Every Moment with Jesus
By: Deji Yesufu
A few months ago, someone gave me a copy of Selwyn Hughes’ “Every Day with Jesus”. It brought a wave of nostalgia to me. Studying Electrical Engineering and graduating from that department at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was the first real trial of my adult life. It taught me to pray; it taught me to hear God literally from the pages of scriptures; and it led me to Selwyn Hughes. Hughes was still alive when I was at the University, and I used to buy those bi-monthly devotional booklets religiously because they gave my life balance in those days. In recent times, however, the Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that more than having an encounter with him “Every Day”, he wishes that my fellowship with him is “every moment”. I wish to relay how I entered this state of mind.
I am forty-seven years old, and this year alone I have had close shaves with death twice. The first was on a particularly dangerous late-night trip as I returned from Egbe. The second occasion was a bike accident I had and was saved by the wise counsel I got from my trainers that I must always have my helmet on. On these two occasions, my mortality was shown clearly to me like the morning sun. I am not too young to die and for this reason, I am taking every moment of my life more and more seriously. I am intent on how I use my time; I have cut television completely out of my life; I am working on reducing my screen time on the mobile phone; I am creating more and more time for my wife and children; I am devoting myself to my ministry – and labouring hard to fulfil it; and, sincerely, I am no longer wasting my time with relationships that are not beneficial. The moment I discover that you are not in tandem with what I believe I am called to do in this life, I will cut you off my life completely. This is what every moment with Jesus means to me personally. I will now turn to what the Bible has to say about this idea and I would conclude with thoughts on how you and I can make each moment of our lives count with the Lord Jesus Christ.
In our Lord’s ministry on earth, he had twelve men that he called to come and live with him. It was not uncommon in those days for men of great thinking to have their disciples live with them. For Jesus, it was a lot more than engaging in a ubiquitous practice. Our Lord knew that his time on earth was short, and it made sense that he made every moment with his disciples count. The book of John shows us that Christ needed to pass a certain message to the world that would have been practically impossible for the Jews to believe. The Jews understood the oneness of God. How would they grasp the idea of God having a Son – who himself is God? Jesus did miracles that pointed at his deity, but the way his disciples grasped these truths was not necessarily because of the miracles he did. They understood these realities because they lived with him – they spent every moment with him. John opened his epistle this way: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life…” The disciples grasped the fact that Jesus was God because they lived with him.
It was this moment-by-moment with Jesus that the disciples felt threatened they would lose when our Lord told them in John 14 that he would be leaving them. But he quickly added, that he would not leave them as orphans but “…I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth…” (John 14:16-17a). In other words, while the disciples enjoyed every moment of Christ’s life with him, something even greater can be experienced if we have the Comforter – the Holy Spirit – with us today. The Spirit can make every moment of our lives even more real with Jesus. The greatest gift that Christ gave his Church is the gift of the Person of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings Jesus alive to us. The Spirit makes every moment of our lives as if Jesus is with us. The Spirit guides us. The Spirit speaks to us. The Spirit gives us a mouth and a wisdom to dispel detractors. The Spirit fellowships with us. The Spirit comforts us. The Spirit makes every moment of our lives as if we are living with Jesus. The Spirit reveals the Lord to our hearts. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to make Jesus alive to us today. While Jesus spent three and a half years with twelve men on earth, the Holy Spirit can make Jesus real to each of us – every moment of our lives.
These thoughts come to me very forcefully as I have to battle challenges in my life even now. Most times I have to make quick decisions. Many times I need my temper tampered. All the time I need supernatural enablement for life issues. When I preach, I need wisdom from above to guide my speech. When I listen to a sermon or read a book, I need insights that only God can give. I have just returned from a trip to Port Harcourt where I supervised a workshop with very lean resources, and had to practically invent modalities for its successful prosecution because I have never been involved in a program like that before. It was Jesus that helped me make a success of it. I woke up every morning, almost hearing in my ears: “This is the way, walk in it”. I will find ideas and I will immediately implement them. Only the Holy Spirit can do a thing like that.
Friends, we can have Jesus involved in our lives every day. But even better, we can have the Lord direct our lives every moment. What militates against this kind of living is the tyranny of money. Many of us think that what we need in life is more money. I have realized that when you have Jesus, you have it all. I have seen the Lord multiply loaves of bread in my life. I have seen the Lord use very lean resources to do so much – and one has a lot left over. Jesus is the same today, yesterday, and forever. The poor are said to be rich in faith because they have only Jesus to go to. And the Lord has never failed the poor. The problem is, however, that when the Lord delivers us from our poverty, we then return to our strengths again to make it through life. We forget the lesson that God was trying to teach the Israelites when he said that he led them through the wilderness, and made them suffer hunger so that they may know that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3). This “every word” is every moment with Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God, and a man who has learnt to live with Jesus each moment would know what it means to survive difficult times with Jesus by his side.
You cannot experience “every moment with Jesus” if you have not committed your life to Christ in a meaningful way. You cannot know every moment with Jesus if you still have a besetting sin in your life. You cannot know every moment with Jesus if you are concerned with the opinion of men – Christ would almost always lead you against the opinion of the many. You cannot know success in Christian ministry, in a very dark and defiant world, if you are not walking with the Lord to guide you through life and ministry. Only Jesus by one side, can give wisdom to weather a difficult marriage. Only Jesus can give ideas to discipline a recalcitrant child. Only Jesus can give ideas to bring success to a business plan that lacks the resources to implement.
We will live life more meaningfully, and die deaths more gracefully when we have made Jesus occupy every moment of our lives. Amen.
Deji Yesufu is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.
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