26. Sent as Jesus
© Daniel Yordy – 2020
“This is age-unfolding life, to know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” – “Peace to you; just as the Father sent Me forth, so I also send you” (John 17:3 & 20:21).
We are NOT sent to bring people to God; we are sent to bring God to people.
I cannot tell you the critical importance of these opposing views. The first, bringing people to God, is the arrogance of control; the second, bringing God to people, is going under with Father.
When Jesus said to His disciples, “Peace be to you,” He was placing Father with us as the beginning of His Salvation in their lives. And when He said, “Just as the Father sent Me forth, so I also send you,” He was placing us with Father in lifting up and blessing all, beginning with those with whom we walk in our local fellowship.
Jesus brought the Father to us first. Then He said, “I, as every Word God speaks, now send you to bring Father as He is to many.”
And so I now see this pattern of “Word As – Sent As” running all through our task of calling a God of abundance and out-poured love into the knowledge of all.
Here are the four patterns.
- Word as Fire – Sent as Judgment.
- Word as Water – Sent as Life.
- Word as Earth – Sent as Kingdom.
- Word as Air – Sent as Liberty.
The Word part is the being and function of Jesus. The “Sent” part is the being and function of the Spirit. The “Fire, Water, Earth, and Air” part is that flow of Spirit Word through our human frame and into our world. And the “Judgment, Life, Kingdom, and Liberty” part is the fruit of Jesus Sent, Father made known.
And so these eight phrases, “Word as Fire” through “Sent as Liberty” are the titles of the next eight chapters. Remember that the gospel is simple and singular – Christ lives in your heart through faith, but that the God who comes through that Portal is anything but simple. He is an infinite God who fills everything with all that He is in all outpoured abundance. As Paul said, that we might comprehend together the vast extent of this Mighty Being coming through.
For that reason it is clear to us that we spend much time in God’s school of God-Through-Us, that we might know how to call this wondrous Being into our world, into the many different people in order to be their many differing expressions.
To do such a thing, we must know God by Heart first, and we must know each individual person by heart, second. And in knowing both, we learn best, then, only by practicing.
Know Jesus Sent. – Just as the Father sent Me, so I also send you.
This second line, of course, is one of the many “Be just like God” verses. (I realize now that this phrase, “Be just like God,” is an actual Bible verse, for it is the best translation of the meaning of Ephesians 5:1.)
I want to spend a bit of time on this concept, now, “Sent as Jesus,” to lay a framework for the four upcoming “Sent” chapters.
“Sent as Jesus,” of course, means Jesus as Personal Word written upon the heart of each individual person. And it means Jesus as the Heart of Father sent into all.
Let’s combine two other statements from John’s gospel.
“Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I knew that You always hear Me; but on account of the crowd all around I said it, that they may believe that You sent Me.” – “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 11:41-42 & 14:9).
Many attempt to place upon Jesus’ teachings an effort by Jesus to bring people to God. John gives us a totally different view, however. Out from finally knowing Paul’s gospel, John shows us a Jesus who is always bringing the Father to people.
And one of the ways Jesus brought Father to people was by meeting their needs, whatever those needs might be.
You cannot give what you do not have.
And Jesus did not just assume that He “knew” what people needed. He asked, quite often, “What do you want Me to do for you?” In actuality, His words were, “What do you want Me to create in you?”
Here, then, are Paul’s two statements that define for us this abundance flowing through us that is Father.
But my God will fill full all your needs and business, down to the finest details of His riches and wealth found inside of glory inside all the sphere of Christ Jesus. – Now God is powerfully able to make all grace abound into you, so that you may abound always, in every way, having all sufficiency in every good work (Philippians 4 & 2 Corinthians 9:8).
We cannot meet other people’s needs without abundant provision, both heavenly provision and material provision flowing THROUGH us. And that flow must be directed by wisdom as much as by compassion.
