Wisdom From the Word

Hanging on – it evokes images of just staying above water, just making it through or clinging to the end of something. It is like the story of the young man hiking alone in the mountains who tripped and stumbled over a cliff but managed to grab a large root and hang on. He lacked the strength to pull himself up but knew he could last for a while if he wrapped his arms around the root. He did so. He had never been very interested in spiritual things but knowing he was going to fall and die he cried out for God to save him. He then heard a voice that sounded like God. “Young man, let go of the root and as you fall I will catch you.” He immediately responded, “Is there anyone else up there?”

This may seem funny but it illustrates a spiritual truth. We tend to want to trust Jesus when it is safe and He wants us to trust Him when it requires faith. Most of us will never have our physical life depend on what we believe but there is the issue of our ability and willingness to trust Him on an ongoing basis. I think there are two aspects to this, the idea of stepping out and taking risks, like Peter getting out of the boat and walking on the water, and our image of Jesus. We trust Him based on our view of Him.

Remember how Mary Magdalene encountered Jesus just after His resurrection.

¹¹  But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. ¹²  And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. ¹³  Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” ¹⁴  Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵  Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” ¹⁶  Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). ¹⁷  Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’” John 20:11-17 (NKJV)

I don’t know how often we think of this but Jesus delayed His ascension into heaven to respond to Mary Magdalene’s heart! That is a key aspect, yet there is something else, Jesus instructed Mary not to cling to Him. While part of that is that He needed to complete His ascension and offer His blood upon the altar in heaven, He also knew Mary could not now know Him as He was if she continued to cling to the way He had been, the way she had known Him! Mary wanted to hang on to her friend, the Jesus she had known who walked the earth and healed hearts, especially hers. Yet He had changed and could now provide so much more.

In a similar manner I know that none of us have perfect theology and we tend to view Jesus in certain ways, yet to truly know Him we cannot cling to wrong concepts. We need to let the scriptures, rather than traditional views and concepts, define who He is and get to know Him as He is presented by the Holy Spirit and His Father. For example I have known of people who viewed Jesus as always very kind and respectful, generally this is true, but clinging to that view does not allow us to see the Jesus who publicly rebuked and chastised people, even calling some of them some not very nice names! Others say He always heals, the sometimes implied and sometimes explicit implication being that if we need healing and pray and are not healed we are deficient in our faith in some area. Yet while Jesus did heal multitudes there are times He did not heal everyone, like the group of sick at the pool of Bethesda that Jesus left (Jn. 5:1-13). We also have the man healed through Peter and John who was daily laid at the gate of the temple (Acts 3:1-10). His healing that day accomplished something significant in many other lives. Yet we know prior to being healed he was there every day and we know from the gospels that Jesus had taught in the temple regularly and would have had a number of opportunities to heal Him.

I don’t write this to discourage prayer for healing. I have prayed for others who have been healed and I have been the recipient of healing prayer. I use these two examples to encourage us to re-examine Jesus through the lens of scripture and see if we are clinging to anything that has us interacting with Jesus as we desire Him to be rather than as He really is.

Another thing that often gets in the way of us knowing Jesus as the scriptures present Him is hanging onto baggage. We use the term to refer to our human propensity to hold onto old hurts, offenses and similar things. A number of years ago someone I knew shared his story of waiting for an overseas flight. He had been bumped from his flight and someone from the airline then came and said, “We can get you on the Concord but you can’t take your baggage with you.” He received this as a prophetic word from the Lord. The Concord flew higher and faster than other planes and he understood the Holy Spirit was telling him he could go higher and faster in the Spirit but it meant leaving his baggage behind.

Most of us have emotional or intellectual baggage we carry around with us. Scripture speaks quite powerfully to this.

¹  Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ²  looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 (NKJV)

This passage encourages us to look at the sacrifices of those who have gone before us and are watching us run our race as a motivator to embrace the same sacrifice for the great reward set before us. One of the images here is one of foolishly trying to run a race while carrying extra baggage. I recently heard some of the story of one of the ships connected to the Franklin Expedition that disappeared in the Artic. Much has been learned since one of the ships was discovered last year. In this story they talked of the survivors from one ship dragging a desk and other items across the frozen ice and ultimately perishing with them. These items were valuable in a city or other place but not only of no value on frozen ice, they hindered travel and likely contributed to their death.

