Dwelling in God’s Heart – The House of Refuge
Dwelling in God’s Heart – The House of Refuge.
“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8).
“I am inside My Father, and you are inside Me, and I am inside you.” (John 14:20).
Even though the phrase “accept Jesus into our heart” is not in Scripture, we get the picture. Accepting Jesus into our hearts means we receive Him into the very core of our being, into the centerpiece of who we are, affecting everything about us. When we receive Jesus into our heart-home, our identity becomes His, the essence of our personhood is intimately wrapped into the essence of Christ’s Personhood. When we make our home in His home, He miraculously become a resident inside each of us as well. And when we experience that Double Union with Jesus Christ, we discover that our spiritual location is inside of the very heart of God. In other words, if the Son is inside the Father, and we are inside the Son, then logically we are inside the Father! By dwelling in the Son’s heart, we dwell in the Father’s heart as well. By living inside the “Person after God’s own heart,” we find ourselves inside God’s heart! As Paul claims in Colossians 3:3, believers are “hidden within Christ, inside of God.”
Way back in 1954 there was a creative little evangelistic tract produced by Inter-Varsity Press, written by a pastor named Robert Boyd Munger. He entitled his brief tract, “My Heart – God’s Home.” I recommend it if you find it. Following up on Revelation 3:20, Pastor Munger imagined a believer opening his door and escorting Jesus through the home of his heart, now that Jesus has taken up residence in him. Now that Jesus dwells in him, and He has moved into his heart, what will Jesus see there? So the believer in the tract proceeds to give a tour of his heart-home with Jesus as he welcomes Christ into his heart. Together they tour the person’s study, dining room, living room, workroom, recreation room, bedroom and hall closet. I thought this was an engaging idea, but now I would like to give the other side of the story. Jesus lives within us, to be sure. But we also live within Jesus, hence inside the very heart of God. So if the Father was to give us a guided tour of His heart, what would we find? What will be waiting for us to discover in the many rooms of God’s heart? We could easily entitle this, “God’s Heart -My Home.”
Like anyone’s home, God’s heart will reflect His attitudes, motivations, personality, character traits, His heavenly “tastes” in interior décor. God’s deeply held convictions will be revealed in His heart-home, as they are in our own hearts. Using Scripture as our guide, we will explore God’s heart as we make ourselves at home and abide in Him. We will explore everything from the front porch to the front door, the living room to the dining room, from the kitchen to the study to the chapel. And many more rooms as well, like the bedroom, the bathroom, and the nursery. There may even be a sneak peek at the family room, the children’s playroom, and the school room.
THE HOUSE OF REFUGE. There is no need for what is commonly called a saferoom in God’s house. The entire heart-house of God is a refuge and a shelter. Once inside the heart of God, one doesn’t need to make sure he escapes to the one hiding place that will protect him. The fact is, once someone walks through the Door of Jesus and into God’s heart, there is no need to worry about safety or protection. God’s entire heart-house is safe.
Sacred Secrets. Jesus revealed many fascinating mysteries in His conversations with the Disciples, but maybe these declarations of His were more intriguing and inspiring than most… “When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am inside my Father, and you are inside me, and I am inside you.” (John 14:20); or this, “Remain inside of me, dwell in me, continue to draw your life from inside me, and I will remain inside of you.” (John 15:4-7); or even the more perplexing claim that, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives continually inside of me, and I live inside of him.” (John 6:56).
The Double Union. The idea that Jesus through His Holy Spirit is inside of me is pretty familiar. How many times did Paul say something along the lines of “Christ in me”? Actually, about 160 times. But to read that at the same time as Christ is in each of us, each believer is actually inside of Christ! Now, that is something fresh and I want to sink deep into that mystery. Christ in me, and me in Christ! Christ inside of you, and you inside of Christ! What a tremendous and wonderful mystery, a truth we accept by faith in the Christ who said it. There have been many descriptive titles given to this idea of union with Christ, of being within Christ, including: the Double Union; the Mutual Indwelling; the Mystical Union; The Double Mystery. And there have been some interesting ways to try to describe this two-way unity we enjoy with Christ: bonded in union within Christ; somehow inside of each other; a believer’s new spiritual location; participating in the interior life of Christ; intimately joined together with Christ; hidden with Christ inside of God; a Christian’s spiritual address; in a new sphere of spiritual existence; fellowship with God inside the Person of Christ; tightly wrapped around the Personhood of Jesus; regaining our original identity in Christ; being inside of Christ, we have shared in His death and resurrection, and we now we will go wherever He goes, including being seated in the heavenly realms.
