Jesus’ prayer

Jesus’ prayer in John 17 presents, extremely well, what my life in the Trinity is supposed to be like. It allows me to understand better the relationship the Trinity has with one another – they do not care anything about their status. There’s no subordination in the Trinity because the members of the Trinity will not put up with it – simply will not have it.

As I look at Jesus as the ultimate of disciple makers, I can draw a conclusion from this prayer of what my relationship looks like between a disciple and disciple maker, what characterizes the heart of a disciple maker and what my ultimate purpose is as a disciple maker. I believe they are all found in one verse.

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. – John 17:4 ESV

What I am glad to hear in His prayer is that He prays for me to keep my faith firm.

And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. – John 17:11 ESV

By that I mean – “keep them in your name” or “keep them in loyalty to You” or “keep them in full adherence to Your character.”

Why? Because I am supposed to be different than the world. So many times in His prayer Jesus outlined the differences between disciples of Jesus and the people of the world.

This prayer has so much – even the great commission shows up here.

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. – John 17:18 ESV

As a disciple of Jesus, I am on mission. It means in the broadest sense possible that I am a missionary. I am envisioned and empowered to step into this world (not of it, but sent into it) as His witness.

Here are some things I did and questions I asked as I looked at this prayer:

Marked the words – disciple
Where was Jesus going and where will the disciples be?
How did Jesus get His disciples?
What does Jesus pray for His disciples and list them?
What did I learn about the world and what is my relationship, as a disciple, to the world?
If “sanctify” means to be separated from profane things and dedicate myself to God – what will sanctify me from the world?
At the end of the prayer, what does Jesus state that He has and will do for His disciple?

Characterized by faith

By Faith by Keith & Kristyn Getty

There is a verse in Habakkuk that would probably rate in the top ten verses in the Old Testament only because it was quoted three times in the New Testament and twice by Paul.

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.” – Habakkuk 2:4 ESV

It is our faith that enables us to live in the tension between what we believe and know about God and what we see day in and day out. I think I see the church generally getting the idea of faith being involved in connecting with becoming a disciple of Jesus. I get the sense that most of the church agrees that we do not become right with God by works – by doing certain things. There is nothing in our hands when we come to the cross – there is nothing we have to exchange for our soul. I come to the cross because I believe I am separated from God and that I am called to repent of my sin – those acknowledgments reveal my belief that what Jesus did on the cross is sufficient to pay the penalty for my sins. I become right with God not because of what I have done, but because of my faith.

My Bible has a footnote on this verse. Another word that could be used in this verse instead of faith is faithfulness. It would seem that the Hebrew word used means both. My relationship starts with Jesus by faith. Then by living every single day being faithful to Him I find faith permeating my life day in and day out even through the messy stuff of this life, that I may not even understand, I continue to be faithful to God. That makes sense when the verse is quoted in Hebrews for the book was written with a concern regarding apostasy – with people leaving the Christian faith and that because of persecution. The practical theology is trying to make sure I persevere, endure and continue to live a faithful life.

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For,

“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. – Hebrews 10:36-39 ESV

The Hebrew author quoting Habakkuk indicates that there is more here than the initial issue of faith. I am to let it permeate my life day in and day out, to persevere, to hang in there, to keep believing God, to keep the faith and to not give up on it. Is this what Habakkuk was getting to later on.

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the deer’s;
    he makes me tread on my high places. – Habakkuk 3:17-19 ESV

I love what Habakkuk is relating to here – he is a man of faith, has honest questions and wants to understand the connection with life in the midst of evil people doing evil things. So he waits because God is going to do something and he believes what God has said He will do – he responds in faith.

Call that discipleship

Lecrae – After The Music Stops

Who was behind the scenes discipling King Josiah? He was king at eight years old, already had two children at fourteen and then his life was turned around at age sixteen. We know the law was lost for generations, so someone had to be telling Josiah something about the one true God. Whoever that was, that is what we call discipleship today.

For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved and the metal images.And they chopped down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he cut down the incense altars that stood above them. And he broke in pieces the Asherim and the carved and the metal images, and he made dust of them and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins^[a]all around, he broke down the altars and beat the Asherim and the images into powder and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem. – 2 Chronicles 34:3-7 ESV

Josiah really began to want to know the word of God. He knew that God’s word would change everything.

“Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do according to all that is written in this book.” – 2 Chronicles 34:21 ESV

What about this?

Lauren Daigle – You Say

I like when God takes the lead in negotiating. I make my request and He counters with – “what about this?” I was reading the story of King Manasseh today and just how evil he was.

Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel. – 2 Chronicles 33:9 ESV

The promise he received from God was destruction.

And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies. – 2 Kings 21:14 ESV

Yet, God could work something out for him that he did not expect because he humbled himself.

And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. – 2 Chronicles 33:12 ESV

Even though there was a promised destruction, with the humility and change, God suggested something different – “what about this?” – a blessing.

