Introduction

Part of the mystery of the Trinity is that you can only approach each Person through the others. If we ask how God himself is blessed, the answer must be given in terms of Jesus. Something I sense very powerfully at times is that the Father is supremely blessed because he has such a wonderful Son[1]. To be aware of how thrilled the Father is to have Jesus as his Son opens up to us various scriptural exclamations. Peter and Paul both declare, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” and go expand this insight into the fact that that part of God’s own blessedness[2] is to have “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:3; 1 Pet 1:3).

Whilst we cannot access the Father directly[3], Jesus has a fully human heart like our own. In his deepest being, Christ carries every good thing that God has always intended for humanity; in his heart is the fullness of the Word and Spirit as the revelation of God as the Father of every blessing. Whilst all the elements of Jesus’ life testify to the goodness of God, his testimony to the Father as the fount of all blessing is particularly connected to his baptism and death.

When we were staying in Amman and planning to cross the Jordan into Israel, our host explained to us that the route we were going (Matt 19:1 onwards) would follow the Lord’s journey to death in Jerusalem. When we eventually arrived in Jerusalem and were wandering around the Old City at night, not knowing exactly where we were, I looked up and saw a street sign which said, Via Dolorosa[4], we were walking on the very road where Jesus carried the cross to death. If this were not enough, sometime during that night when I could not sleep and was praying, I “saw” an impression of Jesus lifted up on the cross[5]. I wrote in my journal, “This journey is about such a lifting up”.

The Baptismal Blessing

After being in Israel for a week we returned to Jordan and were set to visit the baptismal site of Jesus the next day[6]. This site is a place of intense spiritual significance, for it is also where the people of Israel crossed over into the Promised Land (Josh 3:15-17) and well as being adjacent to “Elijah’s Hill”, the place where the legendary prophet ascended into heaven (2 Ki 2:6-12). Each of these episodes speaks of times of major transition in salvation history[7].

That morning, around 4 a.m., I was wide awake and sensed a prompting to ask a very specific question, “In what direction was Jesus facing when he was baptised?” The answer is that he was facing the land with a very deliberate intention. He was totally resolved to enter the land and directly confront the spirits of the land. This explains exactly what happened in the spiritual realm as he was being baptised, “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” ” (Luke 3:21-22)

Jesus was immersed in the power of the Spirit and the blessing of the Father at the time of his baptism because his heart was filled with a desire to see the kingdom of God come with power. In receiving the fullness of Word and Spirit, Jesus had no sense of personal possession or privilege, his sole vision was to fill every part of a deceived and deprived creation with the presence of his Father. (This must be our vision too.)

Because this was Jesus motivation he always had the Word of the kingdom in every circumstance of life (Matt 13:19), a word backed up by charismatic power. As he later challenged the Pharisees “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.” (Matt 12:28-29).

This reminds me of a prophecy by the Pentecostal pioneer Smith Wigglesworth uttered towards the end of his life; “When the Word and the Spirit come together, there will be the biggest movement of the Holy Spirit that …the world, has ever seen. It will mark the beginning of a revival that will eclipse anything that has been witnessed …former years. The outpouring of God’s Spirit will flow … there will begin a missionary move to the ends of the earth.” This prediction is necessarily true, because the Word and the Spirit in unity fully express the Father’s pleasure and manifest his glory.

The height of the Father’s pleasure, what moved him so powerfully to pour out healing grace, deliverance and miraculous works through Jesus, is not some abstract agreement between the Word and Spirit but a functional unity of a very specific sort. Several contrasting scriptures provide us with a key, “ “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live”” (Ezek 33:11), “ ““Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”” (Luke 12:32). It is the great pleasure of God to take away judgement and to lavish upon his children the benefits of his kingdom (Eph 1:8). This connects directly to one element of Jesus’ baptism that I have not yet mentioned, “the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove”. Like the dove that settled upon the earth after the flood of Noah (Gen 8:6-12), this dove speaks of grace beyond a coming flood of judgement

Seeing Rainbows

One of the more unusual aspects of my experiences of God over the years has to do with rainbows. This began with rainbows that followed me as I walked across a hotel rooftop at the Iguassu Falls in Argentina, then there was the time I was accompanied by a rainbow that emerged from the Swan River and terminated in my car as I drove along Riverside Drive. The Lord seems to like to talk to me through rainbows.

As we were flying across the desolate Sinai desert between Egypt and Jordan, a rainbow appeared in the clouds parallel to our plane. Descending from Mt Carmel[8] in northern Israel a patch of spectral light was clearly visible over the Mediterranean Sea. Finally, and most spectacularly, as we came down into the Jordan Valley towards the river on each side of the sun were patches of multicoloured light. This was a deep sign from God for the nations.

