JESUS IS MISSING

JESUS IS MISSING

41 ¶ Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.

42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.

43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.

44 But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.

45 And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.

46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.

47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

48 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?

50 And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. Luke 2:

This scripture is quite familiar to several people as it tells us the story of how Jesus followed His earthly parents to Jerusalem f9opr the feast of the Passover. But our concern here is not just the story. We want to examine what happened to Joseph and Mary the Jesus was missing from their midst and they never knew it.

Since it happened to people like Joseph and Mary, it could happen to anyone. As a minister of fact, there are several people, churches and fellowships groups in whose lives Jesus is presently missing and they do not know it. This then calls for a careful study of this incidence kin order to learn wisdom for our lives and our walk with God.

It will be very costly assumption to think that you are a child of God, that God is with you and that Jesus is in your heart, only to get to the gate of Heaven and discover that you never knew Him or that you missed Him along the way. At that time, it will be too late and eternity will open up to you on the other side, which is hell fire. There is therefore an urgent need to pay close attention to this matter.

Now the Bible said,

   “41 ¶ Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover…” vs 41

This is one thing you should note as we prayerfully go on in this study. Mary and Joseph were not careless, ungodly people. They were quite religious. They went every year to the feast of Passover. They were not people who had absconded from church; they were not even people who went to the temple occasionally. They were regularly. Maybe you are such a person who has never missed any of your church meetings and programs, Joseph and Mary were people like you. The bible records that when Jesus was twelve years old, they went with Him up to Jerusalem as they had always done.

Think a little more about the background of Mary and Joseph. Marry was a woman that set her self for God. She consecrated her heart to God. Mary, though in courtship relationship with Joseph, with the consent of their two families and the wedding day already fixed still maintained her virginity! Not many young people kin this age care so much about being chaste. Not many eventually get married as virgins.

They “spoil” themselves with premarital sex or fornication. Many even go as far as aborting pregnancies. But not Mary, she kept herself in the midst of such pressures and temptations. Now if such a person that has been working in the service of God (proper consecration) walking with a heart turned towards God, and in holiness, missed Jesus, then I would again like to remind to consider this very closely. It could happen to you also!

THE POINTERS TO MISSING JESUS

What could happen to Mary and Joseph that they missed Jesus from their lives? Remember, that Mary carried Jesus for nine months in her womb. She stayed with Jesus for twelve years. How could they have missed Him and not know it? How could you that have been a Christian for some years now (if you really are); “born again” (so to speak) several years ago, still miss Jesus? How could the reality of Jesus, the reality of the Christian life, and of the power of God, dissipate from your life and you will not know it? Is it possible to continue in church and religious activities, going from one meeting to another, and from one conference to another, yet in reality be a backslider: bereft of any tangible Heavenly and spiritual reality? Is it possible that, with all the bogus religious titles, positions, reputations and privileges around you, Jesus is already missing? These are the issues I am raising for us to consider. Now, what are the remote and immediate pointers that one is about to, or is already out of tune with the Master?

  1. WHEN GENUINE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES DEGENERATE INTO FEAST AND CUSTOMS!

The word of God said;

“…his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.”

The first pointer unto missing Jesus I want to draw your attention you in the passage under consideration is – The Passover became a feast! The Passover, when it was instituted was an experience. It was something that changed people’s lives. In the Old Testament everybody knew that he actually passed-over from the dominion (kingdom) of Egypt, out of bandage at the Passover. PASSOVER MEANT DELIVERANCE! It was the foundation for all other spiritual encounters! It meant coming out of the tyranny of darkness into the light, under cloud of the presence of God. But at this particular time in question, people that never had the real experience of Passover only attended it as a feast. A Christian loses Jesus from his life when the experience that changed many people’s lives in the past becomes an ordinary feast to him. When church attendance is no more to encounter, or to have an experience with God, but an ordinary feast and entertainment to a man, he will soon lose Jesus on his life.

Do you know that singing: churches, praise worship, hymns, e.t.c for instance can become a feast? It can degenerate, as indeed it has done in several of our denominations today into mere ‘frenzies and jamborees’! It has actually become nothing but mere “musical concerts” embellished with all kinds of beasts and instruments borrowed from Babylon’, though these songs are actually spiced with gifted soprano voice that come from unbroken and fleshy hearts!

