In John 17 Yeshua (Jesus) spoke a directive that is for us now. As you read it, feel like the Lord is speaking to you in a very personal way, giving you the direction and understanding that you need for the days ahead. It may not sound new, but I want it to touch your heart in a new way and become a new expression in the Body of Christ. Can we read it that way?

“I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.” (John 17:11)[1]

This situation is still true today. Yeshua is with the Father, and we are here in the world. So Christ asked the Father that we may all be one with the exact same oneness that He and the Father had. Of course, we want Yeshua to be here, but there is a purpose behind the way things are now.

Christ continued speaking to the Father,

“But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.” (John 17:13–15)

God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). When Yeshua fulfilled that purpose of God in the earth, the epoch changed. After the crucifixion, Christ was resurrected and ascended to the Father.

Now everyone is focused on the return of Christ. But that epoch will never come until God’s purpose for this age is fulfilled. What is that purpose? “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Christ is waiting until every enemy be made a footstool for His feet (Hebrews 10:13). And now the fulfillment of that purpose rests on the Body of Christ.

“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” (John 17:16–19)

The disciples were listening to this conversation between Yeshua and the Father. Are we listening? Yeshua prayed for us as well.

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:20–21)

Yeshua sent us here as ambassadors to bring the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:20; Matthew 6:10). We are here to bind the things of the world and bring them into subjection to the Lordship of Christ (Romans 16:20). Just as the Father sent Yeshua into the world, so Yeshua is sending us. Let that sink in. May the oneness of the glory that Christ had with the Father rest upon the Body of Christ until the effectiveness of the Holy Spirit is alive within us.

[1] All Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995).