His Heart, My Home

(NOTE: This week’s post continued below)

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NEWS FLASH! URGENT PRAYER NEEDED!

We are sure that by now you are aware of the desperate plight of the Iranian people.

Thousands of unarmed Iranians have been slaughtered in the streets of their nation as they protested against their evil and tyrannical government, Many thousands more have been imprisoned and are being cruelly tortured.

This is much more than a political revolution. It’s also a spiritual revolution! The Iranian people are desperately crying out for our help, seeking freedom in Christ!

Over a million Iranians have already turned from Islam to Christ. Reports say that over two-thirds of Iran’s mosques have been closed due to a lack of attendance.

We are asking you to join us in daily prayer for the people of Iran. Their acceptance of Christ will transform the entire Middle East.

Please click on the link entitled “Prayer for Iran” in the menu at the top of this page . Pray with us daily, and share this prayer with everyone in your contact list. Ask your contacts to also pray and send it to others. We are believing that God will intervene in a powerful way, and that Iran will be saved!

Thanks and God bless you all!

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PRAYER: Father, we ask you to tune our hearts to your Word, so that we may realize how deeply intimate, how far-reaching, how enduring, and how extravagant your love really is. Amen!

HIS LOVE-FILLED HEART

I’ve often wished that I could have been present on the night when Jesus shared the Passover meal with His disciples, in the upper room in Jerusalem, just before His crucifixion and death.

I’ve tried to imagine myself in the place of John, leaning over and laying my head on the chest of my Savior, listening to the rhythmic beating of His big heart… a heart filled with unconditional love for me… a heart that would soon stop… and be pierced by a Roman spear because of my sin.

But, as incredible as that would have been to listen to Jesus’ heart beat, there was something even more important to be heard that night; not just the sound of His physical heart, pumping the blood of our salvation through His physical body; but the sound of Jesus expressing His heart, His deepest emotions, and His faith, as He prayed to the Father.

Every one of the apostles in the upper room that night, heard the words the Lord spoke as He prayed. They are recorded for us in John 17, and are very possibly the most important words Jesus ever uttered on this earth.

Now, let’s listen with our hearts, to His heart:

¹ Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you, ² as you have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. ⁵ And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. ⁶ I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your Word. ⁷ Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you. ⁸ For I have given to them the words which you have given me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from you; and they have believed that You sent Me.

(John 17:1-8)

ALL FOR THE FATHER’S GLORY

Jesus declared by faith that He had already completed His mission, even though the cross and the grave were still before Him.

He had given His disciples the words the
Father had given to Him, and He had also manifested the Father’s name to them.

By faith He saw beyond the shadow of death’s dark valley, to the transcendent glory of the resurrection and the new creation.

Jesus knew that everything He had spoken and everything He had done was all for the Father’s glory!

Let’s focus on verse 6.

Jesus said: “I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world…” The Greek root word translated in this verse as “manifested” means “to make known; to reveal; to emit“.

SOUND AND LIGHT

From that single root word (phaneroo) comes two important derivatives or branches. These branches differ only in what type of energy they emit.

● The Greek word “phoneo” means “to emit sound energy“. It is the source of our English word “phone”.

● The Greek word “phaino” means “to emit light energy“. It is the source of our English word “photo”.

FIVE PHYSICAL, NATURAL SENSES vs. ONE SPIRITUAL, SUPERNATURAL SENSE

Think about this: God began the process of creation when He said, “Let there be light!”
The EMITTED SOUND of God’s faith-filled words turned on the EMITTED LIGHT that illuminated everything else.

We know and experience this physical world that God created through our five physical, natural, senses, primarily through sight (what we see) and sound (what we hear).

Jesus had said, as He prayed: “Eternal life means to know and experience you (Father) as the only true God, and to know and experience Jesus Christ, as the Son whom you have sent.“
(John 17:3, The Passion Translation)

Every person is born with a strong innate desire to know God, the Giver of Eternal Life! But He is inaudible to our ears, and invisible to our eyes. We just can’t know Him through our five senses.

But Jesus manifested the Father’s loving heart to us through His words (which can be heard) and His actions, (which can be seen) so we could know Him, and know the Father, and have eternal life. (John 1:18)

So, in essence, we know and experience God through our spiritual, supernatural sixth sense, the sense of faith, which is the “evidence of things not seen”. (Hebrews 11:1)

When Jesus said He had manifested the Father’s name, He was saying:

● “Father, I have faithfully proclaimed your every Word to those you have given me. Your Word, the seed and source of eternal life, has been planted in their hearts. Your Word has now gone forth into the world, and will continue to spread, grow, bear fruit, and multiply. It will continue to be preached and proclaimed. It will prosper, and prevail as it accomplishes and fulfills your purposes.” (Isaiah 55:11)

● “And, Father, I have openly displayed your  miracle-working power, through many signs and wonders, as Holy Spirit confirmed the Word that I spoke. The world has seen your goodness, your mercy, and loving-kindness as the blind received their sight, the lame were healed, the lepers cleansed, and the dead raised.”

● “By what I have radiated, and released through my words and my works, I have manifested, revealed, and displayed your thoughts, your ways, your character, and your glory. I have invited all humankind to receive eternal life, and to live in your heart forever!”

Jesus exhibited, emitted, and emanated eternal life with every word He spoke and every miracle He performed.

“A fountain of life was in Him, for His life is light for all humanity.” (John 1:4, TPT)

And He has commissioned us to bear His love, His light, and His life to the world around us! More on that in the next post!

Questions for Reflection:

● Physical sound and light are both forms of energy and travel in waves. Could this
also be true of the supernatural “waves of revival” that break upon our shores?

● What should we expect to experience when another “wave of revival” comes to our generation?

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Are you fired up about the New Year and ready to show everybody who is in your boat?

One way you can do that is through your giving. When you give generously to help propel the gospel around the world, you are exhibiting the personality of Jesus, who said:

“Give generously and generous gifts will be given back to you, shaken down to make room for more. Abundant gifts will pour out upon you with such an overflowing measure that it will run over the top! The measurement of your generosity becomes the measurement of your return.”
(Luke 6:38 TPT)

Once again, we would like to invite you to pray for and donate to our ministry partner in the Philippines:

Student Life Organization, Inc

SLOI provides educational opportunities to the many physically disabled and financially disadvantaged children of Cebu City, both declaring and demonstrating God’s to them and their families.

Would you please give today? If so, please use this link: paypal.me/anaferuiz

Thank you! We pray that you will experience God’s richest blessings throughout the New Year, in Jesus’ name! Amen!

Blessings!