Together Be Led By Jesus Christ
View Transcript
In heaven, there will be more thorough ways of loving others and showing kindness. Jesus can lead us into these more complete ways of loving.
There will be majestic things to see in heaven. The city called The New Jerusalem will be 1500 miles wide and 1500 miles deep, about half the size of the United States. But, the city will also be 1500 miles high! What will that mean? No one knows, but what I imagine might be a possibility. I see 150 layers, each with ten miles between them, and all of them 1500 miles wide and 1500 miles deep. I would love for each of the 150 levels to be of different terrain and plants and animals. Since God will Himself be the light of heaven as revealed in the Book of Revelation at the end of the Bible, there will not be need of a sun to shine down on these 150 environments.
Of course, this is just wild speculation. And, probably not as marvelous as it will actually be. But, it should get us all to realize that heaven will be vast with many special adventurous and pleasurable experiences – places and things to explore. And, here is the point – Jesus will know them all and will be able to lead us to these new experiences and places. There will be joy in heaven that comes from being led by Jesus Christ hour-by-hour, day-by-day, throughout eternity. Hopefully, we want to have all the joy we can in heaven. For this reason, it is wise for us to grow in our ability to be led by Jesus now.
The question in heaven will be how good did we become in following Jesus before death. The more we were faithful to follow His lead before death will likely determine how much we will be able to follow Him in heaven. Therefore, let me point out to you how to grow in your ability to be led by Jesus now. This will be best done with the help of your closest Christian friends and relatives, in other words, done with your Christian Inner Circle.
Everyone will be willing to be led by Jesus in heaven because there will be no sin and no deviation from the will of God. However, the issue for us is how much do we want to enjoy following Jesus as the leader in heaven for all eternity. We can learn this joy when we get to heaven, but all those who learned it before death will always be far ahead of us.
In heaven, Jesus will be able to lead you to the extent that you learned to follow Him now before death. Now, before heaven, Jesus will lead you into situations made difficult by evil in this world. He wants Christians to bring His love and help where there is hurting and things need to be made right. Suffering accompanies being led by Jesus now, but in heaven being led by Jesus will not be dangerous at all.
In heaven, Jesus will want to lead all of us to everything. But, He will not make us. He will be inviting us, not ordering us. And the more we came to heaven already following Him and trusting Him, the more we will follow Him into various privileges of serving others, adventures, and experiences in heaven. It will be like Jesus one day in heaven saying that He will be leading anyone who wants to go on a 50-mile hike. Some would not have followed Him enough previously to be ready to go wherever He was going to hike. It would not be sinful not to go, just require an ability to be led by Jesus that was not there yet.
One of the great things about heaven is that Jesus will lead in everything. Every citizen of heaven, human and angels, will let Jesus decide how they should treat each other, how they should talk and act, and, most importantly, how they each will serve God together with others.
How we allow Jesus to lead us as individuals is important. But, truthfully, He also wants to lead our Christian friendships, Christian families and Christian marriages. And, being willing to be led to follow Him in those relationships is all important preparation for teamwork later in heaven.
Jesus will always lead us to work in harmony with others to get His work done. To be ready for heaven later, we now need to grow in joyfulness while being led by Jesus to work together with other Christians for God’s glory and mankind’s good. Most of this cooperative and mighty work for God will happen when obedient Christian friendships, Christian families and Christian marriages allow Jesus to lead them.
Letting Jesus lead us along with others rather than only alone will give us far more joy in heaven where surely we will be interwoven as the body of Christ. We will be more able to enjoy working side-by-side with others as we blissfully follow the Lord in heaven, doing whatever His wonderful desire has in store for all of us.
I suspect that every Christian knows he or she should follow Jesus. But we may not have considered carefully what it means to be led by our Lord.
Too many of us believe that following Jesus only means to know biblical doctrine, attend church, and do a little good now and then. Too many think it means just living a moral life. And, too many interpret following Jesus as just dealing with life’s usual difficulties in a biblical way. But, in Scripture Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
If we consider Jesus’ life on earth, the Bible indicates He spent most of His time doing difficult things. Yet, don’t we think that the Christian life should be easy? We need to think again. The cross Jesus said we need to pick up before we follow His lead refers to the cross of crucifixion. It means that the work the King wants us to do here is not always easy. Fortunately, the difficulty of following Jesus is easier and less debilitating if we let Jesus lead us together with other Christians.
Because so many of us accepted Jesus as our personal Savior to get good things from God, we never really considered enough that we are to be following Him. As a result, we keep asking God to do things for us – to lead His life around our needs. This might be all well and good if we with equal sincerity and desire asked what He wants us to do for Him.
We are in a process of transformation. At the start of our Christian life, we are most aware that Jesus is with us to help us. Then, as we mature in our faith, we become more aware that we are to be with Him in this world – to live for Him and help with what He is doing.
We live in a world that is not aligned with God. Therefore, God is trying to do things in many ways contrary to the values of individuals and society. Since He is doing those things through us, this life before heaven will be difficult at times for those who allow themselves to be led by Jesus. But, trials and suffering change our spirits for great eternal rewards later in heaven.
Jesus declared as recorded in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”
Two or three friends consciously meeting in the name of Jesus, meaning under His authority, can pay attention to Jesus being with them. If they do, He can more easily communicate with them and show things to them. Therefore, two or three Christian friends should agree with one another that whenever they are together they are gathering in the name of Jesus. Then, Jesus will be with them in a different and more intimate way than His presence with individual Christians or believers in larger groupings. Such a Christian friendship group will be led together by Jesus if they ask Him in prayer, “What do You want me and my friends to do when together with You? Where do You want to lead us?” Jesus will point out to them where to follow and serve Him.
