Immanuel, “God with us,” is both a name and a statement of truth.
Do you know Immanuel, is with you?
Stop for a minute and don’t just knee-jerk that answer with a left-brained knowledge of what the word means.
Knowing that the sky is blue is something most of us can say with utter confidence. Right?
But what about a blind man? Can he say for sure that he knows the sky is blue? Pretend you were born blind. You have never seen the sky with your own eyes. You have never stood beneath a blue sky and marveled at the depth and clarity of the color in contrast against the floating white puffy clouds.
Can you answer for sure that the sky is blue or are you just quoting back words that you’ve been taught?
I believe that sometimes we are like the blind man in this scenario… and we blurt out “of course I know God is with me” without really knowing it’s true.
But some of us really DO know that “Immanuel.” {God is with us}
We’ve experienced Him. We’ve seen Him here with us. We’ve interacted with Him enough times that “knowing” he is with us is as certain as “knowing” the sky is blue.
What I’m describing here, is something we call the Immanuel Lifestyle. The Immanuel Lifestyle is more than just head knowledge. It’s more than just a few isolated memories of Him, and it’s more than a powerful Immanuel Process experience with a prayer partner too.
The Immanuel Lifestyle is a life like Jesus lived.
“Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does” (John 5:19, emphasis mine.) In the Immanuel Lifestyle, we are looking to see Immanuel present in our every situation so that we too can see what the Father is doing.
In my experience, I’ve grown and developed an Immanuel Lifestyle AFTER getting to “know” Immanuel in those quiet time moments. Some of those times were for healing purposes as part of an Immanuel Process, and some of them were just times experimenting with just “being still” in His presence through worship or time in the Word.
These moments with Immanuel for me were like “field trips” to sit under the blue sky and get to know how beautiful it is.
Eventually, I began hearing from Immanuel that I could look for Him in more places than just the past. I could look for Him in more places than just my “prayer closet” too. So I began doing just that.
Randomly throughout the day I’d stop and think inwardly, “Jesus, where are you now?”
That’s it. I didn’t ask him deep questions or ask him to help me with my decisions throughout my day… I just began to look for Him. Sometimes I’d get an image in my mind of Him standing behind my chair watching me work, or in the passenger seat next to me in the car. For just a split second I’d see Him here with me, and then I’d go back to my day. Sometimes I felt His smile and joy at the fact that I was pausing long enough in my busy day to look for Him.
I practiced this more and more during my everyday life and began to develop a better “knowing” of Immanuel.
The more I found Jesus in the normal, everyday life experiences, the easier it became to look for him when I was upset about something. The easier it became to look to see what He was doing when I was faced with a decision… and the easier it became to make those decisions!
I think part of the joys of the Immanuel lifestyle is that I don’t have to sit down and ask him what I should do most of the time. I can just look at what He’s doing and know.
I still enjoy my “field trips” but it’s like I’ve added skylights all around my home, car, and work place as well! And you know what?
The sky really is blue.
Immanuel really is with me… all the time.
For help developing your own Immanuel Lifestyle, contact the author & Life Coach Deni Huttula at www.theopenbench.com
