Copyright 2008 Theresa Harvard Johnson
Matthew 28:18-20 (CJB) says, “18 Yeshua came and talked with them. He said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore, go and make people from all nations into talmidim, immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember! I will be with you always, yes, even until the end of the age.”
(Please keep in mind that the Hebrew understanding of baptize is “to immerse.” While definitions will reveal this in word study, having it in place as our primary interpretation will take us deeper. Also, the phrase “in the name of” in this passage of scripture isn’t translated to its true meaning. Instead, it really indicates “the reality of.” With these changes, the meaning of this passage of scripture really comes to life.)
The Lord has been speaking deeply to my heart about His last command He gave on earth before ascending to Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. As part of my end of the year vision casting, the Lord placed this simple question in my heart: “Beloved, are you assisting me in making my people talmidim (disciples)?” I said, “Yes, Lord…,” with the understanding that I had at the time. Like many of us, I began to check off what I was doing, teaching and looking even closer at how I was living. I began taking a stroll through my heart with Holy Spirit leading, asking him to reveal anything within me that would block my maturity and growth in the Father.
Then he asked me another question. He said, “Beloved… prophet, are you IMMERSING THEM into the REALITY of the FATHER, the SON and HOLY SPIRIT…”
I answered, “Yes, Lord… I am doing all that I know to do through you…”
Then, the Lord said nothing else to me about this subject for a while. Yet, I found myself following up with a study that was required of me on the “ministry of Jesus.” My mentor asked me to IMMERSE MYSELF IN JESUS’ LIFE — learning everything I could about who HE IS, WHAT HE DID and WHAT HE commanded of us. This word IMMERSION (IMMERSING) can be viewed from a very creative place. Consider for a minute that you have thrown a towel in the ocean or a deep pool. To immerse that towel means that you are allowing it to not only get wet, but to sink into the water until every fiber is saturated and completely covered, and all the air bubbles and crevices are filled. It means to be SO FULL that the excess water has no choice but to fall off of you. The water and the towel has become one, and the towel has taken the shape of the “pull of that water.”
This immersion is becoming ONE. It is a place of being so saturated and so full that we drip with the water. (I saw a vision of a heavy towel being pulled from a stream. It was so immersed that the towel took the shape of the water’s pull as I lifted it up.) I could see that this immersion is a place of being so FULL… that the heaviness of the water and the reality of its presence is outwardly and inwardly apparent, obvious and always present.
What the Lord wanted to show me in this, and to reinforce in my heart is that when we walk out Matthew 28:18-20 as talmidim of Yeshua our primary mission is one of IMMERSION. The Lord was confirming and affirming me all at once as this understanding began to flood my spirit. While the Lord wasn’t speaking to me directly, I had this KNOWING (as I often say within me)… which is really the WITNESS of Holy Spirit rising inside my heart. The Lord was also INSTRUCTING me… and he’s doing the same with you as you read this.
You see, many of us are expecting the Lord to MOVE THROUGH our ministries and fulfill all of those prophetic words, promises, dreams and visions that we’ve had about our destiny and purpose. We are waiting on resources to manifest and storehouses to open up on our behalf. But in this small passage of scripture, the Lord is saying… “When you do what I have called you to do, then I will meet you with everything you need along the way to get it done.”
For some of you reading this, the Lord is saying that you cannot do things your way any longer. Your lives and your ministry must be IMMERSED IN HIM – HIS way, not your way. You can’t have one personality in the “secular book marketing group” and “another in The Scribal Anointing.” You can’t stand for Jesus in PRIVATE, and not acknowledge Him in all your ways openly. To walk out your ministry of IMMERSION, you must first be IMMERSED AND UNASHAMED of the message on the inside of you.
So when the Lord asked me these questions, He wasn’t concerned with my checklist – but with my PASSION AND DESIRE to carry out the ministry entrusted to me to the FULL – without any regard for people thinking “it doesn’t take all that.” I boldly say, “IT TAKES ALL THAT AND MORE! There’s so much freedom and power that comes from deep within us when we began to REPRESENT the Lord in the capacity in which HE has called us!”
What many miss here in this passage of scripture is that Jesus PROMISES to be with us ALWAYS when we FOLLOW the instructions that he provides like, “Therefore, go and make people from all nations into talmidim, immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”
WHAT IS REALITY TO YOU? Now, this is a very serious question. Reality for most people is what they can see or what they’ve experienced in the past. They believe in the SYSTEMS of this world. They believe in superstitions and the evening news. THIS IS NOT HEAVEN’S REALITY!
Reality, at least for me, was defined this way by Holy Spirit. He said, “Your reality prophet is the STATE OF YOUR EXISTENCE as it really is in the eyes of God than what you want or imagine it to be.”
The reality is: The Gospel must be preached.
The reality is: We are ambassadors of Christ.
The reality is: We have been given a ministry of reconciliation.
The reality is: We must love the Lord with all our hearts… and love our neighbors as ourselves…
The reality is: The wages of sin are death…
The reality is: The only PERSPECTIVE that has any weight IS THE PERSPECTIVE OF GOD HIMSELF…
There are many ideas and plans in our minds. There are many things we are busy doing. But the truth is this: “At the end of the day, have we OBEYED GOD… and when we close our eyes for the last time will we wake up in Heaven or in hell.”
We must BE who we were CREATED TO BE – a people IMMERSED in the REALITY of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. When every crevice of your being is filled and packed with His presence in your life – everything around you will shift and change for His purpose. Are you willing…. really willing to let Him use you?
