God is…in you

God is so cool!  How many times have you heard me say that in the past?  I am down with the flu but the cool thing is that it gives me some extra time to devote to this blog post.   

I am continuing my word/phrase study on the character of God.  As you can see from the title the phrase is "in you" as in God is in you.  Now there are 137 uses of the word combination of "in you" in the Bible.  Many of them, like this one, have nothing to do with the subject at hand.

Genesis 42:16(NKJV)

Send one of you, and let him bring your brother; and you shall be kept in prison, that your words may be tested to see whether there is any truth in you; or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies!” 

On the other hand I found 17 Scriptures that are relevant.  What is even cooler is that they come from both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  As many of you know, one of my principals of Bible study is that I look for confirmation in both the OT and the NT.  In this case I got it.  :)

Ezekiel 37:14(NKJV)

I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord.’”

Daniel 4:8-9(NKJV)

But at last Daniel came before me (his name is Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god; in him is the Spirit of the Holy God), and I told the dream before him, saying: 

“Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the Spirit of the Holy God is in you, and no secret troubles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and its interpretation.

Daniel 4:18(NKJV)

        “This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, declare its interpretation, since all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation; but you are able, for the Spirit of the Holy God is in you.”

Daniel 5:14(NKJV)

I have heard of you, that the Spirit of God is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. 

These verses from Ezekiel and Daniel introduce the concept of the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) indwelling us.  In the OT not everybody gets this honor.  In fact in the Ezekiel passage where God is speaking, God says that He put His spirit in to someone.  That changes with the NT.  Starting with Jesus we get to ask for Jesus to come in to our lives and when we do we get the Holy Spirit in us as part of the deal.  Pretty cool!

Matthew 10:19-20(NKJV)

But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; 

for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

John 5:38(NKJV)

But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. 

(this one is the opposite showing that those who don't accept Jesus don't have God in them.)

John 6:53(NKJV)

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 

(another way of saying without Jesus, no God in you)

John 14:17(NKJV)

the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 

John 14:20(NKJV)

At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 

Romans 8:9-11(NKJV)

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 

And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

1 Corinthians 3:16(NKJV)

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 

1 Corinthians 6:19(NKJV)

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 

2 Corinthians 13:5(NKJV)

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 

Galatians 4:19(NKJV)

My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, 

Ephesians 4:4-6(NKJV)

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 

one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 

one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

Colossians 1:27(NKJV)

To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 

1 John 4:4(NKJV)

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 

Now some might say "so what?".   

Here is why I think it is important. 

There are way too many Christians who feel unworthy or walk around feeling defeated.  Why is that?  I'm sure there are many reasons but I bet one of them is that people don't take this concept of God in us seriously enough.  They view it as a cool rhetorical device but they don't take it literally which I think is a mistake. 

I think it should be taken literally.  I think having God in us provides us with a tremendous advantage.  Look at the OT examples.  Did God put His Spirit in people so they could accomplish piddly little things or did God give them the ability to achieve great things? 

God has a plan for each and every one of our lives.  A great plan, not a piddly little plan.  Scripture tells us that God will give us all we need to fulfill His plan if we actually go out and do the work. 

Why don't more go out and do the work?  I believe for many they simply don't believe that they can.  They don't have the confidence.  That is where I believe taking "God in you" literally can make the difference.  With God in you, you can rely on God's confidence until you have enough of your own.    Does that make sense? 

Whatever it is you need to do to accomplish God's plan in your life, would you have more confidence if God was standing right there beside you as you did it?  Would you really be afraid to ask someone for something or propose something to somebody if God was standing right there with you? 

Well guess what, Scripture tells us that God is actually right there with us!  Physically right there in our bodies with us.  So since God is putting in all this time hanging out with us, let's make it worth His time by going out and accomplishing great things for God!