Book Report - We Would See Jesus by Roy and Revel Hession (6-2-14)

We Would See Jesus by Roy and Revel Hession (6-2-14)

God used this book to further open my eyes to see how deep His love is and how simple walking with Him can be. I used to think there was some sort of formula for how to have the best relationship with Christ. More and more though, I'm seeing that it's so easy in concept yet difficult to live out. The whole point of asking Jesus to be your Lord and Savior is to have HIM be in control of your life - not YOU. He works on all of is differently, and for the longest time, I refused to let Him work on me. I felt that my sin was more pleasurable than letting Him be my everything.

Pg 35 in this book says "The acknowledgement of need and the confession of sin, therefore, is always the first step in seeing Jesus. Then, where there is acknowledged need, the Holy Spirit delights to show to the heart The Lord Jesus as the supply of just that need." He desires to supply all our needs, and our first and greatest need is to be forgiven of our sins. Before we see this need though, we see no reason to ask Jesus for help. Everyone has a void in them that they're trying to fill - Jesus is the only One Who can fill it. Why does it seem I continually try to fill that void with everything except Him?

Pg 69 says "Even when a Christian identifies the sins that have separated him from God, he often occupies himself with the problem of how not to sin again rather than with getting back to God and to peace." This perfectly summarizes the believer's problem of trying to work for forgiveness and grace. Once we repent of sin, we should get up and humbly continue to follow the path Christ has set before us. The problem arises when we strive in our own strength to stay away from sin - we will inevitably be tempted again and fail if we're not relying on Christ. That famous verse says we can do all things - but ONLY through Christ Who strengthens us. 

I really love that all we need is Jesus. So often though, we try to add more to Him. It is supposed to be Jesus + nothing. Pg 106 says "We do not need a way to the Way. It is that little way to the Way that defeats us, and makes the real way of none effect to us because we cannot get there." We complicate things so much! All we need to do is to be submitting to God and to His view of us. When sin comes up, we repent and continue on walking with The Lord. I used to think I needed to clean myself up before I could come to Jesus, but I see now that He wants me to come to Him just as I am. I am dirty and Jesus can make me clean, but He can't clean me until I open up to Him and admit my need for Him. 

Pg 81 says "We come down from our unrepentant strivings to those dear pierced feet of His, and in a matter of moments we have entered by faith into a peace and rest of heart that has eluded us for so long. Truly, to see Jesus is to lose our burdens and to enter into satisfaction." There is nothing we can do to earn grace and we are not required to create good works. Ephesians 2:8-10 says that our works have nothing to do with our salvation and we just need to walk in the works He already prepared. This takes the burden off of us to boast in ourselves and eliminates striving. 

Pg 138 says "There never comes a time when grace ends and self has to begin again." We never have to do this on our own. Ever. I find so much comfort in this. My flesh wants to work at things myself and be able to accomplish everything. I am learning that nothing good can come from me, so why do I try to do it myself? God has His ear inclined to my mouth - waiting for me to cry out to Him for help. God's grace will never run out so my flesh never has to kick in. No matter what's going on and no matter how much I want my plans to work out - God always has a better way. He is the only One I want, and the only One I need. Everything and everyone else will fall into place when I put Jesus first. What do I want to see in my life? I want to see Jesus.