"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!' This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.' "
Our human minds are unable to comprehend the magnitude of who Jesus is. Because of this human incapacity, He makes the wonders of Heaven understandable by means of the Holy Spirit. I like to picture one of the functions of the Holy Spirit in my life as a translator. He makes the Word of God come alive. I could read one verse five different times and each time, He can give me a new revelation from the same verse. His revelation may not always make sense to our flesh or our human mind, but the Holy Spirit reaches out to our spirit which is eternal. He goes past the layers of our heart to reach the spirit within us that God created. Without His aid, we would not be able to begin to understand who God is. We can have an idea who God the Father is, but until the truth of who He is revealed to us by His revelation and by the Holy Spirit, we will never know Him intimately. But a desire to know Him cannot only be sustained by God, we have to have a daily dying to the flesh and pursue God individually. It is true God will meet you where you are at in life, but I believe it is a personal choice to join God in this moment and chase after Him as He has chased after you.
In our pursuit of our Heavenly Father, we learn who He is and who we are in Him. We learn how He views us as His daughter or as His son. We learn how we are created perfectly in His image and how our original identity is rooted in Him. The journey of knowing Jesus becomes a delight instead of a religious ritual. The nearer you become to His heart, you notice the more you desire to become like Him. You desire to behold Him. According to Merriam Webster, one definition of the world behold means to "gaze upon" or "to look upon." The closer we draw near to the Father, we are able to behold Him more clearly for who He is. We learn to behold Him for His beauty and His lovingkindness. When your gaze is transfixed on Him, nothing else can distract you. Fixing your gaze on Jesus is locking your eyes with the one whom your soul was made for, because He is the original lover of our souls. Beholding Him brings revelation to our spirits that He is not only our lover and our King, but the precious Lamb of God. In the Bible, the depiction of a lamb is pure and untainted by the world. Jesus came as the precious lamb from Heaven, pure and untainted by the world so that His life could be slain for our sins. He knew the price, yet He still said yes. He knew the cost, yet He was still willing to pay it in full. The darling of Heaven was slaughtered for the greatest love story history has ever known. In our humanness, we over look the magnitude of His great sacrifice. But thank you Jesus for the Holy Spirit that reveals and allows us to understand the impact of your sacrifice! The Holy Spirit reveals this to us so that we may behold the Lamb of God for who He is: holy.
"The darling of Heaven was slaughtered for the greatest love story history has ever known."
If you are reading these words and you don't know if you have ever experienced the Holy Spirit in this way, you are not alone. Encountering the Holy Spirit can happen in a moment, but He accompanies you for eternity. Invite Him to highlight what is holding you back from truly encountering the Holy Spirit in a mighty way. Maybe you are asking yourself, "How do I behold God?" I do not want you to overcomplicate it. I myself am still learning to rightly behold Him. I honestly do not know if I will fully be able to behold the Lamb of God until I see Him face to face in my eternal home. But for now, while we are still on earth, I want to challenge you to ask God this question: "God, teach me how to behold you rightly." I am asking Him the same question just as you are. I never want to think I have fully come to know God on this earth for all that He is because I know that is not possible. I want to have the mindset of continually learning something new about Him as I continually grow in love with Him. As you pray this simple yet powerful plea, ask His peace to accompany your prayer and to lead you straight to the heart of God. Do not allow the fear of perfection to hold you back from pursuing Him. There is no perfect way to chase after Jesus- it gets ugly, it gets real, and it is undignified. But Jesus is not afraid of our ugly. He embraces every part of who we are and still radically and unconditionally love us. Allow Him to pull you closer as you learn to behold Him for the beautiful King that He is.
References:
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Behold. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/behold
