Day 21     The advice of a father  -  Abide in Him!              

1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
28 ¶  And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

What do you need?  The Father gives us this advice in chapter 2 of 1 John.  He says you don’t need anyone to teach you.  It’s not that we know so much or are so smart that we can learn so much.  The point is that God has given us the Holy Spirit and the Spirit can teach you all things.  You don’t need someone else teach you the Bible.  You can learn the Bible on your own.
God has given us teachers,  and it is a great blessing to learn from those who God has gifted to teach,  but we are not dependent on another person to learn from God or to learn about God.  We are priests unto God.  The priesthood of the believer teaches us that we do not need any man on this earth to mediate.  We can come into His presence.  We can abide with Him.  We can learn from Him.  We can talk to Him.
There are many religions that teach that man is incapable of approaching God without a priest,  without Mary,  without a member of the clergy.  God’s Word teaches us that we can come boldly to the throne of God.

Hebrews 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

So then,  why don’t we?   If we have the privilege of being able to come into His presence,  why do we spend so much time outside of His presence,  and so little time with Him?
Obviously those who teach that we have no access to the Father are wrong,  but it is almost a greater problem to believe that we do have access to His throne and not come into His presence.  How many people are on their way to hell without our prayers?  How many opportunities have we missed simply because we did not hear God speak to us?   How many sins have we failed to overcome without His strength?
It is a serious matter not to take this matter seriously! John, as the Father, tells the children,  “abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”
We wonder whether we will be ashamed of our lack of effort to speak to our heavenly father.  We wonder how many will not rejoice in the second coming because they were not ready when He appears?