The Magnetic Drawing Power of God

Jesus said, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me” (John 12:32).

Jesus is magnetic!  He was speaking of the drawing power of His crucifixion—being lifted up on the Cross.  Classic Christian leaders have recognized the magnetic drawing power of God in bringing a person to Himself.  Here are some examples.

We Are Lifted by Contact with God Like a Magnetic Force. Seventeenth-century Puritan leader Thomas Watson cites Ezekiel 3:14, “The Spirit lifted me up,” explaining that we are lifted by the “magnetic power of God’s Spirit. The Spirit has not only a soul-purifying power—but a soul-elevating power. As the sun draws up the vapors from the earth—so the Spirit draws up the heart to God. . . . A Christian in this life is both checked and spurred; grace spurs him forward in his way to heaven, and then corruption checks him. But the Spirit comes in and draws up the heart to God; which is a mighty power—as if you should see a mill-stone drawn up into the sun.”

We Are Drawn Like a Magnet toward His Coming. Higher Life leader A.B. Simpson explains how we are drawn toward Jesus more and more as His Coming approaches:

         “Did you ever see a great magnet held over a little box of sawdust and steel filings? As it came within a certain range, the very air seemed magnetized and the little particles of steel got restless, and movement passed through them, and they vibrated and trembled. There was some strange power possessing them and attracting them. As it came nearer and nearer, at last they began to rise, and suddenly, clinging together, they sprang up and attached themselves to the magnet.

        So as this divine attraction comes nearer and nearer, our hearts are strangely thrilled, and we are looking for and hasting unto the coming of the Lord. A heavenly presence and a divine atmosphere are abroad. It is gathering day by day, and week by week, and month by month. The mighty attraction is coming nearer; the Parousia is in the air, and our hearts are responding. Some day soon the attraction will be so supreme that we shall be caught up, and the gravitation of earth will be counterbalanced, and we shall be with Him in the air. . . . It is on the way, and though it may seem yet a little way off, we run forward to meet it, and He will meet us more than half way.”

Are you attracted more and more to the presence of Jesus? Are you being drawn more and more into the life of the heavenlies?  Are you anticipating His kingdom to come and His will to be done more and more on the earth as His coming from the heavens approaches?

We Become Magnetically Charged. For Baptist Keswick leader F.B. Meyer, to come into contact with God is to encounter a magnetic force that pulls us up to a higher dimension of living, as he prayed, “Human souls who touch You become magnetized, charged with a spiritual force which the world can neither oppose nor resist.” When we touch Jesus, we become magnetized.

The Drawing Power of Jesus Through Us. Sometimes, just because of our position on the Throne and our exaltation of Jesus Christ, we are in a place of “Throne Influence.” When we lift up Jesus, the magnetic drawing power of Jesus flows through us authoritatively. We have significant influence because others are attracted to Jesus within us. When they come in contact with us, they come in contact with Jesus within us. We operate in the authority of throne influence and people are changed—not by us, but by the presence of Jesus within us. Let us pray as Meyer prayed:

 

Oh, let me touch You!

Let me dwell in unbroken contact with You,

that out of You successive tides of Divine energy

may pass out into and through my emptied and eager spirit,

flowing, but never ebbing,

and lifting me into a life of blessed ministry.