Having Been With Jesus
“My whole life has changed, everyday, since I met Jesus.”
This quote was from someone who is not famous, but was radicalized by Jesus. She was a sweet, unwed mother whose simple testimony was a catalyst for dozens to come to Christ. Before Jesus, she wasn’t really there according to eyewitness. After, she was radiant. Those who came to Christ through her life won hundreds and literally thousands others. One person to many thousands. One yielded life.
Jesus isn’t something we add to the mix. He is calling us to Him and Him alone. Not “Jesus and”. Never underestimate the power of simply Jesus and His totality of being, His desire to be everything, simply everything in our lives.
This same lady led someone to the Lord by simply praying. “I had hundreds of pseudo spiritual experiences from drugs, but I had never encountered anything like this." She prayed in a whisper, barely audible, but it was a direct line. She was connected to God and even in her quiet prayer, the people in the room observed her radiance in connecting with God in a normal conversation. Do you see it? Simple, yet powerful connections with God.
The key to great impact is great simplicity. Relationship with God that changes the world begins with a relationship that changes you. I know that all of us (or at least most of us) have a relationship with Jesus. My question is this, is it a simple relationship with Jesus? Is it a connected, ongoing conversation with Jesus? Is it that Jesus is the only option, an option-less Christianity? If it is not, then it is diluted, adulterated. It has additions. It is the simple gospel we are called to.
A room full of these kind of people changes an atmosphere. These are the kind of people who gather early to pray with one another, who serve freely, who sing infectiously and love Jesus. A room full of these people change their neighborhoods. A room full of these people change neighborhoods and cities. A room full of these kind of people can change the world.
I am getting to the place in life where I am reflecting a lot on life and influences. I don’t feel nostalgic, but I want to glean some of the lessons from my life and bring them to the front. The greatest one is not really a lesson, it is life. Jesus. Passionately connected, powerfully impacted, as I get older, Jesus is all I want. I want to know Him. I want to be known by Him. I want to make Him known.
Looking back, I have heard so many stories of people who were saved and they experienced life differently, saw, physically differently, and were experienced differently than before knowing Jesus. I have heard guys who were musicians blown away by the simplicity of a song that has the fragrance and anointing of heaven on it because we have been in heaven as it were, with the One who makes heaven possible, Jesus.
I don’t really care about systems, programs, being slick, or polished. I care about real connection. I care about meeting Jesus daily. I care about all of us experiencing Jesus in depth, reality and connection every week. I want nothing to get between us and Him. I never want us to gather and walk out the same. I always want us to meet Him there! I always want us to have a sense of wonder and awe, having been with Him. I want people’s reactions to be "as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”
Isn’t that your heart as well? Wouldn’t it be something to go into work the next day and people see something on you and recognize that you have been with Jesus? In the book of Acts, they focused on Jesus and His kingdom. It was this focus on Him that changed everything else. Let’s focus our hearts and as we gather, let’s continue to give everything we have to Jesus. We are in the midst of His moving among us. I want to sit enthralled at His feet. Would you join me there?
