The Living Presence of Jesus Christ
‘There are many Christians who do not feel His glorious Presence as something real because for them Jesus only occurs in their minds & not in their hearts. Only when someone surrenders his heart to Jesus can he find Him.’ Sadhu Sundar Singh
As on these pages I would talk very often about the Living (and not IMAGINED!) Presence of Jesus Christ, and His Saving Power in the heart of the redeemed and transformed believer, I would like to say a few words about that 'reality' or it's meaning when used by me.
For me, personally, Jesus Christ is not just a HISTORICAL person Who lived once a 2 000 years ago in Palestine... but Someone Who is NOW, IN THIS VERY MOMENT, a very much ALIVE and with Whom I live and consequently communicate on daily basis at many different levels and in various aspects of my life...
In another words, He is in all truth most active in my life ... and to live in His Presence to me means to feel that living activity of His in everything I do or intend to do during the day (= in everything that happens to me, with me and around me!)... it means to have His face ever present in the front of my eyes and to converse with Him at all times as we usually converse with someone on the natural plane who lives with us in the same house... who is sharing our 'everything' in daily life... as for example our conjugial partner...
Well, in all truth, Jesus Christ is for me, for my soul, that true husband about Whom we read in the Word (Revelation 19:7, 9; 21:2, 9, 10), with Whom my soul is wedded and in Whom she is deeply enamoured, and to Whom she is a most faithful spouse (this theme and REALITY = RELATIONSHIP between our soul, who is that very 'bride', and Living Christ, Who is that very 'Bridegroom', is fully discussed and explained by Madame Guyon in her commentary to the 'The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s')...
One of my favourite prayers would be connected with this image of 'us', to wit, I simply enter by my living faith into His Presence and then, there, I gently lean 'myself' (= with my soul) on His breast, as any enamoured woman would do when in the presence of her lover she found herself overwhelmed with the emotions, where I simply rest in His embrace surrounded with His Love and Tenderness.
‘When I hold my Beloved Lord in my arms there is nothing to compare with it! In those moments it is impossible to deny the love I experience. I just smile within myself and whisper, My Beloved is mine, and I am His.' Madame Jeanne de la Mothe Guyon ‘Intimacy with Christ (letters) – 3′
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Then... He is also my true Father (Isaiah 9:6; 63:16; John 10:30, 38; 12:44, 45; 14:7-11, 20; 16:15; 17:10)... and consequently my Protector from every natural and spiritual enemy... and also a Comforter in every distress (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7)... to Whom I always run when wearied or oppressed (Matthew 11:28)...
Being close to His Fatherly heart to me means to be filled with that inexpressible Loving Care of His... and it is in His Parental lap that I always find that Security and Peace (John 16:33) which not just mine but every living soul desires...
Another prayer of mine would be connected to this 'Father and child' image of 'us'... namely, it is more than enough for me just to think a little bit about Him being our Loving Father (Matthew 6:9; 7:7-11) and then, while those above mentioned Security and Peace are slowly seizing and permeating me, I am literally entering the heaven with my soul ...
That would be indeed a most beautiful prayer.
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Also... He is to me a Teacher (Matthew 23:8; John 3:2)... in fact, He is to me like someone with Whom I met every day at the college of life... with Whom I converse about the most diverse realities... about every unsolved natural and spiritual problem... and it is His voice that I hear all the time inside of my soul while He is instructing me about everything which is important in this life and in the life to come...
Also, it is His advices that I heed when deciding what to do and in what manner I would proceed in/with my life...
To this 'reality' would refer my daily spiritual practice of 'proposing the questions to Him' (Matthew 7:7) and than of 'patient waiting in His Presence for His answers'... which I usually receive either in the form of the feelings or in the form of the enlightened thoughts (= see Bertha Dudde, proclamation nr. 5469, August 23, 1952 – http://www.wordofgod.de/ ).
Another 'spiritual practice', and so to speak a 'prayer', which is closely related to this 'relationship' of ours, would be that 'famous' 'Sitting at His feet in yearning and in love for Him' (Luke 10:38-42)...... and being silent 'there' for a longer period of time... practice which enables me to 'hear and discover the wondrous things' (see Bertha Dudde, proclamation nr. 7193, October 23, 1958 – http://www.wordofgod.de/ )... things that are hidden from our natural senses and all those who are not completelly detached from this world and it's enticements (see Bertha Dudde, proclamation nr. 7258, January 17, 1959 – http://www.wordofgod.de/ )!
