JESUS WAS PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT?

What was Jesus passionate about? The following is out of John 17.

1.Jesus wanted the Father to be glorified in the Son: "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began." (1-5) The work was giving eternal life to all those who would receive.

2.He requested all disciples would be protected by the power of His name: "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. Protect them by the power of your name - the name you gave me. Also for those who will believe in me through their message. (11 & 20)

3.That followers would be one with God: "that 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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. (21-22)

4.Jesus wanted followers to have his joy in them: "so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them." or "so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves." (13)

5.Jesus is asking for a unity that would let the world know of his radical love: "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. (23) This one breaks my heart.

6.Jesus wants us with him where He is: "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory." (24) This starts now.

7.He ends this prayer: "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you. . I 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."

My heart breaks from personal conviction as I pray these seven passions of Christ. Our culture does not look at Christians and say, "WOW, how they love." but "Boy how they fight, so contentious and disagreeable." They ought to say, "Those Christians have such inner peace and joy! I wonder if the One they worship would accept me?"


Read over these 7 passionate desires from the heart of Jesus as he faces the agonies of the rejection, loneliness, physical abuse unto death. Jesus paid a high price to redeem my soul from the preoccupation of self-focus. The way I read it, Jesus died to bring us into a community of lovers just like Jesus. Jesus was so one with the Father that he did and said only what He heard and saw from the Father. (John 5:19&30, 12:50) That would require intense intimacy of communion. I think this is were American Christianity is missing it. We are content with knowing about God but not knowing Him. We have substituted knowledge of the mind for enjoying a heart relationship. Our church life revolves around being taught and doing religious activities. We don't emphasis hearing directly from God because we do not believe He relates to us the same way He did in Scripture. How terribly we have been deceived!

I believe this relationship shift is why our hearts are malnourished and sick. God gave us a new heart and made us complete in Christ, but we insist on living out of the old heart that has been wrongly programmed from infancy. Unhealed wounds, unresolved issues, and unrealistic expectations are creating such pressure and torment of soul. Jesus continues to invite us, urge us to come to Him and find REST. Come to Him in the same kind of passionate love and fellowship that Jesus demonstrated toward the Father.

Would Jesus say to religious life in America?
"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." John 5:37-40

Scripture truth is not encoded in the heart because we give mental agreement and call it truth. Truth is written on our heart by hearing Jesus speak the truth to our heart as we commune with Him. We are connected to God by hearing His call. That is spirit birth. We then walk in the Spirit by hearing and enjoying His presence on a daily basis. This is transformation.