As a part of His body I will function more correctly if I see as He sees. Faith must be fueling trust in Him as I grasp what He has revealed. “Revelation prompts exploration,” (Bill Johnson)

We can have faith to see as He sees. A vision I had seeded that in me. In what I write or claim to “see.” having been blind, to God be the glory and to us be the empowerment He intends. Dear loved ones let us serve Him and others by the power that His loving understanding brings.

What advantage we gain to see through His eyes. We go back with Him in time and the Word and a fresh perspective endears us all the more to Him. It is a glimpse of Him that He allows as His friends. Could we actually have entered His moments of private thought and hope? Are we seeing how His fearless determination to complete His purpose in the Father was accomplished? How does this view not prepare us for tasks too terrible to the unprepared heart.

Jesus knew of His future by the Word of God. Do we? He knew His means of escape by the same Word He gave us!  

Jesus sometimes seems to say something out of context. We see this in John chapter 13:33-35.

Jesus has just finished the last supper and has told Judas “What you do, do quickly.” A few verses later Jesus then addresses the disciples saying,  “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ [in a supposed tangent Jesus then says] ³⁴  “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵  “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Why the change of subject? “A new commandment I give to you.” Jesus is speaking to them more like a king than a Teacher or Rabbi. These are closing statements in the life of Christ. Their importance can not be diminished. Then Jesus speaks of identification with Him. “By this (love commandment) all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jesus knows they are about to be scattered because of Him but points to the Way back to Him, where He will be!

Let us stand in Jesus sandals for a moment. He has just said, “ “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; ³²  if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.”  John 13:31-32 (NASB)

Can we be there in this emotional moment with Him?

Jesus has just set in motion His execution. We know that shortly, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus sheds blood filled perspiration from the stress of it all. He even asks God to excuse Him from this terrible moment if possible. “if God is glorified in Him…” Here we see that Jesus is also a Father glorifying Son of Man. Take hope sons of men! The trauma of this initiating action with Judas could be causing Jesus to think ahead in protective faith. He is guarding His will and determination to finish the race even as God would have us guard ours. By the message of “Enduring love” we too are initiating the end. Our vision of eternity may be the only thing we have to buoy up our faith in our moments of crisis, in our daily decisions to do what is right. we too can say, if God is glorified in us!

Topically Jesus has said, “Where I am going…” The “new commandment” has not changed the topic. The disciples want to know how to get where He is going and He has just told them!

Some horrific physical trials are yet to happen and He knows it.

Access to heaven is assured to (all) the disciples of Christ! Jesus knows,…love, enduring love, is the law of the kingdom and He has come so that the good news of the kingdom can come, “on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus is saying this so they CAN come eventually and so they will teach by example how we enter the kingdom of heaven. We are to be disciples. As we walk in enduring love, the kingdom of God is within us. If we do not… it is not.

If Christ had to obey shall we not have to also? (John 3:36 NKJV)

¹⁹  “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit… ²⁰  teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 (NASB)

The disciples seem to miss this tangent of love and its importance. “Simon Peter *said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” They are not going with Him as we might in this understanding.

Jesus then says something cryptically in verse four, ⁴  “And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas then says to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” John 14:4 (NASB)

This last phrase by Christ is worded strangely until you see what Jesus is describing. He is reverting to a description of the kingdom. He is assuring them saying you can come with Me when I return because you already know the “Way” of the kingdom, the “Way” where I am going! “I am the Way…”

How many times do we hear Jesus referring to the Gospel of the kingdom! Do we really know the Way to the kingdom? We know the Way to God, through the death of His Son. Is that it? What does the rest of Jesus’ life mean? You might know but what about others, your brothers and sisters in the Lord that just do not seem as mature in Christ as they should be by now? With out Christ’s love commandment functioning fully in them, they do NOT know the Way. Christ died to His place in heaven to come as our teacher then died again as our sacrificial lamb. He left love to teach love then used love to return to the Father’s side.

Even the devil knows Him. It is our knowing, and abiding in, His instructions, His commandments, given to Him by God, that make us His disciples. This is how He and we become one with the Father.  The key for us to this eternal possibility begins with Jesus dying for us. That is only the beginning. The Way is our responsibility to embrace, then it is Christ in us the hope of glory with the help of the Holy Spirit. Now we know the Way. Let us walk in it.

“Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. Psalm 119:35 (NKJV) 

^“This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.  2 John 1:6 (NKJV)

“The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. ²⁴  And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.”Revelation 21:23-24 (NKJV)

Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. We are those kings and lords, if God is glorified in us,  if we walk in the light of His commandments.

Let us look forward as Christ did, knowing His days were few. Let us proclaim and demonstrate the gospel of love, the character and good news of the kingdom, rejoicing in Hope, persevering in tribulation and being devoted to prayer.

The coming times will demand our understanding. Preparing now is paramount.

In the guardianship of Christ,

Michael

    Exit Strategy

   We initiate the return of Christ!  (The E-book)

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