So, in conclusion, how do we see Jesus? Are we clinging to the right concept of Him? Are we carrying or taking with us ‘baggage’ that is hindering us going higher and faster in the Spirit? May we ever more fully see Him through the unfiltered lens of scripture and learn to draw closer and closer to Him as He is so that those around us are changed by His glory!

It is spring time and stores are starting to put out plants and soon multitudes will be planting gardens and farmers sowing fields. Many are planning them now and looking forward in anticipation to a harvest. They plant because expect a harvest at the end of the growing season. We live in a season referred to in the NT as an ‘age.’ Jesus planted first Himself (see Jn. 12:23-24) a church almost 2,000 years ago. Do we think He is expecting a harvest? Obviously. His kingdom has been reaping fruit from the seed He has sown, the first seed being His own life. However, I think there is a major harvest coming that will close out the season, this present age. That is what I want to write about.

In my last post I briefly focused on the significance of Passover and noted that Passover and Pentecost, two of Israel’s feasts, were key in the birthing of the church. Now I want to briefly look at the fall feast. Passover and Pentecost have been fulfilled, the fall feast, Tabernacles or Harvest, has not. There have been numerous prophetic words given in recent decades of a great end time harvest coming. While things may look dark in our land I believe the words of Isaiah will ring true across our nation and many others.

¹  Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. ²  For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. Isaiah 60:1-2 (NKJV)

While this was something Isaiah spoke to the nation of Israel I believe it also speaks to our day and what we will see the Holy Spirit accomplish. It aligns with what Jesus said. He never spoke idly and He made a very interesting statement in the passage below, “the harvest is the end of the age,”

³⁷  He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸  The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. ³⁹  The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. ⁴⁰  Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. ⁴¹  The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, ⁴²  and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³  Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Matthew 13:37-43 (NKJV) emphasis mine

In line with this Jesus also said,

¹⁴  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:14 (NKJV)

Do we generally preach the ‘gospel of the kingdom’ in the west. As I mentioned in the Passover post, we are called to embrace ‘all’ that Jesus taught, not just the parts we like. The gospel of the kingdom teaches us to bow our hearts to the King of kings and Lord of lords and become truly disciples. The gospel of the kingdom when truly preached will radically reshape the church.

So we can see that the gospel of the kingdom needs to be preached and the harvest is the end of the age. When Jesus said “the harvest is the end of the age” was He connecting this to the harvest feast? While the answer is not explicit, in terms of the gospel what else do we know about the end of the age? Paul had something to say. When he referred to Israel rejecting the gospel and in turn being rejected he looked forward to a future time when they would return and as a people embrace the gospel.

¹⁵  For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Romans 11:15 (NKJV)

Sadly, there are many in the church today who see no place for ethnic Israel in Yahweh’s plan. The only way to come to that conclusion is to be wilfully ignorant of the scriptures. Not only did Paul speak of a future reconciliation of Israel he further described it by quoting the OT and said there was a time coming when their sins would be removed.

²⁵  For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; ²⁷  For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” Romans 11:25-27 (NKJV)

This is consistent with what Zechariah saw and prophesied when he spoke of a future national repentance for Israel.

 ¹⁰  “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” Zechariah 12:10 (NKJV) ¹  “In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.” Zechariah 13:1 (NKJV)

How does all of this relate to the Feast of Tabernacles, the Harvest Feast? Just as at one time Passover and Pentecost prophesied of future events and were fulfilled in the life of the church so too Tabernacles prophesies of a future event that will be fulfilled in the life of the church, a great and joyous harvest. Unlike Passover and Pentecost, feasts that were each on a specific day, Tabernacles takes place of a period of time. The prophetic nature of the feasts is hinted at in Isaiah.

⁹  Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, ¹⁰  Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’ Isaiah 46:9-10 (NKJV)

Yahweh tells us clearly that He declares the end from the beginning, He plants the seeds of the future in the past. We need to pray for a ‘spirit of wisdom and revelation’ to see and hear. The harvest in the fall is a feast of culmination and I believe a great end time harvest will take place as we transition from this age to the next. In the midst of great chaos and turmoil in the world a great harvest will simultaneously take place, light in some areas, darkness in others. When those who are willing have come in the door will close and the age will end. It is interesting that in Exodus 23:16 it was referred to as the feast of ‘ingathering’ and was a time of great joy and celebration.

