Excerpt from Behold the Lamb

John the Baptist, the greatest of all messengers, proclaimed, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God!’ In this present season, I believe the Lord is compelling us to behold the Lamb. As I waited upon the Lord and sought to understand this, I confessed that I knew very little about the Lamb. Nevertheless, I was aware that the Lord was asking us to be a people who are ‘of the Lamb’. And this has been the burden upon me in this recent season.

Any group of believers are ‘of the Lamb’ if they are displaying the nature and character of the Lamb. If we are willing to carry about, in the body, the dying of our Lord Jesus, then the life of Jesus will also be manifested in our body. 2 Cor 4:10. Perhaps it is a willingness to participate in the sufferings of Christ that most distinguishes a group of people who are ‘of the Lamb’. We are reminded of the words of Jeremiah, ‘I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter’. Jer 11:19. And the prophet Isaiah declares, ‘Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth’. Isa 53:7. John the Baptist watched Him as He walked and recognised Him as the Lamb of God.

As the season continued, the Lord impressed upon me the need for us to follow the Lamb. Again, I was unsure what this meant. My attention was drawn firstly to the disciples of John the Baptist, to whom Jesus said, ‘Follow Me’. A little later, I was drawn to the book of Revelation where we see the 144,000 standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion. Rev 14:1. This group follows the Lamb wherever He goes. Not only are they with Him, but they are sealed with His name on their foreheads and they sing a new song. It is a picture of complete devotion and worship.

While I continued to pray and meditate around this, my attention was then drawn to the Lamb who shepherds us and leads us to the springs of the water of life. Rev 7:17. It became clear to me that He is leading us, and we must follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Indeed, the Lamb is leading us to the life. It has been my preoccupation over many years to understand the zoe life of God. We know that this life is Christ Himself. Yes, as Paul says, ‘Christ is our life’. Col 3:4. He has come down from heaven so that we may have His life, and have it more abundantly. It is given to us, by the Spirit, as an individual possession. But more than this, we are made living members of Him, of His body, the church. We corporately share in this life. This is our fellowship. Speaking in very practical terms, there is no other way for us to fellowship together. The only alternative to the way of the Lamb is to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.