When I wrote my letter titled “Give Me A Place to Stand” a few years ago, God spoke to me the second thing He told me to do in my life. I was asking for provision from you towards the establishing of Christian Community. God said to me, in a quiet but clear voice, “You provide for them.”
The first time God told me to do something, He said to me, in an even quieter whisper, “Give My people hope.” In that moment I had no hope to give; I did not even know what hope was. When He said to me, “You provide for them,” I had (and have) no provision to give.
Nonetheless, I believe in a God of out-poured abundance through me to you, and just as He has come to you through me with great HOPE, so also I expect that He will also come through me to you with great provision.
Here’s the truth. A big part of my interest in writing this present series is to know how it is that a God of Abundance intends to flow through me to you with all provision, both earthly provision and heavenly provision.
And even more than that, I want to know how this God of overflowing abundance intends to flow through us together into His creation.
As Father through Him, Jesus met every different type of need, and He met each need with more than was needed. BUT – Jesus met each need at the level of heart first, before meeting the outward need.
As I was listing all the fire verses of the Bible, I saw all the statements of Jesus, over and over, of people being burned in “unquenchable fire.” James and John got really excited about these pronouncements of Jesus, and they imagined they knew exactly what He meant by those words.
Here is the exchange. – “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:54-56).
Then Jesus said this in Luke 12. “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!”
NEVER read anything in the Bible EXCEPT through John 6:63. “It is the Spirit that gives life, your own intellectual definitions of outward appearance profit nothing. The words that I speak to you ARE SPIRIT and they ARE LIFE.”
Jesus had said, “Eat My flesh” and they thought He was talking about cannibalism, just like the pagan gods. Jesus had said, “Unquenchable fire,” and they thought He was talking about punishing people in agony, just like the pagan gods.
God SENT Jesus for one reason only – to seek and to save all that is lost. And that means one thing only – the full knowledge of God with you as you ARE.
God sends us for the exact same reason and in the exact same way, as Jesus said.
We are that FIRE that Jesus is sending now into the earth. We have two chapters just ahead to discover what that means. FIRE burns up everything forever – but that is the topic of the next letter.
We are sent in exactly the same way Jesus was sent, to bring Father-with-you to every individual person who does not know Father-with-me.
BUT – we never regard our work as an assembly-line task; that is, we do not bop each person in the line with the same, “Know Father,” “Know Father,” “Know Father,” as has been the typical practice of Christianity.
“Father-with-you” is different for each individual person, and we must recognize that great difference. God has created each individual person as a unique expression of Himself. And that difference is a difference of story, that is of word.
And so the word of this one’s self-story matches a very different set of Words inside of Father from the word of any other person’s self-story.
We can see how there is no need for such care in the blanket – Receive Jesus now, or submit to the Church now, and after you are dead, God will sort it all out. And thus individual Christians have always walked in complete ignorance of Father-with-me.
Dennis Rhodes, who has been a good friend and reader of my letters for about ten years, has just posted an article on his blog titled, “The Loving Embrace of Father.” You should follow the link and read that article. Think of the “embrace of Father” as Father through you in your own being sent as Jesus.
Nonetheless, this “embrace” of Father, is far beyond the simple action of a human embrace. Dennis, in his article, goes through all the many uses of the word “embrace” in Scripture. My purpose here, then, is to show how personal that embrace is to each individual person.
Father-with-you touches upon every moment of your life-story, every hope and desire of your heart, every sorrow and pain you have endured, every joy and achievement you have known. Father-with-you embraces everything that you are and have ever been.
The point is this – you cannot show Father-with-you to any individual person without a knowledge and regard for them as they are, for the words of their own self-story.
Here is how Paul worded that same concept. – I became weak to the weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all in these to all, so that by all, some I might save. Now I do all through the gospel, that I might become a fellow partaker with it (1 Corinthians 9:22-23 – rough JSV).