¹⁶  and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. Exodus 23:16 (NKJV)

There were in fact two harvests, the firstfruits which was tied into Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread leading into Pentecost. In like manner there have been many harvests during the life of the church but the great fall harvest or ‘ingathering’ now needs to take place. If what I am writing in true then it behooves us to be like Daniel and begin to pray. When Daniel saw from the prophesies of Jeremiah that the first return of Israel to their land from Babylon was to take place he didn’t have a charismatic worship service, he got on his face and embraced repentance and intercession because he recognized the prophesy would be fulfilled through Yahweh’s people coming into agreement with Him! So, search the scriptures to see if you see then make a decision about intercession. However, I invite you to first listen to this song by David Brymer and reflect on whether the answer is yes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fff1c-HZf50

This year Passover begins today, on the evening of Friday April 3 (Good Friday to us as Christians). You may notice that I have referenced Passover rather than Easter. While Easter is what we traditionally celebrate, I personally, along with quite a few others by the way, prefer Passover. Why is that you wonder, it is because the feasts of Israel were prophetic events pointing to the future and the church was birthed in and through these feasts and they still have much to teach us. Passover was the key feast connected to our salvation. If you had asked a first century believer what they were doing for Easter they would have had no response as they had never heard of Easter. Easter came in during the first centuries of the church when a political decision was made to disconnect the church from its Jewish roots.

Our salvation is rooted in the Feast of Passover, in fact what we refer to as the Last Supper was Jesus celebrating the Passover meal with His apostles. Our origin as the church and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is traced to Pentecost (Passover flowed into First Fruits which flowed into the Feast of Weeks that culminated in Pentecost). This is why the language of Acts 2:1 was recorded as ‘when the Day of Pentecost had fully come.’ The church will come to a glorious fulfillment on another feast of Israel, the fall Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the harvest feast or ingathering. Yes, not all the feasts have been fulfilled. In the future I plan to provide further information on the feasts and there spiritual significance but here are a couple of many from Passover.

Prior to His arrest and crucifixion Jesus spent time staying in Bethany and travelling in and out of Jerusalem teaching and being inspected by the religious elite. They could find not a spot or blemish in Him (He was arrested and crucified on false charges). At the same time a natural lamb was tied up outside the temple each day. It was the Passover lamb selected to be sacrificed for the nation and the practice was for it to be tied up outside so the whole nation could inspect it. So here we have the true Passover Lamb and the natural one pointing to one another at Passover.

Another aspect of Passover was that when it was instituted in Egypt Moses was instructed to tell the people of Israel to eat the whole lamb. In the same way Jesus told His followers to make disciples of all nations and to teach them to ALL He had commanded. If are to truly obey the gospel we must embrace the Passover injunction and eat the whole thing!

¹⁰  You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. Exodus 12:10 (NKJV) ²⁰  teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Matthew 28:20 (NKJV)

So Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Passover was a one day event and on the first day of the week the High Priest gathered the first fruits of the spring harvest and waved them in the field as an offering to Yahweh. While he was performing this act Jesus was being raised from the dead. Paul referred to this as follows.

²⁰  But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹  For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. ²²  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:20-22 (NKJV)

Understanding the roots of our faith helps to bring clarity to the New Testament record.

In closing, let me take us back to Passover and the power of Jesus death and resurrection on our behalf. Matthew 1:21 says Jesus will save us from our sins, I have always understood this as both the penalty and power. What Jesus accomplished has been powerfully captured in the words of a friend. I invite you to reflect deeply on what he has written. He has chosen to remain anonymous.

We three had been planning this for what seemed to be an eternity.

The time had finally come.

An event beyond human comprehension.

A solution and a gift for all mankind.

It’s really a love story so intricate, it is almost beyond belief.

Although some would not, or will not accept or believe the gift I have bought and paid for.

 

It did come at a cost.

