So many of us are going through difficult times on the earth right now and our burdens appear to be more than we can bear. Now more than ever, seeing beyond the situation is necessary to endure whatever we are going through. Jesus was such an amazing example to follow.
He went through severe mental and physical torment.
They attacked His identity as the Son of God and King of the Jews by placing a crown of thorns on His head. He was taunted, spit on, His beard was pulled out of His face, beaten until He was so disfigured that He didn’t even look like a human, and nailed to a cross. How was He able go through that?
The moment I wrote that paragraph,
I immediately had a vision of Jesus on the way to Golgotha.
I was seeing through His eyes and experienced some of what He experienced.
As I was weeping, I did my best to type what I saw, heard and felt:
“I can’t see.
Blood is running in my eyes.
My eyes are burning.
I try to open them.
They are swollen shut.
My head hurts so bad.
I am so tired, I can hardly move.
I’m trying to drag this cross.
My body is burning from the beatings.
It is getting harder to breathe.
I have lost so much blood.
My heart is failing.
I am so cold,
But I am sweating.
I hear laughing.
I hear yelling.
I hear screaming.
I hear cursing.
I hear mother wailing.
Oh, Father, they know not what they do.
Father, are you there?
Where are you?
Why can’t I hear you?
I feel so alone.
Keep moving.
I am almost there.
It is almost finished.
Soon, my Bride will be one with Me!
Oh, the joy!
I would do anything to be with her!”
Hebrews 12:2 tells us how He endured the cross—by the joy set before Him.
What was the joy set before Him?
The joy of us being one with Him, He being seated at the right hand of the throne of God, returning to the Father. The joy of bringing deliverance, healing, freedom, and good news to the human race. The joy of conquering death, hell and the grave for the love of His life; His bride. The joy of giving Himself for us to have that position—that seat of victory with Him at the right hand of the throne of God.
Tammie Southerland passionately expresses this point in time, saying, “In this painful, yet joyful moment when Jesus sees our faces, He is in the agonizing climax of the crucifixion! In that moment when He gives His life, His longing to rescue her is finished!” She exclaims, “Each of us individually must hear these words resounding in our hearts, ‘You are His joy! It was your face He saw! You were the joy set before Him when He endured the cross!’”
She declared recently in a Facebook post:
I hear the Lord saying, “Come Up Here!”
“Come up here and see what I see! Rise above the junk and see from my perspective!”
Ephesians 2:6 says that we have been given a seat with Him in heavenly places!
We were not created or given salvation to continue to wallow in a mess or even to fight our battles in the flesh! We have been called to ascend and agree with Jesus as HE prays for us from the victorious, heavenly perspective!
Rise up and pray!
Not from the place of defeat or struggle, but from the heavenly place of victory!!
He has invited us to respond!
Say this: “Father God! I submit my wrestle with the things of this world and rise Higher! I take my seat with Jesus! Help me to see what you see and pray what you are praying! I receive peace and a new perspective! I receive victory in You!
AMEN!”
Scripture References: Isaiah 50:6-8, 52:14, Luke 14:18, Ephesians 2:6, Hebrews 12:2,3.
By Angie Woodard