The first place to go in scripture to understand this is Genesis,

“And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”” (Gen 9:12-17).

What generally escapes our attention is that the Hebrew word for “bow” is the normal term for a bow of war. Through the judgement of the flood on human wickedness the LORD God has hung up his war bow in the clouds. The beautiful colours of the rainbow are sign to all humanity of the pleasure that God takes in not having to punish. This correlates to other words of the LORD that form a framework around this passage, “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart[9], “I will never again curse/dishonour the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”… 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Gen 8:20-22; 9:1). The pleasure of the LORD is in removing his judgement from mankind so that he might bless them all with an abundant and prosperous life.

This is the same message of the rainbow in the glory cloud that Ezekiel saw in a vision when God called him to be a prophet (1:26-28), it is the rainbow around the throne of God that the apostle John sees when heaven opens (Rev 4:3). When the Spirit and the Word filled the inner life of Jesus as anointed messianic King from the time of his baptism[10] he became the very throne of God on earth in whom was found the source of all God’s pleasure in taking away the sin of the world (John 1:29). The rainbow of blessing was now inside Christ himself. This was an inner glory that shone out of his life at the time of the transfiguration (Luke 9:29)[11] and into which he ascended at the end of his earthly life. This is the glory of God for all nations and the power by which they are to be discipled by Word and Spirit. Such a glorious presence however has only been made possible by the cross.

The Blessedness of the Cross

One of the most profound experiences of my life happened in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the site of Jesus crucifixion, burial and resurrection) in Jerusalem. When you enter the chapel that stands over the site where Jesus was stripped and nailed prostrate on the cross, a large painting faces you.[12] As I looked at the face in the painting something strange and wonderful happened, my heart was filled with a precious awareness, “This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” What is so beautiful about the face of a man being crucified is that Jesus was perfectly submissive as a Son to his Father. This is the glory of God; this is what makes God proud to be a Father of “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5).

After we left the old city of Jerusalem we walked to the Mount of Olives and the garden of Gethsemane where we entered the church called The Basilica of the Agony. Behind the main altar is a large painting, this portrays Jesus weeping over a rock between the olive trees after visualizing the ruin of Jerusalem and observing the ignorance of its citizens of the events to come.[13] Whilst it appears that the Lord is physically leaning on the rock head down with his right arm leaning for support on the boulder, as I meditated upon this scene I could sense that Jesus was really leaning on the heart of the Father in a most tender way. Such a beautiful submission is described in the words of Hebrews, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” (Heb 5:7-8) Even more profoundly are the descriptions in the Gospels, “And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” (Mark 14:36)

Jesus words to God in prayer, ““Abba, Father”” are the pinnacle of all human devotion. Spiritually, they reveal that his filial submission will be the sacrifice that once for all removes the need for divine judgement (Heb 7:27; 9:12, 26; 10:10). This submission of the Son is the perfect faith that God as Judge and Father wills for all humanity, and it is a trust that whatever happens, however grievous, God wills only pure blessing. This trust that the Judge IS a Father actualises the release of the rainbow of God’s glorious pleasure in the world. This radiating presence of God’s favourable will was always emanating from Jesus, and it opened the heart of the hardest of sinners into freely given repentance.

Submission is not passivity; for Jesus to walk the way of the cross was to live a life of perfect faith. Such faith brings God’s children into his dear pleasure. “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Heb 11:6) This is not some super-spiritual faith, but one that functions in the concrete situations of life. Such faith does not so “move the hand of God”, but provides a channel through which the already existing divine blessing may flow.

As I was meditating on these things the words of an old hymn came to mind, “Perfect submission all is at rest, I in my Saviour am happy and blessed” The submission of Jesus to the Father’s appointed suffering on the cross is the way to blessedness. This is as true for us as it was for Jesus.

Eternal Blessedness

Only by faith can we discern how the death of Christ brings pleasure to the Father. Just as there were many “enemies of the cross” (Phil 3:18) in the early church so it is today. The cross as a way of sacrificial defenceless life is widely denied, yet this way of humble submission is the gateway of glory.

The faithful Jews, Christians and Moslems of the Middle East all share a belief in the One Creator God who will enact a Day of Judgment by raising all people from the dead, “those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:29). Where these religions differ is in how God will make this final separation. Jesus was not crucified for claiming to be the Messiah, but for claiming that the eternal blessedness of the kingdom of God was found in him. On the eve of raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus proclaimed, ““I am the resurrection and the life.”” (John 11:25). Such a claim backed by manifest dead-raising power moved the ruling religious elite to plot to put Christ to death as a false teacher (John 11:45-52). These men grasped that there could not be two avenues of divine favour in Israel, either it flowed through Jesus or it flowed through them.

