On or In?

Numbers 5-6; Psalms 22; Acts 26 

“’The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.’ So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

Numbers 6:24-27

This priestly blessing of speaking the Lord’s name over the Israelites points to the day when the Lord’s presence will be in them, not just on them. Jesus Christ instructed his disciples to baptize the nations “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The living presence of God himself now indwelt his disciples through the Spirit. “I in them and you in me. May they may be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” John 17:23). It is the indwelling presence of Jesus through the Spirit which releases the glory, grace, and peace of God in our lives. Jesus, as our permanent high priest, has come to bless us with salvation and the reality of God’s indwelling presence so we can be a witness to the nations of God’s reality and transforming gospel.

Are we living in the external blessing of Numbers 6, or the internal reality of John 17?

“Lord Jesus, your presence is in me that the world may know, for your glory.”