The Will of God

Ep 1:5 “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”.

In this meditation, we would try to understand what God’s will is and how we can accomplish that in our personal lives. The verse above simply shows that God’s will is being done when we are predestined to become His adopted children through Jesus Christ.

The previous verse clearly mentions the purpose of our predestination. “We should be holy and without blame before Him in love”.

If we rightly term this, we should understand easily that the whole purpose of God’s effort, power, the gift of salvation, the gift of Holy Spirit and every other blessing is that we should be holy and without blame. We know that this destination is not easy, but this destination is not impossible either as if everyone among us is predestined to be there, it is a very much viable target for all of us.

Also, this proves that unless this holiness is achieved, the purpose of salvation is not fulfilled.

In Love:

All our actions should have a foundation of love and not anything else. Our love towards God and fellowmen should produce these and not our plans or ambitions.

Defintion:

A very good definition of will of God can be found in Romans 12:2 “Good, acceptable and perfect”. If we are doing God’s will, there will be goodness throughout, there will be no question in us if our work would be acceptable to God and it will be nothing short of perfectness. All these should be seen in terms of holiness and not materials. To understand this properly and to prove this definition, we are expected to be present opposite to the direction of the world and allow the Holy Spirit to renew us.

We can read this again in Col 1:9-10 “to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”.

As in James 4:17, anything less than this is Sin.

1 Thes 4:3 points directly to what God’s will is. Our Holiness.

How to do God’s will:

The book of Thessalonians gives us a clearer path to God’s will.

In 1 Thes 4:3,4,5 onwards, we would see that God’s will is sexual purity. This is a primary requirement for all of us. This is the first step of holiness. If we fail here, every other step becomes worthless.

After this instruction, we have our list in 1 Thes 5:12-18:

      1.       Honoring God’s men because of their efforts and fruits.

      2.       Peace

      3.       Fellowship

      4.       Encouragement to other sinners and needy.

      5.       Selflessness

      6.       Happiness

      7.       Prayer

      8.       Thanksgiving.

It is important to see happiness to be listed as an instruction for God’s will and not as a gift. Happiness is our responsibility.

Similarly in the conclusion of Hebrews, we can see Paul instructing, (Heb 13:21) to perfect us with all good qualities so that God’s will would be fulfilled in us.

Being able to do God’s will is a promise

In John 6:39 – 40, Jesus says that God’s will is to raise us up towards our everlasting life if we truly see Him and believe in Him. We are expected to believe in Him (Jesus) not just as a God who provides, but a God who is our bread/food that takes us towards holiness.

1 Thes 5: 23, 24 assures that God would make us perfect (through Christ). He is faithful and will do that. Our faith in Jesus Christ as a Savior becomes true when we believe that we can become perfect and blameless. If we do not believe that, then we do not believe in Christ.

Faith:

As in many verses (John 3:16, 6:39 etc) all require us just to believe in Jesus to attain everlasting life. Logically, just believing in Jesus does not make us worthy anywhere. In fact everybody believes that Jesus is Lord. So, what does this faith require from us?

                1 Peter 4:19 “Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.”

                Our faith should be displayed in complete trust towards Jesus so that we would do good in spite of our suffering. This is the will of God that would raise us.z00x

Foolishness:

Ep 5:17 – Anything less than understanding the will of God is foolishness. Wisdom = knowing God’s will.

1 Pet 2:15 – Doing God’s will removes foolishness around us.

Our Longing for His will

Mat 6:10. In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus has given us a list of priorities which we should ask God for. This is the third petition we place in the Lord’s feet. Lord, as heaven rejoices and completely obeys you without doubt, we need that to happen in this earth Lord. We need every person here to be holy (good, acceptable and perfect). For this, Lord, we need ourselves to be holy and completely obedient to your good self. This is important than my food, forgiveness, salvation and submission.

God’s Longing for His will

                Romans 8:26,27. For us to survive in spite of our weakness, the Spirit groans in intercession. We should understand how God struggles for His will to happen.

                God also does this in a strict term. Mark 3:35. We have no relationship with God if we do not do His will. That is, pursue Holiness.

