This is one of my favorite songs, celebrating the finished work of Jesus - it is SO FINISHED that there is NOTHING between us and God and never will be!  NOTHING is holding us back from Him! 

Union!  Fellowship and joy and love!  Transparency and being known without any sense of shame, only complete and perfect and unconditional acceptance! 

We are wrapped in love and can't get out of the glory bundle of GRACE that God has swaddled us in!!  He is holding us so safely and securely and tenderly in His everlasting arms! 

Thank You, Jesus, that Your Love will never let us go!!

Nothing Is Holding Me Back

Bryan and Katie Torwalt 

Verse 1
Thank You for the cross that You have carried
Thank You for Your blood that was shed
You took the weight of sin upon Your shoulders
And Sacrificed Your life so I could live

Chorus
Now nothing is holding me back from You
Redeemer of my soul
Now nothing can hold me back from You
Your Love will never let me go

Verse 2
Thank You for Your death and resurrection
Thank You for the power of Your blood
I am overwhelmed by Your affection
The Kindness and the Greatness of Your Love
The Kindness and the Greatness of Your Love

Verse 3
Thank You that we’re living in Your Kingdom
Jesus You’re the King upon the throne
Thank You for the way You always love me
Now I get to love You in return
Now I get to love You in return

Bridge
Jesus, You make all things new

On "Surrendering" to God...

In the past I have had a confused idea about 'surrendering to God' - as if by surrendering to Him, He would send some terrible test or painful experience to me to 'teach me a lesson' or that He would immediately demand that I do some difficult ministry or give up all my possessions and even dreams. But now God is showing me that is not what happens upon surrendering to Him! When we open ourselves up to His presence and influence, there is only life, light and healing! There is only joy and peace pushing away all the dark clouds! There is not sudden pain and turmoil but instead the relief from pain and turmoil! Surrender is not a burden but is a relief from all burdens...it is simply letting God love on us! That is all He has ever wanted to do... 

When we surrender to God, we are simply letting Him love on us! We are letting Unconditional Love wash over us! He told Israel that so many times He just wanted to gather them in His arms like a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wing, and shelter and protect and hold them. THIS is the will of God, THIS is His plan for you - to do you GOOD and never, ever to harm you! The thief comes to kill and destroy but Jesus came and gave us abundant LIFE!

So when we 'surrender' to God or simply open up to His presence working in us (He's there already, we simply become aware and stop our striving and let Him do it all), we are letting Healing wash the hurts away..we are letting Understanding soothe and embrace us...we are letting Acceptance banish all feelings of shame...we are letting Kindness wash away the bitterness and hurt...we are letting Light push away the darkness..we are letting Love drive out the fear..we are letting Grace fill us with joy and peace and His very presence..

Surrendering to God is surrendering to healing, joy, peace, freedom, acceptance, security, goodness and LOVE! It's getting a Love bath, a Holy Spirit joy feast, a better-than-you-could-imagine shower of gracegifts! Wow!

Not on the 'Knowledge of Good and Evil' Tree but on the 'Life' Tree!

Isn't it wonderful that God has located us IN CHRIST, who is Life!  Christ is the Tree of Life!  And God has put me in Him, chosen me in Him from before the foundation of the world. That tells me that I am forever in Life, not in Law or Performance (which is what the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is all about - our efforts to do good and avoid bad, to be good enough, thinking of right and wrong and evaluating or judging based on works).  I am off that performance tree for good, I am never defined by my performance; instead, I am on the life tree (Jesus, who is Grace - free acceptance and favor and love with no regard to my efforts or performance) and on it for good, forever defined by Christ who is my Life!

So I don't have to think 'right vs. wrong', obsess about my sins, worry over how to overcome sin or failure in my life, try to do good, or struggle to be good enough or work to 'get' blessed.  I can forget all that and just enjoy Jesus, who is Life to me!  I can enjoy His love, His friendship, His presence, His kindness, His favor, His approval, His blessing, His companionship, His faithfulness, His acceptance that is all mine for free!  I can celebrate His work for me that has freed me from the trap and curse of performance mindset for good!  I can celebrate who I am right now - beloved, full, complete, free, victorious, perfect, and home.  I can rejoice in such completion rather than feeling incomplete, not yet good enough, inferior, needing to do more, etc. for I'm already there, already complete and already accepted and already there in His arms!  There is no scale and no measure that I have to measure up to, and anyway, I'm already complete and in fullness in Christ!  I'm in the fullness and total satisfaction of being a little child in His arms, innocent, pure and perfect, living in carefree delight and wide-eyed wonder at the love of my Daddy!

