This author wanted to “bring home” a simple, yet extraordinary truth.

As Christians living in a very complicated and busy world, we tend to perceive God as somewhere way out on the other side of the space-time continuum … where the Kingdom of God is just waiting in preparation for our resurrected bodies to someday inhabit.

Where this is certainly true in our 3-dimensional perception of reality (Christ did say that He’s “gone to prepare a place for us”), there’s a deeper truth lying just below the surface.

Concerning the immediate reality of the presence of God, Paul spoke to the philosophers at Mars Hill saying:

“That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:27-28)

So, just how close is God?

Well, we know that He lives within US through the Spirit … that’s pretty close!

But we also know that we live within HIM; because, that’s where we “live, and move, and HAVE OUR BEING”!

That’s pretty close, too!

Praying to His Father, Jesus put it this way:

“…the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:22)

“… as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21)

“… that they may be made perfect in one” (John 17:23)

The GLORY of God that abides in each one of us … makes us ONE!

So, when the glory of God in me meets the glory of God in you … it “perfects” us!

“… if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1John 1:7)

We may think we’re just having a nice conversation with each other in the Lord, but just on the other side of the veil of our flesh, the Father, Jesus Christ, ourselves and the Spirit within us are all wrapped up with each other having a WONDERFUL time in the Holy Ghost!

Talk about a “Camp Meeting”!

Of course, we can’t see this happening with our natural eyes, but all those who have engaged in such intercourses have sensed it within their innermost being. It is an overwhelming awareness of an abundant supply of JOY, PEACE and LOVE in the Holy Ghost!

Scientist have concluded that on an atomic level, this physical world isn’t “solid” at all. It is mostly made up of empty space.

The only reason the world has an appearance of solidity is the atoms which make up different materials are vibrating at intense speeds. They also vibrate at different frequencies. Wood vibrates at a different speed and frequency than steel … the same with water versus Jello. That’s why your Bluetooth, television, smart phone and radio don’t all crash incoherently into one another because they are separated by different frequencies and can’t interact with one another.

If all the materials of this universe vibrated at the same frequency, we could freely move through all of it … because we would all be on the same plane of existence.

Have you ever wondered how, after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples having both “flesh and bone” one moment and then vanished from their sight the next? Well, He was simply moving between frequencies … one of the Spirit realm and one of this material world.

Have you ever experienced hearing what you believed was the voice of God? It wasn’t quite an audible voice, but you knew it came from Him? Well, your “hearing” and His “speaking” were just both communicating on the same frequency … whatever that frequency happened to be. There’s no doubt that it was REAL! And the same holds true when, at those times, you may have explicitly felt the presence of the Lord or an angel!

Now you know what the prophets of old were experiencing!

“And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.” (1Samuel 3:10)

When Jesus returns, we may behold Him in the clouds, but He will not have had to “travel” here. He will simply have stepped out of one multi-dimension into another. So, Christ is not waiting anxiously to return to Earth from the heavenly places (like we are in this life). In His time and dimension, He might have just arrived there!

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2Peter 3:8)

The spirit world just functions on an entirely different frequency than ours. But it is just as real and near to us as our own skin! That’s how “close” we are to it! We transcend that frequency every time we experience the Father in our prayer closet or when, in His mercy, He extends a miraculous healing touch to our weary minds and bodies.

Just “tweak” the frequency the slightest bit and, in the “twinkling of an eye”, we would all find ourselves in our glorified bodies which we ALREADY possess in the Spirit. Because the Spirit within us is the “down payment” of that glorified body!

“Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the EARNEST of the Spirit.” (2Corinthians 5:5)

Because after you believed …

“…ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest (down payment) of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession (our glorified body).” (Ephesians 1:14-15)

Kind’a neat, huh?

Paul knew this!

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2Corinthians 5:1)

“For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven… knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord” (2Corinthians 5:2,6)

There is a great Old Testament example of this extremely thin “divide” between the flesh and the spirit realm. It is found in 2Kings 6:15-17. Israel was facing a great battle. And it looked so hopeless that Elisha’s servant cried out to him:

“Alas, my master! how shall we do?”

“And Elisha answered him, saying:”

“Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”

“And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”

Those “horses and chariots of fire” were there all along. But only Elisha saw them.

But as it was with Elisha, so it is with us. We are surrounded in the spirit realm with a great multitude of angels that are ready to do battle against our enemies at a moment’s notice.

We may not be aware of it, but their presence is just as real as “your hand in front of your face”.

When one realizes this … where is fear?

It evaporates in the knowledge of our protection!

Where is doubt and unbelief?

They vanish into the vast mist of darkness!

All that remains is the beauty and security of the unseen reality of God’s great love for us … which surrounds us wherever we go or whatever we are doing … even when we are sleeping.

“Therefore we are always CONFIDENT, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (Corinthians 5:6-7)

So, knowing we are currently “absent from the Lord” in this body, just how far apart from God are we?

Well, Stephen could tell you:

After the Pharisees heard him give one of the most powerful messages of all time, they were “cut to the heart” and…

“… they gnashed on him with their teeth.” (Acts 7:54)

“But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly INTO heaven, and SAW the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:55-56)

“Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him.” (Acts 7:57-58)

And as they stoned Stephen, he called upon God (who had just pulled back the thin veil of this world to welcome him “home”) saying,

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts 7:59)

“And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” (Acts 7:60)

WOW! What a homecoming!

No fear! No doubt! No unbelief!

Only love and forgiveness … and his legacy of knowing Christ in his EARTHLY FLESH that carried with it this testimony down through the centuries:

“And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.” (Acts 6:8)

And when…

“…there arose certain of the synagogue … disputing with Stephen … they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.” (Acts 6:9-10)

“And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.” (Acts 6:15)

That’s pretty close!

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