God Wants to Be With Us?

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
Isiah 7:14

What other belief system exists where God Himself desires to enter into the lives of people and be with them? Besides the virgin birth which is foretold in this verse, what greater miracle is there that compares to God literally doing that? And if it’s true what does it look like to experience this Immanuel with us right now in every aspect of the lives we live?

This incredible desire is spoken by the One who had already shown Himself, and was showing Himself, to be with His people Israel but was revealing how He would come in a new special way. Not only would this one be Messiah, He would also be Immanuel, “With us is God”!

At just the right time for this to happen, 700 years later, Messiah Yeshua (or Jesus) came to be with us, first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, to all for all time who would accept His invitation and the means to enter into it. Sadly though the idea of Immanuel seems largely ignored by most Jews and relegated to Christmas music by the Gentiles.

But while ignored by some and minimized by others, He lives to go through all of the good the bad and the ugly of this life with us and for that to extend throughout all of eternity. After His resurrection, He gave an incredible opportunity to His first followers that would extend to all other followers of His from that time on. This opportunity was to carry-on His life purpose as our very own with the incredible promise that He would do it together with us.

Christians typically call this the great commission but there are perhaps better things to call it. He concludes it in the book of Matthew 28:20, just before He departs from them physically, that “lo, I will be ‘with’ you always, even unto the end of the age”. Instead of giving followers of His a job and a pat on the head to do their best, He gives them a life and says He will help them live it to the fullest.

This leads us back to the questions posed before and our answers to them are crucial. Even better, let’s ask Him to answer the third question with His ongoing help.

Just as Jesus was always aligned and and one with His Father, only doing what He saw Him doing (John 5:19), we are invited to be one with Them (John 17) and to enter into what they are doing. This would lead us to ask, “what is Jesus doing?”, and join Him in those things all of the time.