He frees us from the 'right' vs. 'wrong' legalistic thinking into the wonderful 'beloved child in His presence' thinking! It amazes me..God didn't choose the tree of knowledge of good and evil - Adam (humanity) did. He never intended for us to function in a right vs. wrong, good behavior vs. bad behavior mindset. He has always seen us through the eyes of grace, which isn't even on the performance scale at all; it is a totally 'other' place, a grace place where there is NO scale or measure - we are ALL seen as His little beloved children, apart from any works or performance, even apart from how 'good' or 'bad' our believing or thinking is.. He isn't obsessing over my behavior (law) but obsessing over my loveliness as His darling child (grace)!

Wanted - by Dara McLean


  • "Wanted" by Dara Mclean

    From the day you were born
    And took your first breath
    You opened your eyes and in came the light
    He was watching you
    But all of your life you couldn't shake the lies in your head
    Saying you're a mistake
    Oh but you were made
    By a God who knows your name
    He doesn't make mistakes

    CHORUS
    You are wanted
    To every broken heart, He stands with open arms
    You are wanted
    To every searching soul, look to the rising sun
    If you're lonely, hurting, gone too far
    To the outcast you come as you are
    For you, you are wanted, you, you are wanted
    You, you are wanted, you, you are wanted

    Let today be the day that joy takes the place
    Of all of the years that shame tried to steal away
    He is calling you
    Lift your eyes to see His face
    Come run into the arms of grace

    CHORUS

    You, you have been marked
    You're set apart
    And He calls you His
    So you don't have to search
    Don't have to look for where you belong

    You are wanted

Grace says, "You Can't Fail Your Way Out of My Arms!"

Do you sometimes feel like a failure?  Like a shameful person because you aren't happy and strong all the time?  Like you should be 'doing better' or 'progressing more' in your Christian walk?  Like you ought to be overcoming more, having more victory, doing more for the Kingdom?  Like you are a bad Christian for having failures, struggles, problems, doubts and inconsistencies in your Christian walk?  I have felt these feelings a lot and still struggle with them!

I have often had the idea that once I learned about grace, everything would just be perfect in my outward Christian life - I would finally have it all together, sins would fall away, struggles would cease, my faith would be perfect, I'd be on fire for the kingdom all the time, I'd be living drunk in the glory of God's presence 24/7, I'd always be happy and victorious and strong!  Yet that isn't exactly what happened, for I am still in this earthly body, still human and still subject to failing and listening to the enemy's lies, etc.  I think we all still struggle, even people who believe in grace.

The problem with my thinking was that it was still focused on 'the product' of what I thought I was supposed to be as a Christian.  It is such a relief to find out God has no 'product focus' or agenda with me.  His goal isn't to produce some perfect product (and if we are not that, we are thus failures- no!). His focus is simply this:  on loving us!  That is it!  That's His agenda for us - to shower us with grace and love for all eternity!

[When we were mired in a stagnant life of sin,] immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus.                                  Eph 2:4-7, The Message

God loves us where we are, as we are, for who we are!! 

God loves us where we are.  Even if we get distracted and succumb to sin, even if we don't pray or seek Him, even if we forget grace and start thinking we must earn our way with Him, even if we are sometimes judgmental or self-righteous, even if we yell at the kids, get caught in addiction, listen to the devil's lies, lose our focus, lose our ministry, withdraw into ourselves in our pain...Even in the biggest ditch we could dig for ourselves or the deepest hole we could fall into, He is there, He loves us as is, and nothing has changed in our relationship with God - nothing!  For this relationship isn't based on how 'well we do' - it is based on how well Jesus did, and He did a work in us that is perfect!  A work that took us all the way to the Throne Room of heaven and put us on Daddy's lap with Him!  That is what the above verse states, wow!  So let's remember that God loves us where we are, and let's remember where we truly are - not in the ditch of sin and poor choices and lies and despair - no! - but in the Palace in Heaven on our Daddy's lap!!  Being hugged and loved on forever!

