John 17 (Seven) Which Name Is One (Part Three)

Good day

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen.

To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two postings preceding this one.

This message is a continuation of our previous message.

“And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled,” (John 17:11, 12).

We see that, according to John 17:11 & 12, there is safety in unity and this unity exists in being one with God. The emphasis is on the Lord and on His name. Many little Kingdoms have been built in the past and are being built these days. Satan is subtle and man’s heart is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9). We therefore find that, although things sometimes appear to be in the name of the Lord, if we look carefully the motive of the heart is very much aimed on self and many people get deceived by it.

We really need to be discerning. Two friends of ours went to a meeting in London arranged by a certain great preacher’s ministry. The name of that preacher draw the people to the meeting and thousands turned up. The person who spoke was the financial administrator of that great preacher. He told the congregation of this new special anointing that creates prosperity and riches, which originated in the United States, and of the success it had there. He then encouraged the people to go forward and give £1000.00 to the Lord. Those who did it within the first thirty minutes would receive this special anointing when he prayed for them. He made use of typical sales techniques such as various payment methods and time limits and, according to our friend, people rushed forward in their hundreds. He then reduced the sum to £500.00 for those who could not afford the higher amount and so on.

Based on what Jesus said on various occasions about money and rich people and the fact that His gifts are free, was it possible that it was God’s name that united these people? Was it love for the Lord that united these people? Was these people’s focus on things above or on earthly things (Colossians 3:1-3)? Was it the name of the LORD that united these people or was it the name of the well-known, charismatic prosperity preacher that drew them together? By running after this so-called anointing, were they aiming for a treasure in heaven or a treasure on earth (Matthew 6:19, 20)?

These particular people were united by the well-known name of a man and their love of money. Their focus was on what could make them happy on earth, which is money, and not so much on what awaits them in heaven, and the people who smiled all the way to the bank were those who collected those thousands of £1000.00 donations. One can reason that the money would have been used for God’s Kingdom, but if this was the case, the Lord would have wanted to guide people in their giving voluntary. He would have wanted those in need of the money to depend on Him daily – to wait on Him. He would never make use of sales manipulation techniques to accomplish His purposes.

Can you see that there is much deception within the church? Huge portions of the church are linked to either names of people or names of organisations and these determine how things are to be done within their organisation. Are they really united by the name of the Lord? Is God really their source? I have seen so many times how preachers learn from other preachers how to go about to get power and money out of gullible Christians who only want to please the Lord. Successful prosperity preachers often receive pastors from over the world to learn from them.

The Lord said in Matthew 7:13, 14: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” He was not only talking about the world and their sin in this passage. He referred to anybody who tries to live an easy life whilst maintaining religion on the sideline as a ‘spare wheel’ or an escape gate.

The life in the name of the Lord is a narrow, focused unification with the Name above all names, taking from it the anointing to accomplish God’s will on earth and also the hardship that goes along with it. Jesus suffered because of this Name, all the disciples suffered because of this Name and the real church suffers because of it. Do you really want to be one of the thousands that live on the wide road of a prosperous life here on earth, or do you want to be part of the handful that suffer for the sake of the Lord’s name on earth, but whose real treasure are souls in heaven?

Lord, I really want to be one of the handful entering eternal life.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.

John 17 (Six) Which Name Is One (Part Two)

Good day

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen.

To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two postings preceding this one.

You would have noticed that the messages do not come as regularly as before. This is because time is tight and I work longer and irregular hours at present. Please keep us in your prayers, since many important developments also take hold of our time.

This message is a continuation of our previous message and is also shorter than usual because of the mentioned challenges.

“And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled,” (John 17:11, 12).