                In Ephesians 1:1, Colossians 1:1 we can see that Paul claiming himself to be an Apostle only by the will of God and not any other qualifications. Every ministry God establishes is that His will be done.

Benefits

                1 John 2:17. The world changes and will cease to exist in its own way. We get everlasting life only by doing His will. We should understand the relationship between faith and doing His will clearly. Faith should result in us doing His will and so we get everlasting life.

Conclusion

                In John 6:26 Jesus answers people seeking Him not to labor for earthly food, but for heavenly food. We should labor (work hard) for doing God’s will. In reality, we work hard for our material needs but do not take any suffering to complete His will.  We need to understand How Jesus did God’s will at the cross by saving us. But, this has to result in our Holiness. 

Power of God

Eph 1:19

¹⁹ And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

This verse in its context is a prayer Paul prays for the church at Ephesus so that they would have spirit of wisdom and understanding of Jesus and his Power. This states that our understanding of the Power of God is also not complete and we need wisdom and understanding from God for our minds to digest that.

1.       God’s Power displayed at the Cross

Rom 1:16 and 1 Cor 1:18 clearly points to the fact that the Gospel is the power of God. The Gospel essentially is the event at the Cross which brought us salvation. We also see that it is mentioned as “power of God” instead of “power from God”.  The latter points to the Holy Spirit in many verses (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8).

But the term “power of God” gives me a different understanding. This is the display of God’s power on the Cross. We always see Jesus as a weak person who has given himself to death at the cross. But we fail to realize how powerful Jesus was at the cross.

                Christians normally see God’s power in action only in events like red sea. But God does not use the term “Almighty” here. In Exodus 14:15, God asks Moses “Wherefore criest thou unto me?”.  The sentence is like “why do you come to me for these silly matters…” Similarly, there are many such problems we take to God and think that God has to powerfully demonstrate so that we would receive support from Him.

                But, in Exodus 3:18 God does not easily command Pharoah to let His people away, but ask for permission to sacrifice in the desert for three days. We can see God taking a lot of trouble (Ex 4:8) to convince His own people.  There are many events which clearly point to the fact that the most troublesome thing to God is not Satan or any other evil spirit but the free-will God has given us. This freewill is the reason why Jesus has to come to this earth. God seeks our willing Love (Prov 23:26).

                Many verses like Ex 13:9, Deut 7:8, Deut 9:26 all point to the display of God’s power in the event of deliverance from Egypt and not the red sea. God took the longer path of convincing Pharoah to set His people free.

This is the reason why Jesus had to come to earth. God could have easily shown His power in many ways to convince us. But that will be fearful obedience from us and not loving obedience. God really seeks our love and not our fear. Fear is just a start of our relationship with God. But He really desires love from us. We were like the Pharoah, but God melted us through his Power (Cross).

So, in human history, the maximum (for full, but the largest) display of God’s power was at the cross where God chose to suffer.

2.       Our Power = Holy Spirit

In Acts 1:8 the actual greek word used is martyr and this word means witness. But, being a witness today is not equal to being a witness in those days. A witness would stand up to his faith and belief however badly he would be persecuted or killed. God gives us the power to stand up to be that kind of witness.

We can see this displayed in the life of Gandhi where he displayed his disobedience towards the English by receiving or embracing punishments. We received this power (Holy Spirit) because of His power (Cross).

2 Cor 4:7 “Treasures in Earthly Vessels”. God gives power to us earthly vessels so that everybody understands that the power is of Him. The winning element should be the gospel in us. We are just containers of the gospel and the purpose of our living is the gospel. It simply points to the fact that we should receive persecution so that the gospel wins. This is the purpose God gave us power. This power helps us suffer.

2 Cor 12:9 “for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” This verse does not explain that God gives his strength during our weakness, but it is developed or perfected during our weakness. That is only when we are weak; the strength of God is used and it develops. When we receive all blessings and perfect answers to all our problems, our strength.. i.e., the Holy Spirit is not in use.

