John 14:21-24

“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father and I will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

Relating To God

The Lord knows that if I could have my preference I would not write these kinds of devotions which bring rebuke and correction. The truth is I’m not a machine, I am a man who at times reluctantly writes as I do. It needs to be understood that not all of us get to have the “popular” missions, some of us must stand and tell the Lord’s Church what it doesn’t want to hear. However, you must remember that it is ultimately God Himself–and not I–Who is the actual Author of these rebukes. There are a growing number of you who do pray that God the Holy Spirit will give me His Words. And if I am a truly to be His pastor here at AM, then we will have to believe that He does; if–and only if–the testimony of my commitment to His Word backs this up. This is why it is so imperative that we each know for ourselves what the Bible itself says about the many issues we are currently dealing with as this apostasy grows.

As I have said on a few occasions I certainly do believe in a personal experience with God because this is literally what Jesus said that the life of the obedient Christian should be like. Unfortunately, many people tend to miss this the fact that Master Himself told us to expect a relationship with Him in our text above–but this relationship does have a condition. Let me make a couple of quick points here; first the a part of verse 21 – “Whoever – [this would now apply to everyone] – Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. I think we can safely conclude here that if anyone does not obey these commands of Christ Jesus found in the Bible then God will consider this person–or religious system–as people who do not love Him. Can you see this?

Now the b part of the verse as to how it regards those of us who are obedient and therefore do show that we love Jesus. Let’s see what our Master has in store for each of us. Christ says – “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” If you are reading the King James Version – it says manifest myself – the New American Standard has disclose Myself. The Greek word translated show, manifest, disclose in this verse is emphanizo – which means – “to manifest,…to present one’s self to” (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p.209). And in his classic work – Word Pictures in the New Testament the great Greek scholar Dr. A.T. Robertson says of this verse that the “Unseen and Risen Christ will be a real and spiritual Presence to the obedient and loving believer.”

So as we can see here Christ Jesus Himself clearly tells us that we should expect to experience God as we live day to day in our obedient relationship with Him. However–and this is so vital–and something that we must recapture in our Lord’s Church if we hope to have any impact for Him in this upside-down, twisted and backward world we now live in; it is crucial for us to remember that all experience must be tested by the Bible. And if we are honest with ourselves we must admit that this is just not the case in so much of the Charismatic and Pentecostal circles within our Lord’s Church, and now we see that our own Evangelical scholars are actually working to undermine our trust in Holy Scripture.

As the Devil has gained a solid foothold in our Lord’s Church here in pagan postmodern America there is simply far too much of: “Well, I’ve always felt it should be done this way,” or “I’ve always been told such and such.” My advice in the Lord to these dear brothers and sisters is to read 1 Thessalonians 5:21 – Test all things (NKJV). And then God the Holy Spirit further tells us – Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world – 1 John 4:1. And this has probably never been more evident than in this particular perverse generation. I give you this solemn warning: You had better learn to test everything because we are going to be in for an awfully rough ride spiritually.

Demons In Disguise

The pitiful truth is that for years now people have simply allowed other people to “teach” them and to think for them. As a result we are now at the point where there is even a great deal of confusion about what it actually means to even be a Christian. I had the chance to talk about this not too long ago with one of the guidance counselors at the high school that I also work at who is not a believer. However, because I have studied what the Bible actually says on issues–inside of a couple of minutes–he realized that what he’d been told about Christianity hadn’t been accurate. And it clear that God was drawing this man at that moment–whether he’ll come or not–is in God’s hands, but I can tell you this, he sure wasn’t going to think about trusting Christ with the superstitions he’d been told before Jesus put me in front of him.

Brothers and sisters now more than ever we must be diligent to present ourselves approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15, NASB). The point being these things I am teaching you cannot be just words to us anymore–they must become life in the true child of God. This is means we must really begin to practice what we preach now. With this in mind as our Sovereign King gives His each of His warriors the directions we need to take we must then aim our Lord’s guns on the target no matter what the prevailing views of a particular culture. We must also go into the battle knowing full well that this type of mission is not likely to be received well even within the Evangelical Protestant camp as you’ll see in coming weeks.

It shouldn’t be this way, but it is. The truth is that most professing Christians will not agree with our openly attacking false religious systems such as the apostate Roman Catholic Church for what they are–humanistic and self-righteous–empowered by the spirit of antichrist. Which the true Christian knows in reality none other than Satan himself; and we are not doing anyone any good by suppressing the absolute truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Nor should we simply stand by as millions are swept into the false world religion of Islam, or non-Christian cults like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who then end up worshipping supposed “deities” that are really not gods at all–but in actually are–demons in disguise.

So here is how we tell the difference between what is truly from the Lord and what is not from our text John 14:21 – “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, – [here’s your key as to whether this person you are dealing with is truly a Christian or not] – “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. And despite the dastardly deceptions being spread through ecumenical vehicles of the Devil like Rick Warren, Ted Haggard and Trinity Broadcasting Network, people who do not meet this criterion are simply not Christians, and as such–they are speaking from the darkness of the world. Isaiah 8:20 – To the law and the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.