Replace my name with yours. And believe it.
Hi Brad,
I want to remind you of a few things. I gave you the Bible so you can hear me, especially because I know that so much of the time you don’t feel like you hear from me. Just be okay with what you’ve read in the scriptures, the words they contain are my words. For now, that’s all you need of my voice. There will be a time when you and I will talk freely; in fact, we’ll be so close that we’ll both be completely known by one another. Don’t worry about how that’s even possible. Trust me, I am able to do this thing, and I will. Now, read John 17, and personalize it as though everything I said and prayed in that chapter was spoken and prayed specifically for you, for Brad Hicks. Then I want you to keep this in your heart and never forget it, because I did, most assuredly, speak these words and pray this prayer just for you, Brad.
John 16:33. I have told you these things, Brad, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
John 17: Now, Father, the hour has come. Glorify me, your Son, that I may glorify you. For you granted me authority over all people that I might give eternal life to Brad, whom you have given me. Now this is eternal life: that Brad knows you, the only true God, and me, Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
I have revealed you to Brad whom you gave me out of the world. He was yours; you gave him to me and he has obeyed your word. Now Brad knows that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave Brad the words you gave me and he accepted them. Brad knew with certainty that I came from you, and he believed that you sent me. I pray for Brad. I am not praying for the world, but for Brad whom you have given me, for he is yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through Brad.
I will remain in the world no longer, but Brad is still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect Brad by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that Brad and the brothers and sisters in me whom you gave him may be one as we are one. I have been with Brad, I have protected him and kept him safe by that name you gave me. Neither Brad nor any of mine in Brad’s generation will be lost except any who might ignore my Spirit’s call and thereby deny me.
I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that Brad may have the full measure of my joy within him. I have given Brad your word and the world has hated him, for Brad is not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take Brad out of the world but that you protect him from the evil one. Brad is not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify Brad by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent Brad into the world. For Brad I sanctify myself, that he too may be truly sanctified.
My prayer is not for Brad alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through Brad’s message, that he and they may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May Brad also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given Brad the glory that you gave me, that Brad and all who are mine in his generation may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved Brad even as you have loved me. Father, I want Brad to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and Brad knows that you have sent me. I have made you known to Brad, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in Brad and that I myself may be in him.
Louder For Malchus 