It wasn’t the physical pain that I was dreading, no, that would pass quickly enough compared to what the final outcome would be.

The gift.

 

Scorned, and despised.

Abandoned, rejected by my closest friend three times.

Actually, rejected by millions over time really.

Back scourged, flesh ripped and torn, hanging in shreds.

Crushed bearing the weight of a crude timber.

Broken, pierced and spit upon.

Ridiculed by the very ones I came to bring the gift to.

 

I was deeply distressed, yet, I would not turn away from doing my Father’s will.

That’s what it would take, so, that’s what I would do.

Still, the Father’s plan was perfect.

I came and healed their infirmities.

The blind received sight, lepers cleansed, the poor received the good news.

And yet, this is how they treated me.

So I would remain silent to the end.

A lamb born, led to be sacrificially slaughtered.

 

But, there was an affliction I was dreading.

The dark night of the soul.

All sin since the beginning of man, and those who would come after, laid on me.

I would be covered, drenched with the wickedness of the world.

A putrid stench so evil, so abhorrent, my Father would have to turn away from me.

My Father’s love and Presence would be stripped away from me.

The anguish of my soul as the Father forsakes me. That is the dread I faced.

Like the curtain ripped from top to bottom, torn in two, separated.

His love and presence ripped and torn away from me. That’s what I was looking towards.

Forsaken and despised by my own Father, the anticipation of losing the one you love.

Yet that was my Fathers will, to crush me, to make me suffer…… for you!

 

As the Word says,

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son,

that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

 

There.

This is the gift.

Now you know the truth.

That’s what I did for you.

Will you believe?

What are you going to do with this knowledge?

Do you have the courage to come to me? To know me?

Will you accept the Father’s gift to you, or will you turn away and reject us?

The choice is yours.

In continuing to talk about the need to walk as one I am going to weave together some seemingly disparate scriptures into one. In doing this I recognize that if the church is to ever function in the unity Jesus prayed for then we all need to understand what and how to walk in the things He has prepared for us to do.

¹⁰  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)

While I wrote ‘if the church is to ever function in the unity Jesus prayed for’ in the comment above, the real question is ‘when?’ Given Jesus prayed for unity we can be assured that no matter how things look now, or how settled we are in unbelief, before the end Jesus will ultimately have what He requested from the Father. We also need to understand the role our persevering faithful prayer plays in the fulfillment of Jesus prayer. However, back to Ephesians 2:10. Have you ever had guests for a meal? Generally we try to prepare the food before they arrive, to have things ready in advance. Our Father looked down through time and eternity and ‘pre’-pared things for us to walk in, our individual calling and purpose. This is part of being assembled as a body.

So let’s start with what Jesus prayed.

²⁰  “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹  that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²²  And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³  I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” John 17:20-23 (NKJV)

Jesus said we will come into unity, become one, through an understanding and experience of His glory. So we would do well to pray for an unveiling of His glory. I think some of that will come through us as His body each understanding our calling and purpose.

¹⁶  from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:16 (NKJV)

Another key piece is the need to be righty related to one another. Paul told us that the body is ‘joined and knit together’ through what the joints supply. A joint is not a part, it is a relationship between parts. So let’s add this to the reference below.

²⁴  And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, ²⁵  not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25 (NKJV)

There are two parts here. Joints and assembly. In applying Hebrews 10:24-25 I know the literal meaning is getting together but in the early church that meant 1 Corinthians 14:26, not showing up and sitting and standing on cue and then leaving in pretty much the same condition we came in as seems to be the case in so many present day churches.

²⁶  How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. 1 Corinthians 14:26 (NKJV)

So we need to be joined in right relationships to grow as a body, we need to exercise our gifts and callings and we need to be assembled. Assembled in the sense of the right parts fitting together. If we as the church are the body of Christ then the toe needs to be joined to the foot, the ear to the head and the nose to the face. Each part needs to know its function and then be in the right place on the body. This will require a shift in the function of much of the current church leadership, a revelation of His glory throughout His body, and a general releasing of the body into their calling and purpose.

