Jesus, right before He goes to the cross, tells His Father God about His deepest desire. He tells Him, in essence - Father, I am willing to give up My life. I am willing to die, but this is what I really want. This is My heart’s cry. This is MY DESIRE—I want the ones that You have given Me as My inheritance to be WITH ME WHERE I AM. I want them to BEHOLD MY GLORY. I want them to see the LOVE that You have given Me and the love We share with each other. I want them to be surrounded in the circle of our love.

What is the true oneness that Jesus was talking about in this passage? Jesus had the same heart and motivations as His Father. As He spent time with the Father in the scriptures and in prayer while here on earth, more vision regarding His life was revealed to Him. Jesus was in human form showing us how to walk with the Father. 

We live in the world as believers, but we are not supposed to be OF the world. I am not just talking about being cross-cultural, weird, or "different," but walking in a level of holiness (separation) unto God.

Jesus is the ultimate Intercessor for us. Here, in His last minutes before His death, He was thinking about His disciples. He was praying for God the Father to keep them steadfast. He was praying that they would not be moved. He was declaring over them that He was going to KEEP them through His name.

It is a miracle that we believe. It is a miracle that the disciples or the “men whom You have given Me out the world” that Jesus is praying for in John 17, believed that Jesus was sent from the Father and they received His words.

Everything throughout the Word of God is about to climax here with this one phrase – Glorify Your Son. From the time of Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden, God had a plan to redeem the earth. The plan was called JESUS. The end of the story in the book of Revelation centers around the angels, the Redeemed, and the four living creatures worshipping one person – JESUS.

Throughout the stormy centuries, for the Christian Church, the tension has remained—to be in the world but not of it. Jesus knew this.

Jesus did not pray that you and I would somehow find a way to escape this world, with all its troubles and pain. He asked God to give us the wisdom and courage to live faithful to him in this world.

Being faithful in hard times isn’t easy. We must not let the world squeeze us into its mold. “Be not conformed,” Paul told the Christians living under brutal Roman reign. Instead, they must be transformed. How? Through the renewal of their minds. (Romans 12:1-2)

A Thank You letter to James Robison.

For those who do not know, James is the founder of The Stream, and Life Outreach International helps underwrite this important work of education and empowerment for the Body of Christ in this important moment in our nation’s history.

There is a cry that leaves our lips that brings salvation; then God becomes our shelter, our tabernacle, and our heritage.

Eternal life is not just eternal life for nothing. It has a purpose. The purpose is found in Psalm 61:8 “So I will sing praise to Your name forever, That I May daily perform my vows.”