“Rescue me, Lord Yahweh, for I hide myself in you; in you I take shelter… For you are my hiding place, and you surround me with songs of deliverance.” “Your life is hidden within Christ inside God.” (Psalm 143:9 and 32:7; Colossians 3:3).
The believer’s idea of living within God, of dwelling inside the Lord, is firmly fixed in the Hebrew mind. The common understanding among people of faith throughout the Hebrew Bible was that God was their refuge, shelter, hiding place. Yahweh was understood to be their fortress to escape into for His protection and Presence. To be “inside” of Christ is thus nothing new to the Christian’s understanding of God, and it certainly wasn’t anything new to St. Paul as he wrote his letters to early Christians. The biblical claim that God is the ultimate stronghold is embraced by all who call themselves believers. As Paul tells us in his letter to the Colossians, Christians view themselves as those who make themselves at home inside their God. Christ inside me, and I inside Christ. As Solomon said in Proverbs 18:10, “The Name of Lord Yahweh is a strong tower, the godly run to Him and are safe.”
The Mercy-Womb of God. WOMB = the physical organ of the woman that is constructed of muscles and ligaments and blood vessels that encircle the fetus, making a safe place for the unborn baby to grow and develop within the pregnant mother; a protected shelter that completely surrounds the growing child in the womb; a quiet and peaceful refuge, a nourishing sanctuary, and a life-giving haven for the developing unborn baby; the protective barrier that guards the growing fetus from outside danger.
Creator God designed a safe place within each woman’s body to offer safe harbor to a growing baby when the woman is pregnant. This womb is of course necessary for a fetus to bond with its mother, to develop in peace, to be enveloped in loving nourishment, to grow in the security and trust needed to develop in a healthy way. This secure shelter within the pregnant woman prepares the baby to grow to the point where it will survive outside the womb. In the womb, the unborn baby is literally surrounded by a divinely designed system to protect and feed and cherish the child within her. The woman’s womb is the sanctuary in which the strongest human bond of love is established, the bond between mother and child. What better picture could we find of living inside the heart of God?
Womb is one of the root words for mercy in the Hebrew Bible. The word “rachem” is translated in Scripture as mercy, compassion, and womb. In the Hebrew mind, the womb is much more than the sacred place in a woman that enables the unborn baby to safely develop till birth. Womb also became a metaphor for mercy because of its linguistic roots. The Hebrew word rachem is intended to mean mercy-womb. God formed each of us with rachem when we were mere unborns, and we were conceived and nourished within His rachem, the mother’s mercy-womb. The baby within the woman is the ideal time to extend God’s compassion to that human being inside of her. The developing baby utterly depends on a mercy-womb. And God wants Himself to be experienced as our womb-sanctuary, our safe place in Him, our refuge and shelter. God Himself yearns to be experienced as a womb of mercy for each of us, a refuge and shelter and safe haven. The purpose of our lives is to live in God’s rachem, God’s womb of love.
Psalm 91:1-2: The Shelter of Shaddai. Each of these versions have a different angle on this important passage concerning God as our refuge. Enjoy.
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” (NIV).
“You who live in the secret place of Elyon, spend your night in the shelter of Shaddai,
saying to Yahweh, ‘My refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust.” (NJB).
“He who dwells in the shelter of Elyon, will rest in the shadow of Shaddai.
I will say of Yahweh, He is my refuge and fortress, my Elohim, in whom I trust.”
(written with literal Hebrew names of God)
“You who dwell in the safe, secret shelter of the King of Kings Most High,
and who lodge overnight in the shadow of the All-Sufficient Mighty God,
are saying to the Self-Existent, Great I Am LORD,
‘My refuge and my fortress, my Omnipotent Creator God, in whom I trust.’”
(paraphrased with meanings of the Hebrew Names of God).