Recently as I sat before Him mediating on a passage of scripture I was very aware of the Lord’s incredible vastness. It was like a spiritual ocean with no end. Many years ago as I sat with Him early one morning I had a similar experience. He opened up something before me. With the eyes of my heart I was aware of what I can only describe as eternity. It was frightening and shook me. Years later I was able to reflect on it without that fear but only after He had shifted something inside of my spirit and mind.
As I reflect on these two experiences what comes to me is how Jesus priesthood is depicted in the New Testament. We are informed in Hebrews that Jesus priesthood is the fulfillment of what Melchizedek pointed to in the Old Testament (Heb. 7:17). Jesus priesthood is according to the power of an endless or indestructible life.
16 who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. Hebrews 7:16 (NASB)
16 who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. Hebrews 7:16 (NKJV)
Jesus is our High Priest and we can be confident in His eternal priesthood due to His endless life. The vastness I encountered and the eternity I experienced are both contained within Him. In light of that we can be confident in this or any other season. Confident because this Eternal One lives within us. Another way of seeing this in scripture is found in Romans 8.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:11 (NKJV)
Seeing this verse in Romans 8 in the context of what we know about Jesus priesthood in Hebrews we can come to Him in this present situation. We come knowing the eternal endless indestructible one lives within us. His life is strengthening us to face whatever He has called us to walk in. Let’s be confident of the Living One within us and put our hand to whatever He has placed before us and minister His life to those around us.
I can’t think of this vastness or the concept of no end of time (eternity). It is simply more than I can comprehend.
I once heard Dr. Tony Evans speak of hell. One of the comments went something like this, (Paraphrased) If you took every grain of sand on the whole entire earth and could pile it all together. If a bird took a single grain of sand every year until all of this sand was gone, it would be less than a second of an endless hell.
Statements like these remind me of the urgency of spreading the gospel. I enjoyed this post and the reminder of endless life Randy.
Amen Rhonda, our finite minds struggle greatly to comprehend the incomprehensible!