Dangerous Signs and Wonders
How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endures from generation to generation. Daniel 4:3
We live in a time of glorious awakening! More and more people have opened their hearts to believe that Christianity is supposed to be much more than doctrines and creeds. Jesus brought heaven to earth, and He wants to teach us to live the promises of His kingdom.
1 Corinthians 4:20 sums it up nicely, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.”
If our Christianity remains theories and arguments, we’ve missed the mark, dear one. By a lot.
If our Christianity remains theories and arguments, we've missed the mark. Click To Tweet
Our opening Scripture reveals some of what Christ’s kingdom brings. Great signs and mighty wonders! Dominion that never ends. These signs have marked God’s movement through every generation as God brought deliverance to His people, proving His might.
But a problem arises when we set our sights on these great demonstrations of power to prove and assure ourselves that God is in our midst.
Our enemy can also perform them.
Consider Jesus’ warning to His Disciples while preparing them for the last days.
“For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” Matthew 24:24
Does that surprise you, dear one?
As darkness increases in the last days, people will look to power beyond themselves to survive. They will need to, as hopelessness rises and recognition dawns that this fight is beyond their power to win. And when desperation sends them searching, our enemy stands ready to serve them what they think they need— a counterfeit version to keep them from the real Deliverer who can save them.
Satan will offer the anti-Christ to the world as a suitable savior to draw hearts away from Jesus. He will deceive many because he will not be impotent. He comes with power of his own.
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10
Believers will have to know the true, beloved, to be able to recognize the deception.
We must know what is true to be able to recognize deception. Click To Tweet
But one type of power can’t be manipulated or copied. It has only one Source and can’t be replicated…nor would our enemy want it to be. And that’s the power Jesus came to reveal above all.
Love’s power to heal and transform the human soul.
Oh, dear one, this is the wonder that we must elevate and applaud in our days! Love expressing itself through redeemed humanity. With the cross of Christ, God’s work turned inward, releasing the enemy’s hold on our hearts and restoring us to God’s own nature. Manifesting that nature in once broken people reveals the authority God carries.
You see, our enemy can duplicate outward signs and wonders. He’s been doing it from the beginning. Even when Moses confronted Pharoah to deliver God’s people from Egypt, he met God’s signs with a powerful demonic response.
So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. 12 For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. Exodus 7:10-12a
Pharoah’s sorcerers were able to imitate what God had done. God still had the last word, however, proving His enduring dominion with the rest of verse 12, “But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.”
Demonic power remains as real and tangible today. So does God’s authority over it. They do not possess equal power. God still reigns supreme. And the answer to our victory lies at the very core of who God is. Love.
The miracle this world desperately needs to witness and experience is love.
Jesus told us what distinguishes His true disciples from all the rest.
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35
Love reveals God at work in our midst, dear one. He is love, and real love has no other source. Love helps. It forgives. It keeps no record of wrongs. It never insists on its own way. It’s patient and kind. It believes, hopes, and endures. It cannot fail.
Love freely expressed within the body will usher in Satan’s defeat. This sign alone will pronounce to our enemy that his end is imminent. Transformed hearts uniting in Kingdom love and purpose will devour him, revealing what he truly is in the face of God’s pure, undefiled love.
Impotent.
It is God's pure and undefiled love that defeats the enemy. Click To Tweetjoin the klm
Community
Sign up to receive our blog, news and updates, ministry opportunities and more!
Playing in the Sand
“ . . . But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” Revelation 12:12
In case this is news to you, let me make something very clear: Satan knows he has been defeated. You should know it too.
In the great battle between good and evil, victory has already been declared in heaven. Satan and his demons have been cast down to the earth and rendered powerless by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 12:7-11).
You and I aren’t waiting to see who wins this thing, dear one. It’s been decided. Now we wait to see the victory God accomplished in heaven realized on this earth.
Perhaps this is a good time to remind you how Jesus taught us to pray.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10
The enemy knows full well that one day his defeat will become abundantly evident here on earth as well. So in the meantime, he has set his fury on the one thing that can hinder his movement and power here. He comes with a vengeance against Christ’s bride, the church.
Why? Because of what Jesus declared in Matthew 16:18.
“ . . . and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Notice that Jesus didn’t say that hell would not prevail against Him. He clearly states that His church will secure the victory, a church built on this rock.
It seems appropriate to ask a significant question: Upon what rock will Christ build His prevailing church?
Let’s check the context of Jesus’ statement. He had just asked His disciples a question.
