Final Thoughts and Prayers

John 17:6-18
“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For 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. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I 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 your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by 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. 14I 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. 15My 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. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Final Thoughts and Prayers

    If this was your last day alive on this earth where would your heart, your thoughts and your prayers be?  As Jesus was on the doorstep of His passion we find that His thoughts and prayers are on us.  He is talking to the Father about the disciples and all that will follow after them.  His prayers are not for the world, or world peace, His focus is upon those that the Father has given Him; the remnant that believed Him and had not forsaken Him.  He talks about how He watched over those that God gave Him and kept them safe by the name that the Father had given Him.  Now He prays that the Father will continue to keep us by the power of that name; the precious name of Jesus.  His name is the mantle that He has passed to us.  It is our power and authority, it is our blessing and protection, it is our safety and provision and it is our salvation for spirit, soul and body.  It is what brings us together in one mind, one body and one Spirit.  We are individuals united and joined into one man by the power of that name. 
    Jesus prays and acknowledges that to this point He has fulfilled His purpose and destiny to give us the Word of God.  He gave it to us not only in His words, but in the in the revelation and unveiling of the nature and character of God with us in His own being.  Jesus ironically doesn’t pray for us to be taken out of the world or to not go through trials and tribulations, but that we would be protected from the evil one and that we might have the full measure of His joy within us.  He speaks to the truth that the world will hate us as it hated Him for we are no longer of this world as He is not of this world.  If we were of the world the world would love us.  Because we now carry and bear the Word of the Lord the world will hate us as it hated Him.  Yet there is always a remnant that will hear and receive that Word unto salvation and life. 
    Finally He ask that we be sanctified by the Truth and that Truth is in His Word.  For us, He sanctifies Himself that we might be sanctified.  What is that sanctification?  As I look it up, it says that it is “to be separate from profane things and dedicated to God.  It is to consecrate things to God, dedicate a people to God, to purify by expiation (free from the guilt of sin) and to purify externally and internally by the renewing of the soul.”  The purpose of Jesus was to call us out as His people and sanctify us unto Himself as His holy people. 
    The rest of the Lord’s prayer pertains to our unity with the Godhead and our unity as the body.  Jesus continues to pray, “”My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world 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. 26I have made you 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.”
    The last thoughts and prayers of Jesus were for us and they have never ceased to be for us.  Even now Jesus is the High Priest of our profession and He ever lives to make intercession for us.  He has passed the mantle of His name, His nature and His character to us.  He abides in us to manifest the love of the Father through us.  He has sanctified us that we might now bring glory and honor to that name that is above every name in heaven and in earth.
    What would our last thoughts and prayer be for?  I am sure they would be for those that we love and care the most for.  That was the heart of Jesus for us. 

Blessings,
kent