In the 11th verse of John 17 we find Jesus making a strange statement while praying to the Father: “Now I am no longer in the world ….” Though He was earthbound, in His heart/mind Jesus had already died, been buried, been resurrected and had ascended to the Father’s right hand in the northern heavens. This is the heart-set that His people must adopt. Though we are in the world, we are absent from it in terms of its effect on us. We must understand that THIS IS SATAN’S WORLD. HE IS THE “GOD OF THIS WORLD” (2 Cor. 4:4). Remember that he told Jesus that the world belonged to him, and that he would give it to Him if He would worship him. Note that Jesus did not refute the devil’s statement of ownership.

Like the Lord, we must allow nothing going on around us to bother us because it is being orchestrated by the devil. We are not to become involved in the things of the world like politics, the economy, international relations, social issues, etc. God’s people do not vote, neither in the church nor in the society. They do not run for public office. They have one agenda only–obeying Him. Though Satan owns the world and most things on it, there are several areas in which the Biblical God reigns–nature, politics and the lives of His saints. He tells us that He places whom He wants in church leadership roles. He then dictates His will to His chosen leaders. The church body then follows their lead. Voting in a pastor is totally contrary to God’s will. There was no voting in the early church, nor is there in the modern church. The reason is obvious: man votes for the one that tells him what he wants to hear, not what God has to say to Him. The reason is obvious. Like Adam and Eve, man rejects that which (they whom) he does not like. See Ministerial Ordination for a Biblical explanation of God’s leadership selection program.

On the political front, the Lord makes it clear that He, and He alone, raises up governments and takes down governments. Unfortunately for mankind, GOD GIVES MAN THE GOVERNMENT HE DESERVES. The whirlwind we in the so-called “Christian world” see coming at us is God’s response to the wind we have sown. During the Great Tribulation looming just ahead of us God has promised to protect His obedient saints in a place of safety. I believe that I have been to that place. It is a mountain range near the Jordan River called Petra located in the nation of Jordan where some 4000 caves await the arrival of God’s Very Elect.

In John 17:17 we find Jesus asking the Father to: “Sanctify them  (apostles) by Your Truth. Your Word is Truth.” To sanctify means to set aside for holy use. The apostles and those who would learn from them are set aside by God for the purpose of obeying His Truth/Word. As I have stated before: EVERYTHING COMES BACK TO THE WORD. This was true of Jesus of Nazareth, as He makes clear in verse 19. As a man He had to go the same route as all other men. He sanctified Himself by obeying God’s Word. There was no shortcut, not even for God’s Messiah. God’s church, known as the Kingdom of Heaven Scripturally, is a government ruled by God through His ministers. No government can survive without a written entity by which all governance–governmental rule–is conducted. For a society to function properly there must be 1) laws, 2) enforcers of the laws, 3) punishment for disobeying those laws and 4) a reward for obeying them. The Body of Christ is no different. To show from whence the United States has fallen morally, our Constitution–the Law of the Land–is based on the Bible–God’s written rules of engagement for those who would spend eternity with Him. In verse 17 Jesus is asking the Father to sanctify the apostles “… by Your Truth.” He makes perfectly clear that in order to be sanctified the apostles had to obey His Word from Genesis to Revelation. God condensed the entire Bible into Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai and wrote them in stone. His people obey those commandments to show their love for and fear of Him.

In verse 18 Jesus makes a statement that clearly defines the life of those whom He has called into His service: “(Exactly) as You (God) sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.” This means that the Lord’s ministers are commanded to do the works Jesus did while on earth. In John 14:12 He tells us that those who are truly His will do even greater works than He did. This Truth is brought out in His earthly life in such episodes as the storm at sea which He expected the disciples to calm without awakening Him from sleep. He expected Peter, and the rest of the disciples, to walk on water with Him. When a man brought his epileptic son to the disciples for healing, the man rightly expected them to heal him. Jesus sorely chastised them for lacking the faith to do so. Truly, God sent Jesus into the world to preach the gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, etc. Just as truly, Jesus sent His ministers into the world to do those same things, “AND EVEN GREATER WORKS THAN THESE ….” We are coming to a time, and soon, when the world will see men performing unbelievable miracles in real time while condemning the so-called Christian World, which will cause the one-world (Catholic) church, led by the False Prophet, to attack God’s people. The Lord will save His people from the church and the one-world Antichrist government behind it. This future episode is symbolically presented in Revelation 12:13-17. As is stated, He will take His people to their place of safety where they will fare very well while the world around them explodes. L.J.