DWELLING IN THE LORD

John 15:7 if you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done.

What does it mean to dwell in Jesus? The best way to explain this is using the analogy of an unborn baby and the pregnant woman. The unborn baby dwells in the womb of the mother. People who dwell in Jesus are like an unborn baby in the womb of the mother. The unborn baby has little or no worry. The unborn baby does not worry about food, security or protection. To touch him one needs to touch the mother first. To harm him one needs to harm the mother first. The same thing applies to us when we dwell in Jesus. Our safety, protection, food or other necessities of life becomes the responsibility of Jesus because we are in the womb of Jesus. To starve the baby in the womb, one needs to starve the mother. To starve anyone who dwells in Jesus of anything good thing , one needs to first starve Jesus of good things and we know that  is impossible because everything have been given to Jesus - Matthew 11:27. To stop anyone dwelling in Jesus, one need to stop Jesus first and we know from studying Isaiah 25:8 that Jesus is able to swallow anything that wants to stop Him, e.g. death. For problems to overcome anyone dwelling in Jesus, that problem needs to first overcome Jesus and we know from studying John 16:33 that Jesus has overcome the world! Whatever cannot conquer Jesus cannot conquer anyone dwelling in Jesus because Romans 8:37 says nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

The unborn baby is invisible to the world. The same applies to those that dwell in Jesus. When you look at them instead of seeing men and women, you will see Jesus. In Acts 11:26, when the citizens of Antioch looked at the disciples of Jesus, instead of seeing men they saw Jesus. Instead of calling them by their names they began to call them Christians meaning Christ-like. When you see a Christian, you do not see a man or woman but Jesus Christ. No matter what anyone dwelling in Jesus has achieved in life, no matter the wealth, no matter how beautiful or handsome, no matter how spiritually gifted they maybe, once you look at them all their life achievements become invisible, the only visible thing you can see is Jesus. When they open their mouth all you hear is Jesus talking. When something happen their reactions is the same as that of Jesus. This brings us to the question, when people see us what do they see? Is it our achievement or Jesus? When we talk, do people hear Jesus or us? Can unbelievers who have never seen Jesus look at us and get an idea of what Jesus was like. I once heard a story of a young boy who ran to his mum claiming to have seen Jesus. The mum asked what did Jesus do to you when he saw you, He said Jesus came and tied my shoe lace that was loose. The mother was baffled so she asked the young boy to describe how Jesus looked. By the time the young boy finished describing Jesus, the mother knew it was the visiting pastor that tied the loosed shoe lace. The young boy had never seen Jesus but he has heard of the good works Jesus did. After the pastor tied this shoe lace, the young boy decided that it could only be Jesus who would take interest in his shoe lace while everyone else is too busy to notice such.

PRAYER POINT: Father, help me to fully dwell in you.