I may have confused you in our previous message and some may even think I am being misleading, since we always understood that the power and authority is in the name of Jesus. It is, but it is not the name ‘Jesus’ that has the authority. ‘Jesus’ is only the Greek for the Hebrew version ‘Joshua’, both of which means saviour. The name could be something totally different and would still have the same power. The power is not so much in the name as it is in being one with those who the name represents. To Father God the name of Jesus is not the important issue, but it is being in Jesus, the person to whom the name belongs, that is important. We see an example of this in Acts 19:13-16 where God used Paul in extraordinary power and “then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.’ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?’ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

It is not the name of Jesus that makes the difference, but the relationship of obedience with Him and Father God. Are we prepared to identify with them, to be counted as one with them, to bear the same name even when it costs us our comfort and our lives? “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it,” (Matthew 16:25). Whilst talking about those who would use His name to advance their own interests without having a relationship with Him and His Father, Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23: “‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

The name of Jesus is not the miracle power, but the willingness to share our entire being with Him. Jesus was very outspoken about this all the way through His teachings, in fact throughout the history of Israel as recorded right through the Bible. The Lord does not want to be shared – not with our own interests, not with other ideologies, not with money and everything it can buy, and He does not want to be used for selfish purposes. He wants us only to Himself and that is where we will be safe.

To be continued.

Lord, I really want to be one with you.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.

John 17 (Five) Which Name Is One

Good day

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen.

To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two postings preceding this one.

“And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled,” (John 17:11, 12).

Usually if we want our prayers to have authority we pray in the name of Jesus, since to Him belongs all authority. “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,’” (Matthew 28:18), and in Philippians 2:4-11: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

As we can see, because Jesus was prepared to be the least, He became the highest authority that ever existed. He therefore was a living example of the principle He worded in Matthew 23:12: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” It is interesting, though, that He said in John 17:11 He received His Father’s name and that this name united Jesus and His Father. What is this name? Is it actually the name ‘Jesus’, which means Saviour, since Jesus is definitely not Father God’s name?

Let us go right back to where God introduced Himself to Moses at the burning bush. We read in Exodus 3:2: “And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.” As we know, when the Bible refers to ‘the angel of the Lord’ it actually refers to Jesus. When Moses asked God what His name was, he received the answer in Genesis 3:14, 15: “God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’ God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.’”

This is the name that united Jesus and His Father. They are I AM, the LORD. They simply are, and have nothing to explain to those who doubt them, who try to figure out where they come from and generally who try to understand them. That is what unites them – their uniqueness, power, omniscience, omnipresence, their agape love and so on.

We just need to remain in that name - nothing to explain or understand, but only to believe. We need to believe that in Christ we are, just as they are. We are, because through some unexplainable miracle when we got born again we have received a new spirit, our sins are forgiven and we are counted as family of the Almighty God. Because of their uniqueness Jesus and His Father is one and it is the same uniqueness that would make us one, providing that we realise how unique we are and not crave to be like everyone else.

One of the major problems people are facing is peer pressure. At school, but actually throughout our lives we are pressurised to conform to a certain manner of living. Fashion tendencies, the type of furniture we have, the cars we drive, the type of social life we have, and so on determine our behaviour and in many ways affect the unity amongst Christians. This is why Jesus warned us against the power of the god of money (Matthew 6:24). The less we need to compromise in terms of the outside appearance, the more unique we will be together in our internal oneness. To Jesus His Father is everything, and doing His Father’s will is life. To bear His Father’s name and be in one spirit with Him is the reason of Jesus’ existence. We bear the same name, but how much does it mean to us? To be continued.

Lord, I really want to be one with you and your children.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.

John 17 (Four) His Glory in Us

Good day

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen.

To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two postings preceding this one.

“I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them,” (John 17:9, 10).

This was a very significant hour in the life of humankind. Jesus has completed the work He came to do on earth, apart from being the sacrifice for the sins of the world. He has set the scene and has trained the workers to take over from Him. Now the King of Glory, who has received all authority, prayed for those who would follow in His footsteps and what a powerful prayer it was, since it was prayed from a one hundred percent pure and sincere heart that was completely within the will of Father God (James 5:16B, 1 John 5:14, 15). It certainly would have been answered and are still answered if those, who Jesus prayed for, could believe with Him. In this passage Jesus also called those things that are not as though they were (Romans 4:17) by simply declaring that He is glorified in those that the Father gave Him.

