Jun 03 2009
Christ Is the Light of the World
Christ Is the Light of the World
Jesus said, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep John 10:11. What a beautiful confession, so full of suggestion - the Good Shepherd.
It makes us remember the 23rd Psalm: Jehovah is my Shepherd; I do not want. He causes me to lie down in green pastures, and He leads me beside the still waters; He restores my thinking process so I can thank God’s thoughts.
He is the caretaker, the bread provider, the shield and the protector of His people. His Ministry is guiding and leading us into the real pastures where the heart learned to feed. Can you see what this means?
The moment we receive Eternal Life, the moment we become under- shepherds of the flock: we become leaders and teachers of this New Order, this New Life. We are the protectors of the lambs from the adversary that would destroy them. What a Ministry of Love that Shepherd has. What a life of Love caring for them, watching over them, feeding them, pointing the way to the Water of Life, and leading them into the quiet place under the shadow of that great Rock in this weary land.
We ought to make our confession of our Shepherd responsibilities and our ability to guide men. The Greek word translated power means ability, and that Jesus wanted the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they receive ability–the Father’s ability that Jesus had been manifesting among men.
Now we, the under–shepherd’s, have His ability. We are partakers of that ability. He is made unto us wisdom so we may know where to lead the sheep and what to feed them. The greatest concern for any of our ministries, is the ability to rightly divide the Word so that we can give man the food, the bread of Almighty God.
I want to be a faith builder. I want to lead man out of the wilderness of sense knowledge into our privileges in Christ, which is a Shepherd’s responsibility.
Jesus said the Words that I speak into you are Spirit and they are Life John 6:63. How few of us have realized the power of God’s Word, Jesus knew. Jesus Words healed the sick, fed the multitude, hushed the sea, raised the dead…
Not only that, but they stirred such hatred in the hearts of the leaders of Israel that they finally nailed Him to the cross, just because of the Words that He spoke. Paul makes us see this with a vividness that thrills. By faith we understand that the world have been framed by the Word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which do appear Hebrews 11:3.
God created the universe with words.
You remember those three wonderful words, let there be. Eight or nine times those words were recorded in the first chapter of Genesis.
God brought everything that is in the universe into being with Words. John 1:1–3, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him; and without Him was not anything made that has been made.
He took man’s words and filled them with Himself.
He made man’s words creative things…
He filled man’s words with the very genius of Love
His words dominated.
He indwelt words and made them work for Him.
He counted the things that were not as though they were, and they leaped into being.
Words create.
Then in Hebrews 1:3, words dominated the things that words had created: who being the effulgence of His Glory, and the very image of His substance, and upholding all things by the Word of His Power, when He made purification of sins, set down on the right hand of the Majesty on High.
He had brought the world into being with His Words. Now that vast universe is sustained and governed by His Word. With words–God filled words–we build faith into the lives of man. With words that are filled with sense knowledge, we can destroy the faith of men.
Sense knowledge has no other means but words, and so our universities are filled with words, off times destructive words, demoralizing words. High schools are destroying the faith of our nation with false teachings–all with words. There seems to be nothing holy anymore.
Sense knowledge is dominating our nation, and unless the word of God gains the ascendancy [control] again, all the ideals of our republic will go, and a new type of ideology that is destructive to Christianity will take its place. Man without God has used the inventions that God has given to the New Creation to destroy all God has wrought through the church in many years.
When Jesus said, the Words that I speak into you they are Spirit and they are Life, He was lifting the curtain and letting us see the realities. Think of it! The words that I speak, have in them the power and energy and Creative Ability of God. The words that I speak into you are life giving words, love building words, faith creating words.
Now what must our confession be?
Our confession is that we are the product of His Words, that His Words have given to our spirit the very Nature of the Father, and that the law that governs this new life is the Law of the New Covenant.
A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you John 13:34. This new Law that grows out of the Love Nature of the Father is the law that governs us. We are walking in the Light of this new Law, this creative dominating Law, and this victorious Law of Love. What a confession we have to make. God help us to hold fast to it.
In John 14:9, Jesus said, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father
That almost takes one’s breath away… Jesus said, have I been so long a time with you and you do not know what I am? I am God manifested in the flesh.
You have been living and walking with God.
You have seen Him heal the sick and raise the dead.
You have seen Him feed the multitude.
You have felt His Love Nature in My [Jesus] voice and in My Words and so I say to you today, he that has seen me hath seen the Father. You never need say again, show us the Father, for He is with you
What a confession that was! How it has lingered in the very atmosphere through the ages!
When we look at the New Creation in the Pauline epistles, we can see that we are actually taking Jesus place; that we have the same life in us Jesus had, and the same Nature of the Father has been imparted to us. With that nature has come all the attributes that made Jesus so beautiful to the world and made Him stand out as the most unusual character ever seen. Every attribute in Jesus that made Him beautiful is in the New Creation.
We have the same Life that dominated Him–that Love Nature.
We have the same kind of love He had.
He is made unto us wisdom from God.
He is made unto us redemption from God.
He is made into us sanctification from God.
He is made into us righteousness from God.
These four attributes are the very nature of the Father and were manifest in Jesus. Redemption from the hand of the adversary had not yet been accomplished when Jesus walked on the earth, but it was manifest in Him. He was the Master of demons.
Sanctification was revealed in Him in His utter separation from the world that surrounded Him. Righteousness, the ability to stand in the Father’s presence without the sense of inferiority, the ability to stand the presence of Satan as his master–all those glorious manifestations of the Divine Life were seen in Him [Jesus]
Our hearts cry needs to be, Lord make this real by thy Grace in my life, so men who see me will see You; so I can say, he that has seen me has seen the Master. What a confession Jesus made to the world, and what a confession we have the privilege of making today.
Jesus said, I am the vine, ye are the branches.
I wish we could understand it; that the heart could grasp the reality of our union with Him, of our unusual ability to feed upon the very Nature and life of God in Christ. You see, no branch can be closer to the vine than any other branch. Each branch has the same union with the vine for its individual Ministry of fruit bearing. When He said, I am the vine, ye are the branches, and it brought us into the fullest union with Deity.
We are actually partakers of the Divine Nature .The very life and substance of Deity pours out of the vine into the branches.
Then He said in that great prayer in the 17th chapter of John, and the Glory which Thou has given Me, I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them and Thou in Me, that We may be perfected into One. Why? That the world may know that Thou has sent me, and lovest them, even as thou lovest me.
That is the .Vine Life. This is where the branch is glorified and the fruitage becomes like the fruitage of Jesus in His earth walk. We can understand now what He meant when He said, greater works than these shall ye do; because I go onto My Father John 4:12. Jesus was limited to physical things. He could healed the sick, feed the multitudes, raise the dead, and turn water into wine, but He could not Re-create anyone.
He could not give anyone Eternal Life because it was not available until after He had put sin away, until He had satisfied the claims of justice, conquered Satan, arose from the dead, carried His blood into the Heavenly Holy of Holies, and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High.
