If anyone ever wanted to know exactly what our Savior’s mission was and still is, or what the Father’s wishes are for this creation, the prayer Jesus says after the Last Supper in the 17th chapter of John says it all.
It’s always amazing to go back and read something and come into complete understanding of it, whereas before, I might have read it and just skimmed over it. I’m sure the Lord is pleased when we read these words and really open our hearts to them and let the Spirit reveal them to us in a new and living way.
I seriously finished reading this chapter and threw my arms up in the air and said “Thank you!!!!” afterwards because it spoke so directly and so decisively to my spirit.
So without further ado, let’s read it through, and remember, this is what Jesus prayed as He was sitting with His disciples the night before His crucifixion and He warned the disciples about the coming tribulations:
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
(MY NOTE: Pre-existence of Chris is revealed, once again).
6 “I have revealed you[a] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of[b] your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by[c] that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by[d] the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
(MY NOTE: Jesus truly preaches the Good News to everyone here. He is putting the burden on both the disciples and on those who listen to them to take heed to what the disciples preached after His departure from this earth. But it is here where He is making the Truth available to the entire creation, rather than just a small group of individuals)
May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.26 I have made you[e] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
So what does it all mean? Everything! It means everything because with this prayer, Jesus was declaring that his mission was accomplished, even before he hung on the cross or was resurrected. It means that he felt some sort of completion of the mission at this point, and that all that he had come for was now coming full circle.
Perhaps it’s presumptuous to believe that it was finished at this point, but all I am saying is that AT THIS POINT Jesus knew that it was accomplished. He also knew that he was going to be killed the next day, and that he would be resurrected as well.
It also means that His mission was similar to what God’s original mission was in calling the Israelites out of Egypt in order to use them to bring about his Glory. The people of Israel disobeyed much of what God had asked of them and things got wildly out of control. So, once again, God chose a small group of people to walk alongside Jesus (just as God had stayed alongside the Israelites as they wondered for 40 years) and then use that small group of people to show his glory and usher in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Even further, the reading shows us that the ideal goal of God in all of this was to establish a oneness of His people and an inclusion into His Kingdom. He didn’t just magically sprinkle fairy dust on all of humanity and have them suddenly believe, He gave the disciples a clear job in spreading the word to all nations and people so that the entire world would be saved.
Now this brings me back to the present and the talk about the second-coming of Christ.
IF He comes like He did the first time, that is. Which is highly doubtful. Why would He have to? He clearly says when He comes back it will be in the same manner as He left – which was in a cloud of Glory. That could mean just about anything – but I feel, based on other scripture, that it means something highly spiritual that might not be so evident to those who aren’t looking for it.
The thing we have to realize about God and how He works when He punches His hand into our dimension and takes action is that He uses people to do His work. Jesus was an exception, but He was also a person. The fact that the Holy Spirit was poured at Pentecost shows that Jesus, as a human being, was now completely spirit and would be spirit rather than physical in any form. So in reading this chapter of John, the implication here is that Jesus is saying that the spirit has been given to and placed within the bodies of those who are still IN the world, and those who would accept these Truths from those who were still IN the world – meaning physical people.
In other words, Jesus and God – as one – are IN US. Jesus says “That we may be one, just as you are in me and I am in you”
We are one collective spirit of the Christ – and those of us who have heard the message of the Gospels and believed it, we are now the revelation of Jesus Himself! Yet we fail on so many levels to show that the “Morning Star has risen in our hearts”.
Jesus did not leave the disciples to become complacent or lazy or overly-dependent on Him to the point that they didn’t take the initiative to do mighty acts like He had done. In fact, in other chapters He has stated that they would do even MORE things that He did.
Yet here we are – assuming that, as Christians, we must be desperate and totally helpless in order to be “true Christians”.
When was the last time we stood up and said “I AM a child of God and Creation and I have authority given to me by God the Father through His son and therefore I am a mighty, mighty and powerful part of this creation!”
I mentioned the Lion King in another blog, but this thought came to me in regards to what I just said – remember Simba finally being able to roar like his father did? A grown lion? This is what we SHOULD be doing in this world fellow Christians!
We should ROAR at the top of our lungs and say Jesus Christ has returned and He is HERE TODAY in US!
Too many Christians (and bless their hearts too) are waiting for Jesus to come back in some physical form, in the clouds, and do what they feel He should do. But this is where we are in danger of missing the mark completely – just as the Israelites missed it 2000 years ago, the first time He came.
HE IS HERE. He has always been here – ever since that night He prayed this prayer to the Father and gave a clear summons to his Disciples to go in all the world and preached the Good News. Pentecost came and Spirit was poured out for all to see and experience.
Jesus is here. He is here IN US. Let our light then, shine before men! Let our voices be bold and uncompromising – there is no in-between. It is STILL our job to make sure that Jesus is known to all who don’t know him, in every crevice, every corner and every hiding place of this world.
This is where it gets sad to think that there are so many who have heard the good news but refuse to believe it. They go by another Gospel, another doctrine and another religious concept.
And yes, even in our own “Christian” backyard there are those who claim to be of Christ but blatantly go against His Word.
So will they all go to hell? And what about the indigenous people in the far reaches of jungles that have no clue about this Christ we in the Western World know so much about?
Will they go to hell?
NO! Go back and read the prayer above again.
“None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”
And there is our ah-hah moment. No one except the ONE doomed…and we all know who that “one” is. So we don’t know exactly what God’s plan is for those obstinate unbelievers or those who are “out of the loop” is. But we do know that they’re not lost. There will be some way that God reconciles these people to Himself. Jesus did say that he had other "sheep" of other "flocks" but wasn't clear on who he was referring to. We all know that God does what He does. But it’s OUR JOB now and always to try every which way to boldly declare the Good News to anyone who hasn’t heard it.
Sure, it’s not politically correct, but who cares? So what? This is 2011 and next up is 2012 and we all know there’s a lot of talk about how whacky things could get before the year’s end. Please, PLEASE do your part brothers and sisters! In every way you can. This is the time, today is the day, and the message is clear.
Jesus HAS returned to this world and WE are his revelation.
Let us celebrate our oneness in spirit and our most precious existence in this life. We are not here by accident, this is all a very well planned out purpose that God had to expand Himself and be fully conscious through us. This is a well-oiled machine and because of the fact that the world is more dangerous now than it has ever been, it’s of vital importance to begin to truly recognize and understand our higher purpose.
We don’t really know what God has in store for this world or this planet. We may see some sort of dimensional “shift” as many prophets are predicting in the year ahead. If that is the case, our inner Christ MUST be ready to come out and bear witness.
If not now, then when? Are we going to sit around wailing “how long Lord?” or are we boldly going to stand up, breath in the Breath of Heaven and declare NOT LONG!
May God bless you and keep you and make His countenance shine upon you…until the Morning Star rises in YOUR heart.
Amen
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