There is something about coming close to God. King David was such a person who had a remarkable relationship with Him. He was aware of his Creator. He was a child that had an encounter with his Father, he was a disciple who sat at the feet of His Master.

I think of the last supper and read where John lay against the bosom of Jesus. He just lies there against Him, with his head on His heart. It seems awkward to me but it still moves me – how a human being can be in close contact with his God – his head against His heart. “What about this?” – when my heart is uneasy, moody and out of sync – may I too be called to lie against the heart of my Master. My soul finds a way to turn quietly to God.

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. – Psalm 62:1,5 ESV

“What about this” He suggests quietly.

God remembers His people

Light / Dust – Josh Yeoh (feat. Jon Cho)

When I read the Old Testament I see that when judgment was coming, God found a way to show His mercy to His people – He remembered them. I think He still comes down a pathway that we might encounter Him and to walk and not to expect to meet Him would leave us without joy and definitely a holy remembrance that could become a key milestone in our journey. I find that when I walk my paths He meets me graciously, and seems to be working for me, revealing things to me that matter even if no one else seems to have been able to know, hear or see before. I think of others who He has met along the pathway – Adam in Paradise, Mechizedek. Jesus too met Mary at the grave, Peter in the garden, the two that walked to Emmaus and then the disciples at early morning by the lake. I love that He still meets me. So my morning prayer gives me strength and joy for the entire day and when evening comes I find myself consoled and encouraged. I find this to be true – I can be doing the most menial task of the day, when suddenly I am encountered by Jesus and He pulls me into another world. Here He walks with me, helps me and sustains me. If I believe He is not changeable, then I will expect that wherever I am in my journey He will meet me and bless me.

From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.
You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways. – Isaiah 64:4-5a ESV

Charles Spurgeon gave a clear description of what a disciple of Jesus looks like when they take hold of God.

He is deeply sincere and thorough in all that he does. Shams and pretences are his abhorrence. He feels the solemn importance of dealing in spirit and in truth with the Lord, and of taking hold upon God himself and not on mere names and words and forms. He says within himself, “I am a Christian, and I will be so, by God’s grace, not in name only, but in deed and in truth. I know that the outward form of religion is only a husk, and I resolve to feed upon the kernel. I intend to have the substance of religion, and not its shadows. I will take hold of all the outward which God has revealed; but I will mainly look to the inward, and my soul and spirit shall deal with the living God himself. If I live, I will live for him; nothing short of this shall satisfy me.” Such a man opens his Bible and resolves to find out what God’s will is, and he judges for himself, for he knows that he will have to render a personal account. He intends to take hold for himself of every revealed truth, for he does not wish to be taught by man alone, but to be taught by God. He arouses all his wits to understand the doctrine and precepts of God’s word; for he has become a disciple, and he therefore wishes to learn. His cry is, “I want to be thorough, I want to go to the soul and centre of things, and know truth by the teaching of the Spirit of God in my own heart.” Not content with searching the word alone, he takes everything he finds there to God, and says, “Lord, I long to lay hold of you in this truth. I desire not merely to know concerning Christ, but to know Christ. Not only to believe the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but to feel the power of the Holy Spirit himself upon my soul, for I have said in my heart, ‘My God, I want to know you and commune with you, love you and serve you. My soul follows hard after you; when shall I come and appear before you?’ ” Such a man, dear brothers and sisters, when he once knows the will of the Lord, has made up his mind to act promptly upon what he knows; his mind is expressed in the language of one of old, who said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” It is nothing to him what others may do, except that he regrets that they should do amiss. He puts his foot down and will not run with a multitude to do evil. He has made the word of the Lord to be the guide of his life, and he will not depart from it. His is no borrowed faith; he has embraced the truth of Jesus for himself, and he intends to follow him at all costs; and, as far as he can, he will have his household so ordered that all who come around him may see that Jesus is his Lord. Come fair or come foul, his hold is taken, and he will not leave it.

These thoughts come from these verses in Isaiah.

There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in^[c] the hand of our iniquities. – Isaiah 64:7 ESV

Here are some other thoughts from Sandu Sundar Singh.

The Disciple,–Master, if Thou wouldst make a special manifestation of Thyself to the world, men would no longer doubt the existence of God and Thy own divinity, but all would believe and enter on the path of righteousness. The Master,–1. My son, the inner state of every man I know well, and to each heart in accordance with its needs I make Myself known; and for bringing men into the way of righteousness there is no better means than the manifestation of Myself. For man I became man that he might know God, not as someone terrible and foregin, but as full like to himself, for he is like Him and made in His image.

These thoughts relate to this verse in Isaiah.

Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?
Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly? – Isaiah 64:12 ESV

All of this challenges me to grow and I cannot grow if I do not pray. My fellowship with God becomes stagnant.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. – Colossians 4:2-4 ESV

Jesus, thank you for being such a key role in my salvation, for pointing me to God with Your life. Thank you God for being the centre of my story.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble – Psalm 107:1-2 ESV