The way I best understand this coming about is an image the Holy Spirit showed me about 20 years ago. I saw an image of a puzzle, like a jigsaw puzzle. As the parts shifted and came closer the picture was clearer but when they all came into the right place it was as if light were turned in inside the puzzle and it was filled with life. This is what I believe will happen when we as His body come into our gifts and callings and are properly assembled. We will see clearly what was previously confusing and will corporately powerfully flooded with the light of His presence (we have something to pray for).

In closing here is what I heard Bobby Connor say while recently watching John Paul Jackson’s memorial service.

“God chose us in the past, to live in the present, to forge the future.” Bobby Connor

Let us forge the future Jesus envisions for His body!

I recently spoke very briefly about how the body of Christ is designed to function and someone requested I expand on my thoughts so here they are. Paul told us that the events of the OT were written as examples for us (see below). So let me share some of what the OT teaches about the oneness Yahweh desires in His body so we can learn from this example.

¹¹  Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 1 Corinthians 10:11 (NKJV)

In Exodus 26 Yahweh instructed Moses on how to build the tabernacle.

⁶  And you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains together with the clasps, so that it may be one tabernacle. Exodus 26:6 (NKJV)

¹¹  And you shall make fifty bronze clasps, put the clasps into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one. Exodus 26:11 (NKJV)

The piece I want to highlight is Yahweh’s focus on the tabernacle being one. This was one of the aspects that Yahweh emphasized. There is no mysterious meaning in Hebrew, the word simply means to be united or one. So, if as Paul noted this was written to teach us something what is it teaching us? While the tabernacle was the place of worship and communion with Yahweh. I have noted in previous teaching how the different aspects can represent our spirit, soul, and body. However, it also represents a corporate body. Peter tells us this.

⁴  Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, ⁵  you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶  Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” 1 Peter 2:4-6 (NKJV)

Peter tells us that as believers in Jesus we as living stones are being shaped into a spiritual house. Paul framed the same concept a bit differently in Ephesians 4:11-6 and said the following things would result from the proper functioning of the five-fold ministry in the church. Paul said the proper functioning of the five-fold ministry would flow from understanding that these gifts are given;

• for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of serving,
• for the building up of the body of Christ,
• to bring the church into the unity of the faith (not doctrine) and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
• to bring the church to maturity, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ

So that the church, in maturity:

• would be stable,
• would speak the truth in love to further mature the body,
• would be nourished by what the joints supply (a joint is a relationship between two parts),
• would be knit together in right relationships, and
• would grow effectively in love.

This brings us back to Exodus 26 and the tabernacle being one. He is looking to see His church move in unity, as one. If you have ever played on a sports team or watched one you can tell when there is team unity. There is a flow in the team actions, the team seemingly takes on a life of its own and moves with a harmony that supports, protects and leads. If you have ever been part of such an experience you will treasure it, this is how we as the church are called to function.

So how do we get there? Have you ever studied a construction site at the beginning of a building project? A hole is dug and a foundation poured. Then all the materials are brought in so the floor, walls, roof and other parts can be assembled. When the supplies are brought in all the basic parts are there but it certainly does not look like a house! In the same way if we purchase a boxed piece of furniture at one of many large stores we realize, once we take all the parts out of the box, if it was not already obvious, we can see there is some assembly required! In a similar manner, having all the different members of a church congregation in one place does not mean you have a spiritual house – some assembly is required.

We need properly functioning church leadership and a body all operating in their gifts to see His house properly built. Yahweh said the tabernacle was to be one, all the seemingly disparate parts expressing a unity of purpose and function. Let us pray for this leadership to be further raised up and released and for all of us to operate in our gifts and callings.

More to come…

How do we recognize spiritual authority? Is it through titles or attire? Is it by physical bearing? Scripture has some interesting comments. I will start with Isaiah.

¹  Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? ²  For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. ³  He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Isaiah 53:1-3 (NKJV)

Isaiah here described Jesus and prophesied that when He came we would not recognize or be drawn to Him by His physical appearance. Jesus would not fit in well with the elite of His day. Very few with cultural status would be able to recognize Him. Has this changed?

If we look back in scripture the Israelites at first did not embrace Moses as their leader and often challenged his spiritual authority in the wilderness. We see the same pattern with the kings. Saul looked good and failed and then when the great prophet Samuel was sent to anoint the new king he needed to learn something about discernment.