Is it not a common knowledge that several of our so called ‘Christian albums’ are nothing but ‘Jamaican reggae beats’ covered with Isaac watts and Charles Wesley voices? Is it any wonder then that when we now sing such songs, our lives do not bear the same fruits and results as those saints of blessing memory?

Dear man of God’, instead of the bogus, and carnal launching of twelve million naira musical instruments accompanied with prayer and fasting, you have plunged your congregation into, you should first in your own life and then with your congregation do a ‘spiritual launching’ for the recovery of the Holy consecrated, spirit filled and obedient life that was once delivered unto the saints!

Again, let me remained you, church activities and indeed, every religious activities for that matter can become an ordinary ‘feast’ when it carries no spiritual experience in your life again. Even prayer as spiritual as it is can become a ‘feast’. When prayer-time is no longer a genuine fellowship with God, but a routine of vain repetition and meaningless words, or even in the name of ‘speaking in tongues’! Or worse still when your prayer time with God instead of bending your self-will and writing eternal characters in your life becomes only an avenue for using God to advance your selfish ambitions… when it is no longer a place of receiving God’s will and the grace to do it, but rather a routine of “God give me this”, God do this for me”, “God destroy all those who are standing in the way of my blessing and promotion”. When prayer time-God’s opportunity for breaking the tyranny of self, sin and rotteness of your life – becomes diverted to serving your interest, then you have entered into the realms of ceremonies and feast!

There are yet others who presently attend prater meetings, family prayer times or devotions, or even fasting retreats, not because the burden and desire to pray is present, but rather more out of “saving face”, “a name”, or even their “past reputation” of being once upon a time a spiritual brother or sister. The truth however, alas, is Ichabod! The glory has departed and the heart has backslidden. To such, Jesus in the book of Revelation says: “thou has a name that thou liveth, but thou at dead” when you participate in any religious activity just to protect a name or to defend yourself against people thinking that you are no longer fervent- then, spiritual thing have become just a feast or ceremony you as well. You are on the shortest possible path to losing Jesus.

Friends, from the above and other indices too numerous to mention, will you not agree that the things of God are becoming just a ceremony you?

Don’t you now know for instances just go to church on Sundays only as a ceremony? Imagine that for weeks, you don’t do any genuine personal study of your bible to go for service. Perhaps, you may be going to show off your new dress, your new car, or even to parade your fine looking (and probably spoilt) children! It is certainly not out of a hunger or desire to see the glory of God.

When you see these parameters in your life, they are pointers unto missing the reality of the Christian life. They are pointers showing that you may already be missing the Lord Jesus Christ out in your life and you do not know it.

Furthermore in verse 42 we read:

“And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.”

Look at the important phrase “after the custom of the feast.” They went there, but it was to meet a custom… a program that had already been set. It was to meet a custom that must be followed… the step-by-step ‘lifeless’ constitution, organization or mere form, that has been arranged and must be followed… and anyone could run through this so called programmed without meeting Jesus. So they went “after the custom of the east”: a routine mandated procedure.

In some Christian circles today, it is a custom to come to church and just dance around and sing without necessarily touching Jesus. It is a custom in several congregations to make noice and to shout “seven big halleluyahs” facing; north, east, or west. It is not because there is any real or overflowing joy, or that people genuinely are saved and delivered from sin and reconciled to their Maker, or have become spontaneously filled with joy of the Holy Spirit which is the genuine outcome of such experiences… but men are programmed and manipulated to shout “amen”, “halleluyah”, “glory to God”…, while in bitterness, in vengeance, in resentment, in anger, in adultery and every wantonness you can imagine in their private lives. These are nothing but customary empty noises from noisy and sinful hearts.