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Then, He is also my only Doctor and Healer from every spiritual and natural disease... Whom I confidently visit every time when I feel weak, sick or ailing...
Once when in His Presence... it is truly not important anymore if my body or my soul are temporary ill (= suffering from some kind of infirmity!)... because then, and there, it is given to me to know in the greatest possible clarity that everything that I experience in my body and in my soul was willed or allowed by Him and consequently that it serves me in the most effective way!
'Whether He gives sorrow or joy, it always helps the person to lift his soul to God, it is always pointing to Him, it is always a coaxing and guiding him onto the right path.… it is always grace...' (as received from Jesus Christ, through the Inner Word, by Bertha Dudde, proclamation nr. 3276, September 30, 1944)
In those moments I usually pray not for my 'healing', or removal of those 'external' infirmities, but for the strength and patience to endure everything that His most caring Fatherly love imposed on me for the eternal benefit of my soul ('Father, Your will be done!') .
Sometimes, in those moments, I simply place my soul, as it is then (= in that particular 'ailing' state of her), no matter what would be her's (or her's material tool's = body) condition at that time, in His Presence... where she, so to speak, is able to 'touch Him', yeah, even 'His garments' (Luke 8:43-48), which always suffice to experience the flow of that most powerful Healing virtue of His together with envigorating and strengthening effect of the same...
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And finally, He is to me, as He was and still is for all true Christians* (see below), that Only and True God of Eternity (Izaiah 7:14; 9:6; Matthew 28:18; Romans 9:5; 1 John 5:20) in His Glorified Human (Colossians 2:9), it is He and Only He Whom I consider to be a 'visible manfestation = face of the Eternal Deity' (John 1:14, 18; 12:45; 14:7-11), our Creator and Sustainer, Whose Providence rules above every and each circumstance and event of our daily life ...
What a glorious feeling is that my dear friends, brothers and sisters... to wit, to know that all happenings of our daily life... every person that we met and every circumstance that we are participating in... was pre-meditated and wisely calculated by our beloved Lord and our God (John 10:28) even from eternity, and that this very 'situation' that we are passing through, and experiencing now, holds in itself nothing else but the greatest possible benefit and blessing for our soul (Matthew 10:29-31; Romans 8:28)!
Being aware of this... truly gives to me an undoubted, undenieable and unceasing sense of His most Holy Presence and Activity... and with It... a sense of that inexpressible peace that is above our limited human understanding and comprehension (Philippians 4:6, 7)!
By this I also explained that most important and perfect Christian Prayer, when understood spiritually and lived on daily basis, that glorious Prayer of our completelly devoted and abandoned soul, namely: 'Father, not mine but Thine Will be done!' (Matthew 6:10; 26:39, 42, 44)
So, as you can see... Jesus Christ is to me more alive and present than any other natural person ever was or is now in this very moment...
... and it is in this Living Presence of His Love that I live and move (Acts 17:28), it is this very Living Presence of His Love that surrounds me and fills me in the same manner as my lungs are surrounded and filled with the air... or my eyes with the brilliant light of the midday sun...
‘There is one fruit that makes you gods, O men. —That which hangs from My Cross.
There is One Who says to your minds: "Ephphatha" ["Be opened" -- Mk 7:34]. —The Christ.
There is One Thing that makes fertile the mystic soil of your hearts, that the seed may be born there. —My Blood.
There is one Sun that warms and grows the ear of grain of eternal Life in you. — Love.
There is one science that, like a ploughshare, opens and harrows your clod and makes it fit to receive the seed. —My Science.
There is One Master: —I, the Christ. Come to Me if you want to be instructed in the Truth.’
(As received from Jesus Christ, in vision, by His faithful servant and handmaid Maria Valtorta, aka ‘little John’, November 11, 1943)
Lorens N.
(April 25-30, 2009)
* 'There are many known as Christians who are yet non-Christians. Christ said: 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).' We can know the Way only by walking in it; the Truth only by seeking it with our whole heart; and the Life only by living it.There are many so-called Christians who have no desire to walk in the Way, or to know the Truth, or even to live the Life; so they have no part in the knowledge of the Truth, or in the experience of the Life lived in the Living Christ, and they leave the Way to take their own ways, of which end is destruction. Consequently, they are not only without Christ, and are themselves unbelievers, but are worse than many non-Christians.' Sadhu Sundar Singh 'With and Without Christ - chap. 3'
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