God loves us as we are.  We can be bundles of insecurity, confusion, pain, turmoil, doubt, frustration, self-centeredness, envy, self-loathing, and irritability.  And even when we act awful, think awful thoughts, feel awful feelings, even when we do the worst thing we could imagine doing, God is there, God loves us, God takes us as we are, accepts us as we are, and makes NO demand for change!  Wow!  That is powerful to me - I have found Someone who is committed to me, committed to love me and support me and be on my side and even celebrate me, no matter what I do!  Nothing I do, say, think or even believe would ever drive Him away.  He has committed Himself to this relationship for eternity by placing His Spirit in me to 'abide forever' (that means He isn't going anywhere, no matter how badly I screw up!), and that gives me perfect security that this relationship is forever, and there is no way I can mess it up.  God loves me as I am.  He takes me as I am, and all of us.  He already saw all the stupid things we would do and say and believe, and Jesus already took them away at the cross and made us new.  In fact, to say that God loves us as we are REALLY means He sees us for who we really are, even when we don't!  He sees the real you - the one He created in Christ Jesus before the world began! - and the real you is awesome!  The real you is beautiful, perfect, innocent and pure, strong, good, loving and gently, full of God, kind, sweet, righteous, other-centered, hopeful and faithful, complete, holy and whole, precious and dear!  So not only does He loves us when we blow it and mess up, but He also reminds us that is not the 'real us' at all, and that the real us is perfect, just like Jesus, for Jesus is the center and true nature of the real us!

God loves us for who we are!  He knows who we are, even if we forget!  And He gently reminds us of the truth.  He brings us to look at Christ, and suddenly it's like looking in a mirror - we realize that we are in Christ, for God put us there before the world's creation, and since we are in Christ, 'as He is, so are we!'  We are in the image and likeness of God, just as Christ is.  In fact, Christ is the image of God dwelling in us and actually being our nature.  The very fabric of our being, of who we are, is Christ..it is like we were actually formed of God-material, created in Christ!  He is the most real fact about us, as Brennan Manning says.  So whatever HE is, WE are!  We are just as lovely, perfect, good and true as Jesus is. Just as holy, loving, complete and free as Jesus is.  And whatever HE has, WE have!  We are just as accepted, beloved, cherished and close to the Father as Jesus is.  Just as blessed, strong, anointed and secure in the Father as Jesus is!  God loves us for who we are!  He sees the beautiful new creation He made us in Christ!  But He isn't just loving Christ in us, or tolerating us because we have Jesus in the center of our being as our nature and essence - He loves us for US!  He loves YOU, He love ME, He thinks each of us is wonderful and amazing..yes, you have Jesus as your nature, yet that is just who YOU are, that is part of who YOU are, wow!  It is like a father seeing one of his traits in His child - He doesn't say, oh, I just love you for that trait you have, or even, that's not your trait, it's really mine, it's really me..no!  He loves the child for who the child is..He loves to see how the child inherited his traits, yet he sees that those are the CHILD:S very traits and  part of his makeup!  You bear the family likeness of love and goodness, and that's who you really are!  You are loved and celebrated for who you are, for who you are is beautiful! 

So when you fail, is God having to put that out of His mind and just think about how He made you good?  Actually, He already put all the bad things away and out of His mind for good at the cross.  He has never been confused about who you are.  He has always seen the good person He made underneath the confusion and struggle and pain. He has always loved His children and simply seen them as His children, seen them through His love for them and not seen them through their performance.  No matter how terrible our acts or thoughts may be at any time, we are always His pride and joy.  Just like a good parent on earth, our Heavenly Dad loves us no matter what we do or seem to become, no matter what road we wander down, no matter where we seem to end up in this life.  As Brennan Manning says, "He has one relentless stance toward us:  He loves us."  You are covered in love.  Bathed in love.  Wrapped in love.  Held in love.  You are held by an unconditional love that has nothing to do with how you perform, whether you improve, or how you measure up.  You are loved by a love that you cannot lose, drive away or cause to reject you.  You cant fail your way out of His arms!  You can't get away from this Love that will not let you go, that loves you where you are, as you are, for who you are!  So go ahead and be yourself - the beloved child of God that you are, for who you are is HIS BELOVED, no matter what!

