His Heart, My Home

I just love God’s Word!

It is explosively creative, with the eternal energy of God Himself!

“For the Word of God is living and active and full of power, making it operative, energizing and effective…”   (Hebrews 4:12, AMP)

The Word of God is infinitely interesting. You may think that you have exhausted a particular passage of scripture, a chapter, a verse, or a single familiar word, extracting everything of value from it.

But then, with a single stroke of Holy Spirit’s pickaxe, you discover a rich new vein of golden truth, a treasure of spiritual life and power you never even realized was there.

That’s what happened to me recently as I studied and wrote about the prayers Jesus prayed.

SEEING FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE

As I read and meditated on John 17, I felt like Holy Spirit was saying, “Come up here. Look at this prayer from a different angle.”

So I did. Instead of seeing and dissecting each phrase and sentence of Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” I began to see what Holy Spirit wanted me to see, a divine pattern, a powerful emphasis on a group of words used repeatedly throughout the prayer.

The Holy Spirit focused my attention on the words “give”, “gave”, and “given”. These words are used seventeen times in this chapter.

The Greek word translated here as “give, gave, and given” is the word “didomi”. 

“Didomi” means much more than a simple handover of something. It implies a generous, purposeful action. It means, “to bestow a benefit or blessing upon someone in order to honor them; to confer as a gift”.

Please keep those thoughts in mind now as we read the chapter:

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. ⁴ 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.

⁹ “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ And all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.    ¹¹ Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are. ¹² While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them your Word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. ²² And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one: ²³ I in them, and you in me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me.

²⁴ “Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me; for you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father! The world has not known you, but I have known you; and these have known that you sent me. ²⁶ And I have declared to them your name, and will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”  (John 17:1-26)

THE FATHER GAVE MANKIND HIS HEART

At some point in eternity past, the Father conceived a family in His heart. We were His dream. We were His passion. We were the crescendo and climax of His plan and purpose for creation.

He gave us His image, and He gave us His likeness. He created us to be an exact duplication of Himself. (Genesis 1:26-28)

Incredibly, He gave His human family a free will, enabling them to freely choose to respond to and return His love. He wanted to be loved by His family because they chose to love, honor, and obey Him, as their Father.

But this same free will also allowed Adam and Eve to choose a different path, a road that separated them from their Creator, a road that led to sin and spiritual death.

THE FATHER GAVE JESUS A MISSION

Knowing this tragedy would take place, the Father turned to His Son and gave Him a mission, to save His man, and restore His plan.

He gave Jesus the responsibility for, and the authority over, the entire human race, entrusting Him with mankind’s eternal destiny. If Jesus somehow failed in His mission, we would be a universally damned race… eternally separated from God…  and eternally beyond His reach… existing in an eternal hell…too horrible to imagine!

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.”
(John 3:16, AMPC)

All of that is the part of the story that we know so well. It is the bedrock truth of the gospel.

So, it’s easy to understand why giving would be the primary focus of Jesus’ prayer in John 17. Jesus was about to give His life for those the Father so passionately loved. He was about to live the words He had spoken in John 3:16!

JESUS GAVE ABBA HIS FAMILY BACK

Jesus was about to give something to His Father through His obedience and His unbounded love.

But there’s something more, something higher. Notice that Jesus repeatedly thanked the Father (at least seven times) in His prayer for those whom the Father had given to Him.

Woven throughout this prayer is a truth so powerful that it takes our breath away, so wonderful that we can only comprehend it with our hearts, not with our minds.

WE ARE FATHER-GOD’S ETERNAL LOVE GIFT TO JESUS!

● The Father so loved the world that He gave His Son to the world. (John 3:16)

● The Father so loved His Son that He gave us, those He had conceived in His heart and created as His own, to His Son. (John 17)

● We are the family the Father has always dreamed about! We are those the Father has called forth out of darkness! We are those Holy Spirit has drawn to the Father with cords of love, mercy, and compassion!

● We have been bestowed upon Jesus as a blessing, a cherished gift from the Father, given to honor His Son for His perfect love, obedience, and submission.

● We have “intrinsic value” because we were created in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 1:26)

● We have “added value”, because Jesus paid for our salvation with His life’s blood.
(1 Corinthians 6:20)

● We are a precious, priceless treasure.

(1 Peter 2:9)

● We have a purpose within Abba’s plan. (Ephesians 2:10)

● We are always on God’s mind and in His heart. He continually makes intercession for us. (Hebrews 7:35 and Romans 8:26-27)

● We, corporately, as the Bride of Christ, will be given to Jesus by the Father!

● We will be loved, cherished, and treasured for all eternity! (Ephesians 2:4-8)

Let’s Pray:

Father, we praise you for sending your precious Son to this world so that we could know you intimately. Jesus, we praise you for your perfect life. You showed us what love really looks like. You laid down your life for us. We praise you! We worship you, Lord! Thank you for your precious blood, which completely cleanses our sins. There is salvation in no one else, and there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. You triumphed over every temptation and prevailed over all adversity. And ultimately you vanquished even the power of death! By your sacrifice, you defeated sin, sickness, poverty, death, and hell, and translated us into your kingdom. You did all of this because of your love for us. We are in awe of you, Lord!

To you, our Father, be blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, forever and ever. To you, our only Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time, and now, and forever. You are the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and you uphold the universe by the word of your power. To you, Holy Spirit, eternal, immortal, invisible, our Helper, our Teacher, our Counselor, and our Comforter, be honor and glory and blessing and power forever and ever. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
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Once again, Grace and I would like to ask all of you to please pray and give generously to
Student Life Organization, Inc to help them reach the precious people of the Philippines with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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 each one of you will experience God’s richest blessings as you give generously in Jesus’ name!