Do You Know Me?
Good Morning Friends,
Perhaps you are a bit double or triple minded about knowing a living Jesus. It makes it difficult for people to grasp who we are really if we are not in unity. Well our Triune God has figured this out so do not be so discouraged. The difference is that God is in unity Father, Son and Holy Spirit but we for the most part are not in unity of mind, spirit and will. When we are in unity it makes it way easier for us to know God and be ready to answer in the affirmative when any of the Trinity asks: Do You Know Me?
Scripture: Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
John 14:8-17 (NRSV)
“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, 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. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
John 17:6-26 (NRSV)
Message: When Philip asks Jesus the most staggering of questions, “Show us God the Father?” he is told that by seeing God in Jesus the Son, he can begin to see more. The answer is simple; if we want to know God …we need to know Jesus… for the works of Jesus are the works of the Father. Today’s scripture teaches that when we join with Jesus we join with God. And when we join with God we too challenge the fate of mankind… we too offer a second chance for people to live life to the fullest. And when we do that, when we are totally involved in what God is doing, scripture says we will see the miracles of God at work in and through our lives. All modern day miracles come out of this relationship with Jesus and our abandoned obedience to the purpose of God. This zeal and passion for God’s purpose, in the face of challenge, is the Father’s desire for His Son and for us too. When we are doing everything God is asking of us, He will use our faith to do great works. But this faith is not just for the sake of works. It is for something much deeper. Looking at Christ, praying with Christ we see not just what Christ is like, but we get to experience God. That is the miracle of Pentecost. That is the miracle of Christ. For here we discover an intimacy of being one, honoring the command to love. When God is doing something we are supposed to join in and experience the journey. We are to experience the purpose of God. That is what Jesus the great teacher did and He teaches us to do the same. God wants us to know the Son so that we will know the Father. He teaches us to join together as a family of God, a community of faith, rejoicing in reality that as children of God we can and will have a family resemblance. Here we are one in the Spirit.
Pray we share our love with people and we share the message of life we have with God. Pray Jesus intercedes for us in heaven. Pray we continue the revolution Jesus started. Pray as we share God’s love we too begin to resemble Jesus. Pray that Jesus would join us in our prayers and that His yes would be a yes in us as well. Pray we have a healthy growing relationship with Jesus. Pray we have learned to trust and obey in a unity of mind and spirit and will. Pray we move from knowing to loving and trusting and being obedient… abiding in Christ, with Christ and for Christ.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 