"Where Is Jesus?"

April - June, 2005

He was seen here on earth, preaching of His Father’s heavenly kingdom, lifting up hearts from despair. We saw Him eat and live with common people. He lifted their hopes, healed them of their sicknesses and diseases. He opened blinded eyes and brought their dead back to life. He smiled upon their children and lifted them up before God. To those who afflicted the people Jesus was an adversary. He railed against them that demeaned God’s beloved. He defended the defenseless and justified the wrongly accused He walked with the lowly. and ate with the unlearned, the unknown, the unassuming. He was a friend to the castaways. He stood up for His heavenly Father and declared His holy Name and His Word openly. He made known the Kingdom of God. He taught of mercy and forgiveness, love and faith toward God.

He asked for nothing that He did not first give. He looked not for fame but for faith. He freely gave life everlasting to those who received Him. In light of this He promised not peace but persecution to those who followed Him. His Words were simple, straight-forward and clean. He spoke with total authority; and demonstrated His Word through signs and wonders. He fed the multitudes, walked on water, cast out devils. He made known Who He was with many infallible proofs. All the while He was meek, approachable and humble. He was a King Who entered among people, serving them, a mighty man with a tender heart, a Son of God Who saved the lost.

He had no earthly wealth or riches. His only possession was His devotion to His Father and His love for God’s people.

Where is this Jesus?

For all the good He did He was stalked by critics. Those who ought to have listened to Him rose up against Him. They despised Him, being a Man of the people. They loathed Him and arrested Him. They laid false charges against Him, mocked Him, spat on Him, beat Him. They kept Him up all night, without sleep, tried Him illegally, lied on Him and turned Him over to further judgment, where He was finally whipped and beaten and laughed at and sneered and crowned with thorns upon His head. They degraded Him, sneered at His Words and shamed Him openly. They completed their vehemence by crucifying Him to death. Now this Jesus was done with; now He was no more. If anyone asked, "Where is Jesus". The answer would come back, "He is dead".

And dead He was. His lifeless body was removed from the cross. He was buried in a borrowed grave. Yet three days in the cold tomb could not hold the Son of Life. And in the power of His own Name and that of the Father and the Holy Spirit He rose up from the dead. Death could keep Him no more. Its grip was cast off! It could not contain the Son of glory. Eyeing the empty tomb, others cried out, "Where is Jesus". And the answer returned, "He is risen from the dead!"

Jesus is alive forever more!

This same Jesus, Who was dead and buried, now walked once more among His people, ate and talked with them, for forty long days. Then, before their very eyes He ascended up in a cloud, into heaven. Five hundred witnesses beheld Him.

Where was Jesus? He was gone again.

But not for long. Ten days later the promise of the Spirit came upon a hundred and twenty praying believers, waiting obediently in the Upper Room. A mighty rushing wind entered the place and tongues, as it were, of fire appeared upon their heads. They all began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them the utterance.

Where was Jesus? He was now dwelling inside these hundred twenty believers by His Holy Spirit, which He had promised to give them. The Man Who had died in full view of everyone was now alive in full view, in all those who believed. His very life occupied the lives of many saints.

More than before, people were drawn to Jesus, from every direction - north and south, east and west. They received His Word and met Him personally through those who were now temples of His Holy Spirit.

Where was Jesus? Jesus was alive everywhere His Gospel was preached and the Spirit of God was received. He was in this believer and that one. He was in men and women, bond and free, Jew and Gentile, kings and commoner, educated and uneducated, in this land and that one. Jesus was found walking the streets of the world in those who received Him.

Nevertheless, the darkness that opposed Him when He walked as a man, opposes those in whom He dwells today. His sons and daughters are fraught with persecution, troubles and tribulations, just as He said they would be. "Those who live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Yet, this very same Jesus Who defeated sin and Satan in His earthly life, has granted His saints that same authority to do likewise.

Where is Jesus today? He is at work in the hearts of believers standing as He stood, on the authority of God’s Word, taking hold of what God had given them and driving off the adversaries of sin and Satan.

Where is Jesus today? He is in the soul of His saints who are on their knees in prayer. He is in the bosom of the beloved calling out to God for deliverance and strength. He is in the mind of Believers taking hold of the Scriptures and claiming the promises of God, by the Holy Spirit. He is in the midst of worshippers, agreeing together in faith and in prayer for the purposes of God in their homes, on their jobs, in their families, in their cities. He is in the fire of the evangelist advancing God’s Kingdom, the power of the preacher delivering God’s Word, the heart of the missionary presenting the Gospel to the lost.

Where is Jesus today? He is in the city streets, the rural back roads, the mountainous passage ways, the hidden valleys, seeking and saving that which is lost. He is still doing His Father’s work.

Where is Jesus today? He is in heaven preparing a place for His elect; and He is in earth, gathering that elect into His own Body. The Spirit of Jesus is working more now than He ever worked when He was a single vessel walking on the face of the earth. He said His followers would do greater works than He did. And it is so. Souls everywhere are working in faith, in prayer, in intercession, to advance the Kingdom of Christ.

Prayer is that mighty means the Lord Himself has given His people to draw from the resources of heaven, through faith, the very will of God the Father. Prayer is the means by which many are carried on the journey of Jesus. In prayer we stand with Christ. By prayer we walk where He walks. Through prayer we are able to run and not grow weary. Prayer is the mighty mechanism that keeps us connected to the Son of Man. Jesus said, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask what you will and it will be done unto you." Prayer is the means of our abiding. So that where He walks we walk. Where He stands, we stand. Whatever He leaves behind, we leave behind. Prayer keeps me with Jesus.

Where is the Lord Jesus Christ today? Look at those who cling to His sayings. Look at those who continually serve others. Look at those who pray without ceasing. That’s where you will find Him. You’ll see Him big as day, right there in their lives and in their deeds.

Prayer warms the heart for God and makes for Him an abiding place for the soul.

Prayer is an abiding place for Jesus. Pray always!   ###