Rom 8:36, 37 “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”  Even when we are submitted to persecution or even death, we still are counted as more than conquerors because of the power of the Holy Spirit. We actually only enjoy the authority but fail to accept persecution.

            1 Thes 3:3 says “that we are destined for afflictions”. The strength God gives (Holy Spirit) is to give us comfort, encouragement and power to suffer these afflictions and not escape them.

            Eph 3:16 “Inner Man”. The strength is to help the inner man and not the physical person for the material world.

             So, as a conclusion we should be able to understand how hard we are and how God had to use a lot of trouble in saving us. And how expensive our salvation is (treasure) and how we should use this power from God to safeguard and proclaim the salvation in spite of anything. The greatness of his power to us (Holy Spirit) is according to the power God has expressed in the persecution and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Alive to Christ

Ep 2:1 ”And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, “

We all know and have been deeply discussing how dead we are to sin after being born again. We understand that we would stop being available to sin when the devil’s darts tempt us by deception.
Being dead in sin portrays the fact that we had absolutely no reason to live and were hopeless of being saved from the deep sin we were lost into. The grace of God through Christ Jesus has given us hope to live a sinless, holy life that pleases God.
The important lesson here is to be “alive to God in Christ”. This action fulfills the purpose of our salvation.
Being alive to God directly means to be available for learning and obeying God’s words.
There are a few important items here:

1. Ep 2:5 Made alive together with Christ.
When Christ rose up from the dead, he served the purpose of being God. Being dead and rising up shows that everything that was required to be done in the life was complete. The person who rose up is new. (Remember Mary and others had difficulties recognizing Jesus). This person has no liabilities of his earlier life. 
Paul compares our salvation to Jesus’s rising up from the dead because we are expected to be regenerated equally as Christ was. (1 Cor 15:42 - 45). 

2. Raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places (Ep 2:6)
This is again a proceeding of the making alive event. Also, this is the purpose of us being resurrected. It is important for us to verify if we are being raised up after salvation. Has our righteousness (not any other blessing) has grown up and is this growth in sync with the work of the Holy Spirit. (together with Christ).

3. Exceeding Riches (Ep 2:7)
If we have really grown up in Christ, we are expected to display lots and lots of righteousness that even we do not expect from ourselves. God’s love in abundance does not give us material riches. The changes in us should be unexpected and above all other standards the world sets in us.

4. Brought near (Ep 2:13)
A live person to God is near God. He is ready for every instruction God gives. He eagerly waits for God’s instructions rather than creating excuses for disobedience. He knows that God is watching him.

5. Walking in the newness of life (Rom 6:4)
The newness of life points to the fact that God gives us a new spirit. (Ezekiel 36:26) The new spirit gives us new motives to live. Going forward, the new spirit changes our soul to perfection.

6. Reckon (Rom 6:11)
We should convince ourselves that we are alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is a statement of faith. There are no actual visible facts to help us believe. But it is important for Christians to take the leap of faith that we are completely alive to God. This being made alive is not our action. (Rom 6:23) but it is God’s gift when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our primary requirement of believing is that we believe that as Jesus was dead and He rose again gives us complete assurance that we are living now in Jesus. God gives death as a “wage” to sin, but everlasting life is not a “wage” which we deserve or obviously expect. But this is gift of God.

7. Instruments of Righteousness (Rom 6:13)
God wants us to present ourselves and our body’s members as instruments of righteousness. For God to perform righteousness, our body’s members should be useful to him. We have to voluntarily give our whole selves to God.

8. Destroy All Enemies (1 Cor 15:25,26)
One important purpose of Jesus’ rising again is that all enemies should be destroyed and at last death. For Jesus to destroy all the enemies, it is not sufficient for Him to lead a clean life. It is required that we, his chosen generation would overcome the devil and thus give Him victory. When the Lord’s requirement is met, then death will be completely destroyed. We will live forever with him. It is important that in the harvest, Christ was the first fruit and we all together form the harvest.
Most Christians say, that it is impossible for us to be perfect and Christ like. If it is not possible, God will not expect that from us. When Jesus has put “All” things under his feet, he has done that for us so that we would overcome Satan completely.

