 NET)

We do not have to feel isolated and alone because God is with us!

God in Us

Part of the mystery of the Gospel hidden for thousands of years was that God was not only for us and with us, but He desired to be in us! God under the New Covenant has come to place His glory in us, His mobile temples! God, the Holy Spirit, lives within us believers!

That is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:26-27 NET)

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16 NET)

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19 NET)

And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, "I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." (2 Corinthians 6:16 NET)

Hold to the standard of sound words that you heard from me and do so with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Protect that good thing entrusted to you, through the Holy Spirit who lives within us. (2 Timothy 1:13-14 NET)

Our residence, or home, is the place where we live. Jesus said that speaking of Himself and God the Father, we would make their residence, or home, inside us through the indwelling Holy Spirit. God the Father, God the Son Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit reside in our recreated spirits (1) made perfect.

The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him." ...Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. (John 14:21,23 NET)

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness. Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:9-11 NET)

"I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me.  (John 17:20-21 NET)

We are mobile “living stone” temples designed to be assembled or joined together to form a corporate spiritual dwelling place for God.

In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.  (Ephesians 2:21-22 NET)

So as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and priceless in God's sight, you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  (1 Peter 2:4-5 NET)

We are coworkers belonging to God. You are God's field, God's building. (1 Corinthians 3:9 NET)

But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. We are of his house, if in fact we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope we take pride in. (Hebrews 3:6 NET)

We do not have to feel rejected (1), fearful (1), and unworthy (1) because God is in us!

Summary

When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we no longer belong to ourselves. We become the temple of God the Holy Spirit, with God the Father and God the Son Jesus making their home in our bodies! However, many Christians are not aware of this divine reality or perhaps do not really believe it? If we believed that God dwelt in us, would we continue to talk about our lack of power or ability? There is no shortage in God, and since He is for us, with us, and in us, why do we complain about a lack of money, time, talents, etc.? We just need to act as if the Word of God is true because it is! However, if we do not know the Word, we are disadvantaged because we cannot act on what we do not know. When we are full of God’s Word and incline our ears to what the Holy Spirit says, we will know what to do in any situation. However, it is not merely hearing but rather living out or acting on the Word of God that brings God’s blessings in our lives.

But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror. For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out– he will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25 NET)

When we are consciously aware that God the greater one is for us, with us, and in us, it will strengthen our faith to persevere to victory (1) in and through all of the world’s circumstances, trials, and difficulties. Again, since God is in us, His nature, love, wisdom, and strength are in us. That is, all that God is – is in us!

You are from God, little children, and have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4 NET)

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God, and everyone who loves the father loves the child fathered by him. By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments do not weigh us down, because everyone who has been fathered by God conquers the world. This is the conquering power that has conquered the world: our faith. Now who is the person who has conquered the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?  (1 John 5:1-5 NET)

On Becoming a Disciple of Christ

Shalom
(Security, Wholeness, Success)
Peace

Dear friend, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul. 
(3 John 1:2 NET)

(1) Select the link to open another article with additional information in a new tab.

(2) Realize humans added punctuation to the Koine Greek text, which has no punctuation. I believe this is what was meant by the Holy Angels:

Glory to God in the highest!
Glory to God on Earth!
Peace among people with whom he is pleased!*

Luke 2:14

*Now that the human sacrifice for our sins, our mediator, Savior of the World, Good Shepherd, our Great High Priest, etc. was on Earth, peace has been declared between God and mankind. From the God Eye view, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus were as good as done! Hallelujah!

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