Wives and husbands are usually together more than are friends and can similarly listen for Jesus. Because married life has so many mundane responsibilities, spouses probably need to remind themselves often that Jesus is there with them and available to lead them. Married couples have a specific social sphere that Jesus wants to impact. Their neighborhood, their group of friends, and their frequent recreational pursuits are where Jesus wants to spread His love through them. If married couples would ask Jesus, “What do You want us to do together as a team for You?”, constant ministry together would erupt in their relationship, they would experience common joy in serving Jesus, and strong bonds would develop to give more stability to their marriage.
Families usually are a bit larger than two or three with Jesus. However, most moments of family relationship are between just two or three. In any case, families should carefully teach the presence of Jesus in their midst and commit to listening for Him to lead them.
Personal needs are more exposed in families, whether intentionally or not. Jesus will be trying to communicate to a few family members to get involved in some way or another to meet these needs. So many kids with low opinion of themselves could benefit from two or three family members listening to Jesus as to what they can and should do to help. Hundreds of similar examples could be listed. Families have unlimited opportunities to hear Jesus lead them to help – just in their own family.
But, families have additional opportunities outside of the family to take the help of Jesus elsewhere. There are extended family members like aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Then there are neighbors. And the family’s children have friends from school that Jesus might lead them to serve in some way or another. Families should ask in prayer, “What is it that You want our family to do to help You do Your work? Where do You want to lead our family?”
Hearing Jesus needs special commitment to let Him direct our lives. We must strongly desire to hear Him when He tries to communicate with us. Not only do we need to develop our own individual spiritual ability to listen for Jesus to speak to us, we need to learn this also as friendship groups, families and marriages.
We can develop the perception of our spirits deep within us to hear and be led by Jesus – by first learning the Bible. Jesus will not ask us to do anything that is contrary to what God says to us in Scripture. In this Getting Ready to Go Home to Heaven curriculum, you will learn what God wants in relationships with others. Jesus will not contradict the Scriptures that make up the 65 Togethers.
When friends are together, when the family is meeting, and when spouses take time, it is necessary every now and then to be silent, ask Jesus to speak, and then carefully listen. How can Jesus lead anyone or any group if they do not know how to listen for Him? Those in Christian friendships, Christian families and Christian marriages need to give one another permission to speak up when they think Jesus is telling them something. However, such observation should not be stated too forcefully so that genuine confirmation can happen.
Reflection and Discussion Tools
Jesus is the King of the kingdom of God. He is to be followed as He leads us individually and together. Help one another want to be led by the King for the work of the kingdom of heaven.
Matt 16:24; Matt 19:28; Luke 18:22; John 8:12; John 10:3-4; 2 Cor 5:15; 1 Peter 2:21
Prayer to Embrace this Together
I and those in my Christian Inner Circle will need Your help to grow our spirits so that we can more sensitively listen for and follow Jesus. Help us to yield to the work of the Holy Spirit for all of us to give You more glory in the way we allow ourselves to be led by Your Son.
Please help us all to become more like Jesus and increase the percentage of time we do only what our Lord and Savior wants us to do, just like Jesus did only what You, His Father, wanted done.
May our lives worship You more because we follow Jesus on more and more difficult journeys and assignments. In that way, we can reflect back to You the image of Your Son who never shied away from something difficult that You wanted done.
Make us strong in Your power to defeat the devil by following Jesus in our Christian friendships, families and marriages where His promise that He is with two or three believers in a special way makes His voice more clearly heard. Our Omnipotent God, unleash the power available to our Christian Inner Circles such that we follow Jesus to help Him do difficult things to destroy the works of Satan.
Help us all to prepare for heaven by growing more consistently to follow Jesus so that we can do so more spontaneously in heaven when we get there. We look forward to all the wonderful things He will want to lead us to in eternity.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Your Spirit is most easily transformed in community. The tools below can facilitate your growth as you meet with those you are in close Christian relationship with.
These are some of the possible benefits in heaven we will be seeking today by opening our minds to the Holy Spirit regarding being led together by Jesus Christ.
We will begin to leave behind individualized Christianity and be more like the twelve disciples who wandered the roads of Galilee and Judea with Jesus. We will learn that the ways of God now and especially in heaven are corporate more than individual.
We will be more able to follow Jesus to wonderful things in heaven His way – which is seldom autonomous, but in community with other believers.
Our joy of being led by Jesus in heaven will be increased as we will more readily let Him guide us together with other citizens of heaven into deeper ways of righteousness, behaviors and experiences.
We will increase our ability to listen to Jesus in the fellowship of other believers and hear more completely His voice to all of us together.
Sanctification Booster #1:
Let’s take time now to list the drawbacks of growing spiritually in Christ alone, without a lot of input from our Christian Inner Circles. For example, what critical things would be missing if we were to try alone to forgive someone who really hurt us badly without help from other Christians with whom we are close.
Sanctification Booster #2:
Let’s take time now to ponder the dynamics of how it is easier to listen to Jesus in groups of two or three Christians than alone – the fulfillment of Matthew 18:20 where is recorded the promise of Jesus, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” How should it be easier to determine a right decision if we were to take time to be quiet together, ask Jesus His thoughts, and then communicate them to one another?
Sanctification Booster #3:
Let’s try to envision some of the wonderful things we might miss in heaven if we do not grow out of autonomous Christianity and do not infuse our walk with Jesus with major input from others who are also able to listen Him. What things might we miss out on if in heaven we require Jesus to tell us individually of most opportunities for new treasures and did not become natural in allowing others to tell us of heaven’s opportunities to which Jesus has led them?