A short time ago I had the privilege of hearing Wes Hall speak. He said something that I wondered about and something that has inspired me to write once again. He said, “John 17:26 is one of the greatest prayers in the Bible.” Well, I recognize John 17 as being the prayer that Jesus prayed for the eleven who were with Him before He went to the cross. I also think that John 14 through 17 are some of the most important words that Jesus spoke, since they were His last teaching/prayer before the cross. He didn’t have an audience of 5000 that night; He had an audience of eleven.
John 17:26 is the end of His prayer to His Father. Jesus said, I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” Jesus told them that if they have seen Him, they have seen the Father. Everything He did was revealing the Father. Notice that as the Father is made known, the love that He has is made known!
Someone once said, the great commandment must precede the great commission; i.e. we must love God and love others before we go into all the world and preach the gospel. God is looking for a generation of lovers. He is looking for a generation that will be so in love with Him and in love with others that they will lay down everything and anything to know Him more and to carry that knowledge and love into the world. It is from that place of knowledge and love that we are equipped to go. If we go into all the world before we know Him; before we know His love and His goodness and His grace, we will carry a message of servitude and we will miss the greatest place of relationship: the position of bride, son/daughter, and friend.
God has taken us into the wilderness (Hosea 2) to shift us out of the position of servant and into the position of Bride! He is looking for a generation that will love Him. He is looking for a generation that will say “no” to the distractions of the world and fight to know Him; a generation that wants more of God, whatever the cost; whatever the price. Does it sound costly and uncomfortable? It is. But nothing will ever satisfy the heart more than knowing Him and knowing the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.
I will end with this prayer from Ephesians 3:14-21: For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.