Conclusion - 30 Days of Grace

Wow, it is amazing to see that we have come to the end of our 30 Day study of God's grace.  I have loved learning about His grace and just seeing all that Christ has done for me already.  Grace is so wonderful, for it shows the unconditional love and acceptance of God, which moved Him to finish the work of redeeming us as new creations by Christ's complete work.  How wonderful grace is!  It encapsulates God's loving heart toward us, loving us freely and without expectation of anything from us, and it also signifies all the wonderful things He has done for us and given to us in Christ, totally for free, without us having to do anything to get or keep these gifts!  Grace is free, it is wonderful, it is all-inclusive, it is beautiful, it is God's heart expressed!

What do we have, because of grace?

Because of grace, we are loved without condition.  We are accepted, taken in, welcomed, understood, and enjoyed.  We are loved on our good days and on our bad ones just the same.  We are loved on the heights and in the ditch.  We are loved no matter what.  We cannot escape from this love that will hold us forever!

And because of grace, we are redeemed.  Our sins are forgiven through Christ's sacrifice.  We are set free from sin, shame, guilt, condemnation, the law, the curse, the bondage of Satan, and even death through the work of Christ on our behalf.  We are cleansed, sanctified, set apart, made glorious and righteous in His sight!

Because of grace, we are made new creations.  We are united with God.  We are full of the Spirit.  We are partakers of the divine presence and nature.  We are seated with Christ in heavenly places, part of the eternal realm, full of the love of God and the fruits of the Spirit.  God dwells in us and Christ is our life.  The Spirit prays for us and is there for us as Friend and Support.  We are never alone!

Because of grace, we are chosen, known, and held.  We are carried through life.  We are brought into fellowship and kept in fellowship.  We are made firm and secure, and He is faithful to keep us and preserve us, spirit, soul and body, to the day of the redemption of our body.  We are carried by God and will be carried by Him, the Spirit guaranteeing that we will receive our full inheritance and live forever with God. 

Because of grace, we are complete.  We have arrived.  We are all that we were made to be.  We have all of God, and God has all of us right where He wants us - in union with Him forever.  God is loving us forever, fellowshipping with us forever.  We are included in the loving fellowship of the Trinity itself.  We have it made! 

So what does this mean for you, for me, for all of us?   

It means you don't have to work or strain to become something you already are - accepted and righteous and complete. You don't have to yearn for or work for something you already have - peace with God, and every blessing in spiritual places.  You don't have to try to get somewhere you already are - in union with God, in His arms forever.  You don't have to do anything!  You don't have to worry about your performance or you security in Christ, for you are safely tucked into Christ by God Himself, and Christ is safely tucked into the bosom of the Father! You don't have to look to yourself to try to change yourself, for you are already 'all that you were meant to be - one with the One who is life (Dan Stone, from the book, The Rest of the Gospel).'     

You don't have to try.  You don't have to strain.  You don't have to become.  You don't have to get better.  You don't have to change.  You don't have to 'get accepted.'   You don't have to 'do.'  You can just BE, because you already ARE! 

You don't have to 'do' anything at all, attempt anything at all, even try to understand or believe anything at all. There is no pressure on you in any way - no rules, no requirements, no obligations, no expectations.  Nothing is required of you.  There are no demands placed on you.  It is not 'all up to you' - the pressure to perform is gone. 

You can rest.  You can relax.  You can smile.  You can live freely and lightly. You can laugh.  You can lie down and sleep.  You can be yourself.  You can dance. You can celebrate.  You can know God.  You can look on His face.  You can enjoy Him.  You can enjoy His love.   

You are complete.  You are accepted.  You are free.  You are safe.  You are His!  You are loved!    Without you doing one thing to make it happen!  It already happened, it already IS!  Through the finished work of Christ, you have been brought all the way into the Throne Room and placed on Daddy's lap!  You have been given everything, and God the Father says of you, "Son/Daughter, you are always with Me, and all that I have is yours."  You are in a place of perfect harmony and wholeness, total acceptance and unconditional love, and God says over you, "This is My beloved son/daughter in whom I am well-pleased."  God already has you where He wants you, in His heart, where He can shower love on you for all eternity.  Christ already brought you thereHe has done all for you, and you are set, home free, perfect and perfectly loved for all timeIt is finished without you doing a thing or needing to deserve a thing.  It is freely done for you, to youthrough Jesus you are home with God, in union with Him foreverThat is grace!     

