Imagine Jesus sitting in front of you. You can look directly into his eyes and see his smile. You see no hint of condemnation and only an expression of love. Maybe he even opens his mouth and begins to speak. Does he encourage you? Challenge you? Give you direction? Whatever he says, it’s all good. Hold that image on the screen of your imagination as long as you like, and take it all in.
Now was that exercise an escape from reality or a journey into it? Most people would say, "That’s just your imagination. It wasn’t real.” But when Jesus has promised his presence always and we live unaware of it, our normal state of mind is more unrealistic than our imagination of his presence is. When we envision him being with us and talking with us, we’re more in touch with reality than when we don’t.
Practice the art of envisioning like this. You aren’t trying to conjure up something that isn’t true. You’re trying to experience something that is. The more you do this, asking the Spirit to fill you with truth, the more his presence becomes a tangible reality in your life. Whether you get his features right or not isn’t the point; knowing him personally is. He has promised to be with you always. Assume that he actually is.
"I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)
