I’ve been wanting to write this post now for some time, and today is that day. It has to do with a subject matter which I have spent much time addressing here and it focuses on the importance of ‘abiding in Jesus’.

I sense there are some folks out there who by now, after hanging with me here for some time, have maybe recognized that despite their years of ‘faithful church service’ and ‘sincere belief in Jesus’... just may have come to a place where they could admit...that abiding in Jesus really is a ‘thing’ that has eluded them for a host of reasons. (2 Cor. 13:5)

And you might even be asking: “Ok...so how do I start, and do this consistently, this ‘abiding thing’?” Please allow me say upfront that what happened to me nearly 5 years ago that forever changed my life and the trajectory of my walk of faith, had nothing to do with beginning a personal study on what it means to abide in Jesus; far from it. I often refer to my personal ‘awakening’ as a ‘burning-bush-moment’ that was reminiscent of Jesus calling Lazarus out of his tomb of darkness and death. But this time, it was not Lazarus Jesus called out, it was me. (1 Pet. 2:9). (See my blog post from 10.24.21).

[This will be a longer post than normal today.]

It was early March of 2020, literally days before the ‘pandemic’ shut our country down and changed the way we lived that God brought me to my knees through a divine cleansing experience in His word. I won’t rehash all that transpired in those early weeks other than to say that my heart was cleansed and healed as scales dropped from my eyes and I could ‘see again’. And what I saw ...’scared the hell’ out of me; and it had nothing to do with the drama that ensued with what was happening in the world due to Covid.

The psalmist writes: “Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord”. (Ps. 34:11). We know the ‘fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge’ (Prov.1:7) and that “God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. (Hosea 4:6)

With the country and the schools being ‘shut down’, so was my business and I had nothing but hours a day to spend buried in God’s word where He was able to ‘teach me a few things’. You might say He had my ‘undivided attention’. It was then I began to learn... ‘the fear of the Lord’.

Imagine, if you would, driving your vehicle on a long road trip, making use of the interstate highways, and somewhere along the way, you took a wrong turn, or an early exit. And not only did you end up on some side roads, you actually left all the paved roads and had been ‘off-roading’ it for a long time. So long in fact, that you forgot what it was like to drive on a freshly paved interstate. That would describe my spiritual walk at the time I had prior to my awakening. Now keep in mind that while you sense you may have lost your bearings, you have this hunch that you are still headed in the ‘right direction’; hopefully.

I’ve read where pilots who are flying planes can get buried in clouds or thick fog and lose their sense of direction quickly, which is why they need to rely on their instrument panel. More than a few pilots have flown their planes into a mountain side or into the ground because of a ‘deceptive hunch’ that they were ‘fine’.

So over the course of time as I was being schooled in three pivotal areas that SHOULD be basic teaching in all our churches, I rediscovered the significance and relevancy of God’s law, the reality of a spiritual enemy and his/their role in this world, and why this ‘old man’ or ‘flesh nature’ needs to be dealt with in entirety.

As the scales began to fall of my eyes and I saw the pure truth of God’s word, do you know what it did in me? It produced a genuine, holy and authentic...’fear of God’ that drove me to Him in repentance. And let the record show...it is the goodness and kindness of God that leads us to repentance. (Rom. 2:4).

We read how ‘after we repent, then comes the refreshing presence of the Lord’ (Acts 3:19) which is what that prodigal son had to experience when he returned to the father in Luke 15:20-24. And not only were ‘scales’ coming off my eyes, there also seemed to be a ‘spiritual unplugging’ in my ears where His voice began to resonate within me. Oh, before you roll your eyes about being able to ‘hear His voice’, you might go look at John 10:27 & Heb. 3:14-15.

There really was a heightened awareness of my ‘spiritual senses’ in all areas it seemed. You can probably understand why I often refer to this time as my ‘spiritual awakening’ or my ‘Lazarus experience’ as I truly was ‘coming back to life’; which only made me that much more cognizant as to how ‘dead’ I had been. (Eph. 2:1). You do realize this is how the father viewed his son in the story of the two brothers where one ‘departed’ and was a ‘long way off’. He was ‘dead’ to him, but then made alive again. (Luke 15:24). And let’s not forget that apart from Jesus, we can have no genuine ‘life’. (John 5:40; 15:4-5)

I need to emphasize here, it was not just the 'awakening' and all the 'good feels' that came from this, i.e. peace and joy, but it was responding to His still small voice in so many different little things He brought to my attention, that previously I had grown calloused to, or would have easily dismissed. It's one thing to hear His voice, it's another thing altogether to respond in obedience, which is what 'followers do'. (John 10:27)

This is what ‘abiding in Jesus’ is all about. It is so much more than just ‘accepting Christ’ and then joining a church somewhere and signing on for all the activities they offer to keep you busy and engaged. At some point well in to this awakening experience I underwent, there was the realization that this was what I was actually ...doing. I was ‘abiding in Him’. And there was no other place or thing I wanted to be doing. I was actually ‘walking in the newness of life’ that Romans 6:4 says we ‘should’ be doing....”IF”...we have been united together in the likeness of His death. (Rom. 6:5)

To ’be IN Christ’ is to be ‘abiding in Him’. This is how one becomes a ‘new creation’... which is not just a spiritual phrase we quote, but a living reality that we are to experience. If you read that verse in 2 Cor. 5:17, it states that ‘old things are passed away, and behold, all things become new.” And guess what? You won’t have to tell anyone about being a ‘new creation’ because ‘all will know’...by the fruit. (John 13:34-35; Matt. 7:20; 3:8) More tomorrow.