Who do you think you are? I’ll bet it’s not who God thinks you are. God sent the Apostle Paul to the Gentiles to declare the glorious riches of this mystery which is “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Jesus said, “If they receive you, they receive me and if they receive me, they receive him who sent me. Are you aware that when someone welcomes you into their home, they are welcoming Jesus, the Son of God, and God the Father as well? Have you ever thought about what that means?
I think most Christians are absolutely oblivious to this extraordinary truth. I think that most of us, and maybe you yourself, think of the Jesus who lives in us more as a stamp or a mark on us, that designates a person as belonging to God. I don’t think many believers have the faintest idea that the real and tangible Christ dwells in people. And there is a purpose for this!
Do you think that God has gone to all this trouble to become a man, give his life, resurrect himself in a glorified body, ascend into heaven and come again on the day of Pentecost, by his spirit, to inhabit his people, just so we can have some type of feeling, every once and a while, that we are close to God? No way, there is a much greater purpose and it is unfolding before us if we have eyes to see.
Jesus said, “Greater things than these will you do because I go to the Father.” His purpose was not to stay in the earthly body of one man but to dwell in the thousands of brothers and sisters in Christ. He was just getting started with the plan when His spirit entered the saints. We haven’t even begun to see the love, the power, the obedience, the holiness, or the glory of the Father that our Lord intends to show through His glorious church, His body.
If we prayed and loved with the understanding and passion of knowing that the same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us, the Church would be the most powerful force in this world. And no one could deny it. He said, “On that day, you will know that I am in the Father and the Father is in me and I am in you.” For some of us, that day has come. I hope it’s come for you!