God Is with You

Don't think of God as being far away, because God is with you always. "For in Him we live and move and have our being"(Acts 17:28) That means God is where you are. Know God is there all the time. Only faith recognizes God is present everywhere. Unbelief cannot know God is present anywhere.

God is with you always. He's where you are now. Even though you don't see God, the Bible teaches that God is everywhere. Theologians use the word omnipresence, which means God is everywhere. Therefore, you can say with the psalmist,"The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth"(Psalm 145:18).

There is not only the omnipresence of God, but there is also the manifest presence of God. Know God is everywhere all the time, yet God may manifest himself in different ways at different times. God manifested his presence on the Day of Pentecost in a dramatic way (Acts 2). Yet, we should not think of God as only present in dramatic and unusual ways.

Know by faith that God is with you always (Hebrews 11:1-6). No need to seek dramatic manifestations to know that God is with you. Someone may say,"How can God be with me? I can't see Him nor feel His presence." Faith does not require feelings nor manifestations to know that God is with you always. Jesus says, "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20).

The Gift of Faith

"God has dealt to each one a measure of faith" (Romans 12:3). What God requires of you, God provides for you. Faith is received as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Faith is a gift of God's grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). Faith is one of the three abiding gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit, through the word of God. The word of Holy Scripture is inspired by the Spirit of God. The same Holy Spirit gives you faith from God through the word of God. "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). Therefore, "receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21).

Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are "looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). Faith is not self-confidence. To the contrary, it is confidence in God through Christ. He is both the author and finisher of our faith.

Faith is a gift which comes with boldness. That boldness is confident assurance in Christ. The gift of faith gives you bold access to God through "Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him" (Ephesians 3:11-12).

God's Love for All

God's love is for all nations and races. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Whoever includes every nation, all races, and every ethnic group. Whoever includes you.

God's love is for all through the gospel of Jesus Christ. God's love sent his Son to die for sinners like you and me (Romans 5:8). He died for our sins at the cross (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Look at God's love in Christ crucified. This is the greatest love story the world has ever known. Yes, God the Father's love for you is forever proven.

God's love is for all through the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:13). The Holy Spirit makes God's love real to all believers. Upon confessing Jesus as Lord, the Holy Spirit does something beyond our ability to completely understand. He pours out the Father's love into our hearts. Our lives are changed by love divine.

God's love is forever to all in Jesus Christ. Nothing can separate us from the infinite love of God. That includes trouble, persecution, suffering, and even death. God loves us now and forever. Everlasting life in Christ is the Father's everlasting love (Romans 8:37-38).

The Abiding Gifts

"Now abide faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love"(1 Corinthians 13:13). There are many more gifts of the Holy Spirit, but these three are for all who abide in Christ. The absolute assurance of our new birth is found in these three abiding gifts of the Spirit. Now they abide in you. They are not temporary gifts.

These three abiding gifts of the Spirit enable us to abide in Christ. We are saved by faith in Christ, based upon the gospel(1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Our blessed hope is in Christ, looking for his appearing and our glorification (Romans 8:30; 1 John 3:2). The love of Christ abides in our heart (Romans 5:5; 5:8)."We love him because he first loved us"(1 John 4:19).

Faith enables us to abide in Christ daily. Hope enables us to abide in Christ unto the future. These are gifts of the Holy Spirit. God not only makes sure promises in the Bible, but the Holy Spirit gives us the faith and hope to receive those promises. Faith and hope are abiding gifts for us to abide in Christ. 

Faith and hope enables us to abide in Christ with the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit. That's God's everlasting love. God loves us with an everlasting love that is faithful and forever (Romans 8:37-39). Our personal relationship with God is abiding in Christ. These three gifts of the Holy Spirit are in all who abide in Christ.