International House of Prayer : A Matchless Embrace

In his priestly prayer (John 17), Jesus says, "Father I want the church to be one as you and I are one." This isn’t just unity in gathering, He is defining the quality of relationship that the church is to have to God and to one another. In other words, just as Jesus is one with the Father and fully manifests the Father’s presence, his nature, and his ways, the church is to have union with the Father and the Son in the same way that manifests the fullness of God’s name and his ways on the earth. Bringing the Church into maturity.

John 17:24 Jesus lays out a primary principle that we must understand; he desires a companion.

“Father, I desire that those who you have given me may be with me where I am.” We have to deeply understand and experience this reality in our lives. This is very easy to teach, but to live it, to experience it, to apprehend it, to give yourself to a deep pursuit of this truth in your life is a whole other thing.

We are all sons of the living God, no matter male or female, its not gender specific. It’s a title given to the children of God to define our positional authority in the kingdom of God. So that male and female alike, we’re all sons of God because we’re co-heirs with Christ. We’re seated at the right hand of God with Christ. This reality is a positional authority given by our Heavenly Father and thus explains what kind of relationship Jesus was desiring.

But, the language of companionship or the title the Bride of Christ is mainly defining our relational quality. We’re not just sons taking orders or exercising authority. Our relationship with God is defined through longing, love and companionship. I love my sons but I’m joined to my wife; the quality of relationship is different. The bridal paradigm, or the bride of Christ title is not gender specific either. You women, you get to be the sons of God and us men, we get to be the Bride of Christ. They are defining different nuances in our relationship with the Lord. I say this, because many men struggle with the language of the "Bride of Christ". Many men may have a problem envisioning themselves wearing a wedding dress, and that's a good thing... they shouldn't be wearing one.

When I meet Jesus face to face we will embrace eachother, not slow dance. It’s not about a certain expression of romance, it’s about the quality of love. It’s the quality of our companionship. Yes, he’s my brother and my king but he is also my companion at a heart level that is deep. Begin to walk in love the way Jesus did, "...as the Father loved me, I have also loved you."

Can you imagine how much the Father loves Jesus? In fact, John 5 says the Father loves Jesus and shows him all things. Can you imagine, it says that Jesus loves us with the same intensity that his Father loves him. This is a great mystery.

The majority of the time we struggle with loving ourselves. Does Jesus then struggle in loving us? But, "...as the Father loved me, I have also loved you." God's love is perfect. He doesn't struggle to love Jesus, does he? No. There is no great effort for God to love his beloved son Jesus, and the same way Jesus loves us. Why then do we face the great battle of questioning the perfect love of God? It is perfect.

John 17:23 states that “I in them and you in me,” speaking of the Father and the Son, “that they may be perfect in one, that the world may know that you have sent me. That the Father has loved them just as the Father loves Jesus.” It is Jesus' desire that we might understand this kind of love that the Father offers freely, that we may walk in the freedom of perfect love.

Now that is easily said, it’s another thing to believe it. Mediate on these realities. This revelation transforms our minds, our wills get empowered to live for righteousness and our emotional chemistry is changed. Suddenly, our minds are crisp, our wills are strengthened, and our hearts overflow in love, for him and one another. If we don’t understand the quality of our relationship with God we will be stunted in our growth as disciples of Christ. Our thinking will be twisted, our wills will be weak, and our emotions, our hearts will be locked up. We have to give ourselves to knowing this truth. Our identity is written on the pages of your Bible, that love letter from God to you.

Even now Jesus, show us by the Holy Spirit, that You love us just like the Father loves you. Show us, reveal it to our hearts. Father, show us by the Holy Spirit that you love us just like you love Jesus. Keep us from condemnation and fear and let us hear your voice telling us how wide, and long, and deep, and high is the love of God, for us. Amen

Allen Hood, 9/20/2007