This was a declaration by faith about the disciples, since if He had to look at them as they were at that stage; there was not much of a chance that He would have been glorified in them. They were about to run away from Him, deny Him, doubt Him and huddle in fear in the upper room after His crucifixion, so where was the glory? Jesus said this with the same confidence with which He told them during the Sermon on the Mount: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven,” (Matthew 5:14-16). He told them that they are the light, not that they could possibly be the light if they perform appropriately. How could Jesus have known this so confidently, especially in the light of the weaknesses in the disciples that He knew about?

Whoever the Lord gives eternal life through rebirth belongs to Him, and it is said of Him that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 1:6). The Lord has confidence in His ability and knows that, once a person has committed to His power and love, glory will be the end result. In an earlier message we have seen that God’s glory actually is in that fact that people get saved. He does not need for us to be perfect. We do not need to appear to be someone we are not. All we need to be is the light we are – separated for God’s use, humble in heart and repentant of our sinful nature through our walking in the Holy Spirit.

We often hear the people of the world sneering: ‘She says she is a Christian, but look what she does...’ and so they keep on trying to find fault. At rebirth the Lord started a good work in us and He will complete it at the coming of Christ for us, whether it is at Jesus’ second coming or our departure to be with Him at our death. The good work has nothing to do with the impression man has of us. If the opinion of man is important we will live to please man. Our service will be man oriented and we will be concerned what man thinks of us, which leads to compromise. The good work has everything to do with glorifying God in the spiritual realm, though. “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him,” (John 4:23).What does God think of us, do we gain for ourselves a treasure in heaven, what do God’s enemies (the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms) think of us? We read in Job 1:8 that God asked Satan:  “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” and when David sinned the Lord sent Nathan who told him in 2 Samuel 12:14: “However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”

Because Jesus was confident of the disciples’ potential for obedience through the help of the counsellor the Holy Spirit, He was certain that He would be glorified in them. How certain is Jesus of your commitment? Are you submitted enough to allow Him to use you to His glory?

Lord, help me to live a life separated for you so I would not disgrace you in the spiritual realm.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.

John 17 (Three) Manifestation

Good day

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen.

To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two postings preceding this one.

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. ⁸ For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me,” (John 17:6-8).

In this chapter of the gospel of John Jesus lay strong emphasis on His task of manifesting the name of Father God, making sure the disciples and all those that followed them understood that Jesus, and everything He presented for the sake of mankind, came from Father God. Just like with many Christians today the Jews knew they served the living God, but to many of them it was just a tradition, a ritual they had to follow. At the time He was not a reality to them and Jesus came to make Him that reality. Starting with His disciples He had to make first of all the Jews, and then the whole world understand that Father God was a personal God who desired intimacy with His loved ones. Jesus used the word ‘manifest’ in verse six. As we see in John 14:7-9 Jesus did not only talk about His Father, but He manifested Him: “‘If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’ Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’”?

In His words as recorded in John 5:19 we find the reason why Jesus manifested His Father: “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.’” The message that the Holy Spirit lay on my heart from this passage can be summarised in this question: Do we see Father God in the words and actions of His servants, or do we see the servants? This could be in both a positive and a negative way. When a preacher or an author reveals knowledge that pleases us, we often put them on a pedestal and single them out as somebody special. However, we do not like and often criticise or persecute those who challenge us when it comes to our disobedience. In the modern day church culture we hear a lot of ‘God-loves-and-blesses-us’ sermons and not too many sermons challenging our sin and disobedience. The Lord uses His Word, and also wants to use His servants to confront our iniquities.

The point I try to make is that the Lord manifests Him through His servants, both to encourage and to challenge His people, and we need to see Him and not the servants behind what His servants say and do. When the servants say something great, the Lord needs to be praised and when the servants reprimand us, we need to yield to the reprimand without criticising and persecuting the servants, for they only manifest God to us. We also should believe messages as a word from God and not the opinion of man when it is Bible based and challenging, learning from it what we can. The servants need to say what the Lord tells them to say without compromising or editing what they have heard. Jesus did not beat around the bush and neither did the apostles and they saw much fruit on their labour, but also experienced a lot of pain and persecution.

