Now Come With Me

The past few weeks we’ve been focusing on Jesus’ presence, abiding in Him, and passionately demonstrating His love for our spiritual brothers and sisters.

…in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
— Romans 4:17b ESV

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
— 1 John 3:23-24 ESV

His presence is Kingdom, and Kingdom is resurrection life and creative miracles saturated with divine love. Today we’re going to continue this conversation by looking at what Jesus says in John 14:30-31:

ESV — “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.”
NKJV — “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.”
NLT — “I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s be going.”
TPT — “I won’t speak with you much longer, for the ruler of this dark world is coming. But he has no power over me, for he has nothing to use against me. I am doing exactly what the Father destined for me to accomplish, so that the world will discover how much I love my Father. Now come with me.”

Take note of three things Jesus says:

The devil has nothing on or in Me.
I follow Father and the world sees love.
Now come with Me.

I. The Devil Has Nothing ON or IN Me

Satan, the adversary and accuser, has something on or in every person’s flesh. Like the mafia, he uses this against us. This is his power, the power of blackmail and extortion. He will use our flesh man to undermine and sabotage our Spirit man.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
— Romans 7:18-20 ESV

We’re like the character in a movie that really wants to do the right thing, but the bad guy knows about our past drug addiction and has evidence to use against us. Also, he was our drug dealer and he continues to wave that past drug in front of us and reinforce our old identity and lifestyle. Our accuser has put together blackmail files on all of us. What do we do in this seemingly hopeless conundrum? In Romans 7:24-25, Paul cries out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” And then he answers his question, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!“ Jesus saves us with grace upon grace.

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
— John 1:12-13,16 ESV

In John 3, Jesus talks about how we stay in the darkness because we don’t want our evil to be seen. But He came to be the Light. If we turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, we will receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus (Acts 26:18). If we’ll step into the light of His presence and humbly and repentantly live in the light, the dark files of our past no longer have power over us. In the Light is no deception, no secrets, and no more power of accusation and condemnation. The Light has overcome the darkness. By confessing to God and one another, we layout in the Light what the enemy has on us or in us, and then his power as the blackmailer is destroyed. His power is secrets, shame, and condemnation, but there is no condemnation in Jesus.

II. I Follow Father & the World Sees Love

Jesus is 100% Light. The dark ruler of this world has nothing on Jesus. Jesus stands alone as corruption free. The spiritual mafia has no dark file, no condemning collection of evidence to use against Him. Because of this, He cannot be swayed from doing exactly what He is suppose to be doing. He cannot be manipulated or bullied. And as Jesus follows Father, He demonstrates to the world what divine love looks like. The world that operates in the spirit of rebellion and antichrist hates this divine love relationship, because in it there is mercy, forgiveness, grace, freedom, light, life, and love. What Jesus receives from Father, He then gives to us.

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”
— John 5:19ESV

“For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
— John 12:49-50ESV

Jesus only does what He sees Father doing, and He only speaks what His Father tells Him. As He sees and hears Father, He repeats. Father’s commandment is watch, listen, repeat. Notice that His commandment is completely and only relational and within the context of Father and beloved child.

We need a paradigm shift on what the word “commandment” means. Does anyone remember the story about the faith of the centurion (Matthew 8, Luke 7)? Jesus commended the centurion because he understood how authority works, but the centurion’s paradigm was according to a military life. Though it contained aspects of truth, as a paradigm it was incomplete. Jesus says, “I know that His commandment is eternal life.” According to the heavenly and eternal life paradigm, “commandment” is within the context of life-giving love relationship. There is no surgical or robotic or legalistic coldness to it. Jesus says (John 15:15), “I no longer call you servants but friends.” Now “commandment” is within the context of friendship. There is no “commandment” outside of this trust relationship and therefore there is no obedience outside of this trust relationship. This is why everything not done from trust relationship with God is dead works. But to see, hear, and replicate in faith… This is eternal life!

III. Now Come With Me

“I won’t speak with you much longer, for the ruler of this dark world is coming. But he has no power over me, for he has nothing to use against me. I am doing exactly what the Father destined for me to accomplish, so that the world will discover how much I love my Father. Now come with me.”
— John 14:30-31 TPT

The enemy has no power over Jesus and has nothing to use against Him. He is able to live 100% according to His design as the One who sees, hears, and repeats Father, and He is able to perfectly demonstrate divine love. Finally, how does Jesus summarize His statement? “Now come with Me!” What is our response? Follow Jesus.

Last week we talked about the priority of presence (“The Love Abode”). Let’s look again at the interaction between Jesus and His first two disciples.

Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
— John 1:38-39 ESV

What did Jesus ask them? “What are you seeking?” What was their answer? “Where are you staying?” And He responded? “Come and you will see.”

“You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom.”
— Luke 22:28-29 ESV

We stay and He assigns. The Greek word here for “stay” is diamenó. The Greek word for “assign” is diatithémi. Both have the prefix “dia”. This means thoroughly or continuously. Diamenó means completely and continuously abide, reside, stay. Diatithémi means completely and continuously give or grant. We are those who completely and continuously stay with Jesus; and Jesus completely and continuously grants to us the Kingdom He received from Father God. Completely and continuously, we stay and He grants. His presence is Kingdom. Stay in His presence and receive the assigned Kingdom. Ministry is not a self-generated enterprise. Our ministry is our Kingdom assignment derived from Kingdom presence. Seek first the Kingdom and everything else will be provided (Matthew 6:33).

In His full presence, we receive grace upon grace —continuously flowing heavenly gifts and empowerment. If we will follow and remain with Jesus, we will walk in our divine design and our lives will demonstrate divine love. Also, the devil’s case against us and his blackmail files become powerless to sway us. We were darkness, but now we are light in the Lord. We walk as children of light, and the darkness has nothing on us or in us (Ephesians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:5).

When Saul had a vision of Jesus and became Paul, Jesus said to him (Acts 26:14), “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Goads are pointy sticks used to direct farm animals. When they resist direction, it hurts them. We are only hurting ourselves when we resist our calling. If we will simply seek His presence, the goad is unnecessary. In Psalm 32:8-9 (NKJV), God says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.” God doesn’t want to poke us, prod us, and pull us into our destiny. He wants our lives to be directed by constantly staring into His face. Our destiny is His presence. His presence is the Kingdom of Heaven. Seek first and foremost the Kingdom. I want to stay where He’s staying!

Today’s message is actually a continuation of last week. What is Jesus saying?

“Now come with Me. Come see where I’m staying and stay with Me. As you completely and continuously stay with Me (even through the extreme challenges), I will completely and continuously gift the Kingdom to you. As you come with Me, I will demonstrate divine love through you. And in Me, the accuser adversary will have nothing in or on you. And in Me, you will find grace upon grace —abundant and more than enough heavenly empowerment to walk in your true design and destiny. Now come with Me.”

Seeking His presence!
Matt