Jesus Christ enters into everything that it is to be human. He lived and still lives the exemplary Christian life-our experience is His as well! Every experience of doubt, fear, and heartbreak-He is there. He is with us at all times in all experiences-good or bad. We are at one, in union with Him. And amazingly, He is at the right hand of The Heavenly Father ever interceding for us!
9 I pray for them. I'm not praying for the God-rejecting world but for those you gave me, for they are yours by right. 10 Everything mine is yours, and yours mine, And my life is on display in them. 11 For I'm no longer going to be visible in the world; they’ll continue in the world while I return to you. Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life that you conferred as a gift through me, so they can be one heart and mind 12 as we are one heart and mind. As long as I was with them, I guarded them in the pursuit of the life you gave through me; I even posted a night watch. And not one of them got away, Except for the rebel bent on destruction (the exception that proved the rule of Scripture). 13 Now I'm returning to you. I'm saying these things in the world's hearing so my people can experience my joy completed in them. 14 I gave them your word; the godless world hated them because of it, because they didn't join the world's ways, 15 just as I didn't join the world's ways. I'm not asking that you take them out of the world But that you guard them from the Evil One. 16 They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world. 17 Make them holy - consecrated - with the truth; your word is consecrating truth. 18 In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. 19 I'm consecrating myself for their sakes so they'll be truth-consecrated in their mission. 20 I'm praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in me Because of them and their witness about me. 21 The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind - Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. 22 The same glory you gave me, I gave them, and so they'll be as unified and together as we are - 23 I in them and you in me. Then they'll be mature in this oneness, And give the godless world evidence that you've sent me and loved them in the same way you've loved me.
But He's entered into this human experience, not as a man only, but as very God, and has therefore carried into our circumstances with Him, His loving, intimate union with the Father and the Spirit. What He has shown humanity is that, in those moments and times when we feel that God *must*, in fact, be horrifyingly absent, He's near! For a true human - Jesus Himself - has entered into human darkness while never experiencing a break in His union with His Father and the Spirit.
But beyond just giving us an example, and beyond just showing us what is possible, He has given to us that which belongs to Him. He has not simply been baptized into human darkness and shown us what we can have if we'd only allow ourselves to be enlightened. No, He has come into our darkness bearing gifts - His very own person and experience! Everything He is and has, He has given to us!
“10 But although the world was made through him, the world didn't recognize him when he came. 11 Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:10-12, NLT)
And so, in truth, we do not merely have an invitation to experience God in the midst of our human experience, but have been given a gift, which is Jesus' and His very own experience of God. We truly do not have a personal relationship with God. But Jesus' imparts His relationship with God to us and we share/live His very life by faith!
"20 I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20, NLT)
What is His is yours.”As it is with Him, so it is with us.” Let this spiritual dynamic take you places you never could dream of going!
Therefore, since we see Jesus, as a man, standing amidst the shadows that haunt humanity, all the while being completely unhindered in His union with Father and Spirit, we can be sure that this experience is ours as well, whether we know it or not, May we faith His life and stop faking His life! Ron Ross
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