This is the layout of Paul’s words and I have not yet revised it to the final JSV wording. Let’s paraphrase this, however, in terms of salvation and becoming a fellow partaker of the gospel meaning “Father-with-you” – “Father-with-me.”
I become a part of the same self-story inside of each individual person so that I might show each one Father-with-you personally. In this way, I myself become part of that same sending of Jesus as the catalyst, the go-between, through whom each individual person might lay hold of “Father-with-me” in every aspect of their own self-story (1 Corinthians 9:22-23 – paraphrased).
We cannot become a part of the same self-story inside of each individual person unless we know them. And we cannot call God into their knowledge unless we know the Word that is Father towards each one.
And we cannot know either unless we ask, for we have no business “guessing” and calling our guesses “God.”
Nonetheless we know that people are hiding, that they are evasive, pretentious, and manipulative, and that their outward words are very likely not the truth of their inward self-story. We know that they hide because they are lonely and afraid.
And so, this “embrace of Father,” as Dennis describes it, is a “slow-burn” one might say, a careful, respectful, and very personal entrance of Father into their knowledge past all the many defensive barriers.
Consider my own knowledge of Jesus Sent into me. If I count from that time when I asked Jesus into my heart at age seven, it has been nearly 56 years that Jesus has walked with me, showing Himself to me bit by bit over those many years. As I think of it now, my knowing of Father-with-me grew very slowly, yet very definitely, through the whole course of those 56 years.
Jesus said that He now sends you and me to others in exactly the same way.
God does not send us as gigolos, planting seed in one, slam bang, and then hurrying on to the next. That’s a very crude picture, yes, but it is an accurate description of much “evangelism.”
God sends us as Jesus, as one who walks together with over the course of many years, showing each one, bit by bit, Father’s embrace of them, just as Jesus did with us.
Moses wanted a “quick” solution to the problem of the children of Israel. “Send me to Sheol in their place,” he said. God’s reply was very definite. “No, Moses, it’s not so easy. You get to walk with them, day after day, for decades, until all that is old has vanished and only the new remains.”
HOWEVER, I must qualify this truth with the fact that all responsibility for each one belongs only to Jesus. It is Jesus Himself who walks with each, bearing with them over time, showing Father-with-you bit by bit as they are able to receive it. We do not take His place; rather, He shares His place with us. That’s what it means to share in His sufferings/glory, which are, of truth, the same thing.
And thus we never think, “Oh my, I am obligated to stay with this one through many years.” Indeed, our time with an individual person might be only a few hours. The point is this, if our time with them is only a few hours, then we see those few hours as our being part of this Jesus who is with them always, and we regard their hearts and persons with that same honor, calling Father into their knowledge through our short time with them.
It’s not quantity of time, but quality of time.
Our glory, sharing glory with Jesus, is the winning of each precious heart to the full and utter knowledge of Father-with-me, Father’s full embrace of them. That individual person in all their value and meaning is our reward. And our sharing the suffering of Jesus is our portion, whether for a few hours or for many years, of walking with them through all their ignorance of God, until they know, utterly and complete, Father-with-me.
Yet part of our sharing with Jesus’ suffering for their sakes is personal to our own walk with God, even at a distance from them. For as we bring Father into our own every moment as sharing our lives with us, and as we, with Father, turn every difficulty we endure into travail for others through faith, so we are extending Father-with-you towards those whom God has given to us.
All through the course of my Christian life, I have endured innumerable times, this “well-meaning” person and that “well-meaning” person, trying to convince me that the things that filled my heart could not possibly be God-with-me. That the care and concern of my own heart had nothing to do with “the will of God.” The last time this happened was just two years ago and the first time was forty-three years ago, with dozens of times in-between. In fact, this experience is about to become a huge factor in my life-story from 1995-2002.
People love to assume, and then to throw their assumptions at you. And they are WRONG, every single time. When I have tried to do the same, I, also, have always been WRONG.