9. God of the living (Mat 22:31,32)
When Jesus was asked a trick question about resurrection, He clearly says that Abraham, Issac and Jacob are not dead. For our eyes, they seem to be dead but God says that they will rise again and so, God considers them as living people. Similarly, Jesus calls the church of Sardis (Rev 3:1) a dead one. In God’s terms, obedience, being useful to God and partaking in everlasting life only means being alive. Otherwise, we are all dead people. Also God denies being our God.. that is God does not have any relationship with us if we are dead.

Let us all consider and make sure that we are available to God as instruments He uses to perform righteousness. If not, we are still dead. We can be either completely immersed in sin, or lukewarm or alive. We see all kinds of people in the Church. 

The Fullness of Christ

Ep 1:23

Which (The Church) is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

This definition is given to the Church which should express Jesus Christ completely. There are two things here, that is

i.                     Christ should fill us completely (all in all).

ii.                   The complete Christ should fill us.

God has this expectation of filling up completely. There are many examples

1.       Hab 2:14 – The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of the LORD.

2.       Is 6:3 – The earth is full of his Glory.

3.       Ps 16:11 – Fullness of Joy to me personally.

4.       Ps 24:1 – The fullness of the earth is God’s.

This quality of God where he never does anything partially is an important aspect of Christendom. There are no partial healings anywhere. There is no partial salvation. When God does or expects something, it has to happen fully.

Now, John 1:16 says that because of the fullness of Christ, we are receiving Grace upon Grace. If Christ has revealed the God partially or anything less than who The Father is, there is no chance of us receiving grace.

Col 1:19, 2:9 Jesus was the full of the Father and we are expected to be full of Jesus. These verses are also an important proof is that Jesus is God.

Ep 4:11-13

¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

This verse points to the fact that our pursuit, and God’s plan for us to grow is that we should reach to the measure of stature of the fullness of Christ.

This is the highest point we should and could attain in this world. For this purpose only, God works in us by giving us pastors, evangelists and every other kind of ministers.  

Interestingly, we can see that “He Himself gave” instead of “He gave” in the verse. We should be cautious in understanding ministers who He gave and who He did not. This quality to be a minister does not come by inheritance or talents or any other thing we understand of. He should give us.

This support from elders is required till the date when we become “stature of fullness of Christ”.

Now, the important teaching of this meditation is that:

God understands our weakness in displaying ourselves as the fullness of Christ. But, God does not accept anything less either. That’s why God gives this definition to the Church.

The Church is the fullness of Christ.

We are together, remember, not individually but together expected to be the complete Jesus Christ’s body. Only this fellowship makes us a worthy candidate in God’s eyes until we are perfect.

This is the importance of the Church in our lives.

·         We need to be very closely bound enough so that we together fulfill God’s desire.

·         It is our highest responsibility that we ensure every ministry should happen at a church or fellowship and the church should together uphold every ministry in it.  

·         The church should together display the holiness, love and authority of Christ to this world.

In early days (Acts 2:44-46) when the church gathered they sold everything and shared. This is reason behind the Jewellery removal sign Pentecostals show.

The lesson from this event is that every person in the church lost his individual identity by selling everything he owned and came together. That is a very important quality of every person who belongs to the church. We all should toil together so that the Church (as one body) is perfect in God’s eyes. Seeking individual honor is very selfish and never serves the purpose of God.

·         1 John 1:7, if we do not have fellowship, we are walking in darkness.

·         Heb 10:24-25 – the importance of encouragement, stimulating others towards love and good deeds, etc.

·         Rom 1:12 where one person’s faith builds another’s.

·         Rom 15:2 – Personal edification comes from fellowship.

So, let us humbly accept the important of the Church (Acts 20:28) in our personal lives. We are expected to love one another unconditionally and to support / encourage others throughout our lives. This church should be bound with the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and fellowship. We need to have Christ fill every corner and person of the church and the complete characteristics and full love of Jesus should be displayed by the church together.

Knowledge of Jesus

Ep 1:17

“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him”.

