John 17 Capture the Unity & Depth

John 17 Capture the Unity & Depth                                 by Kelly Durant 3-22-26  

 

John 17 (Whole Chapter)  

2. Today you and I will take into account Jesus' longest prayer before he goes on to his death and resurrection. He will challenge our epistemology! His prayer makes no sense to the unbeliever. You know “Our Father” is less than a minute long but prayers have more to do with the quality of content than they do with how long they are! Let’s explore the importance of Jesus prayer, glory, power and connection to the Father, and how that relates to those of us who believe Him.

 

Before anything, I think we all love puzzles, right? With every statement someone makes, we discover, like an onion, there are many layers behind the statement. For example, if someone says, “My toes are black and blue because of my wife”, the biggest problem we have is that most listeners just form an opinion and believe what’s in their own mind about the matter and this is what creates disunity and communications problems! The average unwise reasoning person is not guided by truth, or God, or the Holy Spirit, but by their own imaginations which almost infallibly are false impressions! When someone is “assuming” something, please correct them! Discernment and reasoning gifts are necessary!

 

The statement above could mean that the wife dropped the iron on the toes or she stepped on them and they are bruised, or it could even mean the man kicked the wife and bruised his toes in the process! It could imply an accident, or something malicious, but you do not know until you learn more by asking questions, and by also taking into account the persons past record. It could even mean that she painted his toenails with black and blue nail polish as a joke! Do you see how no statement should go past you without a deeper inquiry to learn the truth! We have already witnessed that some people leave the church because they only listen to their own minds and not to what is actually being said!

 

3. Here is something I want you to learn, when reading the Bible, together with praying and asking the Holy Spirit to guide you, learn to capture the depth of the inferences of what was set up in the past, and what is deeper between the lines.  

John 17:1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. For one, why is Jesus asking His Father to glorify Him? Hasn’t He already been glorified in his birth, in his baptism, in the miracles, and in everything up until this point? So why does He ask to be glorified? This is the question?

 

God inspires answers. I see it like this, if a person trains to win a competition, this person could win on the state and the national levels, but despite the victories and accomplishments this competitor is not content because the focus is on the final prize of winning the Gold medal to be the best in the world! What Jesus is inferring is this, He has already been glorified but not totally yet, He is aware He still has to endure more: the death on the cross, and then return in an ultimate glory never witnessed before, the glory of being in His resurrected body! 

 

4. 2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

 

What is understood here? It is inferred that Jesus is confirming that God is delegating His authority of the future fate of all humans to Jesus so that after being glorified, He will then have total power to decide whether a human spirit after death can have access to heaven through eternal life or not: Eternal life that is tangent upon the acceptance of Himself (Jesus). It was only He that broke the curse of death and He was sent by God to break it and the glory is… He did it! 

 

It is confirmed in scripture many times that Jesus is the one (only one) who gives eternal life. How did Jesus gain this ability? He was the chosen one, but He also did not fail in “His obedience and by the things He suffered”. Hebrews 5:8

When you review the Old Testament you discover that none of God’s men, His prophets, or chosen ones (Moses, David, etc.) were perfect enough to come back to life, granting them the power to control this eternal life power by being the first one to dominate it. Death was brought in as a curse, and many of you know about curses, but it was undone by Jesus, so only He has the authority and control! Only He decides who gets eternal life and who not! You and I love Jesus but we also must fear Jesus’ authority as He has access to heaven and hell!

  

5. Jesus accomplished what no one had ever done before, and neither has anyone ever since Him ever gotten close to resurrecting like Him! Some people, however, believe they are gods but they are far from it and like the bumper sticker that says, "The next time you think you are perfect, try walking on water!" 

It resonates true that none of us, not one of us of the human race will ever be so perfect, so close to God that we will do miracles or have power over eternal life in the way that Jesus did! 

