Journey

I believe Jesus was sent here to be an example for us to follow and we can’t follow someone who is not tangible to us. I have been praying about this. I feel God keeps showing me more about my identity as I continue to get revelation from God.

This journey allowed something to really snap inside to help me understand more of my identity in Christ. During a Church service a few years ago, the speaker spoke on Luke 3, the Baptism of Jesus.  I can’t explain what happened, but God started to really touch my heart in a deeper way that day.

Luke 3:21-22

“When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.  And as He was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

When I heard the words as I was reading it in my Bible, God grabbed my heart and I felt a shift in my spirit like I never felt.  These words changed my life: “the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove.”  God Himself descended upon Jesus. God Almighty came down and went in to Jesus. The person of the Holy Spirit lived inside of Him from that point onward!  Wow, I have read this many times but never saw that it was in “bodily form”!  Was Jesus the same as you and I before the Holy Spirit descended upon Him?  Did the same Holy Spirit of God come into us at our baptism as came inside of Jesus at His baptism?

Jesus was then tempted in the wilderness for 40 days afterward and He didn’t go until He was filled with the Spirit of God.  While in the wilderness, the angels of the Lord protected Jesus!  This is just like God has his angels interact within our lives also.  Questions started really stirring my heart to understand more of what God was beginning to show me.  Over the next few months I prayed for God to show me His heart. I wanted to know what He was saying, not what commentaries or other people said. I wanted to hear straight from God.

My search grew deeper, trying to know who truly lived inside of me. God was taking me on an incredible journey that has been full of His revelation. Without a doubt I know the Holy Spirit was showing me the revelation of the living God, Jesus Christ living inside of me.  Yes, my mind knew this, but there was a greater understanding of this needed in my heart.  As I continued on a path to set my mind on the things above, not on earthly things, Colossians 3:1-4 really started to speak to me.

Colossians 3:1-4

“Since, then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

So my search and prayers became set on asking God to show me more and to help me understand who I really was.  Who really resides inside of my heart?  I didn’t have the time to sit down and search out the scriptures. I felt peace about God showing me the connections and the scriptures. The next place God took me into the scriptures was John 17 which is the last recorded prayer Jesus prayed in the Bible.

Jesus Prays to Be Glorified:

After Jesus said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.² For you granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him.³ Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.⁴ I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus was saying He brought glory to God while on earth by finishing the work God gave Him to do.  Wow! That is how we can give Glory to God, by finishing the work He gives us to do. Now the question is: how to know what this is in my life?

Jesus Prays for His Disciples:

⁶ “I have revealed you, to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.⁸ For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.⁹ I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.¹⁰ All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.¹¹ I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.¹² While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

Jesus’s glory comes to Him through the ones God gave Him (us).  Jesus protected them while He was with them.  Jesus was going to the Father and He was asking God the Father to protect us by the power of the name God gave Jesus.  Jesus was asking God the Father for us all to be one with Jesus and God the Father.  His name has power and protection. We see that today when we are in trouble we call upon His name, Jesus.  The enemy submits only to the name of Jesus; what power and authority are found within that name!

 ¹³ “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.¹⁴ I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.¹⁵ My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.¹⁷ Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.¹⁹ For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus’ prayer is asking for us to have the full measure of His joy within us!  The full measure of His joy!  Is this the overflowing infilling of the Holy Spirit? He doesn’t say we will be loved by the world, but that the world will hate us!  He asks the Father not to take us out of the world, but to protect us from the evil one.  Not to take us out of our problems, nor out of our situations, but to protect us.  Maybe to protect us as we go through the stuff in our lives, helping us to gain character and confidence as we overcome those problems and situations.  People are waiting on God to snatch them out of their problems and that is not Jesus’ prayer for us!

He prayed that we would be sanctified by the truth; God’s word is the truth! Sanctify in the Greek means to separate from profane things and dedicate to God.  Jesus also said that just as God sent Him into the world that He was also sending us into the world.  Jesus sanctified Himself that we may also be sanctified by Him.

What does it look like to be sanctified in our lives?  Giving it all to God and holding nothing back.  What does that look like in your life? I feel that it is like Peter standing on the boat, realizing that he had denied Jesus 3 times and suddenly he knows he has a chance to walk with Jesus one more time, giving of his life fully and unfiltered, giving of his life to Jesus unto death unto the cross.  John 21 is a perfect example of what Peter was dealing with when he saw Jesus standing on the beach.  Yes, John had to help him see that it was Jesus on the shore!  Wow, even in that are you like John helping someone else to see what is standing not too far off in their life?  Peter just had Jesus breathe on him in John 20 and Jesus said “receive the Holy Spirit”.  They had just gone back to what they knew, fishing on the right side and while they were doing what they knew to do, Jesus met them in that moment of life.  Peter grabbed his outer garment which he had taken off.  What if that outer garment was taken off when he denied Jesus 3 times? Maybe it is more spiritual than we think – what if it represents the identity of Christ that Peter took off when Jesus went to the Cross?  Grabbing an upgrade and laying down everything, I believe Peter dove into the things of God that day not looking back and carrying those fish not losing even one.  What if that net and those fish were prophetic to his life – that he was not going to loose not even one person he would go after for God and that the net would not tear for any to get away or be hurt in the carrying process?  Peter was sold out on that spot for life!  Undone, he knew the cost of not having Jesus and he was not going to walk away from that again.  Peter gave everything unto the Lord unto death and even unto the Cross.

So what do you think? Do you think that is a true understanding of sanctification?  I believe most people don’t even have that word in their vocabulary.  If that is a true example of sanctification, how many Christians do you know or are you yourself even willing to truly lay your life down for Jesus even if it was unto death?  I am not talking about being a martyr.  I am talking about giving everything to the Lord and trusting God above everyone and everything in your life!  Seeing my life transform in front of me as I had been a Christian for 18 years but only knew of God and Jesus.  As my car came off that embankment in July of 2007, everything changed in my life and who I was a moment before was not who I was becoming.  Yes, I really can’t even understand who I really was before God transformed my life.  Do I have everything together?  If you have everything together, you might be standing at the pearly gates!  No, I am still a work in progress, but one thing I do know is that each day I pray I am one step closer to who God created me to be!  Where are you in your journey?  I pray this book takes you deeper into the things of God and helps you to find a greater understanding of who you are in Christ!  I pray that through this book you will see yourself grow into a closer walk with Jesus and a greater understanding of the the person God created you to be also. I pray that as you read this book, you find yourself Unleashed and Ready to Reign!