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:15-16
Look carefully at Jesus’ next words.
And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:17-18
Peter had only one way of knowing Jesus was the Christ, the same way we do today. God revealed the truth to him. Jesus called Peter blessed because he had discerned and trusted what the Father had spoken to his heart about Jesus.
Peter heard and believed, and Jesus proclaimed, “on this rock I will build my church.” Only a church founded and built on believing God’s words will prevail against our enemy.
Jesus gave a similar message in Matthew 7:24-25.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”
Only the house established and built on hearing and living the words of God prevails.
You might be interested to read how Revelation 12:15 describes the enemy’s attack on Christ’s bride.
The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood.
What pours from the mouth, dear one? Words. The ancient serpent, the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12:9), spews lies at the bride of Christ to carry her away like a flood.
And he isn’t passive about it. Verse 17 reveals he is furiously making war on all who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. But the ESV, heralded to be one of the more literal translations from the original Greek, adds these words about Satan.
And he stood on the sand of the sea.
Several other translations put the phrase at the beginning of chapter 13 as if John, the writer of Revelation, were the one standing on the sand. But when I read it in the ESV, something stirred in my heart.
You see, Jesus didn’t only teach about the strength and safety that comes from building on the rock in Matthew 7. He also warned of the dangers that come when we establish our foundation on the sand.
“And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:26-27
The torrents of lies flowing from the mouth of the serpent have one agenda: to convince us to stand with him on the sand.
When we believe his words over the Word of God we willingly step from our secure position onto his ground. As we move onto his turf, we give up all authority Christ provides.
But when we stand on the Word of truth, refusing to believe the enemy’s deceptions no matter what our eyes might see, we invite the supernatural power of the Word to reveal itself.
Only believers standing on truth and living the Word of God can defeat our enemy and reveal Christ’s victory on this earth. So Satan’s plan is simple: keep us from actively believing God’s words.
Know the power you wield, dear one. It comes from aligning your life with truth.
Let’s quit playing in the sand—and crashing in the surf.
Instead, let’s stand on the Word. Let’s feed on it. Live it. Believe it. Wield it.
It’s time we tossed our enemy in his own waves.
You’re Not Who You Think You Are
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
My heart hurts for the body of Christ. We’re going to church and doing our best to put on the joy of Jesus. But the vast majority of believers I encounter aren’t living out the victory God promises in His Word. We feel crushed under the weight of oppression, and sometimes our lives seem more marked by defeat than the lost we’re trying to save.
Something’s wrong with that picture, if you ask me. Very wrong.
You and I are supposed to be living, breathing, shining examples of what the power of God can do in a life. So what’s keeping us from the inheritance scripture claims is ours?
I can offer a guess. I think it’s the same thing that kept the Israelites from theirs.
So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. Hebrews 3:19
Simple unbelief has sabotaged Christ’s church and kept us in a state of perpetual defeat.
Please don’t misunderstand me. It isn’t that we don’t believe in what Jesus did for us on the cross. The problem is we’ve misunderstood how to apply it to our lives right now. We rejoice over future promises, but we’ve allowed an unseen enemy to convince us that we can’t really expect to see the promises of God’s Word realized in this lifetime.
And that’s where we find ourselves caught, beloved. Stuck in limbo because we believe the wrong words. We’ve allowed the enemy’s whispers to override God’s Word, and we don’t even realize it’s happening.
An idea has penetrated much of the church. It claims we will never be free from the destructive power of our flesh until Christ returns. I’ve heard it often. I’ve even believed it. But I have to ask, dear one. Where did it come from?
You see, when I look at God’s Word, I can’t find those words. Instead, I find these.
- Romans 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
- Galatians 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
It seems to me those promises aren’t written in a future tense. According to these scriptures, the new isn’t something we have to work hard to achieve; it’s already here. My flesh has already been crucified— along with its passions and desires. And I am already more than a conqueror.
And Romans 6:6-7 adds this promise.
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Here’s the truth, dear one. Your old self—your sin nature— was crucified with Jesus on that cross. It died with Him. Once you put your faith in Him, you received the victory Christ gained. Now sin’s power over you is nothing but a lie.
But here’s the problem: We believe the lie. We believe that our flesh still has power, and we continue to live as the people we used to be.
Beloved, our belief in its power gives it life.
What if you and I determined today to simply take God at His Word and believe what He says? What if we chose to trust Jesus when He tells us our flesh is dead because He conquered it?