This verse is a prayer that Paul, the Apostle prays to the Almighty about the church in Ephesus. This church as per verse 15, they were faithful and loving towards the Saints. This faith and love were exemplary and heard everywhere. That would be amazing right.

But, at this same time, it is evident that we can be with faith and may give a lot to God, but lack in understanding of Christ. Here, Paul does not give them the understanding of Christ, neither asks them to search for the knowledge of Christ, but prays to God so that God would give them this understanding.

We should acknowledge that it is not easy to understand Christ and this love towards us. It is also not easy for us to understand what his riches are (vs. 18).

The same verse mentions that Wisdom and Revelation are required to understand Jesus and the richness we will receive in heaven. This revelation is not as John’s which one person got and shared to everyone, but an individual revelation. These things are hard to explain in words.

In Vs 9 (vs 10 in tamil), Paul says that it is a mystery of his will. The will of God which is being executed through Christ is a mystery. But, it is a blessing and a great honor we are having if we have properly understood who Christ is and what His will is.

Mathew 13:11. “Granted”. These were not studied and gained, but granted by the Holy Ghost to us. So, there is no use in pursuing studies either.

In this meditation, I am not trying to explain the knowledge of Christ; but, the fact that it is a large mystery and we should pray that God would help us understand more and more of this truth.

1.       Our perception of Jesus is incomplete.

a.       We think Jesus as a God who is strong, powerful and merciful towards people who are in trouble. We also preach the same Jesus.

b.      Yes, he is strong, powerful and merciful. But did He come to the world for only that? He is an almighty and His purpose is that we should be there to glorify Him. (Ep 1:12)

c.       He came to serve us so that we would live a life that glorifies Him. We may receive all health, wealth and every other spiritual gifts also. But those are not the purpose. (Mat 7:22,23). There is no good if there is no relationship with God. Jesus mentions that “I did not know you” here.

d.      We also see the reference that Jesus did not comment anything about the word “Lord, Lord”. That too twice. We also have references that He received worship (Mat 14:33, Mathew 28:9)

e.      In John 5:3 we can see that there were a multitude of people in the pool of Bethesda. But, Jesus went and saw one person only and cured him. And, then in Vs 14 wants him to repent.

f.        Job 11:7

g.       Ep 3:4 “only my knowledge”. Paul never concludes that this is the whole mystery, but only what I know.

h.      About Jesus, we see that God has wrought him (Ep 1:20) (worked on him) so that he was given and raised from the dead and is seated in his right hand. This makes the fact that Jesus, our fore runner’s sacrifice has been fully accepted by God and we have complete rights in entering the kingdom.

i.         Also, we read that Jesus is the head, we are the body (Ep 1: 22,23). Everything in heaven and earth is under His feet i.e., his body. But we are looking for blessings from the dust below us rather than looking up at the head and the richness God has prepared for us.

2.       Our understanding of His Kingdom is incomplete.

a.       We think of human measured money, treasures, gold or property etc that count as richness. We even assume that these will be in abundance.

b.      Romans 14:17 – A kingdom full of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit

c.       The context of this verse clearly says that our food or ways in the earth may be a grief to others.  We have to be cautious in what we eat, drink, dress etc…

d.      One more thing is that our holiness in eating, drinking and dressing are meant only with the standard of encouraging others towards Christ. If we show ourselves as too holy by dressing in whites or removing jewellery, it may not give this encouragement.

e.      Also, we try to define a parallel holiness which is not in the Bible and try to be satisfied in that. This satisfaction is not from God. Please understand that we are being deceived if we are happy that we do not wear jewellery or properly give tithes and these qualities will make us deserve his Kingdom.

f.        We need peace that comes from complete trust in Christ Jesus. Everybody struggles here and clearly, that is sin too. Rom 14:23 We are far away from His holiness and should stay at his feet every single day longing for that. This is the same condition for every Christian.

g.       The fact that Satan will be bound in heaven (Rev 20:3). There will be no temptation and so, no sin. We will have no problem in facing God at all.

