He who dwells and abides possesses.

Psalm 91 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”
³ For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with His pinions,
And under His wings you may seek refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

⁵ You will not be afraid of the terror by night,
Or of the arrow that flies by day;
⁶ Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side
And ten thousand at your right hand,
But it shall not approach you.
⁸ You will only look on with your eyes
And see the recompense of the wicked.
⁹  For you have made the Lord, my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place.
¹⁰ No evil will befall you,
Nor will any plague come near your tent.

¹¹ For He will give His angels charge concerning you,
To guard you in all your ways.
¹² They will bear you up in their hands,
That you do not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread upon the lion and cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.

¹⁴ “Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.
¹⁵ “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
¹⁶ “With a long life I will satisfy him
And let him see My salvation.”

The psalmist expresses a key to living in the blessing, provision and protection of the Lord.  He says: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. All of the promises of protection and provision, all the blessings described by the psalmist are for the one who dwell and abides in the presence of God. Too often we tend to visit God’s presence. We may be disciplined and structured enough in our lives to set aside blocks of time which we devote to being in the Lord’s presence through worship, prayer and meditation. But the psalmist says that the protection and blessing of God is for the one who dwells and abides there, not for the one who merely visits. Jesus often said, when He was here on earth as a man, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus, being fully God and fully man, walked under an open heaven. He lived and walked always abiding in the presence of the Father. He said of the things He did:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. (John 5:19-20)

We too are called to live and walk under that same open heaven just like Jesus. We are capable of doing it because of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in us. Surly if God, through the Holy Spirit, dwells in us, then we can abide and dwell in the heavenly presence of God, even as we walk in this world. Our true, eternal citizenship is with God. We walk here in this earthly realm only for a short time. God promises: “He will not fail you or forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6) The psalmist says: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4) God is ever present ever protecting those who have come to dwell and abide in Him. That’s why the psalmist says: ⁵ You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day; ⁶ Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. ⁷ A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, But it shall not approach you.

Psalm 118:6 says: The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? If we will truly live our lives focused on the things of heaven not the things of earth. If we will dwell and abide in the presence of God, walking in fellowship and communion with God even as we walk in this world, then we will have nothing to fear from the world. As Paul says:  we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)  Paul also exhorts us:  If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)

Finally, let’s look at what else we have, what we possess as we live and walk in the Spirit, dwelling and abiding in God’s presence. Romans 8:11 says:  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.      You see, we not only have the protection, provision and blessing of God as we dwell and abide in His presence, but because He abides and dwells in us we also have His power. The same power that raised Christ from the dead, resurrection power, dwells in us as we abide in Him and walk by the Spirit. In Acts 1:6-8, Jesus, after His resurrection, encouraged and exhorted the disciples:  So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; ⁸ but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”   

Earlier we saw what Jesus said about seeing and hearing what the Father is doing: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. (John 5:19-20)   Jesus says the same of us, He says:  Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. (John 14:12-14)

Protection, provision and power are ours as we dwell and abide in Him. We become part of the answer to the prayer of our Lord. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.     Amen.