Monday, July 31, 2017

Morning by Morning, July 31 - "Think On These Things"
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I turn my eyes upon You, as I still my soul and listen for Your voice.  ...
 
I believe I hear You saying in my heart:  "Think on these things" (Philippians 4:8 KJV).
 
Yes, Lord. I can't choose the certainty of all my circumstances or predetermine the parameters of all my challenges, but I can choose -- by the power of Your grace -- the focus of my thoughts. And Your Word encourages me to think on the good things, to focus a little more on the best things, on the things that help me look up instead of down, to look forward instead of backward, and to start off my day on the right path, with my best foot forward, with a good attitude and a healthy perspective:  "Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.... Then the God of peace will be with you" (Philippians 4:8 NLT).
 
There will be plenty of time to deal with the daily stuff, but right now I'm going to take a little time with the Holy Spirit. I can gird up and go out into battle in a minute, but right now I'm going to settle in for some quiet time in the communion of prayer, centered in You, and surrounded in Your Presence. I'm going to open up my spirit and lift up my heart and welcome You into every thought in my mind, every desire in my heart, and every moment in my day.
 
I'm going to think on You and all You've done for me. I'm going to think on Your love for me, Your power within me, Your plans before me, and Your grace to sustain me through whatever comes. And then, when I have to start thinking about all the other things that will become a part of my life today, I'll not forget these good and precious things that You've sealed in my heart, here at the start of my day. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays



I pray the Lord will fill your mind an your heart on the good things of God in your life, as you begin your day, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 
       
  


Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Friday, July 28, 2017

Morning by Morning, July 28 - Love and Obedience
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I speak out Your name and listen for Your voice.  ...
 
"If you love Me, obey My commandments.... All who love Me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and We will come and make Our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn't love Me will not obey Me. And remember, My words are not My own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent Me. I am telling you these things now while I am with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as My Representative -- that is, the Holy Spirit -- He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you" (John 14:15-26 NLT).
 
Does loving You also include obeying You? Or does loving You only include receiving Your mercy and grace and the freedom to do what seems right in my own eyes to follow the leading of my own heart in the logic of my own reasoning? Will Your Holy Spirit lead me in love without leading me in obedience? ...
 
I sense there is something You want me to hear about love and obedience.  ...
 
It seems I hear You speaking in my spirit:  "My son, your desire to obey Me is a mark of your desire to love Me. It's a matter of the nature of faith -- faith that trusts Me to know and to desire what's best for you. To love Me is to trust Me, and to trust Me is to obey Me. This is the nature of love and obedience I want you to come to understand. Seeking to love Me without the desire to obey Me is loving some idea of Me that is crafted by human minds, not by My sovereign will."
 
Yes, Lord. Help me understand this more deeply. Help me test what seem to be Your spoken words against Your written Word. "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples. As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. I have said these things to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete" (John 15:8-11).
 
There is a connection between love and obedience, between living in faith that trusts You and Your Word and the complete joy we're created to experience in our loving relationship with You and one another.
 
A Scripture that comes to mind now is from Galatians 5:3-6:  "For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love." And this:  "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.... those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:13-21).
 
Truly loving You will lead me to seek to obey You because I trust You. And You've given me Your Spirit who is at work in me, changing my heart to love You more, trust You more, obey You more, and become more like You every day (Romans 8:29).  "For God is working in (me), giving (me) the desire and the power to do what pleases Him" (Philippians 2:13 NLT). As the old song says, help me "trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey." In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays


I pray your joy will be made complete as you grow in the desire to love and obey the Lord our God in ever-increasing, trusting faith in Him, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 
       
  


Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Thursday, July 27, 2017

Morning by Morning, July 27 - Growing Faith, Increasing Love
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Help me begin my day in the deep communion of prayer -- embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit.  ...
 
"We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of everyone of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering" (2 Thessalonians 1:3-5).
 
With growing faith and increasing love, we can endure all things by the power of Your grace. We shouldn't think it strange or get stuck in self-pity or confusion when we experience persecutions, afflictions, and suffering for Your sake. But rather, we should embrace Your Presence as You bring us through every challenge as an opportunity for You to increase our steadfastness and faith, making us "worthy of the kingdom of God." 
 
As Your Word encourages us, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when His glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.... Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name.... Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God's will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good" (1 Peter 4:12-19).
 
