“Never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age.” (Matthew 28:20 TPT)

When God gives us a promise, He is more than willing and able to fulfill it.  More so, He is faithful to do it and make it good.  That’s a definite!   He is not just more than willing and able to do it, but He is more than willing and able to do it FOR YOU and FOR ME.  This intimate truth is a PLUS when we are fully persuaded in our hearts.

Many of us may think that when we hear or read this promised verse, “I Am with you always.”, it only literally means He is with us.  Oh well, I used to think that way, until one day the Holy Spirit impressed in my heart that He is not just with us, but He is moving with us in our midst.  He is watching over us, to guard us, to protect us, to empower us, to strengthen us and to help us.  He is standing right here among us, and He is the champion who will rescue us. He will joyfully celebrate over us; He quiets us in His love.  He rejoices over us with singing.

God is never with us as an spectator.  He is our Creator Who loves to show Himself strong to His beloved creation.  He is our Heavenly Father  Who desires to lavish His love upon us, His precious sons and daughters.  The truth of His Word says, “The steps of a [good] man are directed and established by the Lord when He delights in his way [and He busies Himself with his every step].” (Psalm 37:23 AMPC)  He chooses to be involved in our everyday dealings, but this can only be experientially attained when we allow Him to, and not just allow Him, but by making Him to be the Lord in every area of our lives.  And what He has promised and spoken into our hearts is not to be subject to the analysis of our human thinking that He is only doing something as we see it.  We go by faith and not by sight. 

In Isaiah 41:10, He said, “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”  This clearly describes that He is always in action and on the go with us.  He goes with us wherever we go, never leaving us nor forsaking us and this spiritual reality infuses us with strength and courage knowing in our hearts that we are never alone.  You and I are clothed with His glory and walking in His story.

I was online fellowshipping with a few friends last night, and one of them shared a wonderful testimony of God’s goodness. 

My friend’s family owns a big property located in a prime location.  Because they have been financially in need of their daily provision, they decided to put the property on sale for them to get a smaller house and live by the excess from the cost of the latter.  This was five years ago.  We all agreed in prayer for it to be sold speedily, but it did not happen when we wanted it to happen.  There were inquiries and even a nearly-closed deal, yet the sale got aborted in spite of having been given the earnest money by the supposed buyer. 

Many things happened after that.  When pandemic came,  he was tested positive with covid-19 twice, that somehow caused him to raise a lot of questions in his mind, yet he overcame them by the grace of God.  He was feeding on God’s faithfulness, knowing from the depth of his heart that the Lord is always with him, whether he is at the peak of his mountain or in the deepest of his valley.  Despite the loss of one of his family members to covid-19, my friend remained steadfast in his walk with the Lord.  He is fully persuaded that the Lord is moving behind the scenes.

He kept believing and declaring, with full conviction that there is power in the words that come out from his mouth.  Oh yes, the Word of God says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” (Proverbs 18:21).  The Message Paraphrase says, “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—YOU CHOOSE.”

What do we want to SEE in our lives? We frame our world by the words that we speak. It is such a massive expense on our part not to know the truth of the Word of God, because this is where the enemy takes advantage of us.  He blinds our eyes to the truth so that he can take control of us.  He busies himself to bombard us with challenges that distract our focus from the Lord our God.  He desires for us to disconnect from the Spirit of the Living God for one reason — it is our connectedness to the Vine that gives him no room to triumph over us.  Our intimate relationship with Jesus reminds him of his eternal damnation without redemption. Our revelation knowledge that He Who is in us and for us is greater securely places him in his defeated place. His lies are nothing compared to the Truth of Who Jesus is.

Thanks be to God Who is rich in mercy and abounding in love.  He is mighty to save us from the schemes of the enemy by opening our eyes TO SEE the truth of Who He is, who He made us to be and the power and authority that He has given to us by the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

 ^“Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot SEE the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

If we want to SEE the Kingdom of God, His righteousness, His peace and His joy in the Holy Spirit, we are to be born of the Spirit, and for this to happen, “we publicly declare with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we will experience salvation. The heart that believes in Him receives the GIFT of the righteousness of God—and then the mouth confesses, resulting in salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10 TPT).

When Jesus becomes our Lord and Savior, He not only opens our eyes to see, but He directs our eyes to see what we need to see and what He intends for us to see. 

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.  God has revealed those things to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, especially the deep things of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

The presence of God in my friend’s life indeed is sustaining him in spite of what is going on around him.  After triumphing over covid-19 by the stripes of Jesus Christ, he was diagnosed with dengue fever.  At this point, he somehow became tired of having to go through all these.  But then, He SAW once again the goodness of God and His faithfulness in his life by being victorious over it.  He is a cancer-overcomer, and he overcame it by the Blood of the Lamb of God and the word of his testimony. 

For a month, a glorious supernatural provision came to them. There was a 30-day long supply of breakfast, lunch and dinner delivered at their doorstep, day in and day out. Oh how the Lord showed Himself mighty and strong to him and his family.  Glory to God.

Shortly after, an agent called him up that someone was interested in buying the property.  This time, he was no longer excited because of the past inquiries that never came to fruition.  He told us how He surrendered everything to the Lord and how he was willing to wait.  But due to the agent’s insistent calls, he decided to make his cousin deal with the agent.  Before he knew it, the deal was closed and the property got sold. 

Now, he realized why his breakthrough came only now and why the sale needed to be channeled through his cousin.  He said, in the five years of waiting, the Lord changed his heart and humbled him to wait and fully yield to His will.  It was in the waiting that made him learn how to be a good steward of their money.  It was in the waiting where He realized that the Lord is with him always, as his very present help in time of need.  It was in the waiting where He saw the manifested goodness of God that changed him from the inside out.

“Do you realize that all the wealth of His extravagant kindness is meant to melt your heart and lead you into repentance?” (Romans 2:4 TPT)

Indeed, the time came when his eagerness to sell the property was overridden and overtaken by his yieldedness to God’s will. 

Truly, God is after our character. He loves us too much that He desires for us not to remain the same and where we are at. He calls us His own, therefore, He is more than willing to bless us than us getting blessed. Yes, He always answers our prayers, but it is always according to how He wants it answered and when He wants it to manifest.  He is a Perfect God, soooo perfect in all His ways, therefore, His perfect will is all planned out perfectly, that our breakthroughs will not destroy us but prosper us where we get to be a blessing to those around us.

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, thank You, for Your great love for me that I can never be separated from because I am in Christ.  Thank You, Jesus, for being my Lord and Savior. Thank You for opening my eyes to see You face to face by the power of Your Word revealed to me by Holy Spirit.   Thank You that in You I am connected to the Vine where heaven on earth and everlasting life flow.  Thank You, Holy Spirit, for being the Living Water that never runs dry, forever nourishing, forever reviving, forever refreshing, forever revitalizing, forever strengthening, forever quickening, forever causing me to bloom as I live to constantly drink from the River that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  Amen!

Photo Credits: Ms Joanne Geronimo