Ezekiel 44:28 NASB95
“And it shall be with regard to an inheritance for them, that I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel— I am their possession.
Exodus 33:15-16 NASB95
Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. [16] For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?”
The most precious gift that every Christian possesses is the presence of God. At the heart of our inheritance in Christ is His presence. Our new birth involved the Father placing us into the very life of Christ that we might live in the realm of his presence every conscious moment. In Exodus 33, God told Moses in light of Israel’s rebellious behavior in the wilderness that He would allow them to go into the promised land, but angels would lead them there, and the presence of God would not go with them, but they would still have the Promise Land. Moses response was that if the presence of God did not go with them, then they did not want to go because the greatest promise of all was not the land but God Himself. Moses said that it was God’s presence that distinguished them from all the other people’s of the earth, and it is God’s presence in Christ that separates us from all the other people on the earth. We are in Christ, and Christ is in us; therefore the “presence” both lives within us and engulfs us. We are new creatures because we are in union with the “presence,” and therefore, it is His indwelling and engulfing life that makes us the peculiar people that Scripture says we are. His person is our great inheritance, and every blessing we long for is wrapped in the person and presence of Jesus, for Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places “in Christ.” I used to love to sing the old hymn “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” If you are a believer, then you can joyfully shout that “You have the whole world in your life,” because Jesus and his presence are everything. Psalm 73:28 says, “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good.” It is a liberating truth that you are in Christ and that Christ is in you. To live indwelt by and engulfed by the presence of God in Christ brings fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. He is our portion that more than satisfies.