“If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be;” (John 12:26). Not too long ago I was reading the 12th chapter of John. As I was reading and came upon Jesus’ response to His disciples and the Greeks who desired to see Him the Holy Spirit began to move in my heart and mind. Suddenly, I could see this passage play out in my mind. It was as though God put the passage into animation. I envisioned Jesus’ leading a person along in their day, and this breakaway took place as Jesus continued in one direction while the person stayed their present course. The Holy Spirit quickened my thoughts: Often, we individually, and corporately as the church, lose track of where He’s going and what He’s doing so that we remain content with where we’re at while missing His cue. There is so much more to our destiny in Christ than we even realize, let alone encounter! Beloved, let’s look closer at this.
Where I Am
Many of us readily associate Jesus’ connection between us and Him with a very popular verse in John 14. In the 3rd verse, Jesus uses a similar statement: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (NKJ). In the context of this verse, He is talking about the final events of time at His coming. In contrast, Jesus in John 12:26 is not referencing this event. He is teaching about the dynamics of serving Him now.
Luke understood this well when he addressed Theophilus in the greeting of The Acts. He greets Theophilus while referencing Luke’s own Gospel accord: “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1 NASB). According to Luke, his gospel is about all that Jesus began to do and teach. Luke’s next writing, The Acts, is about the continuation of the works of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit through the Body of Christ. Over and over in this account, we see that wherever Christ is working, there He coordinates the presence of His disciples as they participate in the glorious works of God.
Yet is this what Jesus is referring to? In the context of his brief discourse, the answer is yes. While many interpret Him as saying they will be with Him in heaven in this passage, this is not what He’s talking about – though it is true, we will be with Him in heaven. In the Greek text, the verb is a present indicative. This means the verb is not referring to the future age but is in the context of the present age. It is His desire, plan, intent, and purpose that we are led by the Spirit of God to wherever and whenever Christ is happening.
…Follow Me
How often do we establish an agenda for our day and week (not to mention establishing major plans)? We do so while thinking and expecting that God will automatically be with us and He’ll go along with us to bless what we do. Sadly, we are oblivious to His leading and prompting as we get locked into our plans and routines. We don’t even know what we are missing. We rest with a false reassurance that He “is with [us] always…” (Mat 28:20) by misapplying Jesus’ promise and assurance. And while He is with us always, as He will not forsake us, on these occasions, it is to alert us that we’ve missed our cue. In alerting us, He then desires to bring us into a deeper awareness of what He is doing and where He is going – so that we may follow.
Our desire should be to be led by the Spirit of God, rather than take the lead and insist He follows us. The leading of the Spirit in our daily lives is the fulfillment of the working of God’s grace empowering and enabling us to respond to Jesus’ beckoning: “Follow me.” Let us become sensitive and more sensitive to the leading of the Spirit and ready ourselves to be led.
Our daily regiments and weekly routines comprise large portions of our lives. Because we have been conditioned to consider such routines normal and unreasonable, we often go about each day blinded by the obstacles and encumbrances of the demands of our physical life. I’m not advocating becoming irresponsible in the name of Jesus by any means! But what behooves us is that we must recognize that if we are to serve the purposes of God, we must come to embrace a very vital reality: “My Father is always working, and so am I” (John 5:17 NLT). Where the Father is working, you’ll find Jesus. And where Jesus is, there shall His servants also be.
If / Let
If we will serve the purposes of God, if we will serve His purposes for others, then we must let ourselves follow the leading of the Spirit, for the Spirit will take us to where Jesus is happening! – And that is where the Father is at work.
Shall we look at the word, “let” in context with the “if?” If we will be Jesus’ servants, Jesus instructs, “Let him follow me.” Notice this: “if” is fulfilled through “let.” “Let” releases the freedom that allows us to follow Jesus so that we may serve Him. The level of our service is dependent on the level of our restrictions and encumbrances.
Whether it is prayer and seeking God or getting into the Word of God we are often pinched for time or neglect these completely. Because we are so involved in our obligations, plans, and routines we rarely experience a divine distraction when it comes to effectually ministering to others. Somehow God is relegated to any spare time we may have. And Jesus is confined to the parameters and barriers of our routines and obligations. It is in this cubical where we are blinded because of our lack of expectancy and encumbered by the conditionings that come with everyday life and its demands.
