HE CAME AGAIN IN THE SPIRIT
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I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. John 17:22
God came to earth the first time ‘in Christ’. He came to earth the second time ‘in the Spirit’. The first time, glory was resident in a baby. The second time, glory was in the Spirit as He arrived at Pentecost. The first time, the earth saw perfect unity as God and Jesus lived as one person. The second time, earth saw unity as God took up residence in each of His children and they allowed Him to live through them in dazzling color.
Jesus’ prayer in today’s scripture, said just before His arrest, was prophetic of the unity that happens when the Holy Spirit lives in me. The indwelling of the Spirit is meant to be a take-over but not of the hostile kind. Though the Spirit moves in with all the essence and attributes of God (because He is God), the visibility of oneness is bold, or faint, depending on whether I allow Him to have all of me. His glory is either brilliant, or dulled, by how willing I am to die to self and live by the Spirit.
Jesus was completely one with His Father and that is what I love and admire about Him. He never did His own thing. At all times, God‘s character, God’s glory, and God’s agenda was being lived out through the life of His Son. It was not snuffed out by a renegade ‘Son’ who took detours and burned a blind eye to the promptings of His Father. At all times, He was keenly listening for instruction and when the noise was too loud to discern the right way to go, He withdrew to a place where stillness could reveal the whispers of an engaged Father.
Am I going to be the answer to Jesus’ prayer today? Will I live as one with the Spirit? Will His glory be seen in me? Kingdom potential is magnificent if He is not restrained. My own flesh must step out of the way.
And I will, by Your grace. Amen
For more from Christine Wyrtzen and Jaime Wyrtzen Lauze, please visit www.daughtersofpromise.org
Originally published Monday, 26 February 2024.
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