Lord, there is nothing more precious than Your loving-kindness!
Those who place their trust under the shadow of Your wings,
Will find protection close to You!
Psalm 36:7
Cleopas and his companion got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven together with those who were assembled with them and said, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then they told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when He broke the bread (Luke 24:33-35).
Jesus broke the bread and said, “This is My body, which is for you! Do this in remembrance of Me! This cup is the New Covenant in My blood! Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me,” 1 Corinthians 11:24-25.
When they recognized Jesus, doubt and disbelief were removed because they knew what they heard was true – Jesus did appear to Simon. However, clarity remained out of focus since they had placed the wrong meaning in the Lord’s presence here on earth.
Just as our lives are packed with great meaning within our families, in our communities, in our social circles… and as a result, we act accordingly. God’s Word reveals the depth of meaning Jesus has within our personal lives, within the physical realms of the earth, but also within the spiritual realms of the heavenlies.
Those closest to the Lord believed accurately Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, but mis-determined He would act accordingly. Hosea had given them God’s Word: “I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I will tear them and go away! I will take them away, and no one shall rescue,” Hosea 5:14 NKJV.
As a result, they were unfamiliar with the Lamb of God, Who would return again to His place till we acknowledge our offense. For then we will seek the Lord’s face! In our afflictions we will earnestly seek Him, Who invites us to come, to return to Him.
Though He has allowed us to be torn by affliction, He will heal us! Though He has permitted us to be stricken by pain and sorrow and regret, He will bind up our wounds! After two days God will revive us as His children, who are meant to enjoy friendship, partnership, and marriage with the Lord of Lords! On the third day He will raise us up to partake in communion, a mind and body and soul connection, so we may live in His sight (Hosea 5:14b-6:2 NKJV).
However, though we have a close familiarity with love, we also have strongholds to the likes of fear and anger, bitterness and disappointment because error is always leading our hearts astray (Hebrews 3:10 AMP).
The Lord revealed the importance of communion. However, we are not meant to simply partake so as to call to mind what Jesus accomplished for us. We are meant to love and honor God with the entirety of our being so we can perceive and recognize His ways and become progressively better and more experimentally and intimately acquainted with the ways and the will and vast depths of God’s love (Hebrews 3:10b AMP).
God is Love! (1 John 4:8)
If anyone imagines they have come to know and understand much about divine things, without love, they do not yet perceive and recognize and understand as strongly and clearly as they believe. Nor have they become as intimately acquainted with anything as they ought or as is necessary
(1 Corinthians 8:2 AMP).
John wrote this of Jesus, “My prayer, Father, is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You (John 17:20-21).
We are to partake, as all the Lord’s disciples choose to do, in a communion of spirit and body, heart and emotion, mind and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5) – a communion of Love!
One as Jesus described: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. My flesh is indeed food! Bread that came down from heaven – not the Manna your fathers ate and are dead. Those who eat this Bread will live forever!’
“My blood is drink indeed. Those who consume the Word of God and drink the Living Water I bestow shall abide in Me and I will abide in them. They will have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day (John 6:53-58 NKJV).
Those who chose to partake in this communion of Love, with affectionate reverence and awe – the fear of God; with prompt obedience to the dictates of His Word – serving for the pleasure of the King of Kings; and with grateful recognition of His blessing – the Spirit of Grace and Revelation, they are not only known by God – they are recognized as worthy of the intimacy of His love because they are His own (1 Corinthians 8:3 AMP).
We are intelligent people. Consider now if what I say is true. When we ask the Lord’s blessing upon our drinking from the cup of wine at the Lord’s table, this means all who drink are sharing together the blessing of Christ’s blood. And when we break off pieces of bread from the loaf, this shows we are sharing in the benefits of His body (1 Corinthians 10:15-16 TLB).
The blood Jesus poured out for many, ratifies (authorizes, certifies, blesses) the New Covenant (Mark 14:24), which enables us to partake in a personal relationship with God. It is the Lord Who will judge us, and our relationship with our heavenly Father. Therefore, we are told not to judge before the appointed time. We are to wait till the Lord comes (1 Corinthians 4;-5a).
For God knows our hearts! What is highly valued (loved) among people is detestable in God’s sight. Because we are guilty of justifying ourselves in the eyes of people (Luke 16:15). We are well trained in deploying the world’s arsenal of self-protective measures: Avoiding, minimizing, excuse making, rationalizing, denying, comparing, accusing, blaming… Explosive weaponry that always manages to boomerang.
Those who make the transformational life decision to be in communion with God, to partake in His covenant of Love will become engaged in His Word and swept along by the river of the crystal-clear Water of Life, which flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1).
When we are seeking the things of God, we must hold firmly to the Word of Life, training and disciplining ourselves to live as children of God. For then we shall shine brightly as stars, as beacons among this world of crooked and spiritually perverse individuals (Philippians 2:15016 NLT).
Through Jesus Christ’s grace-filled sacrifice we find forgiveness, we are cleansed from the filth of our sins, renewed by the Spirit of Truth, restored as inner healing is administered, and made holy (wholly) acceptable to enter the presence of God in heaven.
Jesus is the true North Star providing us with direction, guidance, stability, and purpose. He always remains exactly the same, while pointing out the zeal and sincerity of love (2 Corinthians 8:8 AMP) that dwells within the hearts of all the other shining stars no matter how much they appear to move around.
So, I encourage everyone to pursue knowledge of God in His Word (Hosea 6:3a). Begin to step into the River of Life first ankle deep for your faith and trust and hope in God will draw you knee deep, then waist deep until you too will come to perceive as Ezekiel did: The River of Life is a river he could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in, a river no one could cross (Ezekiel 47:2-6).
Holy Spirit will immerse us into the depths of the love of God and the love of the Lamb. So ask, for He teaches us God’s ways so we can walk in His Word of Truth. From the Spirit of Grace and Revelation we will receive inner healing so God can give us an undivided heart that we may fear His name (Psalm 86:11). Yes, Holy Spirit fills us with awe and reverence and wonder at the miraculous ways of our heavenly Father.
For then Love is really known! Greater love has no one than this – that they lay down their life for their friends. Jesus assures us, “You are My friends if you do what I command! I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know their master’s business. Instead, I call you friends, for everything I’ve learned from My Father I have made known to you,” John 15:13-15).
Holy Spirit helps us to truly understand what real love is from Christ’s dying for us. And so, we also ought to lay down our lives for the sake of Love
(1 John 3:16). Jesus suffered an agonizing death so we could receive our salvation with joy as we would draw water from a well (Isaiah 12:3 NCV).
I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart!
I will glorify Your name forever!
For great is Your love toward me.
You have delivered me from the depths of the grave!
Psalm 86:13