“…If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20
In John’s gospel we find where the Lord Jesus reveals to us just how real, and how close, He can be to us. The Lord said: “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.” (Jn. 14:21) What is the Lord saying here? He is laying down the conditions for communion between Himself and the individual who truly seeks Him. That communion is based upon trust, and obedience, the attitude of one belonging to the other in a righteous, and holy relationship.
In the book of Revelation, we see the Lord saying that He comes to the door of the heart and knocks, and this by Him speaking. How is this recognized? It is by a consciousness of need, and the heart drawn out to Christ, to hear His voice and respond. That response has for its greatest purpose to restore fellowship with Christ. Paul writes to the believers in Corinth that every believer is called “…into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1:9) John the Apostle, writes concerning this matter of fellowship with God by saying: “…and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 Jn. 1:3) What then should we expect when we come alone to meet God, with the Holy Scriptures in our hands, and the Spirit of God in the heart? What should be our anticipation if we are walking in the light as Christ is in the light, then looking at Calvary to grasp something of the suffering and loss of the Son to bring us into fellowship with Himself, and the Father? The answer lies in not only the awareness of God’s presence, but the conviction that He speaks through His written word as we trust the Spirit of God to speak. The bottom line is that we are not saved, or brought to faith in Christ, so that we should live a waterless, arid experience of unreality in the presence of God. On the contrary, we are called to worship Him first and foremost, so that out of that attitude and act of worship, Christ can reveal Himself to the heart and mind by the Spirit.
When the Apostle Paul was converted, he did not know all that was occurring as a result of the revelation of Christ to him on the Road to Damascus. However, later in his letter to the Galatian believers, he wrote: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, TO REVEAL His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen: immediately I consulted not with flesh and blood.” (1:16) Why did Paul not want to consult first with others, seeking their counsel, wisdom, and perspective? It was because of the reality and power of the revelation of Christ to his own heart, that no man had a part of. Christ Jesus had revealed Himself to His servant, and nothing could take the place of that meeting.
How important is this matter of God, Christ, being a living reality to us, even revealing, or manifesting Himself to us? In David’s Psalm 77, we find him seeking the Lord, “…in the day of My trouble.” (v.2) We later see him remembering “…my song in the night,” him communing with his heart in the night, making diligent search for the Lord. He would remember the works of the Lord in times past, and meditate on His doings. Then he comes to the point and realization, that “Thy way, O God is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?” (v.13) David found Christ in worship, and in finding Him, became aware of the reality of His presence. The same Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph. 1:17) is ours today.
Dear Father, Lead us into communion. In Jesus’ name, Amen.