“WE ARE ONE!”

John 17:9-16                             (ESV)

“9 I (JESUS) am praying for them (CHOSEN). I am not praying for the world but for those whom YOU have given me, for they are YOURS.

10 All MINE are YOURS, and YOURS are MINE, and I am glorified in them.

11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to YOU. HOLY FATHER, keep them in YOUR NAME, which YOU have given ME, that they may be one, even as WE ARE ONE.

12 While I was with them, I kept them in YOUR NAME, which YOU have given ME. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

13 But now I am coming to YOU, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have MY joy fulfilled in themselves.

14 I have given them YOUR word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”

How many of us would utilize a personal hookup to the President of the United States of America, regardless of who it is, or may become?  Anytime you like, whatever you wanted to talk to them about, you had “Carte-Blanche” to communicate with the leader of the free world!  Wouldn’t that be a tremendous tool to be able to utilize?

Prayer to GOD is that kind of a tool for we who choose to use it.  We can actually “get through” to our CREATOR anytime we elect, talk about anything we choose, for as long as we care to devote to HIM, and HE will never be too busy to hear from us!  Yet unfortunately, I don’t take the time to come to before HIS THRONE and lay my petitions at HIS feet and beg for HIS guidance.  

In John 17 JESUS “”prays” the “High Priestly Prayer” as HE would be arrested literally minutes later.   Yet, in HIS time of peril, HE had time to pray for we who Believe on HIM right before HIS arrest, trial, and crucifixion.  Keep this perspective clear, the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSES was preparing HIMSELF to being brutally tortured for the one’s that HIS FATHER would give HIM, and HE was asking HIM to keep us safe from the evil one!  Can you fathom how GOD’S PERFECT SON would subject HIMSELF TO leave HIS Heavenly Throne, to be mocked and tortured for my sins while being on this earth, and still go to Calvary, even if it were just to save me, because HE LOVED ME SO?  

I am sure it is easier to understand nowadays when I read that HE prayed “WE ARE ONE”!  GOD couldn’t look upon my sin, so HE forsook JESUS (Mark 15:34) on Calvary.  But JESUS never has forsaken me, even though I fail HIM daily, because “WE ARE ONE”!  There is no greater confidence builder than to know that the ONE WHO CREATED this world and I, “WE ARE ONE”!  

In John 14:3 JESUS says “And if I GO AND PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU, I WILL COME AGAIN AND WILL TAKE YOU TO MYSELF, THAT WHERE I AM YOU MAY BE ALSO”.   “This world” will not compare to what HE is PREPARING for us.  And HE WILL COME AGAIN, because “WE ARE ONE”, AND HE SAID HE WOULD!!!