Then Peter, turning around,
saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast
at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” John 21:20
I used to think that among
Jesus’ 12 disciples, John was the Lord’s favorite disciple and the one who was
the closest to Him because the Bible calls John “the disciple whom Jesus
loved.” I was under the impression that John had a special favor with Jesus,
and always wondered what made him so special that he stood apart from the other
disciples. Don’t you want to be known as the disciple whom Jesus loves? I do!
Then one day, when I was
reading God’s Word, the secret of John’s favor dawned on me. The Lord opened my
eyes and showed me that the phrase “the disciple whom Jesus loved” is actually
found only in John’s own book! Check it out for yourself. You will not find
this phrase being used in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. It is found
only in the Gospel of John. It is a phrase that John used to describe himself!
Now, what was John doing?
He was practicing and personalizing the love that Jesus had for him.
We are all God’s favorites, but John knew the secret of accessing Jesus’
unmerited favor for himself. It is your prerogative to see yourself as the
disciple whom Jesus loves, and to call yourself that!
When I started to teach
that the secret of John’s favor lay in his personalization of God’s love, the
people in my church literally stepped into a new dimension of experiencing
God’s unmerited favor in their lives. I have seen how some of them really took
this revelation and ran with it. Some of them customized the wallpapers of
their cell phones to say “The disciple whom Jesus loves,” while others signed
off their text messages and emails with the phrase.
As they kept reminding
themselves that they are the disciple whom Jesus loves, they began to grow in
the consciousness of the Lord’s love for them. At the same time, they began to
grow in being favor-conscious! I have piles of praise reports on how our
congregation members have been so blessed just by being conscious of Jesus’
favor in their lives. Some of them have been promoted, some have received
spectacular increments to their paychecks and many have won various prizes at
company functions and in other contests, including all-expense-paid vacations.
The world calls this “luck,” but for the believer, there is no such thing as luck. There is only the unmerited favor of Jesus! (Article & Picture; courtesy of Joseph Prince Ministries used with kind permission).
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