Jesus in me the hope of glory!

Through the New Testament we can watch Jesus, hear Him, see Him healing, commanding; power is released from Him to restore and make whole, to bring order.

Matthew 8:3 establishes a principle of Jesus’ actions; Jesus says, “I am willing (to heal you). And He states, “I will come (to heal your servant because you have asked) (Matthew 8:7).

We learn more about Jesus through the centurion’s comments; “You only need to speak a word, Jesus, and my servant will be healed. You are a Man of authority and when You command, that thing that You have said, must obey. I know because I also have authority with soldiers under me” (Matthew 8:8,9).

We learn more about Jesus’ ability. He commands and what He commands obeys. “You (Jesus) cast out spirits with a word…” (Matthew 8:16). He also commanded His disciples to get into a boat and go to the other side. But in the midst of traveling a great storm arose on the sea. The disciples were fearful. They apparently had forgotten the quality of the Man they were with. Upon awakening Jesus in fear, He spoke to the storm, “rebuked it” and “there was great calm” (Matthew 8:6). Jesus commanded something to occur, and upon that original command to go to the other side, nothing could stop it; Jesus had spoken!

As we learn about Jesus’ character and His ability, we also learn something about ourselves because we possess His Spirit (Galatians 4:6), because we are one with Him (Colossians 2:10; Ephesians 2:5). As born-again children of God, we are now just like Jesus (1 John 4:17). Knowing these things helps us to know our sufficiency in Christ and our capability in Him.

Being one with Jesus means we are one with the Father (John 17:22). It was the Father in Jesus that performed the miracles and deeds of power (John 14:10). The Father loves us just like He loves Jesus (John 17:23). Anything that we ask in Jesus’ name He will do (John 14:13,14). Paul writes, “He Who did not withhold or spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, will He not with Him freely and graciously give us all other things” (Romans 8:32)?

We are equipped to be just like Jesus now, in this world (1 John 4:17)! We possess His divine nature through the knowledge of Him (2 Peter 1:4). We should not be timid but bold in Him. At the same time we must be humble, as it is the Lord living in us, one with our spirit, that causes us to be sufficient in Him (Philippians 4:13). Our strength and ability come from Him. Being humble allows us to recognize Jesus as Lord and causes us to experience the privilege of His life at work in us and through us.

Our challenge is to come to full knowledge of Jesus, who is the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3), that is progressively come to know Him more intimately (Colossians 2:2; Ephesians 1:18,19; Philippians 3:8,10). Jesus Christ is not a philosophy, He is Messiah, Lord, Son of God. We come to know His person. As Paul said, “Yet indeed I also count all things as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I am gain (win) Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Our goal should be to “run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

As we progressively come to know Jesus, we come to know His great grace by which we are made pure and holy children of God. Little by little, through this intimate knowledge, we are changed outwardly into His true nature which already exists in our spirit. The divine fullness of His life is within each born-again child. By His ability we are able to live in this natural world with His glorious nature on full display. So, when you see Jesus, you see yourself, as you really are in the spirit. You see the possibilities of what it means to live in His fullness now!