Jesus' prayer for the church: "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word (that's us), that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me."
Interestingly we talked about this yesterday night at Perspectives: that Jesus' final prayer was for our unity as brothers and sisters in Him...just goes to show you how critical it is that we fight through our differences and reconcile. Satan loves it when we fight or, even worse, when we just simply ignore each other and shut each other out. (Speaker shared a brutal story yesterday: we all know about Rwanda and the terrible genocide that happened there. But did we know that Rwanda was about 90% Christian when the genocide took place? Christians killing Christians...and before that Christians exploiting Christians...terrible, terrible stuff. And a key warning to all of us about how critical it is that we pursue reconciliation and unity)
One other cool thing in Jesus' prayer: "I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
In other words, Jesus is saying that through his efforts to build God's reputation, to "make a name" for God (so to speak), he actually opened the door for God's love and the Holy Spirit to enter into us. Not sure exactly how that works yet, but it is a really cool connection (the building up of God's name leads to God's love and Holy Spirit entering his people) that we usually don't talk about.
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