Psalm 137: 1, 3, we read;

1 ¶ By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

4 How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?

Dear officiating Pastor and Minister, how dare you program men to sing Halleluyah (a genuine Heavenly song and language) with a strange voice, from a strange heart and captivated how can men and women captured and captivated by lust, worldliness, forgery, bigotry end adultery,…spontaneously sing such songs, except it be by programme or other such mechanical arrangement and devices of men? Where will the supply of the Spirit come form to make such joyful and acceptable noice unto the Lord?. Again in

Titus 2:11-14

“11 ¶ For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

14 Who gave himself for us, THAT HE MIGHT REDEEM US FROM ALL INIQUITY, AND PURIFY UNTO HIMSELF A PECULIAR PEOPLE, ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS.”

As you can see in verse 14, ‘sin’, ‘iniquities’, or every ‘work of the flesh’ are like killers of zeal and every form of good works. A man that Jesus has never redeemed from all iniquity can never possess genuine zeal for glorifying God! And I see you as church leader investing so much in drums, trumpets, loudspeakers, and other bogus public address systems to create ‘effects’ and ‘noice’ – an imitation of what the Holy Spirit alone can do in men and women once they are genuinely delivered from sin and flesh in their lives.

Rather than ‘program’ the drummer in your church to beat the ‘conger’ seven times an the key- boardist to press the percussion key each time you shout “praise the LORD” pursue reality, holiness and purity! Pursue, and have victory first over your taste, passions, appetites, and selfish tendencies. Then you shall have joy and genuine happiness both in you, those around you, and in your congregation! This would pay off better than your custom of standing of to sing or say “I see the Lord, He is high and lifted up and His train fills the temple…eem…eem…I can feel Him right now..ishhh…umm…and such other Pentecostal slangs and languages that is presently every where, when in reality you neither feel nor see Him.

You could also miss out on Jesus without knowing it when spiritual gifts and services that started with great convictions and earnests in you has now become a custom… has your preaching or messages for instance become an ordinary lifeless duty or routine, and no longer with the prayers, the initiatives and the deep burden for the conversion and the salvation of souls with which it stared with. Even you choir-master; do you still sing to touch souls or your ministry in songs has become as customary as a daily paid workers? Something you do just to “catch an honorarium”!

I wan you to now check your life. Truly you were “born again” some years ago, are you still in touch with that fire that was kindled in your heart at the beginning? The love, the passion, the motives you had for doing all that you are presently doing for Jesus, are they still there? Or has your worships and service degenerated into ordinary custom?

“ I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, …and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”   Rev.2:2-5.

  1. WHEN YOU DO NOT INSIST ON MEASURABLE AND DISCERNABLE IMPATATIONS EACH TIME YOU CONTACT SPIRITUAL THINGS

Further more in verse 43.

“And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.”.

Do you see a confirmation? “When they had fulfilled the day…” when they are finished the programme, and run through the custom or processes. Then, “as they returned…” it bothers me that there are men and women in our generation today that are drifting up and down. Millions in and out of churches and religious houses without a conscious experience or definite encounter with the Lord Jesus in their lives. And I also wonder how you are going and “returning…”, yet you are “returning…” just as you went. Nobody was interested in what happened to anybody at the feasts or what definite things they got there. Nobody wanted to know if there was any spiritual experience or any definite touch of God in their lives. Nobody spoke about that. When they had fulfilled the days, they returned. It is just as men go to church today; some just put on their goggles as if they are listing, but they are sleeping, waiting for the custom to finish. “And as they returned” – most men just go in and they come out. No difference, no touch, no definite experience.

Why are you going and returning without anything to show for it? Why are you no longer insisting on having a progressive, measurable and discernable impartation as you move from day to day. Why for instance do you go into prayers when it does not bring any result to you? If you are sure you are walking with Jesus when you prayed and there was no answer, you should have ask the Lord, why did not answer me? What was the problem in my life? Why did I cast out the demons and they refused to go?” that is how to be sure that the master is still walking side by side with you.

“And as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem…”

Joseph and Jesus ‘mother were unaware of it. He had been with them for 12years and now He tarried behind in Jerusalem and they did not know. How could Jesus, the only object of their life, Jesus for whose sake Mary left all her glory, all that she could have been boasting about that same Jesus tarried behind and was missing from her company and she did not know. What could be the reason that “…Joseph and His mother knew not of it.”?

You will note that in verse 41, the bible says His parents”, but in verse 43, the statement was particular. It pointed out that Joseph did not know and neither did Mary the mother of Jesus.

