Experiencing God's Presence #358

Experiencing God's Presence #358

Everlasting Father . . .

Isaiah 9:6

It’s one of the greatest paradoxes of the Kingdom. A baby born to earthly parents is somehow the Everlasting Father. This is a prophecy of incarnation long before the Incarnation was even understood as such. The eternal housed Himself in a finite body of tiny proportions, experiencing all the trauma of birth, hunger, tears, wet diapers, and the need to be held by human hands. Not until decades later would most people even begin to realize what had happened. The Everlasting Father had showed up as a human son.

What does it mean to us that the Son entered human flesh? Primarily that He became the perfect High Priest to intercede between God and fallen humanity—the familiar Redeemer who spilled His blood for us. But it also means that He can enter our human flesh. Granted, the circumstances of Jesus’ birth were unique, but the impartation of the Everlasting Spirit into fleshly vessels was not. Because God clothed Himself in flesh, the eternal heartbeat is within us. We are alive forever.

If you as a believer want to sense God’s Presence, look within. That’s an uncomfortable thought for humble servants of God who don’t want to deify themselves, but the truth of Scripture is that the Everlasting Father clothed Himself in the body of a child who grew up, died, was resurrected, and now clothes Himself in the body of . . . you. The promise of the Spirit flows out of the promise of the Incarnation. The latter leads to the former. The baby in a manger offers to endow His servants with the same power He walked in: the life of God dressed in the frailty of humanity.

Jesus, You are the incarnation of the Everlasting Father, and You can fill me with His power. Incarnate Yourself in me, and help me live in all the characteristics of Your life.