Consider this reconstruction of John chapter 1 verses 11 through 14. My friend Steve provided this rendering.
“He (the Word/YHVH/Jesus) came to His personal and private ones who were uniquely His own. And the personal and private ones who were uniquely His own did not take the strong personal initiative to receive, learn or assume their office from Him.” “But, whoever among the many took the strong personal initiative to aggressively lay hold of and receive Him, He gave to them the delegated authority, force, liberty and competence to emerge and transition from one realm and condition to another to become children who are willing to live in full dependence on God; to those who persuaded themselves to believe, to affirm and to have confidence in and who entrusted their spiritual well-being to the Name, Authority and Cause of Him. (v 12) “who were not born out from and to bloodshed; nor out from and to the will, choice or decree of flesh; nor out from and to the will, choice or decree of a man; but instead out from and to God. “And the Word (YHVH, the Father’s Logos) emerged transitioning from one realm, place and condition to another to become a human being of flesh that dwells and resides in its own physical tent with us. And we intently gazed upon, observed and contemplated to grasp the significance and impact of His infinite, intrinsic worth; a glory that evokes a good opinion of infinite, intrinsic worth; a glory that evokes a good opinion of one in a class who is from, close beside and intimately participating with Father, the One who imparts life and passes on the likeness of grace, kindness, favor and truth.” (John 1:11-14)
After reading the above, I commented to Steve: In my understanding, That reconstruction expresses the Divine Intent behind those words. It clearly delineates those who are “all in” from the rest. There aren’t that many who fall into the prior category unless you are seeing something beyond what I see. It looks to be the classic remnant.
Steve responded:
Jesus hasn’t disclosed or discussed with me the percent of “the many” that are “all in.” I know from my own experience that there are “many” who have taken the “strong personal initiative to aggressively lay hold of and receive” the various religious doctrines, orthodoxy, teachings and belief system of Christianity and its administrative arm called the Church (about 2 billion of them). I think the last count I saw, though, is that there are some 42,000 denominations within Christianity. (1Corinthians 1:13) So, there are more than a few Christians out there, most of whom carry the plague of the serpent’s curse of enmity within them that is then used to divide them from other Christians in the name of Christ — the supposed Anointed One. Hmmm. . .
But, my experience has also been that there are a scant few who are taking the “strong personal initiative to aggressively lay hold of and receive” the Person of Jesus in the way they have the Religious Jesus — the Jesus of the Bible, Christianity and the Church. And so, they are experts at being Christians with all the delusion that comes with it, but have no clue how to be effective residents of the Kingdom. So, while professing to be followers of Jesus, they are actually agents and propagators of darkness. I know this is true because I was chief among them until Jesus personally and privately invited me to make another choice, which meant I had to drop the religious Jesus to “aggressively lay hold of” the Person Jesus ALONE. And, the fact that I have never met a single Christian (including me) who has actually been taught by the Church how to rule WITH Jesus is a testament to that sad reality.
Ponder the above and allow The Holy Spirit to minister Truth and life. You and I need to be in unity with Person of Jesus as a member of His Bride. We don’t need 42,000 denominations to tell us what The Holy Spirit is saying.