Jesus must have felt proud of the disciples when He said in verse 6B that the disciples have kept His Father’s word, which Jesus gave them. For three years He moulded the men He had chosen, and it was as if He now presented them to His Father as successful products of His labour. We were also given the Father’s Word, in the Bible and through the Holy Spirit’s instructions every day. Could Jesus be proud of us as well because we keep the word He has given us?

Lord, help me realise it is all about you and for your glory.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.

John 17 (Two) Creative Purpose of Man

Good day

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen.

To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two postings preceding this one.

“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed,” (John 17:4, 5).

The work Jesus was given to do consisted of a lot of activity, which was aimed at one primary purpose – to give eternal life to those Father God loves. Having accomplished that which He was sent to earth for, was all that was needed to glorify Father God. There is no evidence in the Bible that Jesus for instance sang worship songs in church in order to glorify God. The way He glorified God was to humble himself in obedience, lifting His Father up. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross,” (Philippians 2:5-8). “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise,’” (John 5:19).

The creative purpose of man is to glorify the Lord God. When Adam was created, he was so perfect that He walked in fellowship with the Lord. There was no sin that separated him from his Maker and they were in perfect harmony. When Jesus came to earth He was in perfect harmony with Father God, for there was no sin that separated them. The only way Jesus was able to return to His Father in heaven and continue in their glorified relationship at one another’s side, was for Jesus to glorify Father God by completing what He came to do on earth, which was ensuring that Adam’s descendants’ relationship with Father God was restored to the level it was before Adam had sinned.

Would you like to be able to say almost like Jesus did: “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that Adam had before he had sinned.” This is what Jesus, the second Adam, came to do. He came to restore for us what Adam had messed up, but it is up to us to glorify Father God by accomplishing what we were created for – to continue the work that the second Adam, Jesus, started. I have often wondered how earth would have been had man never sinned. Obviously Adam would have continued walking with God in fellowship and probably would have increased in numbers, but everybody would have walked in harmony with God. This is what Father God’s dream has been ever since Adam sinned, which is why He first of all chose for Himself a nation from which the Messiah was born. He in turn set the whole world free from the curse of sin, so that everyone who becomes one with Jesus could share in the original glory Adam had with God, but this time in a new heaven and new earth.

How much time and effort do we put into accomplishing that which we are called for, in order to help Father God accomplishing His dream? In our previous message we have looked at what we really know and do. Many of us are so focused on all the distractions this world offers us, being busy entertaining ourselves whilst attempting to survive, that we do not even try to find out what we are to do in order to glorify God the Father. Father God and Jesus have made every effort to prepare the way for us to restore our relationship with Him, so we can live in glorious harmony with Him as originally intended. What do we do to glorify Him?

This is not going to be easy though, since we still have the serpent around whose primary purpose is to stop man from living in harmony with God. Whatever we have and are we have and are in Christ Jesus. On our own we are not able to do anything, but as long as we stay in Christ we can do and be anything. When Peter walked on the water toward Jesus he did well as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus, but when He started to look at the waves he sank. Waves are sent to us all the time in an attempt to get our focus away from Jesus onto ourselves, our own comfort, ambitions and problems. This, however, does not glorify Father God, but ourselves, which is why we will sink into a pit of self-centredness. But if we keep our eyes on Jesus, who glorified Father God by accomplishing what He was sent to do, we will walk on the water of the accomplishment of what we were sent to do.

Lord, please give me grace to stop living for myself and complete what you gave me to do here on earth?

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.

John 17 (One) Eternal Life is...

Good day

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen.

To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two postings preceding this one.