You see, we give that crucified nature life every time we choose to trust it—every time we simply do what we’ve always done because we believe that’s who we are. After all, history has proved it.
But faith isn’t about basing our beliefs on what we see. It’s about trusting what God’s Word says.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1 NIV
And God’s Word says that my sin nature was nailed to the cross with Christ. It’s been crucified. That sinner isn’t who I am any more, regardless of what my actions have indicated.
Beloved, God is asking us to take Him at His Word and become who He made us to be. Will you choose today to believe Him?
“… to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24
Only renewing our minds will enable us to become the new creation the cross empowers us to be. God beckons us to believe the truth so that His grace can empower us to live it.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32
A Wolf Among the Sheep
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. John 13:1 ESV
My heart stirred when I read that verse the other day over my morning coffee. There’s nothing quite like Jesus’ love. He poured it out on His disciples while He lived among them, and “…He loved them to the end.”
Sadly, they didn’t all love Him in return. The very next verse ushers in the unthinkable.
During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. John 13:2-5
I wonder how Judas felt as Jesus knelt before him to wash his feet. Did his heart race as Jesus tenderly dipped them in the basin? I wonder if Jesus gazed into his face, eyes blazing with the love He felt for him.
His betrayal must have burned within his soul, and yet Judas still left the table to sell his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
It seems impossible to us, but the truth is, any one of us could easily be him.
Dear one, I doubt that Judas set out to betray Jesus in the beginning. He probably began his journey much like the other disciples—full of hope and wonder, drawn by possibility.
So what went wrong? How could a trusted friend of Jesus stray so terribly far off course?
One thing separates the sheep from the wolf, beloved. Love. Judas may have served with Jesus, but he never offered Him his heart. He wasn’t willing to deny himself to follow Him. He wanted to use his relationship with Jesus to further himself.
How do I know that? The previous chapter invites us to view another scene where the disciples reclined around a table and a different foot washing of sorts took place. Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus,
. . . took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. John 12:3
Our friend Judas had an interesting response.
But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. John 12:4-6
Do you see it, dear one? Judas served, but he didn’t love. He couldn’t understand “wasting” expensive perfume to anoint Jesus. He didn’t love Him like Mary did. And he didn’t want to waste spending the ministry funds on the poor Jesus loved. He wanted it for himself.
Hear me, beloved. Jesus gave Judas the same power He gave the other eleven (Luke 9:1-2). He could preach the Word. He could heal the sick. If power marked the true disciple, Judas surely was one.
Yet John 17:12 reveals that Judas was doomed to destruction (NIV).
Power and authority are not the marks of salvation, dear one. God can empower anyone at any time to do His will simply because He’s God. The mark of salvation is found in a different place. It’s found within the heart. Jesus said,
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love . . . ” John 13:35
1 John 2:5-6 adds this:
But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
Jesus lived out love, and “ . . . he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).
While Judas went through all the motions of being a disciple, he wasn’t one. He looked like one. He acted like one. Jesus even empowered him like one. But he didn’t have the heart of one.
No one else could tell. The disciples had no idea who Jesus was talking about when He told them one would betray Him (John 13:22). They saw no external signs because he looked and acted just like the rest of them.
But Jesus saw. He knew the self-centered longings of Judas’ heart. He knew he never truly offered Jesus the right to rule in him. He remained his own lord, choosing to exalt his own kingdom instead of God’s. And Jesus honored Judas’ choice.
He loved him to the end, but He did not save him.
Are You God’s Friend?
I am a friend of God.
You’ve probably heard songs making that bold claim. You may have even sung them in worship on Sunday morning. It’s a wonderful concept, and I love the reminder that God is approachable and seeking relationship. But I wonder if God’s definition of friendship matches ours.
Are you really living as God’s friend?
Only a handful of people received the distinction of being called God’s friend in Scripture. Abraham earned the recognition first, followed by Moses. You’ll notice that God used both in mighty ways to bring about His plan for this earth.
Through Abraham God created a nation, a people group He called out from the world to become His own. Through Moses, God delivered that people from slavery in Egypt and led them to the banks of their promised inheritance. God revealed His miraculous power through each of them, their faith in what God told them becoming a catalyst to release His glory.
And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. James 2:23 NIV
Along with their amazing exploits of faith, both of them share the distinction of having direct communication with God. Exodus 33:11 tells us, “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.” God consistently spoke to both of them, and they each responded to what they heard with faithful obedience.