As high priest at the time, Caiaphas was commissioned to speak these words over Israel, “The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.27 “So … I will bless them.”” (Num 6:24-27). This is why he compelled Jesus to answer this question at his trial, ““Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”” (Mark 14:61). His test was very pointed and designed to reveal whether Jesus genuinely believed that he occupied the same realm of blessedness and glory as the eternal God. Jesus reply is categorical, ““I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”” (14:62). Such a claim to equality with God was intolerable to these pious men, “And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? 64 You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death.” (Mark 14:63-64) As far as they were concerned, Jesus’ assertions could easily be disproved, for they all knew what the scriptures said, “a hanged man is cursed by God” (Deut 21:23).

Everything about the cross seemed to confirm their witness that Jesus was indeed a cursed man, his cry ““My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:34) seems to come from a heart that knows nothing of the heavenly Father’s blessing. What however could only be discerned in the Spirit was that this was a cry for us, a place of enduring our cursed state so that by faith we might share with the Son God’s own eternally blessed life.

All of the descendants of Noah have sighted the war bow of God’s wrath hanging in the clouds over the earth, but those “blessed … in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:3), discern in the Spirit the rainbow of reconciliation in the clouds of heaven over the throne of God (Rev 4:3). This is the unique privilege and witness of the sons of the Father. That which Jesus prophesied, ““you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”” (Mark 14:62) has become true for us. Because Christ is in us (Col 1:27) the Spirit like a dove has settled on our lives and the heavenly Father speaks over us all, ““You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.””. Truly we live in the realm of grace beyond a coming flood of judgement

No Fear of the Spirit

Jesus is “seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”[14] And has continually acted with sovereign authority from the time he ascended into heaven. He acted in power in sending the Spirit at Pentecost, he ruled from on high in ordaining the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and he has not ceased to reign up until today. Yet we seem lacking in our experience of Christ’s power and glory. Very unusually, I sense that we have a problem with the Holy Spirit.

In Galatians, a letter written to a church that stood in danger of coming under the curse of the law[15], Paul teaches a profound link exists between the work of the cross and the gift of the Spirit. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—” “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” (3:13-14). The apostle understands that the ultimate honour the Father can bestow on his sons in Christ is to give the Spirit. Hence his excited tone, “because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Gal 4:6-7)

Our heartfelt cry in the Spirit, “Abba! Father!”, reveals we have entered into the beauty of Jesus’ submission to death that the Father might have many sons in glory (Heb 2:10). If this is what the gift of the Spirit means, what could possibly be our problem with the Holy Spirit? In prayer one morning in Jordan I had the strangest thought, it is a thought that takes us back to my original statement, that the only way to understand the Trinity is as a community. When Paul says the gospel is powerful to deliver us from shame, he goes on to speak of “the wrath of God revealed from heaven” (Rom 1:16-18). God’s wrath can only be implemented in the same way as all God’s actions between heaven and earth; it is poured out from heaven in the Spirit[16]. For those who have been reconciled to God by the blood of the cross (Col 1:20), the Holy Spirit can only work to bring the blessings of the Lord. Sharing in the baptism in the Spirit and Word as Jesus experienced at the Jordan covers us in the rainbow of glory and grace, however it will likewise lead us into conflict with evil powers and costly discipleship. This difficult identification with Jesus is not something to be feared, let us not submit to the spirits of deception, the promise of God is clear, whoever trusts in Jesus ““will not be put to shame”” (Rom 9:33).

Conclusion

Sometimes it is necessary to have a further insight into an experience to enter more fully into its meaning. It was only after I returned to Perth that I sensed that my experience in Jerusalem of Jesus’ beautiful submission was itself something beautiful to God as a Father. This is true of every act of submissive faith that makes us his sons; every time we exercise faith in God’s kingdom it is a beautiful thing. In Hebrews, we read, “he (Jesus) is not ashamed to call them brothers…God is not ashamed to be called their God” (Heb 2:11; 11:16). In this way God identifies himself with us as a proud Father. To receive this truth and live in it is to confront the evil deceptive and depriving spirits of the land head on.

Jesus said, ““everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God.”” (Luke 12:8) To acknowledge Jesus as the final Judge frees us from the fear of men and the mantle of shame that evil powers cast over nations[17]. To confess, “Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor 12:3) means more than merely assenting to his final victory, it means intentionally embracing the shape of his life as the Son of God. This is a life of death and resurrection, we must take deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him[18]. As we grow into the shape of Christ’s life our lives become a constant source of blessing to others. In and over our lives are those “rainbows of blessing” that remove from the stricken consciences of men and women the fear of final abandonment by God. It is time to step into the realm of the blessings of God our Father that Jesus died to bring, and for which the Spirit and Word are given.