Let God help us with the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him more and more…

The Sufficiency of Christ

Ep 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ

• ·         Jesus is the sum of all our blessings.
• ·         The moment we start believing in and accepting Christ, we receive everything we need.. i.e., eternal life (Jn 3:16, 1 Jn 5:11,12).
• ·         All we need as per God is Jesus. Ph 4:19
• ·         And Jesus is not just a sufficient entity, but riches in Glory.

2 Cor 12:9

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

• ·         This verse is very much misunderstood at many places. God actually says NO to Paul when he pleads for healing. That emphasis is shown in the term “thrice” in the previous verse.
• ·         Grace in most cases points to our salvation (John 1:19, Ep 2:8, Titus 2:11). God expects us to pursue salvation alone and nothing else.
• ·         Many of us think that it our right to receive divine healing. But, Paul after pleading did not receive that. It is important to look for God’s will in our healing (1 John 5:14)
• ·         God says that His Grace is sufficient. And this verse does not come as a blessing, but an answer and a strict commandment too. Anything we desire beyond grace will be sin.
• ·         Perfect in weakness. God, sometimes wants us to endure weakness, incapabilities, shortcomings so that we will see the complete power of God.
• ·         Paul goes to an extent of boasting of his weaknesses in the next verse (2 Cor 12:10)

Phil 3:8 (v11 in tamil)

• “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ”.
• ·         Everything is a loss when we did not have gained Jesus.
• ·         We mistakenly think that if we give a lot to the Church or ministries, it seems that we are gaining Christ. (Is 1:12 onwards).
• ·         Mat 13:44,45 Both these verses show how important it is for us to lose everything we have just for the sake of buying Jesus.
• ·         Unless we pursue salvation and then move towards, Christlikeness… That is letting the face of God  shine upon us. (Ps 67:1).

Seeing Jesus

Seeing Jesus

John 12:45 “And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.”

1.       The Deity and Authority of Jesus

a.       John 1:1 “The Word was God.”  - The deity of Jesus.

b.      1:2, 3 “He was in the beginning and all things were made through Him.  – The authority of Jesus. (Col 1:16 – All things were Created For Him)

c.       1:27, 3:31 – Whose thongs I am not worthy to untie. – The glory of Jesus. (Mathew 11:11 - no one is greater than John).

2.       The purpose of Jesus’s coming

a.       3:17 – Our salvation.

b.      1:50, 3:3 – The various methods of simplicity or complex nature of Jesus to accept us.

c.       5:6 – The voluntary nature of Jesus for salvation. He seeks out for people to save.

d.      1:51 – The confidence Jesus has in an innocent believer.

e.      1:51 – How enthusiastic Jesus is when he sees a person believe.

3.       The expectations of Jesus

a.       5:14 – The concern Jesus has for every person. “Do not sin anymore” as Sin has caused you this misery.

b.      2:17 – How Jesus’ standards are regarding his House. (and our body).

c.       4:10 – This is beyond being a Jew or Samaritan.  Not limited to some people whatsoever.

d.      4:10 – Jesus is source from which the Holy Spirit flows towards us.  The reason for us being powerful. (John 16:7). Jesus wants us to be filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit.

e.      4:23 – True worshippers who worship in spirit and truth.

4.       The Love of Jesus

a.       6:55 – I am the bread indeed. Consume me and have life. The invitation. Also that When we consume Jesus’s flesh and blood, we partake in his crucifixion not as being crucified, but as those who crucified. We remember that we are guilty by blood. But, Jesus encourages us by telling that we are not supposed to be guilty, but accept that His purpose of visiting us was to shed blood so that we could gain.  Ps 27:2 and 1 Chronicles 11:19. The love of Christ.

John 17: The prayer of Jesus.

1. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.
This shows the final motive behind Christ’s suffering on the cross. Yes, it was to save mankind. But further on, the real motive for our salvation is that God the Father is glorified. All our work and efforts should serve one single purpose “The Father should be glorified”.
Let us read 1 Cor 10:31.

2. Jesus claims his suffering to be a glory to himself and a glory He receives from the Father.

We can see this in John 12:23. The colon after this verse points that the method the Father is receiving Glory is in the next verse (17:2) that we receive eternal life. When we receive eternal life, the father is glorified or this is the glory the father seeks. This is the basics of Christianity.