 

Divine yet human Jesus, by living obediently, righteously, and Holy, having the ability to do miracles, by his suffering, death, and resurrection, gained the status of being God’s right hand ruler and this means that He is over all humanity: Every person is subject to Him! No preacher, no wealthy star, no president, no dictator should ever be honored because all honor is due to Jesus!  Philippians 2:10

 

“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;” The name Jesus is synonymous to His power of resurrection and it is the proof that He revealed His Father’s glory to the world.

 

6.  John 17:4 “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”  First Jesus asks to be glorified, then he is claiming to have finished the work already, what does this mean? 

Jesus is talking in past tense, in other words, He is inferring He completed everything up to this point and the next step He counts as if it is done already. He has so much faith he is counting on the future as if it were past! Time is His!

 

That is confidence and strength! All of us have trials and tribulations but imagine if God revealed to you that you will die a horrible death, as He did with Jesus, would you still have faith and unquestionable obedience to God despite your fear and anguish and say to God, “Not my will, but yours be done?” 

 

7. 5 “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was”. So think about what this infers. Jesus was around before our world was! It was His design with God to create our world and it was full of glory! There still is an amazing harmony of glory out there when you discover the vast amazing things in macro space, and then observe the vast complexity of the creation design in the DNA micro space. God’s glory revealed in the physical, measured with our modern instruments, proves He made and keeps maintaining a harmonious perfection in life & energy, a perfection that is quadrillions of light years beyond our creative capacities and understanding! 

What we must assume from Jesus statement is that God’s Kingdom (of another world) is perfect and full of glory and that it existed before our world did.  It is instilled in our nature to know that there is a spirit world that is glorious and never ending, and we conclude that each one of us are existing in a temporary world that is broken, full of life but also full of death and suffering. 

 

One can only appropriately assume that a certain glory has been lost in creation as we know it. Obviously in heaven with God on the throne, no glory has been lost in that realm, but here on our earth there has been a lost glory of the original creation because sin and death came into the world by disobedience. Jesus came to erase this sin and to undo the curse of death so God’s glory could be restored but it is only for those who believe and accept it through Him.

 

8.  The obvious pretention of Jesus is to restore glory to the souls of everyone! 

John 17:12 13

12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

 

Verse 12 refers to Satan himself. In other words, anyone, anyone can be saved except Satan who went too far because he brought death into the world so He has to be punished with his own curse, so he will never obtain salvation: but anyone else can! Jesus came not to condemn but to save whosoever will!

Verse 13 mentions that we will have joy and it is true, we have great joy in Jesus in this life because He forgave our sins, gave us peace, and filled our hearts with love! But in reality our joy will not be complete until we join Him in heaven!

 

9. John 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

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

 

If you are following Jesus, then you are being rejected by those of the world like He was! We can’t do anything about living in this evil world, we are here and we have to interact with all kinds of people all the time, usually with people devoid of understanding, but the good thing is, if you and I stay close to Jesus, He will protect us from the world’s evil, keeping us strong in faith! 

 

What is established here is most people in the world are blind and evil, while we are other-worldly and heavenly. Our relationship will always be as oil and vinegar.  

 

10. John 16:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

As Salvationists we believe in sanctification, which is the lifelong process of becoming cleaned through the Holy Spirit, and the He speaks to you and me through the Word of God, which is the only absolute truth! Knowing Jesus as truth is the greatest blessing we can ever have in life because the majority of people are (2 Timothy 3:7) ‘Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth’.

 

You and I have to be careful because “lies” can appear to be “truth” because they come disguised in many ways. I reflect on my own personal mistakes: I believed I was gaining holiness, truth, life, and happiness at one time through the teachings of gurus. But there always comes a time when you will have to wake up and experience the real “truth”. No spiritual teacher (angelic or demonic), no politician, no person of glamour or power has any meaningful words at all compared to those of Jesus! Those who accept Jesus and are obedient to Him, who pray through Him, have a power that no human or demon can stop!   

 

You and I are similar to dumb sheep and we can easily be tempted by words of teachers or persons in power who entice us to become “enlightened”, and to gain a secret “wisdom” that only a few elect can have. How egocentric! But if you investigate deeper the rituals, the processes, and the false promises offered, they do not hold up under the light of truth which reveals their deceitful shallowness. 

