Even so come Lord Jesus, even so. Jesus Christ is not a babe in the manger anymore, neither is He a broken man on the cross, but He is the Risen King, the Lord of Lords. He is the One who sits on the throne of glory in the heavens.
We no longer know Jesus after the flesh but after the Spirit. We are now new creations who are refashioned and renewed in Christ. We belong to God and we are now ambassadors for Christ with the word of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:14-21). We no longer belong to ourselves, we are now alive in Christ Jesus through the grace and kindness of God that cannot be taken in vain. God will separate us from ourselves so that His plans and purposes cannot be hindered.
God has heard us, He has accepted us and now His salvation has come (2 Corinthians 6:1-10). Now is the day of salvation where we do not make stumbling blocks for people, that our ministry may not be blamed. Trials, tribulations and persecutions are all signs of an ambassador’s calling, our calling (2 Corinthians 6:4-10). This is what we do for God, not for ourselves but for Him so that in all things, He might have the pre-eminence (Colossians 1:18).
Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, to Him whom man despises, to Him whom the nation abhors, to the Servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship, because of the Lord who is faithful, The Holy One of Israel; and He has chosen You.” 8 Thus says the Lord: “In an acceptable time I have heard You, and in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You as a covenant to the people, to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages; 9 That You may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ Isaiah 49:7-9
We have full access to God. When we call on Him, He will hear us. Now is the time when He will help us but the true help is the fulfilling of our purpose in reconciling men back to God and in helping others. We are joints-heirs with Christ in His work. Jesus is still building and we must be co-workers with Him. We need to get off of our selfish thrones and get busy and be the ambassadors that Christ has called us to be. Jesus had a destiny to fulfil. We too have a destiny as ambassadors to live for others.
Jesus is holding up the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20). We are that foundation. We are given as a covenant to the people to be doors and entry points to the kingdom. We are living epistles, we are living stones. We are the answer. We must point people to Jesus and not to ourselves (Isaiah 2:2). We must come to a place of intimacy with Jesus where we encounter Him. When we encounter Jesus, there will be an inward and an outward transformation where we will then be able to point others to Him.
12 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. 13 And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it. Mark 11:12-14
We don’t have all the answers and we can’t fix everything. In Mark 11, Jesus cursed the fig tree and declared that no one should eat from it ever again. When Adam and Eve fell, they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves (Genesis 3:6-8). These fig leaves represent our works. Jesus will always curse our works where we try to fix everything in our own strength. He is not only the Prince of Peace but He is the sword. Jesus is the only One who can fix things and He is the only One who is keeping us (John 17:15). When we encounter Him, the fig leaves begin to drop off. We must sacrifice time to spend with Jesus. When we spend time with Jesus, we wouldn’t have a problem with identity.
As ambassadors for Christ, we are called to:
– restore the earth
Creation is in frustration because of the lack of leadership. The earth is shaking and grumbling. It needs sons to lead and bring forth light into the earth. We must abide in Jesus just as He abided in His Father. Jesus knew who He was. He is the Son, the first born of many sons. We are those sons and we have the authority to speak to mountains and make them move. We were created to have dominion over the earth not for the earth to have dominion over us.
– bring back our heritage
After Peter’s denial, Jesus still asked him to feed His sheep (John 21:15-19). Jesus came to Peter as an agent of reconciliation. God works in present future and not in present past. He will not allow our past to negatively affect our future. God will never reject or forsake us. When He sees us, He sees His Son, Jesus Christ broken on the cross. God will reassign us and not reject us. He saw Peter’s purpose and future. He saw when he would be preaching the gospel to thousands of people. If we function in our purpose, we will see breakthrough in our very own lives. We must do what we are called to do then everything else will fall into place. God will work in our midst if we work with Jesus.
– say to the prisoners, ‘Go Forth’ and to those in darkness, ‘Show Yourselves’
There will be a release of prisoners and those in darkness. We are called to speak to our families and children with the love of Christ and not with condemnation. We are called to give words of encouragement and to plant a seed in their hearts that brings forth potential, blessings and not curses. We are called to bring out the potential in others through our very way of living. We may be dark but we are lovely and God can use us to change the world.
I am dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. Song of Solomon 1:5
