Yesterday I asked how would you answer the question, "Have you had a personal experience of encountering Jesus?" Or, "Have you ever experienced something you can't explain except that it must have been a God thing?"
Knowing the Lord Jesus requires heaven's initiative if it is to be first hand. We can't get there on our own but JESUS gave us the means to encounter Him everyday.
INITIATIVE is the key word to the encounter. We must understand that His love is so great He is waiting for us. He wants to share His presence. He wants to give us every good and perfect gift. He wants to embrace us. He wants to make His glory real to us. He holds nothing back. I'm not making this up.
First a quick study to see how important "initiative" was to Jesus in John's Gospel. The Father's initiative is what framed and shaped all that JESUS did and said. His entire message, ministry and message was given to Him or heaven initiated. Read each one and see how powerful initiative was in Jesus life. Then tomorrow we will talk about how important this is to us.
So Jesus answered them, "I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. John 5:19
I can do nothing on my own initiative. John 5:30
Then Jesus, while teaching in the temple courts, cried out, "You both know me and know where I come from! And I have not come on my own initiative, but the one who sent me is true. John7:28
Then Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak just what the Father taught me. John 8:28
Jesus replied, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here. I have not come on my own initiative, but he sent me. John 8:42
51Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. John 11:51-52
For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. John 12:49
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds. John 14:10
DRAMA: The previous 8 references disclose that the means of Jesus' mission and message. His words and actions were initiated by the Father. Then He said to the disciples and to us:
12"I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and
He will disclose to you what is to come. 14"He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. John 16:12-14
How will He do this? When did He say this? Come back tomorrow to see what He is doing to initiate His presence in our lives.
He loved you first. He pulled back the veil of our blindness.
Knowing the Lord Jesus requires heaven's initiative if it is to be first hand. We can't get there on our own but JESUS gave us the means to encounter Him everyday.
INITIATIVE is the key word to the encounter. We must understand that His love is so great He is waiting for us. He wants to share His presence. He wants to give us every good and perfect gift. He wants to embrace us. He wants to make His glory real to us. He holds nothing back. I'm not making this up.
First a quick study to see how important "initiative" was to Jesus in John's Gospel. The Father's initiative is what framed and shaped all that JESUS did and said. His entire message, ministry and message was given to Him or heaven initiated. Read each one and see how powerful initiative was in Jesus life. Then tomorrow we will talk about how important this is to us.
So Jesus answered them, "I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. John 5:19
I can do nothing on my own initiative. John 5:30
Then Jesus, while teaching in the temple courts, cried out, "You both know me and know where I come from! And I have not come on my own initiative, but the one who sent me is true. John7:28
Then Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak just what the Father taught me. John 8:28
Jesus replied, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come from God and am now here. I have not come on my own initiative, but he sent me. John 8:42
51Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. John 11:51-52
For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. John 12:49
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds. John 14:10
DRAMA: The previous 8 references disclose that the means of Jesus' mission and message. His words and actions were initiated by the Father. Then He said to the disciples and to us:
12"I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and
He will disclose to you what is to come. 14"He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. John 16:12-14
How will He do this? When did He say this? Come back tomorrow to see what He is doing to initiate His presence in our lives.
He loved you first. He pulled back the veil of our blindness.