The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord Is Upon You!
John 17: 14-18 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
In the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John, we see Jesus praying to the Father on behalf of His disciples. In a very personal and poignant moment we see Christ earnestly interceding as we ought to for those who we hold dear in this life. Our key verses today come from the closing of this prayer and reveal some important facts we need to remember as we advance in our walk with God.
Verse 14 states that Christ has given us His Word and that
the world has hated us for it. While this prayer was specifically for the
disciples the principle holds true for us today as well. As Christians we are
not supposed to be of this world anymore. Sometimes during our walk, we can
lose sight of the fact that we are in a battle. There is the
Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. - 2Corinthians 4: 4 (NLT)
It can often become too easy to go to extremes as Christians. We can decide that because the world is so evil, we can have nothing to do with it. We create a Christian bubble to live in. We send our kids to Christian schools, we shop at Christian stores, our mechanic is Christian, our accountant is Christian we walk through this life holding the key to salvation around our neck and never bother to show anyone! This verse from Second Corinthians shows us that the enemy has blinded the minds of those in the world. They do not understand the Gospel:
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 1Corinthians 2: 14 (NIV)
To people in the Kingdom of this world, the things of God are foolishness to them. It never ceases to amaze me when Christians become so offended when the world behaves as the world tends to behave. They are walking in complete darkness beloved. Yet light always can penetrate darkness, as Jesus taught:
