Jesus, having become a Man, gave us an example of the perfection that each of us can attain if we unite our life with God and devote ourselves completely to service, as Christ Himself did. He is God in human flesh, but He consciously did not use His Divinity to accomplish His purposes in the plan of our salvation. Everything that was available to Jesus is now available to us as well. The same power of the Holy Spirit has not ceased to be power and is waiting for those who will devote themselves to serving people.
Jesus is the Creator of this world, and nature recognized His voice and obeyed Him. At the word of Christ, tempests and storms became still, and in this lay a special plan of God for us, so that we would understand that a word spoken by holy lips has power to subdue the forces of nature and human passions when Divine power stands behind that word. The difference between the action of Christ’s words and ours is that He did everything in His Own Name, while we can do it in the Name of Jesus.
As we observe Christ’s trials, we see that the enemy of souls tried to lead the Son of Man into sin, which would have happened if He had allowed Himself to manifest His Divine power in order to accomplish His plans quickly by solving every problem supernaturally. And if Jesus had yielded to these temptations, He would have violated the plan of Salvation by doing what is unavailable to us. In that case, Christ would have left our world without completing this plan, or He would have remained in the world forever to perish for His sin of presumption. The risk of Jesus falling was very great. But He relied completely on the Father’s care and allowed Him to do everything that had to take place.
Before Christ’s baptism in the Jordan, we know almost nothing about the life of Jesus, except that He grew up in Nazareth, worked as a carpenter, and had brothers and sisters. And we read in Luke 2:52: ‘And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.’
He was the purest and holiest Man, Who from birth did not commit a single sin, did not speak a single evil word, and did not entertain a single impure thought. He was the embodiment of goodness and Love, flawless honesty and diligence, carefulness and holiness. In fellowship with Christ, every person saw in Him a friendly Conversational Partner, Who gladly took part in every human need and Who was ready to respond to any call and leave everything in order to render help. But His time had not yet come, and Jesus patiently waited for the moment appointed in prophecy, when He would be anointed by the Holy Spirit for a special ministry and His life would enter another stage of the plan of Salvation. Christ was ready to set out on this path and humbly awaited His hour. And when the time came, Jesus left everything, never to return, but to accomplish what had been foretold about Him.
We see that the Gospel describes the moment of Christ’s baptism in water, after which He also received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. A new page opened in the ministry of the Saviour.
The plan of Salvation provided that the Father, through Jesus and by means of the Holy Spirit, would heal all the sick who would manifest their faith in Christ’s Divine power or turn to Him for help. And we read that Jesus healed everyone. He is the true Physician, treating not only bodies but also human souls. He performed no miracles to satisfy someone’s curiosity or to prove something, but when Jesus saw a need or heard a request, He could not pass by.
I often hear the question of why we do not have such miracles now. They do exist and are performed according to the same laws as in the days of Christ; only we are not the same. We have received more light in every sphere of life, and this gives us an advantage over those who lived before us. Every disease has a cause. If I am miraculously healed but the cause remains, I will become ill again. But if I observe the laws of health, I will not become ill. Is this not a miracle? It is the natural miracle of health.
Jesus taught the people everything that He Himself had experienced and discovered during His thirty years. He saw the operation of God’s laws concerning life and health and understood their influence and the consequences of violating them. His life was the embodiment of the teaching of Scripture.
Through His life, Jesus revealed to us the true character of God the Father, His compassion for fallen humanity, His unconditional Love for people, His desire to serve the perishing and save them, His joy in people’s happiness, and His participation in every human need. And if the Father Himself had become a Man, He would have lived this life just as Jesus lived it. The Image of God was revealed to us.
But God’s plan also includes restoring this Image of God in our relationships with one another and in our characters. And it can confidently be called by one word—Agape.
The one who seeks this gift and desires to have it in his heart is on the surest and right path, which is called narrow. Not many step onto this road. But many who do enter it do not withstand the trials and leave the path at the very beginning, without ever understanding what it is. And it is the life and experience of Christ in the events of my life.
If the whole life of Jesus were characterized by a short phrase, it could be called this: Love, happiness, friendship, trust in God, and obedience to His will. And all these qualities of the soul are available to us as well. And the same power of the Holy Spirit awaits those who will earnestly ask for it, who will allow God to manifest it through them; those who will allow themselves to be baptized with this Spirit. Perhaps the problem is not the absence of miracles, but me?
The Word of God has not lost Its power, and It accomplishes that for which It was spoken. God is not dead; He is alive and awaits those who will receive Him.
Love exists, and it is great in its authority and available in its power. Everyone who thirsts for it will receive it. Everyone who seeks it will find it.
The Holy Spirit is still the same God, desiring to be poured out upon this world in abundant streams. But there must be a person who will ask for this and thirst for it.
Without Him I can do nothing, and without me He will not do anything. God’s desire is not to water weeds and tares, but for the good seed to spring up and bear much fruit. And the fruit of the Spirit is Love. And the Father will be glorified if I bear much fruit.
And Love has a characteristic inherent in plants. It must grow. This is a process that takes place before the harvest. Therefore, it is so important now to devote oneself to this work and allow the early rain of the Holy Spirit to give life to this seed, while the latter rain will strengthen what has grown. It would be very wrong to diminish Divine participation in this undertaking called Love. It is His personal presence in life; it is the power that moves the human soul; it is the motive placed into every deed. And how can this be done without God?
At the end, this truth will become available not only to the wise virgins but also to the foolish ones, and they will run to buy, and they will buy, but they will not have time to grow it. At the end of time, God desires to gather a ready harvest, not sweep away seed. Now is the time to love; now is the time to thirst for it.
Homework 164
Did you learn anything useful for your soul in this lesson? By what power did Jesus perform His miracles? Do you believe that this Same Power, Which accompanied Jesus, is available to us today as well? Is Love able to heal sick people? What kinds of diseases do you know? Can God use you to perform miracles? What do you think, or what do you see: does our School perform miracles in your heart? If so, what kind? In what ways was Jesus like us, and in what ways is He different from us? Please read John 14:12; Hebrews 4:15; John 4:34; 6:36–40; John 5:19–23, 30; Luke 10:18–20; Mark 16:17–18; Acts 3:6–8; 5:15–16; and 2 Timothy 3:17 in the light of our lesson.