⁶  So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the LORD’S anointed is before Him.” ⁷  But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:6-7 (NKJV)

Samuel got caught up in physical appearance. Jesus challenged the religious elite of His day because they asked for a sign from Him to validate His message. Never mind that numerous ones had already been given. They refused to recognize Him because to even consider Him as the Messiah offended their religious minds.

⁴²  The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. Matthew 12:42 (NKJV)

Jesus point was that someone who was a stranger to the community of Israel would go through great hardship to hear Solomon’s wisdom but they could not recognize the embodiment of reality and true spiritual authority standing right in front of them! Are we any different? The pattern has repeated through church and secular history. If we as the church in this day are to fulfill our calling and purpose we need to learn how to function differently. We need to embrace the spiritual truth that Paul provided for us because the issue was still prevalent in his day. Immature believers failed to recognize his spiritual authority and the truth is we receive from others based on our ability to discern what they carry. Paul said.

¹²  For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. ¹³  For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. ¹⁴  For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵  and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. ¹⁶  Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. ¹⁷  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:12-17 (NKJV)

Paul was telling us that if we learn to relate to our fellow believers based on who they are in Christ and what they carry of His presence we will go a lot further as the church. I know pastors who carry great spiritual authority and wisdom but I know more people who are not official church leaders who carry great spiritual authority and wisdom. My friend the carpenter who loves the scriptures like no one else I know, my friend the janitor who constantly changes lives through his intercession, young men and others who have given themselves to prayer and are carrying increasing spiritual authority. I see them and many other who carry His presence but are not greatly esteemed by the world. I pray we learn this lesson and retain it. As Jesus said.

¹⁵  And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” Luke 16:15 (NKJV)

The converse is true, that which is generally lightly esteemed by men is highly esteemed by God!

Where is our awareness most of the time? I recently visited with a friend who is 89, and while her mind and spirit are sharp, she has been in ongoing terrible pain and is on scheduled doses of morphine to manage the pain. She refuses to take enough to truly deal with the pain because it dulls and muddles her mind and alertness – her awareness is very important to her. I asked her how conscious she was of Jesus in all of this (she has had terrible pain for many long months). My question elicited a smile and joy as she told me how aware she constantly was of His presence in her and with her. I will come back to this.

What I wonder about is how well we apply scriptural truth to this aspect of our lives? What is our ongoing perspective on reality?

¹⁸  And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰  teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Matthew 28:18-20 (NKJV) 

⁵  Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Philippians 4:5 (NKJV) ¹  After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” ²  Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. Revelation 4:1-2 (NKJV) 

¹  Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, ²  a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. Hebrews 8:1-2 (NKJV) 

¹  God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, ²  has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; ³  who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, Hebrews 1:1-3 (NKJV)

The verses above all tell us something about Jesus nearness, presence, ministry and finished work. One underlying message is that He is very involved in our lives. Yet, I believe to walk in what He desires for us we need to learn to tune our hearts to His presence. He is very near, at hand, and desiring to engage our hearts. Yet if we never slow down to focus on Him we can miss what He is doing in our lives.

We live in a culture driven by distraction and activity yet if you can engage someone in a meaningful way in all of our cultural ‘busyness’ many feel disconnected. We live in the most ‘connected’ time in history yet seem to not have time to connect with the one this is all about. Paul told us it was and is all about Jesus.

¹⁰  that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him. Ephesians 1:10 (NKJV)

This means that since Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith and of time then history is really His-story. Given that does it not make sense to make time for Him? Given we know He is near, at hand (Phil. 4:5) how can we know His presence like my friend above? The answer is simple and challenging, we give Him our time.

Giving Jesus our time may sound daunting but it is consistent with how He has designed us. For many years in our busy culture I have commented that most people say they have no time yet I believe that if you put the average ‘busy’ person in our culture in a quiet room with no distractions  for 10 minutes they would find it very difficult to be still. We were created to need quiet times to recharge and be restored. Even the word recreation is a compound word, re-creation. Times of rest are meant to recharge us.

For myself I love hiking in the mountains. It is amazing when you spend even half an hour hiking up and then look back and see how much distance you have covered. The other important piece is that the view is very different than down in the valley.

