It is the potent desire of all Christians to know and experience the living presence of Jesus Christ personally. Sometimes we may feel that God is near and other times perhaps the opposite, like “God, where are you?” The truth is our emotions and natural senses are not very helpful in sensing things that are spiritual in nature.
In Luke 24:13-32 we read the story of two disciples who had an encounter with Jesus on their long walk home to Emmaus. In so many ways we can identify with their journey from sadness, grief and disappointment, to “burning hearts” as they listen to Jesus (still without recognising him!), and finally to wonder and amazement as their eyes are finally “opened” and they know him for who he is.
We may long for a similar encounter in which we see Jesus with our own eyes. And yet, that is not the normal experience of most Christians. The bible tells us that Jesus is now glorified in his resurrected body and situated in heaven with the Father. And yet, at the same time there are numerous places in which he promised to always be with us. In his short booklet “Jesus Himself”, Andrew Murray (1828-1917) wrote
“…just as Christ upon earth was able to keep those people with Him for three years, day by day, so Christ is able in heaven now to do what He could not do when He was on earth—to keep in the closest fellowship with every believer throughout the whole world.”
God has given us the Holy Spirit as his living presence to be with us, in us, now and always. More than that, the Bible tells us that through faith in Christ we have been raised up with him and are actually “seated” (situated) with him in our spiritual reality. So the real question is not whether I sense Jesus here with me, but whether I sense, and know, myself with him and in him.
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