Receive & Practice

Philip.4:⁹ “Practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and model your way of living on it, and the God of peace (of untroubled, undisturbed well-being) will be with you.” (AMPC)

John 1:²⁹ “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (NRSV, emphasis added). The Lamb of God that takes away, that cleanses the sins of the world. Cleansing is part of the package delivered to us by Jesus. David prophesying in Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (NKJV). In other words, Jesus took sin so far away, it cannot return. Honestly, if you look at the work of Jesus on the cross of Calvary, there is nothing else to give your life to really – nothing else! Heb.10:⁴ “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” 1 John 4:¹⁰ “In this love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

In John 1:35-42 (please read), John the son of Salome lets us know that Jesus had spent time with the men who later became His disciples before He called them. The account of the call of the disciples that we see in Matt.4:8-22, Mark 1:14-20, and Luke 5:1-11 (please read) is the classic call; Jesus prayed overnight and then went out to call the disciples. You would think that Jesus was just walking on the road, saw some people, and said to them, “follow Me.” However, John gives us perspective, that Jesus had already met these men and built a relationship with them. Jesus had watched them for a while and then He prayed about them. It was after He had known and built a relationship with them, watched them, and prayed about them that He went to look for them at their workstations and said, “Follow Me and I will make you…”

Imagine you are Peter and a stranger walks up to you and says, “Give me your boat” will you give him your boat? Jesus used Peter’s boat and then said to him, ‘follow Me’. It is John the son of Salome that gives us the missing link; that Jesus already built a relationship with these men before they became His disciples. Peter was Andrew’s brother, Andrew brought Peter to Jesus and Philip called Nathanael. All this happened before Jesus Himself called them. Why is it important to know that Jesus already had a relationship with these men before He called them? Paul says to Timothy in 1 Tim. 5:²² (KJV) “Lay hands suddenly on no man….”

I am pretty slow to commit myself to people, really slow. I am very fast at doing many things but when it comes to appointing leaders, I am very, very slow. When God’s Favourite House started, for over a year there were no Pastors or Ministers. You can relate this to every area of life; in business, in life generally, before you yoke with people be slow. Jesus took His time; He hung around them first, saw them in their natural state. Jesus saw them and knew them before He engaged them and that is big!  “Lay hands suddenly on no man…”.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me not to be reckless with my life because of the price You paid for me and the pattern You laid out for me, in Jesus Name. Amen!