Sharing His Seat预览

The Shining Place

Since the beginning of time, God was always in the business of revealing Himself to us. Whether it be through creation, power, miracles, or even His presence in the lives of people, He was always in the business of revealing Himself. At the beginning of the New Testament, we find a book called John. And John described Jesus as the Word of God that came from God and that existed with God at the beginning of time. Jesus came from the Father and dwelt amongst us so that He could reveal to us the glory of the Father. Meaning God used His Son to show us what He is like. If we wonder what God is like in nature, in action, in word, and conduct, we can have a look at Jesus, and our questions will be answered. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God (Col 1:15) and the exact expression of God’s nature (Hebrews 1:3).

So God used Jesus to show us what He is like, but since Jesus ascended to heaven and is now seated at the right hand of God… who or what is God using to display His nature now? The answer is found in 2 Corinthians 5:20. We are called the ambassadors of Christ. An ambassador is a representative of a higher authority. When we follow Jesus, we have a responsibility to represent Jesus to a lost and dying world. That would mean that if people look at us or listen to us, do they see Jesus? Do they hear Jesus? Or do they hear just another person going on about their own business?

You see, the effectiveness of our representation of Jesus is parallel with the measure of our surrender to Jesus. The level of your surrender will be the level of your representation. You cannot express the nature of a loving Father to someone if Jesus is not fully seated in your heart. The way we become effective ambassadors for Christ is through daily dying to self. Allowing the Holy Spirit to minister unto us so that we can become more Christ-like.

Jesus paid a price for us so that we can represent Him with our lifestyles. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 that the Father would reward us openly after we went into the secret place. What is the reward Jesus was referring to? It is the manifestation of Himself through us. We are called to be the light of the world. Jesus equips us so that we can be effective ambassadors for His Kingdom. Jesus leads us from the secret place to the shining place.

So let us shine our lights, for our time has come. The time has come for the sons of God to display their glory. The time has come for God’s Kingdom to advance. The time has come for Jesus to take His rightful throne upon our hearts. Jesus didn’t call us to tithe part of our hearts. But to give the entirety of our hearts to Him.