So how would you summarize the meaning of grace?  

For me, Grace is all God freely accomplished for us in Christ out of unconditional love...It is the love, acceptance, favor and blessing of God freely given to us, as shown in the work of Christ to bless us and give us the union life with God we were always meant to have...Grace is love freely given, without any stipulations..Grace is God sending Jesus...In fact, Jesus is the Grace of God in a Person... 

And of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace!  Thank You, God, for Your Grace!

Bonus Day! - You Are Not Under Law But Under Grace - 30 Days of Grace

We are safe and secure in God's arms, that is what we talked about last time.  So if we take that to its conclusion, we see that nothing we do can cause us to lose our status with God, His presence with us, our blessing, our place in His house, or the fact of our rescue - our salvation is set and secure and an already reality that can't be taken away or lost.  It is set in the spiritual concrete of the work of Christ and unconditional love and unchanging nature of God.  So we are truly free!  We are free to do anything and still be IN God's house, still be His beloved child.  Our status isn't tied in any way to our performing, to anything in us.  It is tied completely to God and the work/performance of Jesus.  This is the heart of what it means to be "not under law but under grace!"

Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law but under grace.  Rom. 6:14

This verse contains a promise; what is it?  Sin shall not be your master!  What is the reason for this fact?  It is because we are not under law but under graceWhere are we right now, what are we under?  We are under grace.  What are we not under right now?  We are not under law.  What is the natural effect of being under grace rather than law?  Sin isn't master over us

We are under grace.  What does that mean?  Maybe it's easier to see what it means by seeing what it doesn't mean.  Being under grace means not being under law.  So we can look at being under law and see how it is the opposite of being under grace.

What does it mean to be under law?  It means to be under a system of works and performance, where everything is up to you to perform well, to do right and not wrong, with built in rewards and punishments.  It is a system of cause and effect where your performance determines what happens to you - whether blessing or cursing.  Everything is tied to what you do.  Law points out every fault, and because we always have at least one failing somewhere, we never measure up in this system.  So this system breeds a feeling of never being good enough, never arriving, never being complete or adequate.  It is a system that binds us to rules and in so doing points out our failures and ignites our self-effort, which is puny and will never be enough to keep all the rules perfectly, so we end up on an endless wheel of trying, failing, feeling condemned, and trying again.  Because we never feel good enough, we feel a barrier between us and God and find it hard to feel comfortable in His presence or relate to Him.  We find ourselves withdrawing and hiding from God, fearful of Him.  Then we feel empty because our need for God and His love isn't being met, and we seek solace in that feeling of emptiness and pain by looking to other things to fill us, which only leads to more sin and more pain!  This way of living - being under law - just brings death!

So grace is the opposite of that.  It is a way of being that is not tied to your works or performance at all.  It is not 'all up to you' to perform well, to do right and not wrong - the pressure is off of you.  There is no penalty or punishment if you fail.  Blessings aren't accessed through your performance but rather freely given without reference to your works at all.  It is not based on cause and effect at all but is a way in which good gifts are freely poured out with no reference to our behavior, measuring up, or deserving them in any way.  Nothing is tied to what you do, all is given freely!  Grace doesn't point out faults but freely gives blessing and love to us just as we are.  So under grace we aren't focused on our faults but on His love for us.  In His love, we are completely accepted, welcomed and taken in, just as we are, and this brings a sense of wholeness, fulfillment, completion, being okay with God and okay with ourselves.  We feel we have arrived, we are home; striving ceases and is replaced by rest.  Grace gives a feeling of complete joy and peace, of adequacy and acceptance.  Grace gets us off the performance wheel and we are able to simply rest in the perfect love and presence of God and truly enjoy relationship with Him.  Our need for love and being with God is fully met, and we are satisfied and happy.  Sin loses its luster and we are free to fall in love with Jesus.  And even if we fail, nothing changes in our relationship or closeness with God - so we are free to fail.  This gives us security, and this makes it possible for us to trust God and open up and share our heart, our fears, our dreams, even our failings with Him, knowing that we are completely accepted, knowing that we have been brought into a secure place of permanent union with Him that can't be changed or altered by anything we do. We are so close to God that there is complete oneness of relationship - we are one heart with God!  We experience the wonderful loving fellowship, mutual sharing, and unhindered intimacy with Him that we were always meant to have, that we were made for!  We were made to be loved by God, and that is fully realized under grace! This way of living - being under grace - is real life!


