經文: 「凡我所吩咐你們的，都教訓他們遵守，我就常與你們同在，直到世界的末了。」— (聖經·馬太福音 28章20節)
耶穌揀選十二個門徒，就是「要他們常和自己同在，也要差他們去傳道。」(馬可福音 三14)；與祂常常緊密相連的生活，是出去傳福音最佳的裝備。
門徒們深刻體會到與耶穌同在是何等大的恩典，一想到耶穌要離他們而去，就感到無比的憂傷，因為和耶穌同在已成為他們生活中不可或缺的一部份，他們很難想像若耶穌不在，他們的日子要如何過。為了安慰他們，耶穌給他們一個應許，就是等祂升天以後，天父要差派聖靈下來，與他們時時刻刻同在，那是一種他們未曾體會更深層、更親密的關係。做為門徒的首要呼召——常常與耶穌同在，和祂時刻緊密相連，這是傳福音、做見證有效果的祕訣之一。
當耶穌吩咐使徒們到世界各地，向萬民傳福音時，祂應許他們：「我就常與你們同在，直到世界的末了。」
上帝的僕人都曾有這樣的體會，就是若沒有上帝的同在與賜福，那麼他們所傳講的信息、所做的見證，有如鳴的鑼、響的鈸一樣沒有效果；反之，他們心中若充滿上帝的同在—這是個祕密武器—無論他們傳道或做見證，都有從上面來的智慧與感動，也滿有聖靈的能力，所以他們敢在仇敵面前，誇讚被釘十架的耶穌是得勝者。門徒們不會為耶穌的形體不再與他們同在而憂傷哀痛，他們知道藉著聖靈，耶穌要在他們心中激勵他們、指導他們，使他們所作的聖工有效果。
在各樣的聖工上，無論傳講上帝的話，或者與人協談，都要有意識地感覺到這一切都是憑著信心，依靠上帝同在的能力，若不然，我們所作的都屬人的努力，沒有新鮮感、沒有屬天的能力。總之，惟有常常等候在上帝腳前，讓祂的氣息吹進我們心坎，讓祂的聖靈膏抹我們的心，我們所作的才能帶出果效與能力。是的，聖經應許我們：「我就常與你們同在！」
—《 神 的 心 意 》
(每日靈修 7月6日)
作者：慕安德烈
編輯：榮華興
『 The Abiding Presence 』
Scripture: “La, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” — (Matthew 28:20)
When the Lord chose His twelve disciples, it was “that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach” (Mark 3:14). A life in fellowship with Himself was to be their preparation and their fitness for the work of preaching.
So deeply were the disciples conscious of this having been their great privilege, that when Christ spoke of His leaving them to go to the Father, their hearts were filled with great sorrow. The presence of Christ had become indispensable to them; they could not think of living without Him. To comfort them, Christ gave them the promise of the Holy Spirit, with the assurance that they then would have Himself in His heavenly presence, in a sense far deeper and more intimate than they ever had known on earth. The law of their first vocation remained unchanged: to be with Him, to live in unbroken fellowship with Him, would be the secret of power to preach and to testify of Him.
When Christ gave them the Great Commission to go into all the world and to preach the Gospel to every creature, He added the words: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”
For all time the principle is to hold good for all His servants that without the experience of His presence ever abiding with them, their preaching would have no power. The secret of their strength would be the living testimony that Jesus Christ was every moment with them, inspiring and directing and strengthening them. It was this that made them so bold in preaching Him as the Crucified One in the midst of His enemies. They never for a moment regretted His bodily absence; they had Him with them, and in them, in the divine power of the Holy Spirit.
In all the work of the minister and the missionary, everything depends on the consciousness, through a living faith, of the abiding presence of the Lord with His servant, the living experience of the presence of Jesus as an essential element in preaching the Gospel. If this be clouded, work becomes a human effort, without the freshness and the power of the heavenly life. And nothing can bring back the power and the blessing but a return to the Master’s feet, for Him to breathe into the heart, in divine power. His blessed word: “Lo, I am with you alway!”
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray ( 6 July )