The thing that impressed me the most in Juliette Marillier’s Shadowfell story is that Neryn, just by her nature, never assumed any disrespect towards each of the four Guardians, but waited upon each of them to show themselves to her before she ever called them into her world. That was in one direction, but the other direction was the same. The most important thing that Neryn learned from each one of the Guardians was the incredible importance of knowing the heart meaning of each little one, no matter how small or insignificant they were.
We cannot ever call God into the knowledge of anyone unless we regard the value of the heart meaning inside the least and the littlest as of greater value to us than life itself.
I think that this is the most important truth I could ever convey to you. And I am able to know it because of almost forty-two years of enduring the same disrespect of my own heart committed by so many “well-meaning” Christians.
The knowledge of God does not come to anyone through bullying, ever.
When John Eldredge told me, through his books, “Daniel, your heart is good; your heart is filled with Jesus,” that was as the lifeline to me of God’s salvation, the first that I could begin to hear Father-with-me. And when Joel Osteen spoke the words into me, “Speak what God says you are,” all the wells of salvation opened up wide inside of me.
And so Father and I together turn my grief over many years into Father-with-you.
This is what it means to be sent as the Lord Jesus. – As He is, so are you in this world (1 John 4). That is, Jesus is Himself as and through you into your world.
Now I want to look, just a bit more, at the meaning of being sent as Jesus as Word, that is, the role that Word plays in our sending and in our calling of God into the knowledge of each individual person.
To be sent as Word as Fire is to connect Word as Fire inside of God with word as fire inside of this one individual person.
Yet Word as Fire begins as confrontation, for it consumes all that is false. People don’t like having all their human identity, created with great care over many years, to be burned up as foolish nonsense.
Word as Fire sent into human affairs does take on a terrible appearance. For God must first get people’s attention, and second, like Elijah, God must set forth the decision between TWO as the God who answers by Fire.
And those dwelling upon the earth rejoice over them and make merry and will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets have examined by torment those dwelling upon the earth (Revelation 11:10).
Forgiveness cannot come to anyone unless they receive it, and no one can receive forgiveness unless they first accept how wrong they have been.
Nonetheless, the forgiveness of God is absolute and already complete. As soon as this one is ready to leave all their nonsense, their false story no longer exists, but their entire lives suddenly become only the good-speaking of Jesus from beginning to end.
To be sent as Word as Life is to connect Words as God’s life story with the words of the life story inside of this one human.
And thus we see that life is always coming out from fire. For the moment this one says, “I was wrong,” instantly, their entire life becomes right in every moment and they rejoice in the just innocence of God.
Yet to show the dry and thirsty soul that every part of their lives IS and has always been, the Lord Jesus, that He has intended them in every moment of their lives, and that every agony they have known was He, sharing Himself with them, is to pour out water on a dry ground and out from that water, such joy and peace abounds.
To be sent as Word as Earth is to connect the depths of God-Love, God as a Rock, with the depths of heart-longing inside each person. Rooted and grounded inside of love.
This is the foundation; this is the Covenant. The Water of Life can come and bring joy and healing and even good fruitfulness into this one person’s life, but it is not enough. They must know the depths of Covenant, of Word written upon their hearts. They must know themselves utterly deep inside Father’s Heart.
To be sent as Word as Air is to connect the words that are Spirit with the spontaneous liberty of each individual person.
This is the release into all the realms of sonship and of the fruit and impact of the Spirit going forth in every place. This is showing each one that all their lives and all their works are coming out from God and God through them is revealing Himself everywhere you go.
The aroma of Christ is the sending of goodness upon the winds.
Here is the point. We begin with Word, but there is no Word not meant for and found in the Sending. We move on to Sending, but there is no Sending not filled with Word.
We cannot be sent without Word; we cannot possess Word without being Sent.
And so, for us to be sent just as Jesus is sent, is to be the Word God speaks made flesh again, giving form and expression inside of creation to every Word coming out from the depths of God.
It is to be Father revealed.