David Diga Hernandez - Jesus is Inviting YOU Into His Inner Circle

Jesus Himself, the King of Kings, has given you four royal invitations. How will you respond?

If you are listening to this message right now, it’s because a love for Jesus burns in your heart. You want to know His mind; you want to know His will; you want to know His nature; you want to know what He is really like. You want to hear His voice. You want to obey Him. You want to please Him. As you respond to the invitations of the Lord and follow Him along your journey of faith, you will be challenged. You will face hardships. There will be moments of sacrifice. But still, that fire burns in you, and you say, as the Scripture says, «That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.» That’s Philippians 3:10. What a privilege it is to know Jesus! What a privilege it is that we have been invited by the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the God of the universe, to follow Him and learn His ways. He’s calling you now to higher heights; He’s inviting you to deeper depths. But for every level of knowing Him, there is a level of death to self. For every step you take toward Him, there is also a sacrifice that must be made to lay hold of the heavenly. You must let go of the material, and Jesus calls to you. He invites you to know Him; He invites you that He might share His heart with you.

Now, as I study the Scripture, I see that there were many invitations that the Lord called out. Certain people responded to different invitations that the Lord gave, and truly, these are royal invitations; these are divine invitations. But with every response to an invitation from the Lord, there will be something you must put on the altar. In John 1:39, Jesus said, «Come and see.» Come and look at what I can do; that’s basically what He was saying. Come and see the miracles; come and see the healings; come and see the demons driven out of the demon-possessed. There is no shame in coming to the Lord for a miracle; in fact, that’s how you may have found Him. There’s nothing wrong with coming to the Lord with a broken marriage and saying, «Lord, restore my marriage.» There’s nothing wrong with coming to Him with a sickness and saying, «Lord, please heal my body.» There’s nothing wrong with coming to Him and saying, «Lord, I need deliverance. I need freedom. I need emotional or mental healing.» Crowds followed Him for the miracles, and He never rebuked the crowds for following Him because of the miracles. Sure, there were moments when He wanted to call them to higher places, but He allowed them to see that which He could perform. He would feed the multitudes. He invited them to hear Him teach. He welcomed them to come and see.

This is the point at which many believers remain. They come, and they see: He’s good; He’s a deliverer; He’s a healer; He’s a savior. But beyond that, they never really come to know Him. They embrace Him in a way that’s convenient; they come close enough to be blessed but never close enough to be challenged. They come close enough to be wowed by the miracles, but they never come close enough for it to cost them something. But that’s not you. For you have said, «That I may know Him.» There’s a yearning in your heart, a desire placed there by the Holy Spirit that you may know Him in the power of His resurrection, even unto knowing Him in the fellowship of His sufferings.

But beyond just checking it out, beyond just seeing what He can do, there is another invitation that the Lord will give as you progress on your journey of faith. John 1:43 states, «The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, 'Come, follow Me.'» This is an invitation with a greater level of commitment. You see, when He says, «Come and see,» He will do for you; but when He says, «Come, follow Me,» now it’s time to change directions. Even this level of commitment, for some, is not necessarily a sacrifice because changing directions from sin, addiction, and bondage into the marvelous light of God really isn’t a sacrifice. In fact, I don’t think there really is such a thing as sacrifice when following Jesus because everything we give to Him in exchange, we receive something far greater than what we gave. So really, no, there is no such thing as absolute sacrifice. But there are those things that will challenge us, and we call those things sacrifice.

But to follow Him is to change directions. This is when you say, «I want to live as You live; I want to do as You do. I want to live my life in such a way that Jesus is glorified.» For some, even this at the beginning is simple and easy because, as I said, we come out of darkness into light. What a wonderful thing! Who really is going to complain if the Lord should take from them an addiction? Who really is going to complain if the Lord should remove from them a bondage? But as you follow Him, eventually you’ll find that there are things that challenge you deeply—beliefs that you’ve held.