John chapter seventeen contains Jesus’ High Priestly prayer as the heading puts it. It portrays much of Jesus’ intimate relationship with, and love for His Father and we have much to learn from it. To me this is one of the most significant chapters in the Bible and it is easy to just see it as Jesus’ prayer and therefore simply read over all the information He passed on to the readers through it. We are therefore going to take extra care to look at it intensely.

“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, ²since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent,’” (John 17:1-3). A key word in this passage is the word ‘since’ at the beginning of verse two. Both Father God and Jesus the son get glorified through giving people that which only the Godhead had at that stage – eternal life.

For example, what is it in man that has impressed people through the centuries and has caused kings to knight people, and for people to receive prizes such as the Nobel Prize? These recipients have meant something to society and have given of themselves for the benefit of others and for the improvement of life. By receiving these prizes the people have been glorified by men.

Through giving of Himself to sinners so they could have what He always had, the Triune God gets glorified. The disciples were the first to get born again according to the New Covenant that Jesus came to establish, and that is why Jesus told Father God that the hour has come to be glorified. Every time we share the truth of the gospel with someone, God gets glorified, since we make Father God known to those people.

According to verse three, eternal life is not only living in heaven one day, or for that matter avoiding hell. We are all going to live eternally in any case, either in hell or in heaven, since our spirit is eternal. When we talk about the spirit of man that is dead at birth because of Adam’s disobedience, it does not mean that man is going to die and be just dead. A spirit cannot die, so when we say the spirit is ‘dead’ as a result of Adam’s sin, we mean we are dead in our relationship toward Father God. If we want our relationship with Father God to be restored, we need to be born again through becoming one with Jesus. Eternal life is to know Father God and that is why Jesus came – to make Him known to us. Can you see that it involves more than a sinner’s prayer - inviting Jesus into your heart? To live with Father God demands that we know Him and it is through Jesus’ revelation that we get to know Him. Eternal life is equalled to knowing Father God and also not just knowing about Him, but knowing Him.

What is it that we actually know? We know a lot about Mammon – how to play our money so we get the most benefit from it. We also know a lot about good living, shopping for beautiful things, decorating our houses so we could live in attractive, comfortable surroundings. Furthermore we know a lot about entertainment, especially when it comes to music, movies, shows and the latest gadgets on the market. We certainly know a lot about life on earth and how to manage it. We know how to do our jobs well, which cars are the most comfortable, how to holiday and so on and on.

But what do we know about the Lord God? Do we go to trouble to obey Him so He could reveal Himself to us (John 14:21)? Do we study the scriptures in pursuit of knowledge about Him, trying to understand what pleases Him and how He thinks? Do we search the heart of the Holy Spirit for revelation about the Lord God? Is this passage in Matthew 6:24 starting to make sense to you: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money (Mammon).” If we know God well, we live eternal life, but if we know Mammon (money) and everything he has to offer, well, we are focused on this temporary moment in time, “laying up for ourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,” (Matthew 6:19).

The Lord God is our heavenly treasure and we should spend our energy filling ourselves with knowledge of Him, for it is with Him we will spend eternity when we have been born again.

Lord, I desire to know you.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.

John 16 (Eight) New Life from Jesus

Good day

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen.

To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two postings preceding this one.

From as far as I can remember during my early childhood I had a desire after the Lord. To me it was great fun to go to church and especially when there was a time of prayer during the service. I remember being in awe when these adult men got up and prayed, and I still remember gaining the courage to get up as well, adding my holding-my-breath-stuttering -nervously prayer to theirs. This was during my primary school years, but as I became a teenager I started to wonder about the security in salvation. Although I had a thorough foundation in the Word of God though a well organised Sunday school system, I knew there had to be more.

Being of Calvinistic persuasion our church did not preach the need to be born

again, so even though I loved the Lord and went through all the church procedures, I still needed the renewal in my spirit – the moment of being born again. I remember that I repented of my sins every Sunday, but it did not bring me peace and security of salvation in my heart. This the Lord arranged for me to receive through a teacher at school who ran a Bible study that I attended. I remember as clearly as daylight my experience when she prayed with me to allow Jesus into my heart and renew my spirit – the day I became born again. Suddenly everything I have learnt through the years made sense and the Bible unfolded for me.

