Last time I wrote about how Jesus prayed specifically and most pointedly for you and me, as if it were the most important request ever . . . .
That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You (John 17:21)
Can you see what that means? We are to be ONE together, with one another, with each believer, in the same way that Jesus is ONE with the Father.
We are ever so plainly told here what is the will of God for us, what we must observe, what we must obey.
You could not get anything more obvious about the will of Jesus and the will of the Father for you who love Him and follow Him.
It is as plain as the nose on your face.
Unless you are nose-less or even faceless or blind.
If this is the will of Jesus, then it is absolutely, beyond any shadow of doubt, that we do what He says, do what he so seriously prayed for us, our destiny, our identity, just before His immeasurable, unrepeatable, awful and costly sacrifice for us.
We cannot escape the carrying out of this ultimate imperative.
That is, if we love Him.
If we ignore this awesome destiny, it may be that all our efforts are a waste of time. Wood. Hay. Stubble.
If we fail to change our minds at this point and put it off till another time, we are living in disobedience.
How shall we escape if we ignore such a great desire and plan and purpose of the Living, Loving God? Something so close to His heart?
What shall we say to the Judge of all the earth when we stand before Him?
So how can we –you and all of us—who call ourselves Christians, who profess the faith of Jesus, who claim to be biblical, who believe in truth and righteousness, how can you go on identifying yourselves as Anglican or Baptist or Pentecostal or whatever, belonging to separate competing groups and religious structures, divided over doctrines and along denominational divisions, none of which were envisioned by our Lord, and all of which hurt Him terribly?
Does he ask the impossible?
Yes impossible, unless we abandon our fleshly ideas of church and ministry and start boldly and humbly relying on the Holy Spirit who is give to us for this very task.
All things are possible to the one who believes.
The first step is repentance. Change of the mind. And the will.
Ian Thomson 