We can see an emphasis on this at John 15:8, Isaiah 43:5-7.

Even if this salvation is painful, Jesus does not call his “pain” or a “disgrace” as we all would do. We can see this example in the gospel of Luke (Luke 23:33, 39-43) where the crucifixion would be mentioned in a single verse but the salvation of the thief beside Christ would be explained in about 5 verses.

3. Glorify me together in the Glory which I had with you before the world was. (v5)
This clearly points to the fact that since Adam failed, the Glory Christ and the Father shared was not complete because of our disobedience through Adam. Also, this shows God’s pursuit towards our salvation. When we are not saved, Christ sees this as a dip in His glory. That again explains His love towards us.
Jesus Christ was the only person who lived a perfectly sinless life and thus He crushed Satan’s head as we see in Genesis. Now, by the grace, we are made righteous through Christ’s sufferings and by bringing us back to the Father, Christ and the Father are glorified. See how important our position is in here.

4. “thou has given me” (v2, v6)

We are creations of the Father to Glorify Him. But, here Jesus claims ownership of us with a proud heart. We belong to Jesus completely and not to the old covenant. Even as Jesus is the one who pays the price, we should notice the humility that we are given to Jesus by the Father. There is no boasting here. This is the model for all Christian leaders. Our responsibility is that “God you have given me so many believers and my duty is not to merely increment the count, but Lord, it is to remember that it is a responsibility and would work hard bring salvation to all those you have given me”. This is a perfect model for ministers from Christ.

In Mathew 16:18, Jesus clearly says that the building of Church is His responsibility. Whereas making them a disciple is ours. (Mathew 28:19)

5. “Authority over all flesh: Salvation to few”.

Jesus has authority over all flesh. He has the opportunity to punish or even destroy all mankind. But, He uses His authority to save a few of us. Rather than condemning us, the Lord chose to take the condemnation to himself. He knows only a few (those given by God to Jesus) would be saved. But, the Kingdom will be constructed in Heaven with these people who truly trust in God. We should understand how precious we are in God’s sight. If God’s pride is in our salvation, imagine what kind of glory we would receive when we reach Him.

This is a model for supervisors, managers and business owners who have people working under them. We should always remember that authority is always given only for the good of the people who we have authority of.

6. Knowing God is eternal life.
This “Know” is much different from our understanding of the word know. In the OT, (Gen. 4:1), we can see that Knowing pointing towards marital bonding. God expects a similar bond. This is the reason Christ sees the church as His bride. Our relationship today with God should be something similar to that of a husband and a wife. It should mature and bring fruits. The conditions should fall apart and it would become a natural habit of loving each other.

7. Holy Father (v11)
In the entire bible, the word “Holy Father” appears only here and it is being mentioned by Christ. Jesus wants the Father to keep us in His Name that is “Holy Father”. If God has to keep us as He is a Holy Father, then the foremost fruit and the final result will be that we all would be ONE. If we are not together in fellowship, then the purpose of God keeping us safe in His hands is not fulfilled.
In v22, we see that the Glory we receive from Christ is for our unity with fellow believers and with the Almighty. Only our unity will show the world that we are being sent from the Holy Father.

8. Righteous Father. (v25)

The world did not know You are righteous. Because You are righteous, you had to send you only begotten Son so that the world lives. Christ had to come to this world because of the Father’s righteousness. Otherwise, if our sins would be pardoned without punishment, it would never be right. Its just that God took our punishment.

So, this event results in the Father’s love to be present in us, that is Christ be present in us.

The promises in Joel 2:18-27

Joel 2:28 says that:

And afterward,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.

And this was clearly fulfilled as per Acts 2:16 & 17. This words start with “and afterward” meaning that the prophecies preceding this one should have been fulfilled before this one. Our meditation is based on this thought so that we may check if these promises have been fulfilled in our lives.

God has promised a lot of fortunes in these verses and clearly these signs or fruits of victory in a spiritual sense and not materialistic as the history does not show any signs of victory before Christ’s glorious victory at the cross.

