I Want to See Jesus

We need a movie that demonstrates to the world how much some people want to see Jesus. Maybe a story about the rich man that was willing to humiliate himself so much, that he climbed up in a tree beside a busy road. He sat in the tree for a long time just hoping for a glimpse of the popular and powerful Man who came from God. It would be terrific if the people of this country wanted to see Jesus as desperately as did this man, Zacchaeus. The purpose of Christianity is the removal of the ways of the world from a person’s life and to replace them with the ways of God. The only way this will ever happen is for an individual to have the desire to see Jesus become real in their own life. This can be understood once we realize that Jesus is the only bridge between God and humans. There are many other reasons to love Jesus but we must begin by understanding that there is no other way to live eternally with God.

Although Jesus left this world 2000 years ago and returned to heaven there is still a wonderful way that we can see Him. Jesus explained it to His disciples on the night before his death. If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. John 14:15-17 (NLT) Because the Spirit of Jesus can now move into our soul and stay with us forever, the ability to see Jesus spiritually will be the result. After we are born-again we visualize Jesus only faintly. As the years of learning about Him go past, we see Him more clearly. Learning his behaviors will even begin to make us look more like Him. Paul said; Since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Romans 6:8-9 “Since we died with Christ” is the way Paul says to remove the ways of the world from our Christian life. Of course, “we live with Him” means that our new life will have the ways of God in it because of the Spirit of Jesus.

Our desire to see Jesus will cause us to invite the Spirit daily to teach us about His ways. During the last talk of His life, the Savior said; I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. John 14:25-26 (NLT) This translation uses the word “Advocate” but the original language says "Encourager". A real good teacher is one who encourages his students. Some people seem to think that the teachings of God are harsh but they are mistaken. When we get to know the Savior and the reason for our lessons they will look different to us. Everything the Spirit brings into us is straight from Jesus Christ our Savior because it is His Spirit. This is why Jesus looks more and more real to a dedicated Christian. How amazing it is to know that Jesus is in us when we wake up in the morning and He is in us when we lay down at night. It is not difficult to live for Jesus when we are aware of His presence every minute of the day.

Truth is very valuable but in this world it is very rare. Because Jesus is the truth of God we will certainly never see our Savior until we understand the truth. This next verse says that the encourager is the Spirit of truth. The spirit of Jesus would need to be the Spirit of Truth.  But I will send you the Advocate —the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me (Jesus). John 15:26 (NLT) The Spirit has many other jobs here on earth but God sent Him with this one new job. Living inside of a human 24/7 was never done before Jesus returned as Savior to His throne in Heaven. Our Creator had determined that humans on their own could not stand up to the Devil’s tricks. Adam and Eve had failed and so does every person born since. There is no way that God can be understood until we accept that He is three persons in perfect agreement about everything. Jesus taught that He was completely in the Father and that also that we are to be perfectly in Jesus. This is why the Holy Spirit is so important to us. What a privilege it is to allow God into our life.

The world uses the word possessed in a negative way. Although the Devil has ruined this word like so many other things, it still has a meaning that allows it to be used in a positive way. Humans can have a powerful feeling about something and continue to maintain control over themselves. This is how the Spirit of Jesus possesses us. We allow God to bring His powerful influence for righteousness into us but the control of our actions is our responsibility. God never takes away our responsibility for the actions of our life. Here is the description of the new job given to the Holy Spirit. But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. John 16:7-8 (NLT) To accomplish these three things the Spirit has been placed into Christians. It seems frustrating to us when we must accomplish a task through other people because they have a mind of their own. However, the Spirit has been asked to tell people about these three things through Christians.

The point is that Christians have the privilege to be part of God’s work on earth. Maybe if we understood this we would behave differently. In other words we use the influence of the Spirit to inspire us into activities for Jesus. Jesus did say that we would do the same things that He did while on earth. When other people ask about the motivation for our life we can respond by saying the righteous power of God causes us work and the result is our hope for eternity. When we are convinced that Jesus is the only way into Heaven and His Spirit is the inspiration of our life, He becomes real to us. This happens when we really want to see Jesus. Praise God.