Thus we see that the difference between law and grace is the difference between life and death.

Let's just brainstorm and think of the difference between law and grace in our lives:

It's the difference between:

our efforts and His efforts
our failing incomplete work and His successful completed work
trying to do things on our own and seeing what He already did for us

straining and resting
struggling to get and instead losing, vs. receiving a gift
working for everything and getting nothing vs. being given all for nothing

you are not and must become vs. you already are, and can just be yourself
striving to become vs. being what you already are
trying to do it vs. Jesus already having done it/doing it for you
do vs. done

do this or else vs. do as you please / freedom
rules and restraints vs. freedom
Letter vs. Spirit
walking by flesh vs. walking by Spirit
walking in trying to improve the old vs. walking in you already are new      
seeing yourself as messed up and needing improvement vs. seeing yourself as already complete and perfect
needing something, something lacking vs. having everything, 
trying to get somewhere vs. already arrived, already there

trying to please God and never feeling good enough vs. walking in the fact that God is already pleased with you, you're as pleasing as Jesus is

Walking in your own performance vs. walking in His performance
do good get the cookies, do bad get the baseball bat vs. blessed for free
blessed because of your effort vs. blessed because of Christ's effort
if you fail you are cursed vs. because Christ never fails, you'll never be cursed

never good enough vs. perfect with the perfection of Jesus
never feeling acceptable vs. acceptable forever in Christ
feeling God is looking for your faults and judging you vs. He finds you blameless and faultless and you will never come into judgment
shame vs. acceptance and affirmation
guilt vs. innocence

bondage vs. freedom
trying to keep rules only increases sin vs. seeing who you already are in Him makes sin melt away
led from external rules vs. led by internal desire
rules coming from outside that we must keep by our strength against our will vs. Spirit speaking in our hearts as our own desires, so we naturally do what we want to do
demands vs. desires

rules vs. no rules
you must vs. you want to
you could fall out of favor vs. you can never fall out of favor
if you fail, God punishes vs. no punishment for your failure
sin is seen and remembered vs. sin is gone  and not remembered
feeling far from God vs. knowing intimacy with God
breeds fear vs. breeds intimacy and transparency and trust

servant vs. son
could be thrown out if bad behavior vs. never disowned or thrown out
everything depends on us vs. everything depends on Him
always looking at behavior/self vs always looking at Jesus' work/the Son
sin-consciousness vs. Christ and righteousness consciousness
despair vs. hope
bitterness vs. thankfulness
enmity vs. peace with God
defensiveness, masks, self-justification,blame, criticism, judging, self-righteousness, trying to look good vs. love and openness and humility, being able to admit mistakes and take responsibility
never feeling approved or good enough, vs. approved, good enough
frustration at impossible demands you know you can't meet 9std of perfection) vs. relief that Christ met the standard and we don't have to
up to you vs. off the hook
striving vs. vacation/rest

work for blessing vs. blessed with all for free
you don't have it, trying to get it vs. you already have it all
based on you vs based on Christ        
incomplete, deficient vs. complete, sufficient
under Satan's thumb vs reigning
death rules vs reigning in life/life rules
trapped in sin vs free from sin's power and control
flesh vs Spirit
false identity vs true identity
old self vs new self    

We have been brought out from under law and put under the realm and reign of grace - what a wonderful place to be!  It is the place of freedom and joy and relief, the place of total acceptance and love, the place of gifts freely given, the place where Christ's finished work stands forever valid, the place of fulfillment and wholeness, the place of security, the place of satisfaction and rest..it's the place of grace, in God's heart, and that's where we are!  We are in the place of Grace, in God's loving heart of grace, forever!

May the amazing grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, and the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. 2 Co. 13:14