Where is He?

It is the same question asked by those who sought to find Him in the tomb…”Where is He?” Jesus was not there the tomb was empty.

This morning as I had my first cup of coffee while watching the window for first light, a song that I taught the choir many moons ago started coming into my head, “I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me, makes the lame to walk and the blind to see, opens prison doors sets the captives free, I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me. Spring up oh well within my soul, spring up oh well and make me whole, Spring up oh well and give to me that life abundantly.” Whoever authored those lyrics had the right thought and maybe had even experienced that living well flowing out of himself but does the singer of those words take them literally or are they simply a string of words that link together fitting a catching little tune?

In John 7 we see Jesus at a great feast where everyone had been eating and drinking to the full! He had waited until the last, the greatest day of the feast before even going and as He looked at the people filling themselves He stood up and with a loud voice proclaimed “If any man thirst let him come to me and drink and to him that believes on me out of his belly (innermost being) will flow rivers of living water!” Of course those sitting around, probably under the influence of the wine they were drinking, didn’t understand what He meant anymore than they did when He, after having fed five-thousand with the small offering of fishes and loaves, told them (John 6:51) I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” What a stir that caused! They thought He was suggesting cannibalism and just walked away from Him. This brings to my mind John 15 where Jesus told the disciples that He was the vine and they were the branches, “If you abide in me and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it will be done for you.”

Dear Reader, is it starting to pull together in your mind where I am going with this? Have you looked at a fruit-bearing vine, or any fruit-bearing tree for that matter? Here it goes, Déjà vu all over again, as the flower comes from the stick, the juicy peach comes from a wooden branch, the succulent grape comes from a vine, Jesus is saying that He is in us, we are in Him and it is because He gave Himself up for us. Once you have eaten and digested a piece of steak or a crusty piece of bread you can’t find it and separate it from your blood stream can you? It has become a part of your body and sustains your life the way Jesus inside of us sustains us!

Now I am coming to an understanding of how it was that my ancestors were able to stand in the face of the Muslim soldiers who skinned them alive because they said that Jesus was more than a coat they could take off, that He was inside of them and part of them as their skin. The soldiers would take a knife and skin an area and tell them “We are looking for your Jesus, where is He?”

When I was teaching my classes and I really wanted to get a point across to them that was so deep inside of me that I felt I couldn’t bring it to the surface successfully, I would tell them “I wish I could just press my forehead against yours and just transmit this to you the way I feel it.” That’s the way I feel this moment in time.

If you could realize when you are singing, “I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me” that it is more than lyrics or a tune, it is a fact of life. He is part of your insides so that when you pray you don’t have to scream out your prayers… John 14:23 Jesus said “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”

We have access to the very Throne of God because He is within us. If you could ever grasp this fully you would never be afraid again, you are not alone, He is with you because He is IN you. John 14:19-20 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”

Now I ask the question of you, Where is He?