10/02/2019
YOU ARE NOT JUST A SERVANT OF GOD
Date Published: February 10th, 2019
Publication of Kingdom Lifestyle International
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God (John 20:17).
Your ability to live successfully as a Christian is dependent on your understanding of the relationship that now exists between you and the Lord Jesus Christ. Our opening scripture above tells us how and when Jesus announced this all-important relationship. It was actually when Mary Magdalene identified the supposed gardener to be the resurrected Jesus and wanted to hug him. Jesus called out to her and asked her not to touch him for he had not yet ascended to the Father. Rather she should go and tell his brethren that he was ascending to his Father, their Father. Jesus here addressed his disciples as his brothers, and acknowledged his Father as their Father.
You could recall the incident that happened as recorded in the book of John 10:22-39 when the Jews wanted to stone Jesus because he addressed God as his Father to their hearing: ‘Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “you are gods”? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him who the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘you are blaspheming’. Because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? (John 10:34-36). All that came after the fall of Adam, including the Prophets, were regarded as the servants of God. But Jesus came as the begotten Son of the Father. A new level of relationship came into being following Jesus death and resurrection that brought his disciples into the same fatherhood with him.
Jesus gave an analogy of the relationship between him and the believers today using the relationship between the vine and its branches: ‘I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me’ (John 15:5 GNB). As the Vine and the branches have the same life so do we have the same life with Christ. Ephesians 5:30 says, ‘for we are members of his body’ (GNB).
Today, the God of heaven and earth has not only become our Father, but we have been made to share the same spirit and body with Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17, 15). We are not just representative of Jesus here on earth but we are one with him. Our heavenly Father has made us joint ownership of His estate (the world) with Christ (Romans 8:17). Your true knowledge of this all-important relationship will open your eyes to the rights and privileges you have in Christ as a believer. Understand the relationship you have with the Father and let this knowledge spur your faith into making legitimate demand of what is yours in Christ.
… He hath said … so that I may boldly say… Heb. 13:5-6
Confess in prayer what His word has ministered to your spirit.
