“I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” (John 17:23)

The unity between the Father, the Son, and the church is complete: this is the pinnacle of all that Jesus came to achieve.

If Jesus prayed for it we can achieve it. If we learn to recognise his voice and ignore others we can keep in step with Him, because Unity with God is our goal, not cultivating fruits to try and be godly – this leads to religion, failure and shame, and takes us away from the purpose He has created us for, which is to walk with Him. If we call on Him He will reach out and bring His peace and presence:  He doesn’t care how far away we feel.

If we seek God with all our hearts we will deliver His gifts in His love and under His direction. if we seek gifts without seeking Him we operate in our own strength and risk delivering pride and clanging cymbals.

The new testament is full of examples of how to be like Jesus, in Unity with the Father; and full of ways to develop and train our minds and bodies to walk in that unity.

We need to be in his peace to hear his voice, so we must diligently seek that peace. That is the place of unity with God, and from there we can operate in his power, by His Spirit. If we lose it, we must go back and find it – don’t keep going in agitation. The longer we spend out of it, the messier our lives can get. Every negative word can weaken it: God want us to get every word right – it’s not enough just to be “good”. The biggest victories in our lives – and the salvation of those around us – will come as we diligently seek to walk in unity with one another and, most of all, with Jesus and the Father. It’s by that, and not by our evangelistic efforts or our attempts at goodness, that the world will know that the Father sent His Son because He loved it so much.

Anne Hext. Written in Sept 2016