So, while I believe it is critical to make time each day to sit with Jesus with no distractions, I believe we can also practice creating these moments throughout any given day. We can climb our cultural mountain of distraction by refocusing on Him in a checkout line, while riding an elevator, in the shower, etc. Jesus is at hand and if we will learn to tune our hearts to Him we will become more aware of this important reality and will find all of the busyness around less of a distraction and find ourselves able to see from His perspective rather than ours – the views really are quite different!

The story of the woman at the well, as it is known, is very common in Christian circles. It is not a parable, it is a record of an actual event that took place. While we can read the story in a few minutes understanding something of the cultural context will help us better understand what took place. The basic facts,

• The woman was a Samaritan,
• Samaritans do not interact with Jews
• Jesus was a Jew
• The woman had five different husbands
• She was now living with a man who was not her husband
• The whole community knew who she was and were familiar with her history

An important factor is that in the culture of the day woman had no right to divorce men. Men initiated the divorce. This tells us two things about this woman. The first is that all five of her husbands must have found something desirable in her to marry her, particularly as one went further down the husband list! The second is that they all found some reason to divorce her. We don’t need to speculate on what that was, we just need to know that she experienced ongoing rejection from everyone who married her. It would strain credibility to believe they all just dropped dead and that is why she kept remarrying.

So what can we learn from this scene. Let’s start with the key verses.

¹  Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John ²  (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), ³  He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. ⁴  But He needed to go through Samaria. John 4:1-4 (NKJV)

Jesus needed to go through Samaria. Why? The religious people of the day went out of their way to go around Samaria (see verse 9). Jesus needed to go because He was not religious, He was free, and because He had an appointment at a well.

⁶  Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. ⁷  A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ⁸  For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. ⁹  Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. ¹⁰  Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” ¹¹  The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ¹²  Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” ¹³  Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴  but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” ¹⁵  The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” ¹⁶  Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷  The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸  for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” ¹⁹  The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ²⁰  Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” ²¹  Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. ²²  You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. ²³  But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. ²⁴  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵  The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” ²⁶  Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” John 4:6-26 (NKJV)

³⁹  And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰  So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. ⁴¹  And many more believed because of His own word. ⁴²  Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” John 4:39-42 (NKJV)

We know that as a result of this encounter with Jesus this unnamed woman moved from religion to life, she found living water, and she found the freedom Jesus modeled as she became a passionate evangelist sharing openly the good news of her heart issues being revealed, which means her heart must have also been healed. Something about Jesus drew her into the conversation. We know it was not His appearance as Isaiah said there was nothing in His physical appearance to draw us to Him (²  For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. Isaiah 53:2 NKJV). It must have been her heart that was drawn.

So, how many of us are like this woman? We have had to deal with issues of religion, rejection or conflict, sometimes all interrelated, and need our hearts healed. Are we ready like her to come and drink of this living water and let it flow through our hearts bringing cleansing and healing? We may have been a Christian for years but still need our hearts healed, or we may have at one time had a free heart that now needs to be healed. Whatever the case there are two things I know for sure.

1. He is able
2. He is willing

Come drink – not once but continually.

In Genesis after the flood Noah sent out a raven and a dove. Their behaviour is illustrative of spiritual truth. Ever wonder why the dove returned and the raven did not?

⁶  So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. ⁷  Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. ⁸  He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. ⁹  But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. Genesis 8:6-9 (NKJV)

The context of the above passage is after many months in the Ark the waters began to recede and mountaintops could be seen. This is when Noah sent out the raven and the dove. If the raven could find a place to rest why couldn’t the dove find a ‘resting place for the soul of her foot?’ The simple answer is that ravens eat carrion and there would have been plenty of dead carcasses still floating around. The dead carcasses in spiritual terms speak of our flesh. The Holy Spirit will not rest upon and bless our flesh. We may protest that Acts 2 tells us otherwise. I will come to that.

4418. σάρξ sarx noun

Flesh, human, mortal nature, physical life.

Complete Biblical Library Greek-English Dictionary, The – The Complete Biblical Library Greek-English Dictionary – Sigma-Omega.

The Greek word sarx is used in the New Testament to refer to both our physical body and natural sinful propensities. Paul created this latter usage in his writing with numerous phrases such as the ones below.

