At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI? which is translated, MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?

Mark 15:34

The Lord walked in a continual communion with His Father.  He, being God, yet living as a man, dwelt continually with God who is the Father, forever holy, forever Divine.  The Lord said He was never alone, for He always did what pleased the Father (John 8:29); He and His Father were one (John 17:11).  That is, up until the end.

Jesus said that where He went, we could not follow.  Upon the cross, He became a curse for us, and the Father looked away, departed from Him, not for His own sins, but for ours.  And, in this place, forsake, Jesus cried out.  We know Jesus was forsaken on the cross, because He cried out that He was.  This is a place that we never need to tread.

There is a promise in this.  As Jesus was rejected in our place, we are accepted.  Yet, as Jesus was in His perfection of life, so He walked in constant communion with the Father, constant leading of the Spirit within, and perfect confidence in the provision of the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is our promise, if we would hear it. As Jesus walked, He did not fear what would come.  When crowds came to throw Him off cliffs for what they heard as blasphemy, he passed through their midst.  When they tried to kill Him in the temple, He hid Himself.  When the feast came, He did not go up except at the appointed time, as led by the Spirit.

He lived as a man under authority.  He did what He saw and spoke and judged as He heard, nothing more and nothing less.  And, He said of His own mouth that the Father never left Him.

Whether this is practicing the presence of the Lord, walking by faith, or living in the glory, at whatever level, this is our walk today, through faith!  We do not need to fear anything, so long as we are abiding in Him.

We will never know the agony that the Son felt, being forsaken.  We will never taste death as He did.  We will never descend into hell.  And, in this life, we need never fear what tomorrow holds.

Knowing that the Kingdom is our rear guard, we may not experience worldly success, we may not know what the world might see as victory in every earthly situation, but three days after Jesus’ apparent “defeat” at the cross, as the world and the demonic realms viewed it, it was His greatest victory, simply through obedience.

We will not see the greatest victories if we are holding onto this life and the things of it.  God’s love only has complete hold over our hearts when we do not love the world or the things of it (1 John 2:15).  But, as we forsake this life and all that we have, holding onto nothing, not even our own lives, and as we cling to Heaven, His Grace is sufficient for us.

Never forget, we are Most Happy when we are poor in spirit, for the Kingdom of Heaven is ours, then.  Never forget, that His strength is made perfect in our weakness.  Never forget, He is right there, ready to deliver.

Yet, as Jesus walked in unbroken communion, we have the same offer.  The truth of the Gospel is the power of the Gospel.  If we feel that great Holy Ghost to ask Him why.  If we feel the great powers of Heaven lessen, being greater than anything else in all this world, we must investigate and search diligently until we find the offending item in or around our lives.

It may not come at once, but might be a process of learning what is pleasing to the Lord, but it will come, one way or another.  And, after you have been fully trained, you will be like your Teacher (Luke 6:40).

There is nothing like the great realm of Heaven in the natural.  There is nothing like the God of all the Universe manifestly and tangibly living on the inside.  Jesus said, that in some degree or another, He was always visited by the Lord.

What keeps heaven around?  What keeps the glory down?

If it certainly isn’t the flesh, we do know this, that God is close to the broken hearted.  If you’re broken hearted that He leaves, he never will.  This can either be about broken-hearted-ness, and hence yourself, which will never get your anywhere, or it can simply be about the Lord, which brings Him.

He said that you would seek Him and find Him when you seek for Him with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).  You will find Him then, guaranteed.

You see, He wants to dwell with us.  He wants to us to seek Him.  He does not want us to be afraid.  But rather, like Jesus, learning obedience often by what we suffer, we can be never forsaken.

And those words that He uttered on the cross should have been our words.  When we fail, and fall, He picks us up, as we humbly come before Him.  It is His grace and mercy, every time.

And, in the midst of the storm, you sleep upon the pillow, and you rise up and still it with a Word.  His Word.  Because, God dwells with men.

That is what the Book says, anyway.  It’s possible.  May we make every effort to enter through the straight gate, for many will try, but few will enter (Luke 13:24).