Luke records the first words of Jesus, when he was a boy sitting in the temple of Jerusalem. His Mom & Dad had been searching for him for three, panic-filled, worried-parents days. When they asked him why he did this to them – why he disappeared and made them search all over creation for him – he answers, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
Interesting. That his first words reveal the spiritual unity of Father and Son….never separated, always one. He was already, as a boy of about age 13, entirely given to His Papa in heaven.
This is the way Jesus and you and I are: never separated, always one.
This is the way lovers are.
If you have ever been in love on this earth, remember those first days when you couldn’t think about anything else but this precious person whom you loved, loved, loved! You were captivated, absolutely, by his (or her) face, his voice, his smile, his words, his talents, his mystery. You wanted to be with him every possible moment of the day!
That’s how Jesus is toward us. Every single moment of eternity. He is always in love, always adoring us with passionate affection. Jesus can’t take His eyes off of you. Of me. He is smitten with us! Each one!
It’s our hearts that need to catch up to the reality, the truth that HE adores and is infatuated with us. That he is thrilled to spend time with us.
God is the universe maker. He’s also the Supreme Lover. He’s both. He’s so big, he can be both. He loves you perfectly intimately while he’s also having private audience with every other believer, all at the same time, and while he’s running the universe.
We feel we’re the most special, most loved one, we feel completely adored, like we’re his favorite. And everybody else feels that way too.
That’s just the way it should be. We are all ‘the favorite’ one. His love isn’t like human love, where love is apportioned in limited measure. His love is always full, 100% and always given completely and freely to every single person.
I come back to Holy Spirit again (as in previous blogs). He’s the bridge. He’s the one who gives us this knowledge, who draws our hearts into Jesus. He’s our ability to meet Jesus, He’s the firewall that protects our hearts from wandering. Holy Spirit is our love-connection to Jesus and our ability to love: 1 John 4:13 – “We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”
Come, Holy Spirit. Fill us! In the same way you baptized Jesus (Luke 3:22), baptize us (Luke 3:17).
The body of Jesus needs a new baptism of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit baptisms occurred more than once in the NT church, so don’t think He only fills once: He comes and fills again and again, more and more.
Jesus’ oneness with the Father, that I spoke about at the beginning of this blog, is what Jesus desires for us. He prays to this to the Father:
“I pray…that…just as you are in me and I am in you…may they (believers) also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21)
The Holy Spirit fills us: He’s the one who brings us to be IN Jesus and IN the Father. Holy Spirit is THEM in us.
That’s when the world will believe.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with Lover God! Fill us with Trinity!
Fill us, possess our beings with love! One at a time, and all together.
Take us into intimate union with Jesus, with Father.
