Following Jesus

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes with Jesus. Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, Jesus said, there am I in the midst of them. To those of you who love Him in truth: mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. 

Thank you Jesus! Praise your holy name! We praise you Father in Jesus’ name! I pray right now for every person that is reading this , that you would open their understanding; that you would give them grace to receive the things that you have given me to speak to them by your Holy Spirit, Amen!; that they may understand what the Spirit of the Lord is saying. Thank you Father, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Today we’re talking about Following Jesus. The word “Christian” : it means a follower of Jesus. It doesn’t mean a church goer; it doesn’t mean a religious person; it doesn’t mean a person that can quote the Bible; it doesn’t mean a lot of things that people do in the name of Jesus; it means a follower of Jesus. Jesus said, I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.  Are you following Jesus? Let’s turn to Mat 16: 24-27, Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to their works. Deny yourself! Deny your own desires; your own understanding; your own plans. Lay that down. This is every day, Jesus said. Take up your cross: the fellowship of His sufferings, and follow Me. Jesus suffered as He followed the Father, and we will suffer as we follow Him.

Let’s turn to Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. 

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 

He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. What a wonderful psalm this is! It all starts with verse 1: The Lord is my Shepherd… I am one of His sheep. Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me. And He leads us in all these things: He restores our souls by leading us in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. I don’t have time to do a study on Psalm 23; I recommend it: meditate in it, and let God give you understanding. 

Let’s turn to 1 John 2:27&28, the Apostle John said, But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. John 8:31&32, Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. We can see here, with these two scriptures, that the Holy Spirit is the One who teaches; the One who opens the Word of God to us. So, if you combine them, you see that we continue in the Word with the Holy Spirit, and we will be Jesus’ disciples indeed. He said, If you love Me, keep My Words. So, the Holy Spirit will teach us His Word, and He will lead us in keeping it; He will help us to keep Jesus’ Words; to continue in them, and, as we do, we will know the truth, and the truth will make us free. Jesus said, in this same place in John chapter 8, Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Do you see that? If you continue in sin you are a slave of sin, but Jesus will set you free, if you will continue in His Word, with the Holy Spirit teaching you; revealing it to you, and leading you to do it every day. You come into a situation, and you deny yourself; you deny your own understanding; you yield to the Holy Spirit to do the Words of Jesus in that situation, and you will overcome. 

In John 14 Jesus told His disciples that He was going away to be with the Father, and He told them that He would not leave them alone, but He would send the Comforter. He said, If you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever: the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. Notice that. He said, I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Verse 26&27, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. So Jesus promised His disciples that He was going away to be with the Father, but He would send another Comforter, and that's the Holy Spirit; that He would be with us forever, and He would lead us into all truth. And then He said, I won’t leave you alone, I will come to you! Jesus leads us by the Holy Spirit. How do we follow Jesus? By yielding to the Holy Spirit and letting Him lead us to follow Jesus to do the will of His Father every day. We must be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. Acts 1:4&5, And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, which, He said, you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Have you received the Holy Spirit? Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit, yielding your tongue to speak in another language? The Apostle James said that the tongue is like a rudder of a ship: it directs the ship, even in the mighty waters. So it is with our tongue. So the first thing you yield to the Holy Spirit is your tongue to speak in another language, that He may direct your way. 

Let’s turn to Php 3:7-14, the Apostle Paul said, But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,  hear this: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Now let’s turn over to Jude 1:20&21,  But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Verses 24&25, Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. The Holy Spirit, as you pray in tongues, will lead you in intercession, in warfare, and worship. Without Him, you can do nothing. As you pray in tongues, He will lead you in reaching forward to that which is before; He will lead you in prayer; things you don’t even realize you need to pray for. He will lead you. Submit to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you. Yield to the Holy Spirit and He will lead you to follow Jesus and do the will of His Father every day. The devil will resist you as you sincerely seek to follow Jesus, so you must stay with Jesus, continuing instant in prayer; continuing in His Word and submitting to; yielding to the Holy Spirit and resisting the devil with the Word of God spoken by the Spirit: the sword of the Spirit. We all have to overcome the devil and the flesh in our own lives that we may enter into our inheritance in Jesus. Remember, Jesus has already overcome, and if we will continue to follow Him, we will overcome too.  In Revelation 2&3 Jesus made many promises to those who overcome. The Scripture says, They overcame him, the devil, by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. This is how we will overcome: faith in Jesus’ Blood; the righteousness imputed to us who believe in His sacrifice for us upon the Cross; that Jesus literally paid for our sins with His own Blood, and delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. Did you know that Jesus is dear to the Father? Did you know that all the Father’s children are dear to Him? So stand up! and be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, and follow Him as He leads you by His Holy Spirit to love Him and keep His Words; to do the Father’s will, that you might bring glory to His name, and inherit His promises. 

Thank you for reading this message from 15 Minutes With Jesus at roberthaymes.com .

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you who love Him in truth, Amen.