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.

THE BRIDE MADE READY

What is the next season of redemptive history? Could it be the Bride of Christ made ready? Several years ago I asked the Holy Spirit, "What was Jesus passionate about? I want to enter into agreement with the passion of His heart." John 17 came to mind and I spent 6 weeks reading and re-reading, writing out and praying the Heart of Jesus in our behalf.

Jesus said that the Father loves us as much, yes as much, as He loves the Son. Can you believe it? I also noticed that from John 13 through 16 Jesus related these truths to the disciples, preparing them for His departure. For instance, Jesus said in John 14:20 "On that day, you will realize that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." This is how He could say that we would do the same things He had done and even greater things. Jesus expected His disciples to enjoy the same fellowship, oneness and privileges that He had enjoyed with the Father. He knew that if we stayed connected to the Father as He demonstrated for us, nothing would be impossible for us. So why aren't Christians the most loving, powerful people on the planet? Why is there such a victim mentality? Why are we so sin conscious rather than righteous conscious? Why aren't we spiritually growing up to look and act like Jesus? Paul said that the saints were to reign in the earth by Christ Jesus, so I am looking for a whole generation to rise up, throw off conformity to the culture and be to the world what Jesus was to His world.

It would appear that Jesus was passionate about drawing us new creation saints into the circle of divine fellowship, of oneness that He enjoyed with the Father. This has not become a reality for the Church as yet, so I am praying with Jesus that before He returns He will have a passionate Bride in agreement with every Word He speaks in personal dialogue. "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." (John 17)

I don't think Jesus was referring to one denominational voice of doctrine, but oneness of passion for communion with the Triune God. It is not agreeing intellectually with any doctrinal position that sets me free, brings me peace, joy and victory. It is intimacy with Jesus on the heart level where I connect with Him and enjoy His conscious presence. Much of our discipling has been aimed at teaching information rather than leading people to experience God Himself. Imagine how different our corporate worship would be if our worship leaders expected Jesus to reveal His presence, drawing all into the silence of awe in beholding Him. I have experienced this. Out of the silence came a soft weeping from most of us as we responded to His presence among us. Difficult to describe in words. I am pursuaded that many Christians are longing for holy visitations.

We can believe right doctrine, but if the heart is not changed we have no power to live what we say we believe. When we hear Jesus speak to the heart, (rhema) it will always carry with it the grace that transforms. (The definitation of grace here means the power and desire to do it God's way.) Imagine how exciting our discipleship groups would be if the teacher planned for encounters with Jesus so that each person experienced the burning in their heart and new places in the heart came alive to resurrection glory. I long for this in our worship gatherings and prayer meetings.

Could this be what we are being pressed into? It is almost impossible to change our worship traditions. Desperation will do it.

A BIT OF PERSONAL STORY

I ended my last blog post by saying that I feel God is doing a new thing among His people. I will share what I think that new thing is, but first some personal history.

About 35 years ago I became very troubled about the lack of transformation in the Body of Christ. The Apostle Paul warned us in Romans 12, "Don't be conformed to this world system, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds." The common understanding of that verse seems to be, teach proper doctrine and train the converts in proper spiritual habits and they will become proper Christians. No so. I have been immersed in church life now for 69 years and we are a mess of contradictions. We can't seem to live up to what we preach and certainly what Jesus promised to those who follow Him. I was devastated by my first church split and sense then constant conflict in the churches of our association and denomination.

If ever there was a "miss goodie two shoes" I qualified for the title. I don't remember a time that I didn't love Jesus. I seriously followed all the rules of my church and the laws of God as I saw them. I became legalistic, careful who I spent my time with, wouldn't think of stepping outside the accepted box. I had conformed nicely to the fear-based theology of my culture. I was in bondage to my own developed righteousness and probably no spiritual good to anyone, except that I loved Jesus. The Lord graciously brought me to the end of myself because He heard my heart cry, "Lord, I want to know you. I want to know the power of Your resurrection in me, no matter where it takes me." Phil.3:9-10 became my life verse.