 

11. History has taught us that no human can ever produce teachings that will bring you to a higher truth, or power above the truth and power of Jesus! But sadly today people get misguided very easily by indoctrinators in certain cults or religions, by political propagandists, and by professors in ‘so called’ prestigious colleges fueling the mindless ‘endless trains of faithless’. 

 

21 “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”

What a tragedy that innocent people suffer consequences due to our society being severely divided by those who absorb and repeat lies instilling inconvenient immoral policies with no critical thinking applied. But Jesus expects his saved ones to apply analysis and critical thinking to fully absorb deeper truths so they will be preserved as one in Him until the end rejecting lies. The herds of the shallow misguided apply no depth of research to understand any consequences of what it is they live out and promote. 

 

Those without Jesus’ truth do not do any personal introspection (or if they did they would conclude that they are evil) as to why they defend popularized trends and positions. They become puppets of those with manipulative agendas intent on destructions! But true Christians have a “one-ness’ of thought, purpose, and mission and the “truth has set them free!”

 

12. John 17:22 “And the glory which Thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.” Jesus prayer covers many more points than what we don’t have time for here but the main point in the end is that each of us learn to be One with Him, Jesus, believing in Him as sent from the Father. He is one with the Father being in part divine and human, and knowing Him provokes a desire to imitate His heart, mind and soul! 

 

The ultimate truth is we will never have unity with those of the world, but we must have it amongst ourselves because Jesus prayed for us to have it! The world is made up of 2 breeds, the sheep of Jesus, and the goats of those who “do as they please.” Those of us who have Jesus understand and walk in truth and see all lies for what they are, but the deceived ones, who are entrapped and slaves to their own passions, never make any sense of life or of anything! Confusion=hell.

 

So what did you learn from this? That applying reasoning and questions is imperative to knowing truth! And that only Jesus has power over eternal life! We learned that worldly people haven’t learned anything in life at all: they are shallow by ignorance and choice lacking in depth for rejecting Jesus! And without Jesus as truth leading you and me into deep insights one exists purposeless, sad, and confused, not just for now but forever! Absorb all of Jesus, study well His prayers and He will change and enlighten you!

Prayer: God Matures Everyone in Silence

Prayer: God Matures Everyone in Silence    Matt 6:6            by Kelly Durant

⁶ But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

2.There was a ship out at sea with passengers and a storm came up. The ship was getting tossed up and down and everywhere and many people were getting scared as they felt the ship was out of control. One woman went running to the cabin where the captain was gripping very tight the wheel of the rudder and she yelled, “Captain, Will we be alright”? He responded, “Well, just pray, go back in your room and pray for us all! The woman nearly fainted and said, “Oh no, has it come to that”?! This is awful!

To confront the storms of life prayer should not be our last option but our first one! There is one aspect of prayer that so many people overlook, it was right from the beginning as Jesus did it, it was prayer alone in silence, most of the time with no one around, like in your closet.  

All of us need to grow spiritually. I want you to be blessed beyond what you imagine. I want you to contemplate on this: God wants you (and me) to spend more quality time with Him, alone in silence.

3.The way God wants us, is by getting us close to Him in silence.  But sadly in today’s world, few people ever experience a real prolonged silence. Let’s start with a small step, how many of you today will commit to a full 10-15 minutes of prayer daily in total silence?  Raise your hand!

Matt 4: 1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil (Jesus conquered temptation in the desert) The idea is to not hear anyone’s voice, only the voice of God.

Before Jesus got started, He gave us an example of how to pray, and it was for many days in the desert alone with no one. Many of you may think, yeah, right, do you think I can get a 40 day vacation to go off by myself somewhere to just pray? It is true most of us probably will never get to fully experience what Jesus did, but imagine if you could get at least a small glimpse of it? You would understand Jesus better, you would become more like Jesus as you do what He did and that is the practice of prayer all alone.

