The One Who Wants You Close

November Teaching Letter from Denise Renner

Dear friend,

I can’t believe that we are almost at the end of 2026! I pray that you have seen such an outpouring of the Lord’s goodness and protection this year, and as we enter the holidays, I pray that there is such supernatural love and peace in your family.

As I think about families and friends and all the people who we get to see during these holiday months, I think of how grateful we can be that we have these relationships. It is a wonderful thing to have people who make us feel loved and safe, but I also know that some people don’t have that. Sometimes people reject, hurt, or misuse us, and even those who love us can let us down at times, leaving us feeling unworthy or unwanted.

Friend, the Holy Spirit wants to deal with our issues of abandonment today. If other people have made you feel thrown away, unwanted, or discarded, I want to remind you that those feelings are never really true. Even if every person you’d ever known abandoned you, you would still have a Heavenly Father who desires an intimate, loving relationship with you.

[If you started reading in your email, begin here]

If you struggle with the thought that no one in the world wants to be with you, then I want to remind you of John 14:16, because it is going to take down that lie. This is something that Jesus said to His disciples, and it is so powerful in showing us how He feels about being in relationship with each of us: “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.“

The very first thing He says is, “I will pray the Father.” Friend, Jesus is so involved in your relationship with the Holy Spirit. He is so dedicated to making this relationship happen that He says, “You know what, I’ll take care of it. It’s not going to be your striving or your good actions that bring the Holy Spirit to you. It’s going to be that I’ve asked the Father, and He sends the Spirit as a gift.”

This is a done deal, friend, and it’s not because of your degree, your education, or how much you do or don’t witness. It’s all Him! He opened it up to us. Jesus is the One who offered this magnificent, powerful relationship with the Holy Spirit, and it is the Father who gives that gift freely. We didn’t ask for it, so why would He give it if He didn’t want to?

He didn’t just want to give us a second-best option either, friend. He says, “He [The Father] will give you another Helper” (John 14:16), and the word “another” is the Greek word allon (ἄλλον). That means that Jesus is saying, “This Helper I’m sending will be exactly the same as Me, completely identical to Me.” Friend, the Holy Spirit is just like Jesus! If the Holy Spirit talks to you, that’s Jesus talking to you too!

The last thing Jesus says in this verse is, “He [The Holy Spirit] may abide with you forever,” and I want you to think about that for a second. Sometimes we don’t believe that Jesus really means “forever.” Sometimes the enemy comes and starts saying, “Oh, you shouldn’t have done this or that,” and that tiny bit of condemnation starts to come upon us and tell us that God doesn’t want to be with us anymore.

But friend, the enemy is the accuser of the brethren, and when he tries to come in with that condemnation, we’ve got to pull out this verse and say, “No! Jesus said that the Holy Spirit abides with me forever, and the Holy Spirit is just like Him. Nothing is going to separate me from Him, not even this mistake or this rejection!”

Jesus even says in the next verse, “but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). The Holy Spirit literally dwells on the inside of you! You are His living place, so He’s not leaving!

If you’re still struggling to believe or understand that He really does want you, then I want you to think back to the Old Testament for a moment. You might remember that while the Israelites were in the wilderness, God had them build this tent, His tabernacle. While they were moving around, He actually put His presence inside that tent among them. Why? Because He wanted to dwell with His people. He wanted to be near them. Later, there was this magnificent temple built by King Solomon. It was a more permanent dwelling than the tabernacle, and God moved in there. Then that temple was destroyed, but another one was built, and He dwelt there.

Why would God go through all that trouble, friend? He doesn’t need a house. He can’t even be contained in any earthly building, but He wanted to dwell with His people. He wanted to be with them so much that He was willing to accept a temporary tent or a temple that could be destroyed — just so He could be near.

Do you know anybody else who wants to be with you that bad? Do you know anyone who’s willing to work so hard just to be around you? I don’t — even with the people who I love very much, I need a break every once in a while.

But God’s love is so much greater than that! He wanted to be with you so much that He said, “I know. I’ll move in even closer, closer than living in a tent or temple among my people — I’ll just put Myself right inside of them. They will become my permanent dwelling place, so I’ll never leave them or forsake them. I’ll teach them, guide them, and help them from the inside.”

Isn’t that just powerful? It’s like I told you, friend, this relationship is God’s idea. He chose it, He made it possible, and He holds it together even when we feel like it is falling apart. That is the Father’s love, which He poured out through Jesus on the Cross and which He continues to pour out through the Holy Spirit in all of our hearts. He really wants to be with you and to be a Father to you, so much that He promised, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18).

Friend, no matter what other people have done to you and no matter how abandoned you feel, God is not going to leave you as an orphan. Even if you haven’t been looking for Him, He is reaching out for you, offering a relationship that will never, ever fail. Don’t sit in that spirit of orphanhood anymore, friend. Receive the Spirit of adoption that God worked so hard to put in you, and cry out to Him, “Abba, Father” (see Romans 8:15).

If you need someone to stand with you and help you voice that cry, we want to pray with you. You can call our prayer team at 1.844.473.6637 or email them at denisesocial@renner.org, and we will pray with you and call out for the Lord to come in and drive out that orphan spirit. We are here for anything that you need prayer for, so I really hope you will reach out.

Before I end this letter, I also want to invite you to my weekly program, TIME With Denise Renner. It is live on Facebook and YouTube every Monday at 7 AM CT and on Facebook again at 12 PM CT on Wednesdays. I always enjoy opening up the Word with you and sharing what God has put on my heart, so I hope you will join me and just be so blessed and encouraged by what He wants to say to you.

Friend, I want you to be able to grasp God’s opinion of you and vision for your life, and if you’ve been struggling to do that on your own, then I hope you will reach out to our amazing prayer team. We want to be there for you to pray against any barriers that the enemy may be trying to use to stop you from knowing the truth, so call at 1.844.473.6637 or email denisesocial@renner.org if you want support as you pursue God and His view of your life!

I also want to take a moment to remind you that my weekly program is live every Monday at 7 AM CT on Facebook and YouTube and every Wednesday at 12 PM CT on Facebook. I am always believing that God has something to say to you through these messages, so I hope you will join me for TIME With Denise Renner this week and that it will encourage you with God’s powerful truth.

We are moving forward together,

Denise Renner