<SYSTEM_TASK:>
Solve the following problem using Python, implementing the functions described below, one line at a time
<END_TASK>
<USER_TASK:>
Description:
 def _has_message(self):
 """ Whether or not we have messages available for processing. """

        sep = protocol.MINIMAL_LINE_SEPARATOR.encode(self.encoding)
        return sep in self._receive_buffer