There's suffering that comes from choosing to stand firm in Your truth by Your Spirit. There's often mockery, ridicule, judgment, and resentment. Somehow it even gets turned around that we are the "haters" who love You, Your Word, Your truth, and Your Spirit. Somehow it gets turned around that the ones seeking to be changed and transformed into the image of God in accordance with Your plan and Your power for every one of us are wicked and cruel because we're not willing for things to just remain the same when there's the power of Your grace to be changed. And somehow it gets turned around that seeking to live in trusting submission to the authority of Your Scripture and the conviction of Your Spirit is self-righteous, arrogant, and mean-spirited instead of seeking to be humble, faithful, and true disciples of Jesus Christ sent to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
 
As You prophesied long ago:  "Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight! Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant at mixing drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights!" (Isaiah 5:20-23)  Yet, You said, as the very Personification of love and faith, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.... Those who love Me will keep My word, and My Father will love them, and We will come to them and make Our home with them. Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words" (John 14:15-24).
 
You saw it all coming. You are not surprised at this turn of events. And you don't want us to be surprised either. 
 
By the power of Your grace -- growing our faith and increasing our love -- Your Word continues to encourage us:  "But you, beloved, must remember the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; for they said to you, 'In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.' It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who are wavering; save others by snatching them out of the fire; and have mercy on others with fear, hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies. Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of His glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever!" In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays


I pray you continue to grow boldly in your love and your faith, as the kingdom of God advances mightily in you and through you, growing up to maturity, steadfast in obedience, through every struggle and overcoming every challenge, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

       
  


Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Morning by Morning, July 26 - "Where Righteousness is at Home"
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Speak to my heart, Lord -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- as I listen for the leading of Your voice to begin my day in the communion of prayer with You.  ...
 
"In accordance with His promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by Him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.... Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now to the day of eternity" (2 Peter 3:13-18).
 
One day -- at "the day of eternity" -- righteousness will be "at home" on this earth and throughout the heavens. You will set things right -- right with God, right with one another, right within ourselves. At the time You have ordained since before the foundation of the world, there will come a day of "the final restoration of all things" (Acts 3:21 NLT).
 
Between this day and that day, I want to have a heart that welcomes Your righteousness to be at home here in my heart. I want to grow in grace, grow in peace, grow in the knowledge and the nature of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I thank You for Your patience with me.
 
In my own nature, apart from Your nature at work within me, righteousness is not yet "at home." That part of my heart not yet sanctified and softened by Your Spirit, that part of my heart that still remains hardened to Your will and Your ways would like to tell righteousness to "Go take a hike." Like even the Apostle Paul confessed of the inner conflict in his own soul, "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.... For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.... For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members" (Romans 7:15-23).
 
But in humility, Paul acknowledged his daily condition; and in faith, Paul acknowledged his daily need of his Savior. "Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24-25). That's a prayer and proclamation that You answered in the power of Your grace for him every day. Living in the power of the grace of God every day, he encouraged us to rely upon You and Your righteousness to be at work in us:  "Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For it is God working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.... Hold firmly to the word of life" (Philippians 2:12-16 NLT).
 
Come, Holy Spirit. Every day, I need the mercy of my Father and the power of the blood of my Savior. Keep crucifying my flesh. Keep softening and sanctifying the hardness of my heart. Keep giving me the desire and the power to let You be at work within me until I come to the place "where righteousness is at home" in my heart. "For this is the will of God, (my) sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:3). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays


May righteousness be at home in your heart, as you allow the Holy Spirit to keep softening and sanctifying your heart every day in the power of the blood of Jesus, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

       
  


Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Morning by Morning, July 25 - "In the Days of His Flesh"
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I invite You into my thoughts and desires and every moment of my day.  ...
 
"In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the One who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered; and having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchilzedek" (Hebrews 5:7-10).
 
Though You are eternally, fully God, You are also eternally, fully Man. You are "the Son of God" -- in the nature of God; and You are "the Son of Man" -- in the nature of Man. Though You dwelled with the Father in the heavens in Your glory, You also chose to dwell with us on the earth in "the days of (Your) flesh" in Your humility. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14 NKJV). As Your Word explains, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with god as something to be exploited, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, begin born in human likeness. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death -- even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father" (Philippians 2:5-11).
 
"In the days of (Your) flesh," during those thirty-three years You walked this earth, You taught us Your ways as You lived out Your life before laying it down as a living Sacrifice on our behalf. You shouted and cried. You passionately prayed. You sought the mercy of God and yielded to the will of God. You modeled for us a life of joyful obedience and steadfast faith, even to the point of death on a cross. You trusted in the ultimate sovereignty and goodness of God, even as You "learned obedience though what (You) suffered" and You were "heard because of (Your) reverent submission." 
 
In the days of my flesh, give me the power of Your grace to live out my life that way as well. According to Your Word and in the mystery of faith, I am both a son of God and a son of man. "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are" (1 John 3:1). Help me grow in the graces of learning obedience, even through what I suffer, and the reverent submission that willingly, humbly chooses to yield my will to Your will and my ways to Your ways, trusting Your sovereignty and Your goodness. 
 
As You were in "the days of (Your) flesh," so are we to be in the days of our flesh in this world -- as best as we can and all by Your grace (1 John 4:17). "For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). "His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Thus He has given us, through these things, His precious and very great promises, so that through them (we) may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:3-4).  In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays



May you live out the days of your flesh in the power and grace of God, learning obedience and reverent submission, as you become a participant in His divine nature, being conformed into the image of the Son of God, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

       


Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Monday, July 24, 2017

Morning by Morning, July 24 - Eyes Lifted High

 Good morning, Lord Jesus. Be at the center of my heart and every moment of my day.  ... 

"So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.... He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee" (2 Corinthians 4:16-5:5). 

O Lord, my God -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Renew me day by day. Remind me every day to lift my eyes to the hills of Your heavens, where my help comes from (Psalm 121:1), to open the eyes of my heart to see You as You truly are (Ephesians 1:18), and to turn my eyes upon You to seek Your face with an unveiled face, as You continually change me into Your image from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). 

By the power of Your grace, I will not lose heart, but allow You to keep filling my heart with a deep sense of the ever-abiding presence of Your Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). And though I'll not be blind to the brokenness of the world around me with all of its very real problems and struggles, including those in my every day life, I'll also not be blind to "the eternal weight of glory beyond all measure" You've prepared me.  

May my eyes be lifted high. With my eyes on You and with my heart set on what You have set before me, I will "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). "To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens" and right here in my heart (Psalm 123:1). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays


May your eyes be lifted high to see with the eyes of your heart the One who has prepared an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure for you, in Jesus' name! May you be encouraged today, renewed day by day, in the power of His love for you and the peace of His eternal plans for you. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

      



Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Friday, July 21, 2017

Morning by Morning, July 21 - The "Victorious Right Hand" of God
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. In You, I seek to begin my day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with the Holy Spirit.  ...
 
"Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My victorious right hand!" (Isaiah 41:10)
 
The hand lifted high in the ultimate declaration of victory is also the hand that was nailed to the cross in the ultimate sacrifice of love (Colossians 2:13-15). The Lion of Judah who roars from the heavens is also the Lamb of God who was slain on this earth without a word. "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth" (Isaiah 53:9).
 
Your victorious right hand that upholds me is forever scarred for my sins and forever pierced in Your mercy. "Through (Christ) God was pleased to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross" (Colossians 1:20). That same love that moved You to lay down Your life for me is the same love that promises me, " 'I will never leave you or forsake you.' So we can say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?' " (Hebrews 13:5-6)
 
So in that kind of love, I will not fear. In that kind of mercy, I will not be afraid. I will trust the One who saves me and strengthens me, who upholds me and empowers me, who is always with me and will always love me. That's the victory You've won for me in the sacrifice of Your love for me! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays


May you never be afraid of whatever you face, as you always remember the God who upholds you with His victorious right hand is the same God who loves you with all His heart and laid down His life for you in Christ, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

     



Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Morning by Morning, July 19 - Making God's Name Known

 Good morning, Lord Jesus. Good Shepherd of my soul, help me hear Your voice and follow the leading of Your Holy Spirit, here in the strong, secure embrace of my heavenly Father. ... 

"So now, Father, glorify Me in the Your own presence with the glory that I had in Your presence before the world existed. I have made Your name known to those whom You gave Me from the world" (John 17:5-6). 

Lord Jesus, when You said You made the Father's name known to Your disciples, I don't think You were speaking primarily of any particular "name" of God, such as Jehovah Jireh (Genesis 22:9-14), Jehovah Shalom (Judges 6:16-24), Jehovah Rapha (Exodus 15:26), or even the great I AM (Exodus 3:13-15). I think You were making the Father's name known by making His nature known in all that You did and all that You said and all that You were, for as You said and as You revealed with Your life and Your heart, "The Father and I are One" (John 10:30; 17:11 and 22). 

You are "the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very Being" (Hebrews 1:3). You are "the image of the invisible God" and "in (You) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Colossians 1:15-19). Though You were One with the Father in heaven, You willingly chose to humble Yourself in the likeness of human flesh and blood on this earth to reveal to us the Father heart of God through Your life as the Son of Man (Philippians 2:5-11). 