If we will serve Jesus, we must let ourselves follow Him and this requires that we must not let the cares of our natural life determine our priorities. We must seek God first. We must regularly come into His presence through His Word and prayer. As a result, we will become more sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and will be engaged followers of Jesus throughout each day! If we will obtain a life of prayer rather than try to feebly maintain a prayer life, we will remain in His abiding presence. And “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17 NIV)! Freedom will let us follow Him so that we will be where Christ in us can work the works of Him who sent us!
The Breaking of Our Outer Man
This deserves much more than a few paragraphs, but we will finish with what began Jesus’ brief discourse. The backdrop to this discourse is the coming crucifixion – His crucifixion. While He died for our sins, we must too, take up our cross daily to follow Him. Just as He was going to be crucified, we too will be where He is crucifying the flesh so that we may abide in Him. The road to being where God is and to where Christ is happening in our world is through our cross. A.B. Simpson called this the Christ life. If we will be raised in the Christ-life, the self-life must be crucified. So that we like Paul are crucified with Christ “killed all the day long” (Rom 8:36 KJV).
Though we are raised up in life from our sins and trespasses through the cross of Christ, any level of love we have for our self-life prevents us from living in the power of God that only comes through the cross we must bear. We must beware of self-protection here. Our outer man must be broken to reveal the inner man where the life of Christ dwells. Our outer man consists of our physical life with its cares along with the Adamic Nature of our physical being with our soul that is alienated from God through the nature of sin. This is the life that Jesus said we must hate and lose – the self we must deny and crucify along with Christ (see Mat 16:24-26; Gal 2:20).
Herein lies our struggle. We often seek to compromise and rationalize the realized cost here. Yet, the propensity to negotiate the cost must be taken to the cross along with the very Adamic nature (the flesh) we seek to protect. The natural man due to our physical constraints and sinful nature cannot appreciate Spiritual things, he cannot even discern them (see 1 Cor 2:9-3:1). Only the Spirit of God knows the thoughts of God. And if we are to know the deep things of God, we must follow Jesus to the cross beginning with the cross we are to take up.
Jesus revealed something profound to us. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24 NASB). Yes, He was referring to the hour that troubled Him (v. 27) – His own crucifixion. Yet He was also revealing to us that we need to follow Him to the cross that would trouble our “self.” We would have to submit to the breaking of the outer shell so that we too would be crucified with Him. Here God will raise us up in Christ.
So as the outer husk of the natural man is broken and dies, the seed within us would be fruitful. That seed is Christ (see Gal 3:16), “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27 KJV). In order for the seed to be fruitful, the worries and cares of our physical life and the world along with the deceitfulness of riches, and other things must be taken to our cross (see Mark 4:19, Luke 9:23-25) and crucified with the flesh and its desires (see Gal 5:24).
If we will walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit of God, if we will follow the leading of the Spirit so that we may follow Christ and be wherever He will be, we must first deny self and take up our cross so that we will be able to follow Him. Again, this is abiding Him, it is the Christ-life. We must seek to “know Him in the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Php 3:10,11).Then like Ruth, we can say, “whithersoever thou shalt go, I will go: and where thou shalt dwell, I also will dwell” (Ruth 1:16 Douay-Rheims Bible). Only as I digress does He increase. And only as the outer man is diminished, can we be Spiritual (see 1 Cor 3:1). And then “we might know the things freely given to us by God” (1 Cor 2:12 NASB). Thus, we can be led and be found where Jesus is walking in the works of Him who sent us.
Father, I pray that the eyes of understanding be enlightened. I pray for greater vision. I pray for a greater vision of what each of our lives is to be in Christ. I pray that we become passionately desirous of walking in our destiny in Christ. I pray that our hearts be captured by the beauty of your Cross and that we would embrace our own so that we may abound in the life you came to give to us abundantly. That we may abide in the life of Christ following you wherever you go. I crucify my self-life this day. That I, yet not I, but Christ may live through me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hal Garms eWord Messages 