Be Like Jesus //
In some circles this year has been declared the year of manifested love-that is Jesus Himself.
I was struck with this thought. I checked out that word manifest.
It means something that is clear, obvious to the eye. You could say that it is something there in physical reality that means there is no doubt who is present.
So Jesus Himself-love present for us. How do we incorporate this into our daily walk? Well a couple of years ago I read something in a book that hit me in the core of my being. Basically it said that most of the time when we see or are effected by a situation or we are praying for healing so often we are identifying with the wrong thing.
It is all about identity. He said we identify with the person or the illness or the problem when we pray.
What we should do is identify with Jesus and how He sees the issue because after all we are supposed to be like Him and He is in us. We are in Christ-in His manifested love.
I recall at the time I shared this with a good friend who has a long standing ministry in Asia. He replied and said that was exactly what he did at the start of his ministry. He spent a great deal of time reading the gospels and seeing what Jesus did. Then he determined to walk the same way and see it the way Jesus did.
Since then I have endeavoured to do the same. I realised that facing any situation or prayer need it is not just me. Jesus is there. Not just behind you or around you. He is in you. That means you can yield to the way He sees. You can act the way He acts. You can hear what the Father is saying just as He does.
A few months ago I shared the passage in 1 John 4 that as He is so are we in the world. That is so important to take in and believe and walk in the truth of.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1 and Ephesians 5:1 talks about imitating him as he imitates Christ. In other words follow the example of, copy the actions of, mimic, reproduce and be consciously like.
An impressionist makes money by mimicing celebrities or a famous person. They usually sound good until you hear the real thing.
That is not so with us because the real thing, Jesus, is in us. So if we determine to be like Him then we open up so that all that He is in reality will flow through us on a regular basis and we will have the same results and do the greater works that He promised we would.
Paul was so convinced of this that in Romans 15:29 he declares to the people of Rome that when he comes to see them he will come “in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ”
What a strong statement. Surely only Jesus Himself carries all that. Not so. Paul understood who he was and the secret to the power of God. After all he said. “it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me”
He has a faith that Christ is in him.
He knows that as Jesus is, so is he
He has given himself over entirely to the cause of Christ.
In that passage Paul says I am sure. He has a certainty about his place in Christ. So are you ready to stand up tall and be bold in who you are in Christ? Are you ready to be like Him, walk like Him and talk like Him?
If you are you will begin to see healings and miracles and kingdom breakthrough just as He did.
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