As the Son of Man on this earth, You lived Your life in total trust and complete surrender to the will and the word of the Father, doing what You saw Him doing and speaking what You heard Him saying, to make His nature and His name known to us all (John 5:30 and 8:28). You were the Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth, born from the human womb of a virgin and anointed by the Father with His Holy Spirit with the power and presence of the love and mercy of God (Acts 10:38). In the Oneness of Your heart and nature with the Father, You proclaimed, "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). 

And now Your Spirit -- "the Spirit of Jesus" (Philippians 1:19), "the Spirit of Christ" (Romans 8:9), "the Holy Spirit" of the Living God (Acts 1:8) -- fills our hearts to live our lives to make the name and the nature of our God known through us. By the grace of God, together with You and one another, we are "the body of Christ" on this earth (1 Corinthians 12:27). And by Your grace and Your presence in us, You are still making God's name known in every generation to the ends of the earth (John 17:23). Just as the Father sent You in His nature, so You send us to reveal His nature into our world, by Your Spirit in us (John 17:18; 20:21). "Christ in (us), the hope of glory" -- God's glorious name and nature reveled through us for all the world to know (Colossians 1:27). 

So come, Holy Spirit. Come and fill me (Ephesians 5:18). Come and make me more like Jesus today, as You continue to conform me into the image of the Son of God, who is forever the exact image of the Father (Romans 8:29). Make God's name and nature known through me, as You keep crucifying my flesh and filling me with Your Spirit so that I can come to say in truth, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:19-20). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays



May you know and make known the name and nature of the Lord our God through your life in Christ today, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

   



Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Morning by Morning, July 18 - Intimacy Evangelism

 Good morning, Lord Jesus. You are my Savior and Strength, my Comforter and Counselor, my Father and Friend, my All in All -- God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  ... 

"As You, Father, are in Me and I am in You, may they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The glory that You have given Me I have given them, so that they may be one, as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that those also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory, which You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:21-24). 

There's a oneness of intimacy that I desire because You've created me to desire it. There's a longing for trusting relationship that burns in my bones because it burns in Your heart. You created me for a relationship of love, just as You created me in Your image, because You are Love and it's the nature of love to be lived out in the intimacy of relationship (1 John 4:16). 

Lord Jesus, You knew and You know that depth of intimacy with our Father, as both Son of Man and Son of God, both on earth and in heaven. And it's the longing of Your heart -- just as we hear in the yearning of Your prayer when You walked this earth as a model of intimacy with God for us -- that we would have that depth of intimacy as well. 

We often read Your prayer "that (we) may be one" as a cry and a call for the oneness of unity among the church of Jesus Christ, among all believers from every tongue and tribe and nation throughout the world and throughout every generation. And no doubt, that is Your heart. But I also believe that the heart of Your prayer is a cry and a call for oneness of intimacy between our God and our hearts -- "that (we) may be one" with our Father, just as You were one with our Father (John 17:22). 

This kind of intimacy with our Father can only come through our intimacy with You. As Your Word explains, in the expression Your prayer, "I in them and You in Me, that they may become completely one" (John 17:23). It's when we experience that depth of intimacy, in the communion of our relationship with You -- God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit -- that "the world may know" that God the Father sent Jesus, the Son, to love us just as the Father loves the Son (John 17:23).  

In this sense, seeking to live our lives in intimacy with You is the most powerful means of evangelism we have to reach the hurting and the lost with Your message of healing and hope in the power of Your love. As You said, "I in them and You in Me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me" (John 17:23). You have "so loved the world" that You came into our world as Son of Man and Son of God to show us the life we can live forever in the eternal intimacy of a deeply personal relationship of love with You (John 3:16). As You said, "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3).  

I've heard of "power evangelism" and "relationship evangelism." Maybe this is an expression of "intimacy evangelism." But for the sake of those who are lost, as well as for the sake of those who have been found, may we all come to know You and Your love for us more deeply, more intimately every day. That's my prayer. And I believe that was Your prayer to our Father for me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays


May you experience the depth of intimacy of the same love the Father has for Jesus, knowing He has that same love for you, in Jesus' name! Through your experience of "becoming completely one" in Him, my your world around you come to know that the Father has sent His Son to love and to save every one of them. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

   

  

Friends, it's good to be back with you on our daily journey of prayer after I've been away for a time of intensive ministry and then family vacation. Thank you for all your prayers for me and my family and our ministry. I pray God's blessings of rest and return, as well as a growing depth of intimacy with Him for you. Thank you for joining with me in the journey! God bless you!


Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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