Does Your Christian Journey Need Road Signs?

Do you need road signs for your Christian journey? There are at least seven of them hidden in the first chapter of the Gospel of John.

In John 1 there are seven great signs in the history of the universe that are milestones for us to follow.

Each milestone is a spiritual sign showing us where God is going and how we should follow Him on our Christian journey toward God’s goal.

7 Road Signs for Your Christian Journey

If you have believed in Christ, you have begun the greatest journey in the universe. But because it is so great, it needs signs to help us on our way. Thankfully, the Gospel of John is a book of signs (John 2:11). If we understand these signs they will become milestones leading us to our destination.

1. Eternity Past – “In the beginning was the Word”

Here is the starting point. God’s journey began from eternity past. John 1:1 it says,

In the beginning was the Word and Word was with God and the Word was God.

We need to start with this beginning, the eternal beginning—not a beginning in time, but the beginning in eternity. It is the real starting point for our Christian journey. Why?

It was in eternity that God made His great plan, to carry out His heart’s desire. According to His desire He chose us and predestinated us unto sonship (Eph. 1:4-5). So the solid beginning of our Christian journey doesn’t start with our choosing Christ, but with God’s choosing us.

When we see this, we will worship the Lord, We will thank Him for choosing us.

In eternity past there was only God. But this God was not simple. He is the Triune God and He has a special title—the Word.

“In the beginning was the Word.”  The Word was not only with God. The Word was God. From eternity past, the Word was with God and was God.

So when we have Him, we have the complete eternal Triune God! As the Word, He is not the invisible God but God defined, explained and expressed.  Today this Living Word of God, Christ, is contained in God’s written word, the Bible.

Do you want a solid beginning? Come to the Word each day. Then you’ll have a real beginning. This the starting point of your journey.

Open to God’s Word to begin your journey into God every day (Rom. 10:8-17).

2. Creation – “All things came into being through Him [the Word].”

Creation through the Word

However, God did not remain in eternity. He came forth in time. The first thing He did was to create all things.  John 1:3 says,

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not one thing came into being which has come into being.

God’s creation came into being through the Word.  God didn’t need to work. He just needed to speak and it was. This is a great discovery.

But what does creation have to do with our Christian journey?

God’s speaking is very powerful.  In Romans 4:17 Paul says concerning Abraham that the “God whom he believed…calls the things not being as being.”

In our experience, we may feel that we are short of faith.  We need to say, “not being, as being through the Word.”

When we come to Christ as the living Word in God’s written Word each morning, God calls something into being in us.  The faith of Christ, or Christ as our faith is infused into us.

God creating us with three parts as a vessel to contain Him

Everything God created is for His will, His eternal purpose (Rev. 4:11). This especially applies to us.

Have you seen that you were created in a special way, with three parts—a spirit, soul and body—to contain God.

Romans 9:21 and 23 make it clear that God considers us His vessels. A vessel is a container with an opening, a mouth. God made us as vessels to contain Him that we might express Him.

Have you given the Lord Jesus the opening to fill you today?  If not, here is the simplest way I’ve found to get filled with Christ. Romans 10:12-13 says,

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him; for “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Just say, “Lord Jesus! O Lord, fill me today.”

3. Incarnation – “the Word became flesh”

Concerning God’s incarnation, John 1:14 says,

And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.

You might ask, “How is Christ’s incarnation a milestone in my Christian journey?”

To answer this question, we first need to understand what Christ’s incarnation is. Second, we need to see how it applies to our spiritual experience.

First, incarnation means that in Christ the infinite God became a finite man. This little man of flesh and blood was a tabernacle, a tent, for the complete Triune God.  He is the perfect mingling of the complete God and a genuine, perfect man…with no third nature produced.

Second, as such a One, Christ, God’s only Son, declared God to us. John 1:18 says,

No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Christ declares God to us as the Word, the eternal life, the divine light, grace, and reality.

When we appreciate Christ by hearing the gospel or reading of Him in the Bible, He declares God to us in the way of life, light, grace and reality. When this happens to you, you can never be the same.

