"But the Son of Man has no place to lay His head” Luke 9:58...

We can study ABOUT God, we can read the Bible stories ABOUT God but can we really get to KNOW God?

Jesus said YES, but only through Him.

So if we get to know Jesus we can get to know God? So how then do we get to know Jesus who died some two millennia ago?

Well how do you get to know anyone? You have lunch together of course!!

Jesus said:

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me." Revelation 3:20

But this means opening up the heart, and warding off the limiting mind for a change! This is a time for openness, a time for the doubting mind to be sent to its room on a time out! Can we not ALLOW Jesus to exist, to be real and present with us?

And you may say - "I believe in God and thank Him often, what more could I want?!"

Well what if the Lord wants more? What if He wants a personal relationship with you as one who; to quote from John McCrae's poem 'In Flanders Fields; "...felt dawn, saw sunset glow, loved and (was) loved"?  This is the Jesus who, "dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth".  John 1:14 This is the One who knew would be murdered should He come to rescue us from the forces of Evil, forces ravenous to consume us, body, soul and spirit! This is the One whose Spirit lives on and "stands at the door of our hearts" waiting to be let in, longing to have a saving, personal and living relationship with us, not only to be 'believed in'.

So am I suggesting some kind of 'possession' enters the heart, inhabits the body, the soul?

You know the story of Jesus' first miracle; from John chapter 2; where large empty vessels were; at Jesus' instructions; filled to the brim or 'possessed' with water, then transformed into the wine representing the Spirit of Jesus? When we are "filled to the brim" we are displaced with the Spirit of Jesus, there is no space for inhabitation by any evil spirit or entity. It would seem that in our 'hearts', there is a space, a room where spirits take up their abode. (Modern 'psychology' may call this the 'unconscious mind') Jesus tells us that this space cannot remain empty, it is either filled with the Holy Spirit, or filled with demons; as shocking as this may seem!:

“Now when the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they come in and live there; and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first!" Matthew 12:43-45

So the short answer to the question is yes; to be protected from the evil forces that bear down upon us practically from the moment we are born, to be 'saved' or 'rescued' from them, the Spirit of the risen Jesus must take up residence, must fill us "to the brim", leaving no space for any other entity to abide.

So you see, it is back to the 'Good Shepherd', so longing to love and protect His sheep, to take up His abode with us! We will not leave Him standing outside in the cold, we will make a home for Him within our hearts! We will not make true His words: "Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” Luke 9:58