This implies that every one of us must bear responsibility for missing Jesus. Whether you are a husband or a wife, when you miss out Jesus from your life as an individual, God is going to call you by your name. It will not be correct to say, “My husband understands.” In the matter of not walking with Jesus, God is going to call you by your name.

WHEN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD JESUS IS NOT PERSONAL, BUT HINGED ON OTHER PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCES

This is the next important to missing out Jesus?

“But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.”.   Verse 44:

“They were supposing Jesus to have been in the company.” They assumed that Jesus was with them. They assumed that Jesus was in their caravan.

Note this: the next pointer to missing out Jesus in your Christian life is when your Christian life becomes a company experience: “our church, our prayer meeting, our this, out that, our seminary, our bible school…” talking about your personal life, about what is happening to you. You must say, “if you come to our church, it is usually very hot, and very spiritual”. What about your own life? Are you living above sin? Have you conquer the power of darkness in your life? When your spiritual experience has become a company experience, it is a pointer that you are missing out. Have you nothing to say about your life and about your personal walk with God? It means that something is getting wrong.

WHEN YOU ARE CARELESS AND MAKE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS A MATTER OF GUESSES AND PRESUMPTIONS.

”But they, supposing him to have been in the company;…”

They went a day’s journey assuming that the Master was there. What an assumption and a terrible experience to show fir it! They went a day’s journey into the wilderness, a day’s journey without Jesus. This is a serious matter. Oh, how many people have gone on and on in life, into courtships, even marriages, assuming that Jesus was with them.

You also may have gone into business, without ever consider if this was God’s will for you. Dear friend, have you also gone into ventures assuming that Jesus is with you? Did you bother to pray, did you consult with the word of God, and with others who have the Spirit of God around you? No wonder you have lost your peace, I imagine that you have gone on and on and dabble into many things in life only on the assumption that the Master was there with you? Oh what a costly assumption! See how you are now sweating at old age because of disappointments, failures and struggles when you should have been resting.

Are you going on only on assumption? Or is the Master presently in your life? I want you to pause at this point and consider is Jesus in your life? Do you still have the assurance of His presence? Is He reigning in your heart right NOW? And you, oh young one, I congratulate you for a whole lifetime ahead of you… but note that you will only be free of regrets, sorrows and woe if hence-forth you choose to make sure that Jesus is with you in all you do, in all you involve yourself with, career, education, transfer, location, relationships, and indeed every aspect of your life.

There are yet so many people who have assumed that because they are bearing Joseph, Samuel or some other good Christian names or may be because they are Reverence (Pastor or Father) or a church Deacon and Deaconess, Jesus is with them. Some assume that since their father is the founder of the president of a ministry, or because they have a beautiful choir, a good band set, the Lord Jesus is there with them. It could be a costly assumption. Do no longer assumed, be sure!

No matter how innocent and sincere you are in your assumption, you may by sincerely wrong!

SEEKING FOR JESUS FROM A WRONG PLATFORM

“…and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.

45 And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking Him.”

The Bible says; “and they sought Him…” when the realized their costly mistake, they had to seek Him. But they sought Him in a wrong place. They sought him among their friends, among their relatives, among their kinsmen; they sought Him among their fellow backsliders. There are some that want to be Christians today but instead of looking to the word of God and looking to the standard and the pathways that God had set for finding Him, they say: “well I am not the only sinner in the town. Even our pastor is a sinner.”

That means you are looking for Jesus among your colleagues with whom you are backsliding and travelling together on assumption. It will be a great and costly assumption, to assume that Jesus is in your life, when He is not there. The step to take is to cry out and return to where you missed Him. Should Jesus be in your life today, He would have delivered you from sin. He would have set you free from the dominion of satan. Look at your life very closely; are you only assuming? And if all you have been hanging upon is assumption, call on Jesus Christ now and He will come into your life. Cry out and come back to the Master.