     1.       Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people.

This is the first promise that God the father has changed His view on us. He does not look at us as sinners but as prospective heirs.

     2.       Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen

The words grain, new wine and oil (some as corn, wine and oil) can be seen in a lot of places in the bible. Ex: Deut 11:14, Nehemiah 13:5 and many others.

We should note here in Joel that the Lord says “I am sending you corn, wine and oil”.

We can see that the people of God were a reproach because of their lack of corn, wine and oil. (lack of food basically). On satisfaction, we turn from being an object of scorn to an object of blessing and inspiration. I would personally say that the corn, wine and oil point at

     a.       Corn: The life of Christ which gave us a perfect example of how we should live and what we miss in our lives. A first step towards repentance, the solid food of understanding.

     b.      Wine: The death and resurrection of Christ which gave us forgiveness, the refreshment.

     c.       Oil: The Holy Spirit who gives us strength and abundance of Holiness.

These three together gave us the opportunity to transform ourselves to the likeness of God.

We should really check if this has happened to us. Are we being looked up as reproaches among non-believers or as “light of the world” as Jesus expects us. Our happiness and full satisfaction should be visible to others. Have we received the food that God has given to complete this transformation?

     3.       I will drive the northern army far from you pushing it into parched and barren land.

This is an important sign in our lives. Is the enemy very close enough to consume us in every opportunity? Are we in a state of falling in every little temptation? Or is the enemy in a barren land where he has nothing to graze upon in our lives? We may not be present in this mature state. But are we getting far from the enemy every year? Are we progressing towards holiness?

The enemy may be seen powerful from east to west. But it should not have the capabilities in come anywhere near the south. The enemy’s failures will cause him to develop a stench which is the results we see now. Examples are: Bribery, corruption, rapes, churches being destroyed, missionaries tortured and abduction of Christian women, the actions of IS and plenty more. These actions would remain as stench far away from our personal Christian being.

Sometimes Christian lives become pathetic that they are part of this stench. Satan has succeeded into creating an illusion that just by baptism and other rituals we will be successful Christians. But no, we should feel the failure of Satan in our lives that he develops a stench.

     4.       I will send you autumn and spring rains in abundance

We should feel the receipt of His grace so that faith and love grows and nourishes well. (1 Timothy 1:14). There is no deficit in His grace, but is there anything that stops us so that our love towards Christ and one another does not grow well or our faith is not fed well? We should have love and faith in abundance with us.

     5.       O wild animals, the open pastures are becoming green.

Our life becomes so flourishing with love and faith that our neighbours and dependents feed and understand the Lord from our lives. There should be abundance of righteousness that is the fruit of salvation. There will be fruits everywhere and in every area of our lives. Our work lives, our family, everywhere.

     6.       I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten...

This is another interesting thing that every blessing we have lost because of our and our forefather’s sins, we are entitled to earn them back. This is essentially the status of mankind in the garden of Eden. Everything God has taken from us. Here, we should note that God calls “Cutting Locusts” in some versions or “Chewing locusts” in a few versions as “My own army” but not the rest. When God is angry at our transgressions, He sometimes sends His army to cut our blessings and then the swarming, crawling, consuming locusts which are not from God come and consume or destroy them. God gives or repays all our losses here.

Interestingly, we can see that God mentions His own army in the list of those of the enemies. This shows the importance God gives to us, His children.

     7.       You will praise the name of the Lord.

We will truly praise the name of the Lord who has given us all these blessings. These praises will not be present due to any inspiration from other friends or fellow Christians, but out of gratitude to the Lord who has made us stand up in front of everybody else as successful over comers. We would attain a state where there is no shame at all.

Conclusion:

We should also acknowledge that our previous state was shameful. The devil and the world around us were mocking us because of our failures. Now, when Christ arrived to our lives, we stand up as successful men or women.

Only on receipt of these signs and wonders, we go next to a state of prophesying, dreaming and getting visions. Those are really good. But first, we need to experience all these signs of success to ensure that we are really saved.