This is basically what had happened to the disciples in John 16:29-31. For three years they had lived with Jesus, learning from Him, seeing His miracles, practising to do these things themselves, but it was as if their focus was wrong. It seemed to have been on the activities rather than on the relationship. In John chapters fourteen to sixteen were recorded Jesus’ final instructions to the disciples to remedy this, and then eventually their eyes opened. All the knowledge they had gained suddenly became alive – they had become born again: “His disciples said, ‘Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe?’”

How about you? Have you been born again (John 3:1-8) or have you been in church all your life, not realising you have not had this wonderful experience of a renewed spirit. “But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness,” (Ephesians 4:20-24). “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come,” (2 Corinthians 15:17). Maybe you have difficulty to understand the Word of God, to hear His voice or to follow His guidance. One cannot hear from God or understand His Word if your spirit is still dead as it was at birth.

Believing in Jesus does not make the spirit alive, but a decision to allow Jesus to renew your spirit through rebirth. James 2:18, 19: “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” Believing in Jesus is not enough, we need to put action to our faith and trust Him to change us. ‘Lord Jesus, please come in and make me a new creation.’

When the disciples believed as recorded in John 16:29, 31 above, it was as if Jesus renewed their spirits there and then – the moment of their rebirth - and to Him it was the conclusion of their training. They were ready to take over from Him once they have received the Holy Spirit’s power. He then concluded His teaching with these words: “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” They were ready to face the truth, the hard reality of them being on their own with only faith in the Holy Spirit to be their helper.

With us it works the other way around. The disciples were firstly trained and then eventually grasped the reality of a renewed spirit. We need to be born again firstly so we could grasp the truth about Jesus with our renewed spirit, which is able to communicate with the Holy Spirit, who replaced Jesus. The disciples did not need renewed spirits initially, since they had Jesus, but the time had come that they would have been dependent on the Holy Spirit and therefore needed to have their spirits renewed – being born again.

Lord, I need you to renew my spirit so I could receive insight into your truth.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.

John 16 (Seven) Transparency

Good day

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen.

To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two postings preceding this one.

“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father,” (John 16:25-28).

Up to this point in time Jesus still took all the initiative. As discussed in the previous message there was no need for the disciples to ask Him anything, since He observed their needs and met them automatically. He also interceded on their behalf whilst on earth, since they were still learning about Father God and the Kingdom. Prior to Jesus’ coming, life in Israel consisted of religious activity, which involved pleasing the religious leaders and not so much having a relationship with God. For this exact reason did Jesus not consider it necessary to give them all the information about Father God and the Kingdom outright, because they would not have grasped it. He had to reveal the truth to them gradually in order to build up knowledge in their minds so they could have a good foundation, just as it is done in modern schooling.

To Jesus everything was about Father God. His purpose on earth was to make His Father known to the people, for this would be the foundation of Kingdom living in the future – a relationship with Father God and not the religious activities that they used to do. Jesus was therefore weaning His disciples. Up to then they loved Him and adored Him, hanging onto His every word. He, however, was to leave soon and then they had to become dependent on God the Father directly. To them it was a concept that was not easy to grasp, for God to the Jews was holy and lifted high. They knew Him as living in the holy of holies behind the curtain in the temple where the high priest entered once a year to make atonement for their sins. So to grasp the concept of talking with God directly and even having a relationship with Him was something to get used to.

This is why Jesus told them that in future they will ask of Father God directly in His name. There would be no need anymore for Him to ask on their behalf. To make it easier for them, Jesus told them not to worry, since because they loved Him and believed that He was from God, Father God loved them. He was not the awesome, distant God which religion impressed on their minds, but was ready to be a dad to them.

