PART #16
THE STAFF AND SWORD MINISTRY
February 7, 3006
MANIFESTING CHRIST IT IS EXPEDIENT FOR YOU THAT I GO AWAY° (Jesus in John 16:7)
by Nancy-TONI Youngbrandt At one time or another I am sure we have all read the words that Jesus told His disciples when speaking of His impending death on the cross. He told them in John 16:7 --
"it is expedient for you that Igo away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." And the purpose of this Comforter, this Spirit of truth, is so that "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive mine, and shall show it unto you." (John 16:14)
of
In other words, before this glorifying of Christ by the Spirit of God could take place, He first had to go away from His disciples — this was the best thing for them and for God's purposes. What I hadn't seen before in these Scriptures was an insight shared by Andrew Murray in his book, A LIFE OF POWER ( Whitaker House, 301hint Valley Circle, New Kensington. PA 15068), and that insight is that just as the disciples could not have a relationship with Jesus in the flesh AND in the Spirit too, so we also must give up our fleshy relationship with Him for one of , by and in the Spirit of God. As Andrew Murray said, "We must also give up the Christ we have known, if we are indeed to have Him glorified to us and in us by the Holy Spirit." 'I his in turn applies directly to our topic of Manifesting Christ because in His discussion of these Scriptures in John 16, he gave a very eye-opening definition of just what it means to "glorify." He explained it this way ... "To glorify is to manifest the hidden excellence and worth of an object."