One Passion
Our hearts as beloved sons and beloved daughters desire one thing. Our one thing is intimacy with Jesus. Intimacy is not a one-time event then you move on to the next step. It is a moment by moment each day loving Him and being loved by Him. This produces life and life more abundant on earth as it is in heaven.
In order to have a beautiful, lasting marriage you must be intentional about your relationship with your spouse. It is the same as with our relationship with Jesus. When you value something, you take care of it. The fruit of our intimacy with Jesus shows up in our daily lives for others to see. We like to call it public displays of affection. What does this look like for others to see the results of our secret place with Jesus? Every step we take, every word we speak, every response we have should display Jesus.
This can seem impossible when we look at our daily lives and think, well in this moment I did not respond to my husband correctly or I didn’t really listen to what my wife had to say. I yelled at my children. I fussed at the person driving slow in the left lane. I was impatient in the grocery store. Truth is we cannot reveal the real Yeshua to the world without the help of the Holy Spirit, but with Him all things are possible.
As the Holy Spirit reveals Yeshua to us, we must remember He is the exact image of the Father. It is so important for us to understand and know the real image of the Father. How do we know this to be true? Let’s look at John 14. “Jesus explained, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life. No one comes next to the Father except through union with me. To know me is to know my Father too. And from now on you will realize that you have seen him and experienced him.” Philip spoke up, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be all that we need!” Jesus replied, “Philip, I’ve been with you all this time and you still don’t know who I am? How could you ask me to show you the Father, for anyone who has looked at me has seen the Father. Don’t you believe that the Father is living in me and that I am living in the Father? Even my words are not my own but come from my Father, for he lives in me and performs his miracles of power through me. Believe that I live as one with my Father and that my Father lives as one with me”
Yeshua goes on to say: “I tell you this timeless truth: The person who follows me in faith, believing in me, will do the same mighty miracles that I do—even greater miracles than these because I go to be with my Father! When Yeshua goes to be with the Father He sends the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. He gives us the grace to do everything He asks of us. One of those asks is to display Yeshua to those who do not know Him.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “I want you to pattern your lives after me, just as I pattern mine after Christ.” What was Paul’s pattern? We find this in Philippians 3.
“To truly know him meant letting go of everything from my past and throwing all my boasting on the garbage heap. It’s all like a pile of manure to me now, so that I may be enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ and embrace him as Lord in all of his greatness.
My passion is to be consumed with him and not cling to my own “righteousness” based in keeping the written Law. My only “righteousness” will be his, based on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ—the very righteousness that comes from God. And I continually long to know the wonders of Jesus and to experience the overflowing power of his resurrection working in me. I will be one with him in his sufferings and become like him in his death. Only then will I be able to experience complete oneness with him in his resurrection from the realm of death.
I admit that I haven’t yet acquired the absolute fullness that I’m pursuing, but I run with passion into his abundance so that I may reach the purpose for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me to make me his own. I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. I run straight for the divine invitation of reaching the heavenly goal and gaining the victory-prize through the anointing of Jesus. So let all who are fully mature have this same passion, and if anyone is not yet gripped by these desires, God will reveal it to them. And let us all advance together to reach this victory-prize, following one path with one passion.
My beloved friends, imitate my walk with God and follow all those who walk according to the way of life we modeled before you.”
This victory-prize is to be the image of Yeshua who displays the image of our Abba on earth just as they are displayed in heaven. We must be gripped with this one passion just as Paul was.