STEPS TO RECOVERING YOUR LOST RELATION SHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST

Having looking at how Mary and Joseph missed Jesus and the various issues we have note as pointers or parameters to missing out, we will go on to note the steps they individually and personally took to recover their lost relationship with Jesus Christ, I am trusting God that you will rise up to discover art what level you are missing out. Could it be your first love or vision? It could even be your sweet communion with the Lord Jesus or a life of victory over sin that is missing maybe you lost the revelation of God, or the power of God that was mightily at work in you. Or perhaps it is the life of holiness, or your ability to hear God that has gotten lost in the midst of the crowd. We are trusting God to help you recover the lost anointing, the lost fire and zeal. Right now, several people only think and talk of what they used to be. They talk about how Jesus was once upon a time real to them; how they pray, how God used to move and how when they finish preaching, people used to cry and repent, but all they are recounting are past experiences – their own history.

Perhaps right now, you are also just walking into the greatest emptiness of your life and you are feeling that some things are not really the same again or that things have really shifted in your life, follow on to discover the steps to prayerfully take to recover and get your grip back on reality.

  1. INSIST ALWAYS ON MAKING YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

“supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.”

They thought He was somewhere in the caravan, with the others who were traveling with them. Many times, we forget to personalize our relationship with the Lord Jesus. We forget to pin down what is happening to us as individuals. But a company experience of your spiritual life cannot carry you far. If all you are doing is a ‘caravan’ experience, following the crowd and being teleguarded by others, watch out! If you have no personal experience with Jesus, no internal fire in your heart, I humbly, but firmly call you to order this moment. That kind of principle will not take you far. And this is because the bible says each of us shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give account of our lives. We would not stand together, not as a church or denomination, nor as a ministry group. In fact we will not stand together even as a family. Husbands and wives will not stand together. Each one of us will give account of his or her own life time on earth. A father will not give account for his children; children will not give account for their parents. And friends will not give account for their friends.

The greatest mistake that one may make is to assume that the group experience is one’s personal experience. Are you talking of your company? They are not the real things to talk about. Talk about your life. Talk about how you are with Jesus today. Tell me how strong your spiritual life is. How consistent is your personal prayer life? I am not here referring to church prayer meetings or the corporate night vigils that you always attend every week. I am not asking for the National prayer and fasting meetings that you have attended. My question is, what is your personal prayer life like? When last did you have a personal night vigil with the Lord Jesus? When last did you personally go out as an individual to obey the great commission? Or are you simply having a caravan experience with expert drivers, men that are driving you here and there most of the time with their own personal self-motives? I want to ask you righty now- “they sought He was in the caravan”- do you imagine that Jesus is in your caravan? Have you met Jesus as you personal Lord and savior? Has He healed you? Is He your personal physician? Has He touched you? Has the cross of Jesus come to crush all the works of flesh, the works of sin and all the works of the devil in your life? “Caravan Christianity” will carry you nowhere.

  1. DO NOT ACT IN HASTE AND PRESSUMPTION- ALWAYS BE PROPERLY GUIDED

“…and they went a day’s journey…”

How could you go on without being sure that Jesus was with you? They went a day’s journey. Do you know the implication of that? Every day you move without being sure of Jesus, you take a step farther from reality. Each time you realize that you are not as spiritual as people are thinking about you, you must be sincere to yourself and to the people about it. When they ask you to lead a meeting, teach in Sunday school to accept a new position in your church and you know you are still sinning (though secretly). Be sincere and tell the truth about your life. If you cover it and go on to accept spiritual responsibility, you are going a day’s journey without Jesus. Are you a fornicator and you are still teaching a Sunday class? Do you want to kill yourself? Surely you do want to kill yourself! I see you going to sit on the platform when you are supposed to sit in the pew because of your life. Do you want to destroy yourself? You are going a day’s journey out of God’s presence. Many men today have accepted good positions; they are now elders deacons, or choir master in churches, but they have not yet overcome sin in their lives. They seem to be moving very fast in the hierarch of church organization and church activities. Seeing that it is becoming impossible for the simple Word of God to reach your life there, are you still going on? Surly you are already going a day’s journey into wilderness. Elijah took that kind of journey and it ended him in a terrible experience. He went a day’s journey into the wilderness and that was the end of his ministry.