In my 20s I read a mission study book by Bertha Smith entitled Go Home And Tell. Miss Bertha told story after story revealing that God still related to His children as the Biblical account states. He spoke to her directly and miracles happened continually in China. That is not what my spiritual upbringing believed could happen in these modern days. I so wanted her to be right. So, taking her cue, I asked God who was right. I was desperate to know. My question went something like this: "Abraham was Your friend and You talked to Him conversationally. Do you offer that same kind of friendship with us today? Can I relate to You like Abraham did?" I was a bit surprised when He answered a very solid "YES". The scriptures came alive to me as I started asking Jesus to talk to me about what I had just read. I would have a question and He would answer. I was in the class of the Holy Spirit. I was teaching a class of teenage girls and Sunday after Sunday, one of them would ask the same question I had received an answer about the week or two before. I realized that Jesus was developing a new kind of friendship with me that was very exciting and compelling. What I was hearing in my secret place visits with Jesus was so much more interesting than the Sunday School material written for every teacher of all ages to teach each Sunday. (I do not mean to be offensive)

IF Jesus said I will do the same things He did and even greater things, I wanted to know why the church as I knew it was not doing even the things Jesus did, not to mention the greater things. If Jesus said, the finished work of Christ is enough to set people free from fear & addictions and make us act like Jesus, where was the evidence of that? If Jesus said He was giving to us His peace and removing fear, why was my heart so fearful? Why are our cabinets so full of drugs to help us cope with life and our Christian leaders in bondage to the very things we preach against? Why is the Body of Christ so dis-jointed, so fragmented, so suspicious of each other, so judgemental? I could go on and on, and these were the questions I kept agonizing over.

My hunger for closer encounters with God through Jesus Christ has continued to move me past my fear-based relationship that imposed all kinds of limits and taboos, into a love-based relationship without limits. The past 10 years have brought answers to my most troubling question: Why are we not being transformed into the image of Christ?

This writing has become longer than I think most will read, but if no one else reads it, perhaps it serves a purpose for me. Thank you for reading. I welcome your prayers on my behalf. I pray for each of you.

A CRY FOR MORE

I have presented the idea that there is romance at the center of the universe. We know that God is love and that God so radically loved the world that He gave His Son to rescue us from self destruction. We still have a hard time getting close to this God. Our brokenness gets in our way of intimacy. We can identify with the Hebrew people when they told Moses, "You go up and meet with this God. We are too afraid that He will kill us." The people saw God's acts but Moses discovered His ways.

Moses and Joshua longed to get close to God and God was very accomodating. He took them as far as they could go in their season before the Messiah ratified the New Covenant to bring us even closer. If God was so accomodating under the Old Covenant ratified in animal blood, how much more likely does He plan to draw us into intimacy and show us the realm of the spirit so we can function on the earth as partners?

There are those in the evengelical church that do not expect God to speak directly to his people as He did with Moses and Daniel, nor appear in visible form as He has done to many Muslims and others in our day. Without visitation we do not sustain our walk with God. From the beginning, His heart has been to enjoy intimacy without shame and to share His glory with us. In John 17 we feel the passionate heart of God as Jesus prays to the Father. And now we see that for this season, God has made those who love Him one spirit with Him and made us His permanent dwelling place.

Peter says in his second letter (1:3) "God's power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through our knowing the One who called us to His own glory and goodness." We don't have to labour to get something we already have. This is hard for us to stay on track with. For instance, if I say to you, "LET THE JOY SEEP THROUGH." In your mind, which way do you see the joy seeking to get through? From the inside filling your soul, or from the outside trying to get in to your soul? Answer should be "from the inside." Christ is already in us being joyful. We feel so incomplete and our behavior is often much less than what Jesus demonstrated for us. The secret place dweller will connect with Christ in her heart and joy begins to flow out. If Christ is in you, then He is being peaceful and loving, strong and forgiving, victorious and anything you need for life and godliness.

You see, God is a heart God, not a law God. The law was given to the Hebrew people under Moses to prepare them to be a people of high living standards and represent the holiness of God. Messiah was to be born to this culture group. God also gave the law to prove to Jew and Gentile alike that it is impossible to please God though law-keeping. He desires the intimate heart to heart fellowship. He has made our hearts long to know our Creator. The Law is good but can't bring us to God.

We need a Savior to bring us into His presence without fear. Your church experience probably will not satisfy this desire the Holy Spirit has created in your heart. I hope you do not misunderstand me, but most of our gatherings take place only in the intellectual level of our mind and never reach the heart level.

I feel that God is again doing a new thing. I will talk more about that next blog.