The Glorious Unity of Being One

To: ALL WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR 

From; GOD THE FATHER, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST HIS SON and Ministered through the HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD, The Helper, that He may be with you forever. [John 14:16] 

Subject: MY WORD

 

John 17:1–26 (The Living Bible)

      When Jesus had finished saying all these things he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Reveal the glory of your Son so that he can give the glory back to you. ²For you have given him authority over every man and woman in all the earth. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. ³And this is the way to have eternal life—by knowing you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth! ⁴I brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you told me to. ⁵And now, Father, reveal my glory as I stand in your presence, the glory we shared before the world began.

⁶“I have told these men all about you. They were in the world, but then you gave them to me. Actually, they were always yours, and you gave them to me; and they have obeyed you. ⁷Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, ⁸for I have passed on to them the commands you gave me; and they accepted them and know of a certainty that I came down to earth from you, and they believe you sent me.

⁹“My plea is not for the world but for those you have given me because they belong to you. ¹⁰And all of them, since they are mine, belong to you; and you have given them back to me with everything else of yours, and so they are my glory! ¹¹Now I am leaving the world, and leaving them behind, and coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your own care—all those you have given me—so that they will be united just as we are, with none missing. ¹²During my time here I have kept safe within your family all of these you gave me. I guarded them so that not one perished, except the son of hell, as the Scriptures foretold.

¹³“And now I am coming to you. I have told them many things while I was with them so that they would be filled with my joy. ¹⁴I have given them your commands. And the world hates them because they don’t fit in with it, just as I don’t. ¹⁵I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from Satan’s power. ¹⁶They are not part of this world any more than I am. ¹⁷Make them pure and holy through teaching them your words of truth. ¹⁸As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world, ¹⁹and I consecrate myself to meet their need for growth in truth and holiness.

²⁰“I am not praying for these alone but also for the future believers who will come to me because of the testimony of these. ²¹My prayer for all of them is that they will be of one heart and mind, just as you and I are, Father—that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me.

²²“I have given them the glory you gave me—the glorious unity of being one, as we are—²³I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one—so that the world will know you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me. ²⁴Father, I want them with me—these you’ve given me—so that they can see my glory. You gave me the glory because you loved me before the world began!

²⁵“O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. ²⁶And I have revealed you to them and will keep on revealing you so that the mighty love you have for me may be in them, and I in them.”