4.Here is a reality, most people are lazy, and they prefer that another person, like some spiritual church leader, pray for them and they do not want to pray deeply in silence as God intended. Why is that? It is because from the prayer time we spend with God many things come to our minds in our silence, many things God wants to use to bring us closer to Him. 

Since these things remembered in meditation can often be unsolved problems, most people usually want to just tune them out and they do not want to think about them; but it is in silence that God can communicate to us the best. Prayer is not just us talking to Him, it is listening also.

Why do you and I pray anyway? Because when we do we get a real connection to God, we get protection from temptation, and we get we get empowered for our specific tasks that He needs us to do for Him.

5. Just looking at Jesus in the desert place, what happened in his experience? Jesus had absolutely no sin at all so Satan, the accuser of the saints could not discourage him with his own faults, or family and personal problems (as he does with most of us), so he had to tempt Jesus not with lust, or money, but with pride and power.

Pride is Satan’s biggest offer. Each temptation exposed to Jesus involved Him doing a miracle that would be an abuse of God’s power. Satan knew Jesus was God’s Son who would bring healing, love, and salvation to everyone, so he played on his pride with the temptation to show off how powerful he could be actually to get Him to manipulate for his own presumably justifiable reasons the laws of nature. 

Satan wanted Jesus to alter the laws of physics set in place tempting that a stone to be made into bread; he wanted Jesus to stop the laws of gravity if he were to fall, and worse, he wanted Jesus to submit to the worship of Satan himself by passing over to the dark side of Satan’s destructive kingdom; but deep inside Jesus knew very well that Satan’s kingdom would become hell and the souls of angels and men would be judged, incarcerated, and torturingly punished for eternity for their destructions and rebelliousness towards God for worshipping Satan. 

If Jesus would have done any miracle for personal gain he would have sent all creation on a course of destruction, which was Satan’s motive. Satan is at war with God and all humanity to destroy as much as possible of God’s creation and the souls of people. Satan delights in destroying your happiness, your family, your relationships, and he loves causing discord with our fellow saints in the churches and Corps. How do you defeat him? With prayer!

6. Another time and place…Matthew 14:13  When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.

Escaping from people from time to time to be by yourself is actually copying Jesus’ prayer habits! Alone prayer time strengthens you and me in the battle as it did with Jesus to do the work. It obliges you and me to have some alone time with God so He can recharge our spirits, like you recharge a battery. 

Prayer is intended to give you a silent time alone with God so He can reveal to you things you do not know about yourself, so you can see your actions as He sees them, and some things about yourself will not be so nice. It is comparing your stained life beside his white holiness that we see clearly. All we need to do is confess our sins and He loving, time after time, forgives them. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

There is the reality that many people do not see their own actions as God and others see them. 

Proverbs 20:6 Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?  In a group setting some people will boast, I’ll be there for prayer time, I’ll be there to evangelize, I’ll be there to teach a class, but then when the day comes, where are they?  Allow the Holy Spirit to talk to your spirit while in prayer so you remember where you missed God’s mark. People will show up to eat, but will they show up to pray?

Prayer brings the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, and it causes you to remember and see the truth of your actions and of others around you. Prayer changes your outlook and attitude to be more thankful, to be encouraged, and to be empowered to do jobs & tasks outstandingly.

7.Here is an observation, and I can tell you now by experience, after learning a few things at the Brengle Holiness Institute, that there are some people that have difficulty passing a few hours in silence just to pray alone. A majority of people as Christians are not so happy when they have to be all alone for any long period of time. (with no interruptions of cell phones or tv). 

Imagine some Officers, as old and mature in the Lord as they are, were confessing how hard it was for them to just sit in silence to commune with God. Most all of us are use to being in action and praying with someone and for someone, but for praying alone, most all of us only do it for a few minutes.

It can be concluded that many people do not like total silence and being alone, but like it or not, Jesus showed us by His example that it is the only way for God to work in your life, helping you to win the victories over the sins you may not see you have. 