Do you understand this intimacy that God the Father offers you, or is He still a distant God to you? Are you aware that God can handle it if you are angry with Him, speaking your heart to Him, being honest with Him about your feelings? I have just finished reading a book called ‘Heaven is for Real’, a stunning testimony of a four-year-old boy’s experience of heaven as told by his dad Todd Burpo. Todd shared how he was extremely angry with God for bringing all these bad circumstances over their family, and when his son Colton were hospitalised, Todd really gave the Lord his mind in an aggressive and rude manner. Some time later Colton told Todd that Jesus sent him back to earth from heaven in answer to that particular prayer of Todd.

When family members who love one another have arguments and become very angry with one another, it usually does not result in separation. We may be angry for a little while and then everything returns to normal. Why is it? It is because we love one another. The Father’s love is much higher and greater than ours, and if our love for one another can bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things (1 Corinthians 13:7), how much more the Father’s perfect love.

Jesus came to make Father God known so we could have the same kind of

relationship with Him than Jesus has. Father God wants us to be transparent with Him for He knows us in any case. We may ask what the point is then to be transparent with Him if He already knows us. Being honest and transparent with Him sets us free, relaxes our relationship with Him and helps us to grow into open intimacy with Him that allows for us to get to know Him as Jesus knows Him.

Father God, I want to know you as a daddy.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.

John 16 (Six) To Ask or Not to Ask

Good day

For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of John chapters fourteen to seventeen. Some of it will be what I have already written and some will be new. Therefore it may sometimes appear that I leave off in the middle of a topic to be continued, since I have reached my daily word count limit.

To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two postings preceding this one.

“In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full,” (John 16:23-24).

Jesus started this passage by saying that when His disciples will see Him again, they will ask nothing of Him and a little later stated that they have not asked Him anything up to that point in their relationship either. Why would this have been? Jesus knew their hearts and supplied their needs automatically without them having to have asked for anything. This was the extent of His love for people that He made sure He was aware every need of those around Him. We can learn from this.

When my wife was at Bible College they had a rule at dinner table. No-one was allowed to ask for anything at the table. Each one was supposed to note the needs of the others. In other words, if one wanted the butter or the jam, they were supposed to observe their need and supply it without them having to ask for it. This taught the students to focus away from themselves and meet the needs of those around them. Until today she and her friends that were with her at Bible College are very close and they still live like that.

Why did Jesus then for instance ask the crippled man at the Bath of Bethesda what he wanted? When He asked people such questions He still noticed their needs first, but it was to teach them to be bold about their needs. Satan and our flesh want us to continuously focus on ourselves, which is why we have uncomfortable circumstances coming our way all the time. We then are so busy with our own problems that we do not see and attend to the needs of those around us. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 6:31-33: “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you,” and in Proverbs 3:5, 6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” There are many other passages where we are encouraged and instructed to trust the Lord do deal with our circumstances, primarily because He wants us to focus on the needs of those around us.

Why then did Jesus tell His disciples in the same passage under discussion: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you,” and “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full”? While Jesus was with His disciples He set the example of caring for those around Him without them having to ask for help, but when He left He wanted us to show our faith, confidence and intimacy by asking for what we need and then promised that we will receive it so our joy may be full. However, sometimes we ask and it seems that we do not receive. Why would that be? We must remember that Jesus spoke to His disciples, who were trained by Him, and He knew that they would go all the way and sacrifice their lives for the sake of the gospel of His love. They therefore would automatically have asked according to the Lord’s will for the sake of the Kingdom. We, however, often ask selfishly and therefore do not receive what we ask. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions,” (James 4:3).

We may also receive what we ask for in a different way, since the Lord is busy working at us, pruning and forming us to become what He wants us to be. “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure,” (Philippians 2:12, 13). He has a greater plan and knows our needs and hearts better than we do, and answers our prayers accordingly. How many times have we asked the company we work for or our organisation something, but they have given it to us in a different way than we expected it, since it served the organisation better that way. The same applies to God. When we learn to stop living only for ourselves and to start focusing of God’s needs, our prayers will be directed towards what He wants and will be answered without fail.

Lord, help me to see and meet my neighbours’ needs without them having to ask, and also to ask you according to your will.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.