My friends, were you now rushing to? If your life is not right with God where are you rushing to? Can’t you look yourself up and kneel down and say “God I will not let you go until you revive me. Lord Jesus, why am I like this? Why is my life getting confused? I will not you go until you revive me.” Why are you continuing in this journey? It may be very costly for you to allow today to pass you by without making your life right with God. For a man to continue in hypocrisy for another week after going through this message, it will be very costly. For you to assume that God is with everybody including you is a costly assumption when you know that there is emptiness and dryness inside of you. Naomi cried out when she returned and people called her – Naomi’ she said, “don’t call me Naomi again. I am marah; my life is now empty and bitter. Why do you call me Naomi? There is no Naomi in me. All that remains in me now is Marah”. Can you make that an honest confession of your true situation before God that God may restore you? Or do you want to go in this empty endless journey unto the unknown? Why do you go on in the caravan? Why join that company of men to live in sin?

Joseph and Mary became aware that there was a void. They became aware just like some of you are becoming aware now and discovering that you have missed it somewhere; and they did something about it. The Bible says;

“…so they traveled a whole day before they began to make an anxious search for Him.”

When they discovered that Jesus was not there, they took a step-a good step to search for Jesus. They decide to look for Him.

  1. REPENT, SEEK AND FOLLOW JESUS ONLY IN HIS TERMS

                                                 “…they sought him among their kinsfolk and

                                                 among their acquaintance.”

The next thing I want you to consider, and avoid in your steps to spiritual restoration is what I see in scripture. Several people seem to have fallen victim of it.

There are times when God want to revive you and He wakes you up to the issue of the emptiness and the lack of the reality of God in your life, but instead of going to where you can find the reality of Jesus – you seek elsewhere. Bible says; “they sought Him among their kinsfolk and among their acquaintance”  they were looking for Him among men. You may really want to be spiritual but where do you go? May be you really want to repent, but where do you go looking for the Savior? Are you looking among your companions? Are you looking among your kinsfolk or your relatives? Some of you know that holiness is a condition for seeing Heaven but instead of looking to God, you look around and say, “Even my Elders are not holier than myself, even my Pastor used to beat his wife.” Is that enough for you to go on being careless? When you get over there, before the Lord to give account of yourself, your Pastor’s life will not be accepted as an excuse.

If you keep seeking Jesus among your kinsfolk and friends, you may be disappointed. You may be disappointed that the people you thought were spiritual or those you thought could help you may have ended up not showing you the reality of the Lord Jesus. So put aside every argument and self-justification and turn to Jesus in humility and repentance. He will abundantly pardon. And there is enough grace in Him to make you live up to God’s standard and requirements.

Moreover, God has not introduced any other person to us as our Savior and as our example… but concerning Jesus, He declared Hi to the whole world saying;

“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye HIM.”

Even the greatest of prophets and the best of preachers are yet not our perfect example for conduct, life and character… we are only to follow them to the extent that they follow Jesus.

Make Jesus, and Him alone, your standard. Make His Words your command and His life style your own, then you shall find peace and restoration, not just for now but for your soul eternally hereafter.

“All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matt. 121:27-30

  1. TURN BACK TO WHERE YOU VEERED OFF IN YOUR SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

“When they found him not, they turned back again.”

That is a very serious step you must take right now! Go back again. Go back to where you missed it. Go back to where the reality of Jesus disappointed from your life. Go back again to where missed your personal quiet time and your personal reverence for the word of God. Go back again to where you started. Go back to your first love. Mary and Joseph went back again. Take note of that: they turn back again to Jerusalem just to seek Him. They had no other business, no other thing that took their attention. They went just seeking Him. In order for revival to come into your life, you must concentrate on this issue – SEEKING JESUS!

One important thing that I want you to note is that Jesus has not changed. He has not shifted His stand. Where you left Him, there you will meet Him. His standpoint has not changed; you are the one who left Him. You are the one who drifted and changed. You are the one who wanted to become like other people and joined the ‘caravan’. But Jesus remained where He was left. The Word of God has not changed. His love has not changed. You are the one who has changed, so you are the one to go back to Him. He will always be there. Right now go back again. You will find Jesus where you left Him. His Word is still as sweet. He authority is ever there. His glory is ever real. May God help you to go back and to find Jesus Christ again! Amen. Shalom!

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