This is my experience, and I hope it will be yours as well.  If you have not yet experienced this milestone take a moment to pray,

“Lord Jesus, thank you that, as the eternal God, you were incarnated, becoming flesh, to declare God to man.  Reveal Yourself to me so I can know who God is.”

4. Redemption – “Behold the Lamb of God”

Concerning Christ’s redemption, John 1:29 says,

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the people with such a recommendation. He obviously is not a physical lamb. Such a title—Lamb of God—is a great sign to us!

Jesus is the unique sacrifice for sinners. As the Lamb of God, He carried up all our sins onto the cross and was judged by God as the unique sinner. He bore the sins of the whole world! He shed His blood for us—His genuine, sinless human blood.

But as God’s eternal Son, that blood has eternal value. It is as effective for us today as it was on the day Jesus was crucified for us.

Just believe it and receive it—once for all and even moment by moment!

Eternally, the blood of the Lamb purchased us for God, satisfying all the righteous demands of God’s law upon us so that God can justify us freely (Rom. 3:24).

Instantly, the blood cleanses us from every sin, the moment we confess them according to the Spirit’s shining (1 John 1:9).  Take a moment to pray,

“O Lamb of God, thank you for dying for my sins. I confess I am a sinner. Cleanse me with Your precious blood. Thank you for forgiving all my sins. I love You.”

5. Life-giving – “I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove”

Jesus was introduced by John as the Lamb with a dove. John 1:32 says,

And John testified, saying, I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him.

The dove is a further sign, bringing us another step on our Christian journey.

After believing in the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God we need to go on to experience Him as the dove for life-giving.

In His resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:45 tells us, “The last Adam [Christ], became a life-giving Spirit.”

We not only need His redeeming and forgiving. We need His life-giving. The first step of Christ’s life-giving is to regenerate us with His divine, uncreated, eternal life.  So have you been regenerated?

If not, I would encourage you to pray,

“Lord Jesus, thank you that You not only died as the Lamb of God to redeem me and forgive all my sins. Thank you even more that You resurrected to become the life-giving Spirt to regenerate me so that I can be born anew. Come into my spirit and fill me with Your eternal life. Every day renew me with Your Spirit through Your living Word.”

Open to the Lord Jesus every morning by calling on His name and feeding on His Word. This will help you to grow in Christ in a daily way.

6. Transformation – “You shall be called Cephas” (meaning “a stone”)

We not only need Christ’s life-giving, but we also need His transforming. John 1:42 says,

Looking at him, Jesus said, You are Simon, the son of John; you shall be called Cephas (which is interpreted, Peter).

Cephas, which is interpreted, Peter, means a stone.

Jesus called Simon, Peter, indicating that he was to be a little “stone” for God’s building. This is a great sign for our Christian journey. Are you a “Peter,” a  little “stone” that God can use for building up His spiritual house?

To receive Christ’s life-giving is so that we can be gradually transformed into precious stones for the building up of God’s spiritual house. God can only build His dwelling with transformed materials. That is why Peter said in 1 Peter 2:5,

You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house.

Every day it is good to pray,

Lord Jesus,  transform me more today with Your life so that I will become the proper building material for building up Your dwelling.

Here is a hymn that reveals God’s intention to transform us to His image. You can listen to the tune here.

7.  Building – “You shall see heaven opened and angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”

Building is the destination of God’s work throughout the ages. In John 1:51 Jesus said,

Truly, truly, I say to you, You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

Christ as the heavenly ladder with angels ascending and descending upon Him was a reference to Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28. There Jacob saw a ladder set up on earth and reaching to heaven with angels ascending and descending upon it.

Jacob called the place where he saw this vision Bethel, meaning the house of God.

This building is in the proper church, the reality of Bethel today (Eph. 4:16). It will be the New Jerusalem at the end of the Bible, as God’s eternal dwelling with His people, Revelation 21:2 says,

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Tell the Lord Jesus,

“Lord, build me up in Your Body, the church today that I may become part of Your eternal building, Your bride, the New Jerusalem.”

Please leave a comment confirming what you enjoyed from this post.

References and Further Reading:

For more on this topic, read Message 5 of the Life-study of John by Witness Lee.