The second blessing is “God is our God.” The Lord explained how God is on the night before His crucifixion. He declared the Father’s name to His brothers. He ascended to His Father who is also our Father. On that night, He also told us the love with which the Father has loved Him would be in us. How great is this love of the Father? It’s the highest love. It’s the Lord’s and Abba’s desire that this love be in us. We are the ones He loves the most. We are the true children of Abba Father, and such a God is He!
God said this to the Israelites: He will be our God and we shall be His people. We have the privilege to enjoy this blessing first. The Lord established this new covenant by His blood, which was shed for many. The church was a mystery at that time. Jeremiah had no knowledge about it. The blessing we received is more precious than the blessing of the new covenant mentioned in Jeremiah. Not only are we His people, we are also His children.
The Lord mentioned seven times in His prayer that we’re whom the Father has given Him. Can you think of any presents greater than what the Father has given the Lord? Abba has infinite love toward the Lord and the Lord is the infinite one. Father has given the Lord a present of love that the Lord would receive by His death. I wrote a song called “An Expression That Stuns The Universe.” Both the giver and receiver would have to sacrifice for this present. So what kind of present is it? We are whom the Father has given the Lord. How precious and glorious! We’ll need eternity to better understand how glorious man is. I can’t even describe how joyous the Lord is over us. I just know that nothing is more precious in this universe, because the Lord mentioned this seven times. Through His death, He gained this gift. When the Lord suffered on the cross, the Father also endured great pain. The Father forsook His Son in order to present this gift to Him. This is our God, and we are more than God’s people.
There’s no deeper union than the Lord in us. This is the second blessing of the new covenant. It’s so precious that the Lord explained this to us. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have known about it; we might only know that we are His people. It’s truly precious that the Lord explained the essence of the new covenant so clearly before He established it by His blood. He established this by His blood and He’s the one to explain. He found it worthwhile to shed His blood to set up this covenant. We have been His love desire and love dream since eternity past. He wants to be the closest to us. That’s why He declared His love dream —“I in them.” Therefore, we ought to enjoy “He in me.” We need to abide in Him always to enjoy “He in me” and His work of love in me. We enjoy Him so that we can overcome all things on earth. This is the second blessing and it’s extremely precious that He declared it to us. He said it in His prayer and even explained it by the parable of the true vine. It truly needs to be explained by the Son of God. He didn’t ask the angels or prophets to explain this. He Himself came to explain. He even washed the disciples’ feet to demonstrate the fourth blessing—we are clean.
He sent the Holy Spirit to bring us to the remembrance of His words. This is the third blessing. The Holy Spirit will glorify Him and cause us to see the Lord’s preciousness and glory. You can read about the work of the Holy Spirit in John chapters 14 to 16, which is the third blessing. “And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” (Jer. 31:34) The Holy Spirit teaches us in our heart. Though I can teach you, without the Lord speaking to you, it’s still useless. We can’t merely count on a great teacher. We need Him to teach us so that from the least of us to the greatest, we will all know Him.
John 14:26 reads, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things…”
In John 15, it talks about the Holy Spirit bearing witness about the Lord. The Holy Spirit came to glorify the Lord. In John 16, the Lord says, “When the Spirit of truth came.” Though the Lord has spoken all these things, the disciples didn’t understand until the Holy Spirit came.
John 16:13 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…”
John 16:14 “He will glorify me…”
John 15 says that the Holy Spirit will bear witness about the Lord. It’s to our advantage that the Lord went away. He accomplished all things and returned to the Father, then the Holy Spirit was sent to us. John 14:20 says, “In that day”–the day when the Holy Spirit came and the new covenant was fulfilled. The Holy Spirit came to guide us into the truth. John 17:26 says, “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known.” The Lord will make it known to us. We are in Him, and His words are in us. This is the third blessing. It’s so precious that the Lord, who established this new covenant by His blood, clearly explained the goodness of these four blessings. They are all so beautiful, deep, and personal to us. It’s so precious that these are also our personal experiences with Him.