For the longest time I have been wondering how is it some Corps and churches some people developed into being willing on fire servants for Jesus and yet some other places the people seem so slow, and complainy and do not willing to do much? How is it some really put their heart into things and others do not? The answer is very simple, all things that people do is a reflection of their prayer time with Jesus! A reflection of their depth with God!

8. Mark 6:31 And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

The people that pass time with Jesus start to act and be more like Jesus! If Jesus himself spent time alone with God, not just in the beginning of his calling, but time after time he separated himself from the crowd with the disciples, how much more do you and I need to do it too!

While at Brengle we did a test to see if one were an introvert or extravert type personality. I am more extravert than introvert (but years ago I was more introvert). Do you know what you are? Well, the interesting thing is most extraverts are social, they like to work with others and it came to light they do not like to pray in silence, but they prefer to pray with someone. But even though silent prayer is harder for some, even though it is easier to just be busy for the Lord doing all kinds of activity, if we do not learn to practice quieting down our spirits we will be like the oil lamp that starts burning the wick and not the oil. We will not last long and our light will be flickeringly dark and ugly.

Prayer in silence allows God time to reveal to us things and it allows time for Him to fill us up with His Holy Spirit and living Word. So many times I have prayed and just sat there in silence and even after just 10 minutes God seems to bring to my mind verses from the Bible for my encouragement. Have you ever had that experience?

9.Matthew 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

If you do not hear God in silence, then ask yourself, am I treating God lovingly?  Prayer, sadly for some is a let down instead of what it is intended to be, a praise time where you feel the Holy Ghost coming to you teaching you, rebuking you, and guiding you into all wisdom.

How do you pray really? Prayer for some people is never very uplifting and they get tired of it because their prayers are more like complaints than praises. Instead of worshipping and praising our Father in heaven being thankful, they begin with a selfish petition. 

“Oh, God, one more time I ask you to give me faith.  You know my needs. I have asked you for years now and I don’t know why you leave me suffering. Give me patience. Help others to respect me more because I do so much for you. In you name amen.”

Can you see what is wrong? There is an approach to God as if He is supposed to do everything for you as you want it. Prayer for some people is actually a selfish thing, not one of just thanking, trusting, and loving God. Done right, prayer fills you with energy and love!

10.Many times our prayer meetings have been one person praying after another, and this is good, all different styles are accepted, but I recall in some prayer vigils when I have told everyone to just be silent for 10 minutes it seems someone could not wait to break the silence after 5 minutes because it seems too uncomfortable.  It is true, prayer is communication by speaking from the heart, but it is also a time when listening to God should take place. 

Recall even John in Revelation recorded that he had to wait in silence for half an hour while in heaven.   Revelation 8:1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And recall John had silence and prayer for the last several years of his life on the deserted island of Patmos. And on the deserted island look how much God spoke to him!

11. Here is something new for you to think about, God may make you uncomfortable in prayer before He comforts you in prayer. He wants to clean you and teach you, but He never can if you will not allow Him all the time He needs to speak to you in silence. 

Prayer is like cleaning your house, you walk in at the end of the day praise God for having a home but it is dirty so in order to enjoy your free time in peace, you first clean it up and wash the dishes, and then you are able to make a meal, and then just sit in peace to relax. Or you can do it vice versa, you can eat, relax, enjoy it, and then clean it. Listening brings on cleansing, and talking to God is like relaxing having a family chat. 

I want to challenge you. I think there is not a single person here that will fast and prayer in the desert for 40 days as Jesus did. But here is the situation, some of you maybe have not even done it ever in your life for even 40 minutes. How many of you have gone into a closet with no distractions and prayed in absolute silence for even 4 hours? It is not easy, but the benefits are worth it!

Remember each of you, and me included are in God’s progressing plant to mature and grow into more love and holiness. The Holy Spirit will talk to you, so give God, Jesus time. It is your responsibility to love and communicate your heart to God daily without ceasing. I Tess 5:17 Pray without ceasing!  Will you as of today start listening and communicating to God in silence more now since you and I discovered more on how Jesus did it?