John 17:21: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth… That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
Having gone away to do that, His prayer indicates that this is a place that we can go, indeed ought to go, in this present age, “…that the world may know…”
John 17:1, 5, 22, 23: “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:… And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was… And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
Jesus prayed that about a certain kind of Glory – that we might be sanctified to the end that we could be included in the oneness that existed in God before the world began.
This to say that the object of Jesus’ prayer as well as God’s Creation, is an intimacy known only to God. This is an intimacy that is so great that flesh and blood cannot go there. In other words, the old man cannot go there. Only the new man can go there – only the “life giving Spirit” released out of the “last man Adam” (1Corinthians 15:45) can go there. He wants, and prayed to go there in us, and He wants to take us there in Him. Jesus in the flesh went away in order to make a way into the place that is ours in the Father’s heart and house from before the world began.
John 12:23,24: “And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
Hebrews 4:12, 13: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
Hebrews 5:14 “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”
But first something needs to happen in us. There needs to be a faith appropriation of the content of the cross. We need to know what happened there. To know this, however, we need to put the information into practice so that, by constant use, we might be able to distinguish good from evil.
This kind of truth – the “Truth” that sanctifies, is born of a Word, that is living and active, not one that is dead and dormant. (See “One Eyed Jacks”) A living and active word is a Sword of the Spirit, it does not operate, nor is it effective, independent of The Spirit.
To be subject to a sword, capable of dividing soul from Spirit is not the kind of thing that one volunteers for. There needs to be a good reason for enduring that kind of treatment. There needs to be Joy set before the victim of such harsh treatment.
In our case, that joy is, at least two-fold: First, a complete frustration concerning who we are in the first Adam. Our heavenly Father has facilitated this frustration for us in that He has made the entire old creation subject to frustration, Romans 8:20. (Open Audio “Frustrated in Hope” or listen to below) Second, we need to know where our Father wants to take us in a New Creation, a place where we can only go in His Son.
God wants to take us to a place, which is the desire of every human heart. It’s part of the eternity, which He has placed in the heart of every one, Ecclesiastes 3:11. Unless we have a personal revelation of this place that can only come from Him we will not subject ourselves to the sanctifying work of the “Sword of The Spirit, The Word of God.” We need to have both a frustration, and a hunger and thirst, a certain panting after God.
Love!
Click play button to listen to audio “Frustrated in Hope” 2012 Old Saybrook, CT
