Friday, 10 July 2009

• No wi-fi, no Spirit, no connection

  
  [I time stamped because the wi-fi went out again last night and into the afternoon. I took it as a sign to spend time with the Lord... and to encourage those who haven't read this to seek His face.]
  
  I've been very blessed to have Internet access while in Jerusalem. It has enabled me to keep in touch with you lovely folks, to share my experiences daily, to stay informed of what's happening in your lives and the broader world.
  
  Sunday midday, I came home from a photo shoot to find the once unsecured Internet signal I'd enjoyed locked. 
  
  Suddenly, my two wonderful devices have reduced capability. The computer is holding memories -- photos, words, calculations -- but has no way of communicating those ideas, no way of getting feedback. My phone is still a great calendar keeper, music player, time keeper, but it no longer can send or receive communications of any type. Both these devices still function, process information of various kinds on various levels but are disconnected from the outside world.
  
  How about you? You are a wonderful piece of technology, human being. You can store vast amounts of information, memories, images, songs, poems, stories, maps, etc. You can process data -- mathematical calculations, ethical calculations, make decisions in taste, in logic, etc.
  
  Heck, maybe you even have vast portions of the Word of God memorized:
  
  

  the joy of the Lord is my strength Jesus wept blessed are the peacemakers I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me all have sinned and come short of the glory of God in the beginning was the Word thou shalt not kill	be strong and courageous fear not for I am with you our Father who is in heaven forgive them for they know not what they do the Lord is my shepherd honor they father and mother resist the devil and he will flee

  
  But are you connected?
  
  The Word of God lays the foundation of our friendship with God. The truth laid out in scripture (all 66 books. Yes! All of it! Genesis to Revelation!) also gives us boundaries of what we can expect from God.... not limitations but the rules by which He operates (and conversely, how the enemy operates, so that we may know the difference).
  
  Prayer is our outgoing conduit to God. He is God, and in His omnipotence and grace, He hears us. But how do we hear Him?
  
  

  But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future].

   He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.

  Everything that the Father has is Mine. That is what I meant when I said that He [the Spirit] will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you. - John 16:13-15 (AMP)

  I love the Amplified here. The Holy Spirit will tell you whatever He hears from the Father. The Holy Spirit will transmit that knowledge which is Messiah's to you. (The clarification added by the Amplified translators is backed up in John 14:16, 26 and 15:26, which all say the Holy Spirit goes out from the Father.)

  Chew on that for a bit. Really meditate.
  

  What Yeshua reveals here not only to his disciples, but to us, is mind blowing. Actually, I will contend that your mind cannot comprehend this. This a spirit truth that must be digested by your spirit and not your mind. In my case, the mind tried to process and wouldn't sleep. The process jammed, and the computer that is the brain refused to shut down.
  

  Meditate so that this moves from head to heart. If this concept of "heart knowledge vs. head knowledge" eludes you, ask God to reveal this to you.

  If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open. -James 1:5-8 (MSG)

  The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things... -John 14:26
  

  How? How? How?
  Some of you are asking: How do I hear from God? How will He speak to me. How will I know it is Him?

  The first two are dependent on who you are, who God has made you to be, what your personality is. It is subjective.

  Consider John 20 and 21. Yeshua is resurrected. Same body. Same Yeshua (body, spirit and mind). In just these two chapters, He communicates the truth of His resurrection in four unique ways to four individuals.

  • John - This is the beloved disciple because He was on top of it and because He sought to be nearest Yeshua (much like Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus). He of all 12 seemed to understand best what Yeshua was teaching, what He was doing. All John needed to see was the neatly folded grave clothes in the tomb to know Yeshua lives.
    
    
  • Mary Magdalene - Oh, how Mary loved the Master. She was the first at the tomb. She was there to seek Him ... but did not find Him the way she expected. Nonetheless, she was seeking Him, and her seeking was rewarded. Still, even as she speaks face to face with Yeshua, she doesn't recognize Him... until He calls her by name. The way He said her name ... that was all the proof she needed to know it was indeed her beloved rabbi.
    
    
  • Thomas - We always give this guy a hard time. Yet, Jesus doesn't. Read the text. Thomas needed to feel, to see. He needed that. Yeshua knew that. When he appears to the 11 the second time, He goes straight to Thomas and lovingly says, "Put your finger here, look at my hands, take your hand and put it into my side." Thomas' response: "My Lord and my God!"
    
    
  • Peter - Oh, Peter. Headstrong but vulnerable Peter. We assume he was in the room the two times Yeshua appeared to the disciples, yet Peter isn't mentioned by name. In chapter 21, Peter needs to be on familiar turf... so goes home to Galilee and goes fishing. This is a professional... yet they work all night only to pull up empty nets. Yeshua shows up on shore and starts yelling to them on the boat (but no one recognizes Him). This "stranger" gives them fishing advise... that works. The nets are ready to break... and John recognizes the Lord. Not Peter, but John. "The disciple Yeshua loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord!'" That's all Peter needed.  He flies out of the boat and heads for shore. (Notice Peter needed a nudge from His friend... and both Yeshua and John oblige him). Then Peter gets His opportunity to be reconciled for his denial. Yeshua meets Peter, the fisherman, on a lake with a boat full of fish and loving restoration.
    
    (Thanks to Arie BarDavid for this section. Listen to the sermon "Turn Your Eyes on Yeshua" at ShemenSasson.com. Be sure to click on the English translation.)
    
    

  Last "how"... How will I know it's Him?
  
  The whole of John 10 is Yeshua explaining that we, the sheep, know the voice of our Shepherd. But we are also called to test the spirits that we encounter, whether in our prayer time or while being taught by others:
  
  

  Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. - I John 4:1-4
  
  

  Shalom, friends.
  
  

  • 2:15 PM
  • 208 Views
  • 22 eProps
  • 14 Comments