Hello, Friends! I have a little message to share with you today that I believe the Lord has released me to share, and which I believe is going to encourage you.
But first, I’m going to need to give you some context.
I’ve walked with Jesus for pretty much all my life. I honestly cannot remember life before I became a Christian, and I’ve had a lot of pretty amazing experiences with Jesus. But something happened to me last week when we met for Bible Study+ which was pretty unique for my walk with the Lord.
It’s not that this hasn’t happened for others. No, it’s happened to many over the course of the past 2,000 years, and we hear reports of it happening all around the world today. This is just the first time it happened quite this way for me.
Two Sundays ago as we gathered for our Bible Study+ meeting, I had a vision of Jesus.
We had all been praying and singing with a focus on praying in the name of Jesus. In fact, when this happened, we were all singing Charity Gayle’s song, “I Speak Jesus.”
We know there is great power in the name of Jesus, and when we pray in the name of Jesus we wield the authority of Jesus which is greater than any other authority in heaven or on earth.
And because we greatly desire to see spiritual breakthrough and revival come to our community, we were speaking the name of Jesus over it.
Standing in a circle together, we were speaking the name of Jesus over every family, over addiction and every kind of bondage, over the minds and hearts of the people in our town…over everything we could think of.
We were speaking His name over all of it because we know He is glorified when we lift up His name. We were endeavoring to honor Him by praying for His Kingdom to advance––for more people to love Him, honor Him, and serve Him.
That’s when I saw Him.
I saw Jesus standing in the middle of our circle.
Yes, He was wearing flowing white robes. And, yes, as my kids wanted to know as soon as I told them this happened, He had long white hair just like it says He has in Revelation. But what stood out to me most is that He was walking up to each person in the circle with His hands outstretched to receive the praise we were giving Him, and He had the most beautiful look of pleasure on His face.
He loved what we were doing.
I was so overcome in the moment that I began to weep and cry out for everyone in the room to worship Him. Honestly, I don’t remember exactly what I said, but my family tells me I was shouting out, “Jesus is here! He’s here! Worship Him! Worship Him!”
I was totally overwhelmed. It’s been over a week, and I have remained overwhelmed by the experience. When I look at my own living room, the place where this happened, I just keep seeing Him! Jesus!
The morning after this happened, I woke up still worshipping Him, wrecked by the reality that Jesus had been among us.
Now, I had no reason to be surprised.
Matthew 18:20 says,
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
But how many times do people meet in the name of Jesus not realizing He’s actually there?
Like, they come to church and sing His praises and call upon His name, all the while thinking about what so-and-so told them in the lobby, about so-and-so’s outfit, about how much better they liked the last pastor instead of this one or about how much they wished their pastor did things differently…or about what they’re going to make for dinner or how their kids are doing in school or how they’re going to make their schedule work this week or how many other things which fall on spectrums of distraction, selfishness, weakness, and even pure evil.
Do they know Jesus actually shows up when people gather in His name? And that He hears those thoughts? He sees the intentions of those hearts?
I know He is pleased to receive praise when it is given, but what about when He is invited to come to a gathering because it’s held in His name, then He shows up to find a people who don’t care that He’s there?
I know this wasn’t the situation in the room in our Bible Study+ meeting. Even without the vision, a quick look around the room revealed glory on each face. Hearts were genuinely crying out to Jesus, and it showed.
It was beautiful!
But I think it’s important we remember that Jesus really does keep His Word. Whether someone has a vision of Him or not, He comes when two or three gather in His Name, and He loves to receive His worship.
About an hour or so into my morning, the day after my vision of Jesus, I will admit that my worship began to melt into the practicality of my day. I began thinking about my responsibilities for the week and how things were going to come together. Plans. Purposes. To-Do Lists. And…the reality of some present challenges.
I started to notice some aches and pains.
I started to think about some troubles.
And then I thought, “Kimberlee! Why didn’t you talk to Jesus about these things! He was here! Right here in the house! You saw Him!”
Of course, I could pray. Jesus hears our prayers too. I could pray about it, and He would respond, but I realized something crucial…
The night before when I saw Jesus, I couldn’t have brought myself to ask for anything. I was so overwhelmed that only response I could begin to muster was to burst into tears and blurt out that everyone in my midst––Jesus’ midst!––needed to worship Him!
And that’s when it hit me: what courage it would have taken for those who needed a touch from Jesus when He walked by!
Think about it: people cried to Him from the sides of roads, “Jesus! Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Or think about the woman with the issue of blood who broke all kinds of “rules” and pushed through the crowd just to touch the hem of His garment.
Or the group of men who said, “Forget it! We’ll just dig through the roof!” so they could get their friend to Jesus.
What courage!
To be fair, they weren’t seeing the white-haired glorified Jesus of Revelation. They were seeing the brown-haired, dusty-sandaled Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus had made himself entirely accessible to humanity, coming in the package of human flesh to minister to the sick, the needy––or as we learn from Isaiah 56 to invite the broken and the outsiders into nearness to God in the House of Prayer.
But Jesus gave us this promise in Matthew 18:20 that He would continue to make himself accessible to us today:
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
We may not see Him, but He’s here. And He’s listening.
Worship Him, but come to Him with your troubles too. He’s able to meet your needs precisely because He is glorified and precisely because He is worthy.
Blessings to you, Friends!
Kimberlee
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