I have to ask, dear one. How does the description fit so far? Are you allowing God to use you in mighty ways to further His Kingdom? Do you speak with Him face to face and allow Him to whisper direction into your life? When you hear from Him, do you trust Him through your obedience so that His perfect will comes to pass?
Another group also earned the title of friend in Jesus’ day. Eleven men who left everything to follow Him received His invitation to friendship in an upper room right before He gave His life for them. The twelfth had already left to sell his “friend” for 30 pieces of silver. Here’s what Jesus said to them.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:13-15
Did you catch it, dear one? Do you see God’s definition of who His friends are? In case you didn’t pick up on it, I’ll repeat it for you. Jesus’ friends are those who do what He asks of them.
Perhaps we have been throwing the word around a little too flippantly.
You see, according to Scripture, friends of God live with Kingdom purpose. They draw near to Him, pressing in close to hear what He has to say. And when He speaks, they follow, even if it means heading in a different direction than they had intended to go.
Beloved, Christ delights in sharing His Father’s business with His friends. He longs for eager Kingdom builders to come alongside Him and boldly exercise the faith they profess. Why? Friends of God living in faithful obedience release kingdom power that changes things.
Unfortunately, while we love to sing songs about friendship with God, most of us actually live as friends of the world. We embrace its principles and found our plans on its beliefs. We tune into all its channels to hear how the world defines who we are or who we should be. Then we eagerly align our lives to what it speaks.
Here’s the thing about that, dear one. We cannot live as friends of both God and the world.
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? James 4:4-5
You see, biblically, what unites us in friendship is purpose. Look at what Scripture reveals in Luke 23:12, right after Herod and his soldiers had mocked Jesus and sent Him back to Pilate during His trials:
That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.
It is our common ground that unites us. Our friendships are built on what we believe, on our goals and motivations, on the principles we live by.
Dear one, we’ve been trying to claim friendship with God while standing on the world’s principles. In doing so, we’ve inadvertently made ourselves God’s enemies. Then we wonder why He doesn’t seem to want to bless.
Hear Jesus’ heart for you, beloved.
. . . As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world . . . John 15:19
What if you and I determined to live according to the biblical definition of friend of Jesus? What if we took up His cause as our own? What if we pressed in close to hear what He desires to speak to us? What if we determined to realign our lives with what He speaks?
I’ll tell you what we’d see, beloved. We’d see the glory of God poured out on this earth. We’d see power that changes circumstances. We’d see life that heals and resurrects. Is that not worth the risk?
I am a friend of God.
Shining Like Stars
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” Matthew 5:14-15
Jesus called you and me the light of the world. It only makes sense, really, since He is the “the true light that gives light to every man” (John 1:9) and now He dwells within us. As His body, saved and redeemed by His blood, He asks us to shine His light. And according to Matthew 5, that light should never remain hidden. Instead, it should light up the sky like a city on a hill.
Do you shine, dear one? Are you giving Jesus what He asked for?
I can’t help thinking of the song I used to sing as a little girl in Sunday school. We’d proudly hold up our hands with fingers pointing toward the heavens and proclaim, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.”
But it didn’t shine. I never let it out.
We often make the mistake of trying to act like Jesus. We think we shine His light by imitating what He would do. Only we don’t have the strength to act like Him all the time, so that inner “self” we try to hide through our good behavior reveals itself more often than we’d like it to. And the watching world looks at our version of Christianity and calls it hypocrisy.
Can we really blame them?
You and I aren’t supposed to act like light, dear one. Jesus intends for us to become light.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
… God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5
Jesus carried the burden of our sin to the cross so that we could become His righteousness. He gave it to us the moment we put our faith in Him and received His Spirit to dwell within us. Now we need to let Him out. We need to yield to the power of His Spirit within us and let Him take over.
You see, beloved, Jesus shines through a transformed heart.
Have you offered Him your heart to mold and change, dear one? Have you told Him you’re willing to let go of your bitterness? Have you invited Him to circumcise your heart to love with His selfless love?
It’s time we stopped pretending and let Jesus set us ablaze with His light!
Times are changing. Evil seems to show itself in increasing measure. Scripture foretells of astonishing things to come—some of them terrible, some wondrous—but all of them remain certain.
Yet in Christ, we have glorious hope!
But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:1-3
When will these things be fulfilled? God made this astonishing announcement to the prophet Daniel centuries ago.
… When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.” Daniel 12:7
When the power of the holy people has finally been broken? What on earth does that mean?