⁴  that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:4 (NKJV) ¹⁶  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. ¹⁸  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Galatians 5:16-18 (NKJV)

Here Paul extrapolates from the use of the term to refer to our physical body to have it refer to our natural sinful tendencies that are at odds with the desires of the Holy Spirit. Thus we can have Paul using the term the way he does above, with Luke writing in Acts and quoting Peter using it to refer to our natural physical body.

¹⁷  ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. Acts 2:17 (NKJV)

A very interesting side note here is that most people associate this outpouring of the Spirit upon humanity as tied to the release of spiritual gifts. Yet Peter was not making that connection – he was connecting the release of spiritual gifts with conversion! This may seem like a small point but it is crucial. We tend to see the release or development of spiritual gifts as a post conversion experience. Peter quoted Joel to explain what had happened to the 120 when the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost and birthed the church. Peter then explicitly connected the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to conversion.

³⁸  Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹  For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Acts 2:38-39 (NKJV)

So back to our dove. The dove represents the Holy Spirit here in Genesis and at Jesus baptism (please note that the dove is only one of a number of representations of the Holy Spirit). The dove will not rest upon carrion, If we want the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives He will come and impart new life, we will be born again and receive Jesus nature in our spirit. Yet the Holy Spirit will never be comfortable with our flesh, our sinful propensities. He is the third member of the Godhead and while He may release gifts through us He will not find a resting place for the sole of His feet as long as we choose carrion over Him. We may have moments of His presence but He desires a resting place.

I remember once hearing a story from a missionary. He and his wife were on the mission field and a dove kept coming to sit on their balcony. At the time they were going through some marital struggles and noticed that every time they argued the dove left. They liked the dove and concluded that the dove represented the Holy Spirit being with them. They also concluded that since the dove was not going to change if they wanted the dove’s presence they needed to change their behaviour, they did. Let Isaiah express Yahweh’s heart in this manner.

¹  Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? ²  For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the LORD. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word. Isaiah 66:1-2 (NKJV)

Do we want to be His resting place?

PS – your comments on this or any other post are welcome. I think that creates a dialogue that helps us grow in Him and that is my goal in what I write.

Ever have the experience of suddenly seeing a scripture in a new light? Like driving down a familiar street and seeing something and saying to yourself or someone else, “Is that new?” and discovering that in fact it has been there all the time. I had one of those experiences recently. I have taught on 2 Corinthians 3:18 many times and have read it numerous more times and quoted it to myself out loud and in my head many more times. If it sounds like I think this verse is important – the answer is yes. So there I was recently on vacation and I find my thinking often shifts when I allow myself to relax (how do I live like that every day?) and I saw this verse in a new way.

So what did I see? Glad you were wondering! Look at the verse below.

¹⁸  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV)

Anything particularly remarkable in it? On the surface there isn’t. Yet we all know that if we look in a mirror we see ourselves. Yet this verse suggests that I can look in a mirror and see Jesus. How does this work?

²³  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴  for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. ²⁵ But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. James 1:23-25 (NKJV)

James, Jesus half-brother, said that if we want to see something different in the mirror we need to be intentional in our looking. This is an important point as mirrors in Paul’s time were made of polished metal, thus they did not provide a really clear reflection and you needed to look carefully in them. That is why Paul referred to seeing in a mirror ‘dimly’ (1 Cor. 13:12). So while we can behold Him the reflection is not clear but we can see Him in us. We can also know that as we choose to gaze at Him both in the word and in just sitting before Him that the Holy Spirit is changing us ‘from glory to glory.’

So let’s look at Him and remember what Paul said,

²⁷ To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Colossians 1:27-28 (NKJV)

Paul believed that as we focused on Him we grew up in Him. I can focus on Him in a mirror because He is in me. It is also evident that what we focus on grows in our lives, whether good or bad, because we are sowing into the place and point of our focus. So let us look in the mirror and simultaneously gaze upon Jesus and see Him in us. We can do what David described.

⁵ They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed. Psalm 34:5 (NKJV)

As a closing thought here is a song a good friend sent me that speaks to this post.

I’ve Seen I Am by Jonathan David Helser, the link is below.