Him that Believes

Him that Believes

John 12:32-50

Then Jesus cried out, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. 46I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

47″As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. 48There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. 49For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

               This statement by Jesus here in John 12 is like His mission statement.   In these few sentences Jesus pretty wells summarizes who He is and what He is about.  Although the Jewish ears of this day were pretty much deaf to his message and their eyes were blind, for here stood their Messiah and they discerned Him not.  Here, in this passage, He is telling plainly that when you embrace and believe upon Me, it is not just Me that you are embracing; you are embracing and believing the Father.  In this place we see Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, manifested as the Son of man and appearing outwardly not unlike you and I.  What so many can’t grasp is that contained within this man of the flesh is God Almighty living, breathing and speaking.   Jesus, the man, is the facilitator of God walking, talking and moving personally in the earth.  This passage is core to the Christian beliefs and tenants.  It is what separates us from other religions.  Men search all of their lives to find the way to heaven and Jesus says plainly, “I am what you seek, I am the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father except by me. “

               Have you ever been trying to figure something out and your wife or husband or kids are telling you the solution, but you can’t hear them.  They are telling you plainly enough, but you have shut them out and disqualified them because they don’t know what they are talking about.   If they had the answer why couldn’t you hear it?  It was pride, self reliance or stubbornness to hear from one so familiar to you and especially if you think you know more than they do.  We can look at the life of Jesus lived in front of the religious leaders who only rejected and condemned Him.  We might say, “how could they be so stupid and blind not to recognize who He was?”  It was that same stubborn pride that refused to acknowledge the God in Him. 

               Now Jesus didn’t go around saying, “Look how great I am, I am God, you people better believe me or I am calling down fire on you.”  Perhaps it was His humility that disarmed so many.  Here is Jesus, the King of King and He is speaking with divine authority and yet He is among them as a servant.  He is identified with the people, not filled with the pomp and grandeur of what He could have portrayed, as the earthly leaders did.  He wasn’t only identified with the people; He was identified with God the Father.  He says in verses 49-50, “49For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”  The Father, the Spirit and the words that He spoke were His credentials and they bore witness that He was who He said He was.  Jesus goes on to tell them,  ‘I’m not here to judge you, but I am speaking God’s Word and the Word itself will be your judge in that day, whether you received in faith and obeyed it or rejected it. 

               What does God want to speak through our lives as His people and His vessels?  Is He not still speaking this same Word to the generations of today?   Who is His mouthpiece if it is not you and I?  This is a primary reason that we don’t want our flesh in our way.  The flesh obscures and hides the Christ in us.  The less of us, or the former identity with self that exist, the more we can be like Jesus in that what we hear in the Spirit we can speak into the natural realm of men.  God is still moving through human agents.  Jesus was our prototype, the first, the template and the pattern for us to follow.  What has destroyed the credibility of the Church is that world sees in us a mixed message, a message of both flesh and spirit.  We have been a source of muddy water.  You can’t blame them for not wanting to drink.  We don’t want to be that source of muddy waters; we want to be growing ever more in tune with the Father through Christ.  We want to learn to the hear and discern the Holy Spirit’s voice so that whatever He speaks or directs, then we are speaking not our words, but His and the deeds that we do are not our deeds, but His.  We must follow our example for what the Father did in Him, He wants to do through us, but He needs clean vessels to speak forth a pure Word.  He needs vessels that are fully yielded to Him and in tune with His will and purpose.  Are we that people?

Blessings,

#kent

Advertisement

Lord, You Mean Everything

Lord, You Mean Everything

Philippians 3:7-14
Yea doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [but] dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

What is our level of commitment today in our walk with the Lord? What does He really mean to us in terms of our life plan, our goals and where we are going and what we hope to accomplish? In the above scripture we are seeing Paul lay out his mission statement and his life plan before us. Does ours sound anything like that? Paul says in the next verses 15 and16, “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” He says if you want to be perfect then try this goal on for size. Even in all that Paul had committed of his life to the service of the Lord and even through all that he endured he didn’t say I’m there yet,” but I’m running with all my might.” He lost all affections for the things of this world. He was spiritually minded and heavenly visioned. He so desired to experience the depths and the riches that Christ alone could provide, everything else paled in comparison. I believe Paul wanted to so identify with Christ that in the sharing and partaking of the sufferings of Christ and the conformity to His death, he might experience and lay hold of the resurrection life. That resurrection life was so much more than just dying, going to heaven and experiencing the resurrection at the Second Coming of Christ. He desired to experience the resurrection out of the dead things of this life. What holds us back from experiencing the fullness of life right now if it not the death that works in us? And what is the power of death if it is not sin. The resurrection out of the dead is the resurrection out of the sin and death that works in our members.
Paul says in Romans 8:10-11, “And if Christ [be] in you, the body [is] dead because of sin; but the Spirit [is] life because of righteousness, But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” We may live in the natural realm and as such so much of our energy, thinking and identification is with the things of this world. I believe Paul was saying turn around from the world and look at who you are in Christ. Look what He has provided for us and where He wants to take us. ‘The things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.’ Paul is telling us here in Romans 8 that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you and I. What is the implication of what He is saying? If we are dead to the flesh, then there is Spirit Power of Resurrection Life at work in us to raise us up in the power of His life. I believe Paul ran and lived his life to lay hold of that resurrection power and life even in his natural life. If he didn’t fully realize it then he carried and ran with that vision right into heaven and into the arms of Jesus. There is a high calling of life and power in Christ that we should yearn and long for. So many of us complacently wait for heaven as the end in itself. Paul wasn’t running that hard just to get to heaven. He had a greater vision and higher calling; he pressed for the high calling that is in Christ Jesus. Again, in Romans 8:19-23 I believe he gives some insight to this calling, “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected [the same] in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body.” The first fruit partakers of this liberty and redemption from corruption will be the administrators of its glory and life to creation. There is coming a day of restoration when all of creation is going to be set free from the bondage of sin and corruption. We who are in Christ should be travailing and groaning within to be free from the bondage of this natural man that we may experience the coming and the presence of Christ within us. Don’t let the realm that we live in now hinder the vision of what you are becoming and living your life for. If we truly live in Spirit life, the natural body and life just facilitates that in this earth, but we should already be living in the light of God’s eternal plan and not just our natural life span. The implications and fruit of how we live our lives carries on into eternity. As many as are perfect or spiritually minded want to catch the vision of God’s highest for us.
In conclusion Paul gives us gravity by saying, don’t look behind you at what you have or haven’t been. Don’t live in past condemnation or victories, but look ahead at what is before you. Set your eyes on Christ and the high calling that is in Him nevertheless wherever it is that you have thus far attained be faithful to walk in the light of the truth that you have and understand the high calling that Christ has called you too.

Blessings,
#kent