Consider for a moment the power struggle that rages within you. Each day you must choose whether to bow to your own self-will, or to bow to the leadership of the Spirit. More often than not, your own desires win the battle, quenching the Spirit’s power.
Yet in the last days, the power of the Spirit will rise victorious. Christ’s own will finally learn to overcome and claim the victory Jesus purchased for them through the cross. As in the days following the church’s conception, believers will choose to abandon self-will, leaving its power broken. Christ’s church will rise, yielding to His Spirit in glorious surrender, uniting in the love and unity glimpsed at the birth of the church and restored in time for the return of the King.
Beloved, you and I can hasten His return.
You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. 2 Peter 3:11-12
As we choose to surrender to the work of the Spirit in our lives, allowing Christ to sanctify our hearts and renew our minds with His purpose, we move us toward the fulfillment of God’s great plan of redemption.
Like the Disciples who first answered Jesus’ call and paved the way for us, will you choose to live radically for Jesus, abandoning all else to the rise of His glory? I pray that you will, beloved,
. . . so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe. Philippians 2:15
Then our eyes will finally gaze upon our Lord and King without a veil. Glory rises, dear one. Will you allow Christ to release it through you?
The Power of One
“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.” John 17:22-23a
Feeling stirs my heart as I ponder the words of our opening Scripture today. They flowed from the mouth of Jesus on the night of His arrest. You just read some of the last recorded utterances of the Word made flesh before His body dangled for you from a bloody cross.
We observe an intimate moment between God the Son and God the Father, the heart of God laid bare before us in His perfect Word. Did you know Jesus’ final prayers were for you?
Jesus had just finished praying for Himself and the disciples He would leave behind. Then in verse 20 He adds, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.” That’s you and me.
What did He pray for, dear one?
“… 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.” John 17:21
Witness the Father’s revealed will spoken through the voice of His Son. His highest priority? Unity within the body of believers. Jesus prayed that believers would be one with each other in the same way that He is one with the Father. The resulting unity would cause the world to believe that Jesus did indeed come from God.
How is that possible?
Jesus and His Father are completely one in every way. Jesus declared it in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” They share the same thoughts and desires; their actions flow from the same perfect will. So how can men and women with very different preferences and desires, longings, and needs truly share one mind . . . one heart . . . one will?
They can’t, at least not within the realm of the natural. But those who believe in Jesus and have received the seal of His Spirit within them aren’t limited to the natural. They possess the very glory of God.
Look at Jesus’ words in our opening verse. “I have given them the glory that you gave me.” According to Jesus, that glory will enable us to become one.
John 17:23 reveals His purpose in uniting us:
“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.”
Unity within Christ’s church will reveal two things to the world.
- Jesus did indeed come from God
- God loves them
I have to ask you to consider something, dear one. Is our generation giving Christ what He asked for? Are we allowing His Spirit within us to crucify the desires of our flesh and unite us with His glorious will so that we can become one with our brothers and sisters? Or do we hold tightly to our own desires and allow our differences to separate us?
Beloved, our unity in Christ will release the glory of God.
Let’s visit a prayer meeting that took place in the early church after Peter and John had been arrested for preaching about Jesus. Upon their release, a group of believers united together in fervent prayer with spectacular results.
Here’s how they began.
“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”Acts 4:29-30
Do you notice anything significant about their prayer? Is that how you have prayed?
Let your thoughts settle on the words you speak when you approach God in prayer. When I did, the Spirit revealed one obvious difference about their request. Instead of asking God to rescue them, they asked God to reveal His glory.
Amazing. They didn’t ask God to take away the danger, stop the persecution, or even to protect them from the threats coming against them. Instead, they asked Him to empower them to boldly stand for Him in the midst of it. They asked for strength to speak His word with boldness in spite of the threats. They asked Him to reveal the power that comes through the name of Jesus.
These believers had one, single-minded purpose. They desired to see God reveal His glory through them. In spite of the danger, in spite of their fear, they cast aside their own desires to exalt His. And how did God respond to His humble, unified servants?
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. Acts 4:31
Oh, that we would once again become a body so united in heart and purpose that our prayers shake our meeting halls! Notice that God granted their request. He filled each of them with His Spirit to empower them and equipped all of them to speak His Word boldly. Not one of them was exempt from the gift.
Dear one, when you submit your heart to the Father’s will instead of your own, neither are you.
FROM WORD ON WEDNESDAY
