I was just listening to Barry Adams on www.fatherheart.tv/teaching-videos (inspirational stuff!) and he said he always thought the Father was 'way up there somewhere' because of the Lord's prayer, "Our Father, who is in Heaven." And something went ping in my head. If we pray this prayer often, will we have a false view of where the Father is? Barry did.
So did Jesus MEAN us to keep praying it? After all he later said that the Spirit would come and consequently he, Jesus, would live in them and so too would the Father. John 14:23 Mmm... It is clear that we cannot confine the Father to either Heaven or 'our hearts' - as he is above and beyond all things. But somehow we can miss this reality, of the Father's love actually invading our hearts and the deepest places of our being because we have this picture of him being 'up there in Heaven'.
There is always a danger of taking one scripture and making it exclude the truth of others. He is not JUST 'in heaven' - he also comes to us now, in our hearts, here on earth. Psalm 139 describes it well. "Where can I flee from your presence?" Actually - no-where... but we do have the capacity to shut him out of our hearts and our deepest memories and subconscious mind. He awaits our invitation to come in and heal and reveal and comfort and cleanse and make new. What a privilege - to invite in this guest and ask him to take over! Why do we resist such perfect love...?
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