How Big is Your Jesus?

John 14:12-17

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

This is an amazing promise. “Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it.” It is hard to wrap our mind around this promise. But it is so important that Jesus repeats it twice for emphasis. Two verses later Jesus makes a second promise. “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of truth.” The promise of the Helper is given to us to enable us to do greater works than Jesus did. Jesus had said earlier that He had to return to the Father so that He could send the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of truth who enables us to ask in accordance with God’s will, so that anything we ask in His name, He will do for us.

Sandwiched between these two incredible promises, Jesus says “If you love me, keep my commandments.” There is the matter of obedience connected to these two promises. In John 15:7, Jesus says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” Jesus himself in His ministry repeatedly emphasized that He only spoke what the Father told Him to speak and did what the Father told Him to do. It was out of relationship and obedience to the Father that Jesus did what He did. If Jesus, the Son of God was totally dependent upon the Father through obedience and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, how much more are we dependent upon Him, if we are going to do what He did and even greater works than He did.

I love this testimony Peter gives about Jesus’ ministry in Acts 10:35. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”  Jesus did not start an organization, church or ministry. He had no earthly position or possessions. His only aspiration in life was to obey and glorify the Father.

How big is your Jesus? If we are to ask for anything in His name, our vision of Jesus must be enlarged to the point that He is bigger than anything in our lives and in this world. He has to become bigger than our circumstances, our programs and our plans. John the Baptist upon encountering Jesus said, He must increase and I must decrease. Just as Jesus’ life totally revolved around the Father, so must our life totally revolve around Jesus. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being. He becomes our very existence and the air that we breathe. His Spirit becomes the dominant person in our lives.

As you spend time with Him and in His Word, may Jesus become bigger to you than anyone or anything in your life.

Andy Clark