Becoming One

Becoming One
Jesus to the World!
Terry R. Baughman

“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:22-23 NKJ).

The last evening before His arrest, trial, and crucifixion, Jesus prayed. It was not like the short sample prayer that He gave the disciples, “Our Father which art in heaven,” but the serious and intense prayer of one who knows His time is short and the betrayer is on his way to the Garden type of prayer. It was a whole chapter in the Gospel of John prayer, and it was recorded in John 17. One of the most important things He prayed for was that His followers might become one!

Becoming one is a process, not a one-and-done event. Unity develops and character forms in the process of shared experience, during seasons of close association. It took three and a half years for Jesus to teach His disciples what it means to be a follower of Christ. Even then, His last evening of prayer focused on this crucial fact, they still needed prayer!

Christ desire for His people to come into the unity of oneness stems from the very essence of God. He is One, and the greatest testimony of God’s presence in the world is that His followers may also be one in Him. 

The more we can become one with Christ, the more effectively we will represent Jesus to the world. When we become fragmented, disjointed, or self-serving in our Christianity, we no longer reflect the character of God. We fail to display the oneness of God, or the unity of the faith. Paul wrote about the gifts of ministry which were, “to prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry.” He said, “These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God, and finally we become one into a perfect man with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12–13 TPT). In another place, Paul said, “We, being many, are one body in Christ” (Romans 12:5 NKJ).

Unity was the catalyst of a powerful response. When unity was present the power of God was manifested. On the Day of Pentecost there were about 120 gathered in an upper room. It was noted that, “They were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1 NKJ). The Holy Spirit was poured out with great witness. All were filled with the Spirit, and when they spilled out onto Solomon’s porch many more came from everywhere to see what the commotion was about. After Peter’s sermon about 3,000 more received the Spirit. 

Not only were the disciples in that group of those who were baptized by the Spirit, but Mary, the mother of Jesus, and other women were in the room and received the Spirit. Jesus’ mother, and every mother has the opportunity to be in unity with Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was promised to “sons and daughters” to prophesy. God’s servants, “both men and women,” were promised the same gift. The prophet said, “I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy” (Acts 2:17-18 NIV).

Not long after Pentecost believers gathered for a prayer meeting. The Scripture said, “When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:31 NKJ). Powerful things happen when we get together for prayer, and join together in a common faith. God’s Spirit is still being poured out whenever people join together in unity. 

There was a unified message after Pentecost. They preached faith in Jesus, and declared His death, burial, and resurrection. The way we personally identify with the Gospel message is through repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus, and the sign of the indwelling Spirit when the born-again speak in other tongues. This become the unified message of the early church. Paul declared, “By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body … and have all been made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13 NKJ). Through the Spirit we become one in Christ Jesus!
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Theme passage:
“We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, ‘Turn back to God and be reconciled to him’” (2 Corinthians 5:20 TPT).