The Way to the Abiding

What if there was a way to have God inhabit us, to take up residence in us. What if He were to have a prescribed procedure, which if followed, would create in us a welcoming habitation for our Savior and King. What if there was a way for Him to dwell in us—really make His abode in us, an everlasting presence, like the early church in the book of Acts.

The Abiding is a state of being where the Spirit of truth comes into us and abides or remains in us. The Son of God is the way for us to receive this state of being. Christ said that He is the Way. But the way to what exactly? The way to becoming His temple where He dwells, where He rules from, where He lives. The way for us to be His temple, the  place for our Father to hang His heart on. That is our destiny.

He is the Way forward toward this goal. How then do we follow the Way? He operates through His Spirit. It is through this auspice that He will inhabit us. But His Spirit is like the wind; it is invisible. So then, it takes faith—believing without first seeing.

But many have a problem with this invisibility. They don’t realize that you cannot please an invisible God if you don’t believe that He exists because you cannot see Him. It takes faith to see the fruit of the action of the Spirit. It is like believing that there indeed is a thing called “wind.” We believe that “wind” exists because we see its effects on the trees; we feel its coolness in summer and its frigidity in winter. We have also seen God’s effect on hearts, how he heals broken ones, how He encourages us with edifying words of love. You have seen humans touched by pure agape love.

“God is love” (I John 4: 8).  He has promised us the way to have Him, Agape Love, not only visit us on rare occasions, but also abide in us on a permanent basis. Christ is the Way to get there. He shows us the steps to take on the way to Him fully living in us. The way is the road we travel to get to that spiritual destination. He illuminates the path, for “God is light.” And the lighted pathway is His teachings, His pure unadulterated doctrines. Christ the grand and glorious Teacher has left us with His words. And it is His words that will show us how to be the temple of the Spirit, the place of His habitation, the place where He stays and remains. [The following is of utmost importance for us. Satan, an angel working through thoughts of the mind, has a job. It is to distract us—right now—to introduce other things for us to think about—things of this world and not the words of Christ to us. Remember this when your mind begins to wander away from the following. This subterfuge and distraction by Satan is ordained by God to test us, to give us a victory in Him when we overcome him and his distractions.]

How the Abiding Comes and Inhabits Us

One of Christ’s New Commandments is this: “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me” (John 14: 11). That is a command to us His disciples. If we obey this command, He has promised us that we will do even “greater works than” those He has done. “He that believes on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do…” (v. 12).

Verse 12 elucidates verse 11. Believing on Christ in verse 12 equals believing that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. When we believe that Yahweh, the invisible Spirit Creator, dwelt fully in the Son, then we believe on Christ. To say it plainly, Christ explains the way to have the Father abide in us. He commands us to believe that the Father Yahweh is in Him. This is believing on Christ. To believe on Christ is to believe His words about His relationship with the Father Yahweh. Yahweh, the Father, dwells inside the Son. “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:  9).

This is the truth. Christ is the Anointed One by definition. He proclaimed that He is the truth. Truth is the anointing that remains or abides in us after we obey His commandments, His New Commandments. “But the anointing which you have received of Him abides in you…the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth…” (I John 2: 27).

The anointing of the truth comes to us by His Spirit. Christ our great Teacher has lined it out how to receive this anointing. First, we must believe on Him by believing that the Son was in the Father and the Father in the Son. After this comes the “greater works” (John 14: 11-12).

Second, the “greater works” come through answered prayers. “And whatsoever you shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (14: 13). We pray, but not the kind of prayers we have sent up over the years. These prayers must be based upon His will, plan and purpose. Nothing for self; everything for Him. These prayers must be asked in the Son’s name. His original Hebrew name, not his English name. Asking in His name is acknowledging the meaning of His name.

For the meaning of the Son’s Hebrew name contains nothing less than the secret of the universe. The Son’s name is Yahshua, the same as the patriarch Joshua. Yahshua means “Yahweh Saves” or “Yahweh Is the Savior.” Remember this verse? “And you shall call His name Jesus [Yahshua], for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1: 21). The meaning of His name goes with us believing that the Father Yahweh is in the Son. For Yahweh is the Savior. The Spirit through Isaiah says, “I even I, am the LORD [Yahweh in Hebrew]; and beside me there is no savior” (Isa. 43: 11; 45: 21). Believing in the meaning of the Savior’s name is obeying Christ’s New Commandment to believe that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. The anointing in the form of the Spirit of truth teaches us all spiritual things. {Be sure to order my free book with free shipping Yah Is Savior. See end of article for details)

Third, keeping Christ’s commandments is loving Him. “If you love Me, keep my commandments” (John 14: 15). Especially believing that the Father Yahweh is in the Son, doing the works. And after we do this and keep His other commandments, He will give us a wonderful gift—the Comforter—“that He may abide with you forever” (14: 16). This Comforter is the Spirit of truth who “shall be in you.” This is the anointing/truth that will abide, stay and remain in us (v. 17).

In order for the Spirit of truth to abide in us, we must have the truth contained in His Spirit. Without the truth as to who God is and what He is doing in the earth, it is impossible to have His abiding presence which guarantees Him granting whatever we ask of Him. The truth is paramount—the truth of His purpose of reproducing Himself in us and His truth of His plan to get there.

And with this abiding, He wraps us all up into One. “At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (v. 20). We become one with Him. What an astounding promise. This promise is attainable now to His elect. It is not for the sweet bye and bye. His first fruit company of sons and daughters need this truth/anointing to accomplish the work He has scheduled for us in these latter days. We desperately need a closer walk with the Savior (John 14: 15-20).    Kenneth Wayne Hancock   (to be continued)