August 2015 – Past the Surface

Spoken and Unspoken

A father on a quest to find the man he has heard so much about that he has come to the conclusion in faith in this man to be the answer. Faith is the action side of believing something to be true. This father believed in this man to the point his faith took steps one in front of the other towards finding him. The father’s faith, though invisible to all the human eyes around him, had a solid substance in his heart known as hope towards finding this man. His only daughter who was around twelve was sick with a sickness he knows will bring death. Most fathers have lived long enough to know the signs of death. They have seen the life draining signs on others and now his eyes behold these things coming upon his only daughter. No wonder when Jairus the father raising his eyes seeing the man in which he believed in his heart was the answer with all the faith walking to get to him fell down on his knees speaking words of pleading hope to come to his house where his only daughter was dying. I can see this father completely overflowing with love towards his daughter and faith in this man called Jesus. Jairus was a titled man of authority over a synagogue, but what did a title or physical weath do for him against a sickness of death? His faith was the most valued and powerful hope he could ever possess irregardless of his life’s status. This man called Jesus agrees to go with Jairus to his house to see his sick and dying daughter. What do you think is going on inside this father’s mind and heart? You know there is a higher level of hope she is going to live a long prosperous life he may have thought to himself as he and Jesus are pushing through the crushing crowd towards his home (Luke 8:41, 42).

An anxious father with high hopes focused on this man Jesus wishing their steps not hindered by this constantly pressing against them crowd. Faith is under time and pressure. Now, all of a sudden this man whose all hope is in, Jesus, stops the crowd and asks “Who touched me?” Why would Jesus ask this question? I believe this was on purpose by Jesus. He knew who touched him, but the crowd did not know. There was a hidden treasure among them that he stopped them so they could see it and hear it. When God stops you it is because He is wanting you to see something beautiful. It was a woman in this crowd of men and women he wanted to extract from her and show them what God treasures. What was so special about her in this huge crowd? Twelve years she sought after healers to heal her of this bleeding that kept recurring, but no one could heal her. She and Jairus’s daughter had something no one could heal. This woman like Jairus believed in her heart. Her belief took action in faith pressing through the crushing crowd while bleeding all along had a solid substance of hope in Jesus. The crowd was too much for her, but she knew she could at least reach the edge of Jesus cloak. This beautiful moment happened in front of everyone, but no knew it except the woman and Jesus. When her fingers touched the edge of his clothing, feeling his garment, power surged through her fingers into her body and her bleeding immediately stopped down inside her. No one in this crowd had a clue what had just occurred. She would have disappeared and slipped away as the crowd kept moving towards Jairus’s house, but Jesus wanted us to see her. Her beautiful faith was like gentle fingers touching the skin of God, but it was faith touching directly the Spirit of God. Now, I understand how the power shot through her body from her invisible faith touching the invisible Spirit of God. Peter and the people had no idea what Jesus was talking about, but the woman did. She felt the light of God’s attention shinning on her in this crowd knowing she could not slip away unnoticed. She, too, like Jairus came and fell at Jesus feet confessing her faith before the whole crowd that just an edge of his cloak would be enough to heal her. It doesn’t take a whole lot, just use what little faith you’ve got. Jesus wanted everyone to see her faith hidden inside her heart for us to see the power of our faith in this unnoticed world. Jesus said out loud in front of this crowd and Jairus, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace” (Luke 8:48). A well placed faith in the right source will bring you that substance you are hoping for to life.

While Jesus was saying this to the woman in front of Peter, the crowd, and Jairus someone came from the house of Jairus and said, “Your daughter is dead, don’t bother the teacher any more“. Jesus is speaking faith and healing and this other person is speaking no hope and death calling Jesus a teacher. In these few seconds I can see Jairus heart and faith starting sink away into the dark abyss of lostness, but before he could drift to far away Jesus reaches out and gets ahold of Jairus’s faith and says, “Don’t be afraid; just believe and she will be healed.” (luke 8:49, 50). How important is your faith? It is so important to God He will stop everything even when faith is under pressure to say to you that everything is going to be alright because it is placed in the right source of life. The crowd continues on towards Jairus’s house. The father now has the news inside his thoughts of his daughter being dead and the words of Jesus she will be healed. His faith is now face to face with the words of Jesus and the words of the person from his house. A body physically dead and words full of Spirit and Life (Jn. 6:63). Once to the house Jesus told the people to stop wailing because she is not dead, but asleep. To the people the girl was dead, but Jesus had already agreed to go with Jairus to heal her and to Jesus she was simply asleep and waiting there by the power of God to be awakened. The people reacted to Jesus with laughter and were convinced she was dead. They missed out because they were locked into she is dead and that is that. Peter, John, James, Jairus the girls father and mother were allowed to go inside with Jesus where the girl was physically dead, but only spiritually sleeping. Why did those few get to go inside? There must had been something hidden inside of them the crowd did not have. Doesn’t this make you want to have faith inside so strong that God would include you into His works whether great or small? As they were watching Jesus tenderly taking her hand into his speaking, “My child, get up“. She was His child under the powerful family of faith that knows no limits in God. Her spirit returned with the power of life to wake up that physical body and stood up (Luke 8:54, 55).

Faith was the whole point. The healing of the issue of blood was nothing. The raising of the dead was nothing. It was the faith that was something to the Lord. Everything that seems impossible or hard is easy to the Lord, but the existence of believing faith in God is an eternal treasure. Yes, he wants us to be healed and live a good life, but above suffering faith will return us home to Him in glory. I want to look at you and you look at yourself. It is amazing what we find when we slow down to examine ourselves. Do you ever feel like this woman surrounded by people, yet you feel all alone? You see the crowd, but the crowd seems to treat as just an object taking up space? If you attend a church, a synagogue, or a sanctuary do you feel your need is like an unspoken prayer request falling into the unnoticed category? Think about this woman mixed in this large crowd that they may see her physically, but there were a pair of eyes that were watching her spiritually. She was carrying something inside that God wanted everyone to see including herself. You have something inside of you that people around may not see, but there are a pair of eyes watching you carry a hidden treasure of faith that will cause Him to come to a complete stop waiting for you to release unto Him and for you to feel His loving power flow back into you. Whether your need is known like the father Jairus or unknown like the woman (spoken or unspoken) in the crowd it is your faith in action towards God that counts.

He absolutely loves seeing faith pointed towards Him in our hearts. He is our Father that loves us with a love that the Word and the Action of Jesus Christ came together on the cross, in the grave, and the resurrection for life more abundantly to flow freely inside of you and I. He is our Father that wants us to be born again in water baptism in Jesus name, which the name has the blood of the Lamb of God inside it to wash away our sins returning us to a clean state and infilling us with His Spirit like the apostles (Acts 2:38, 4, 39) for the purpose pure fellowship of faith in Him. Wow, to see His love. I hope you have seen His love, felt His love, and continue to walk in His love.

Not For Me

In the gospel of John chapter twelve people had heard about Jesus was coming to Jerusalem for a celebrated feast. They received him with waving palm branches and praising him as he rode a young donkey into Jerusalem. Jesus began to say many things and then focused on his future death on the cross asking should he ask the Father to save him from that hour, but no that is what he was born for. In front of the whole crowd Jesus the man said, “Father, glorify your name!” then a voice came down from the sky above saying, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” Everybody heard the sound, but some could only interpret it to be thunder like from a storm. Others thought it was an angel who had audibly spoke to Jesus. Jesus clarified what they heard was a voice. This voice was meant for the people to hear. The voice was for their benefit. It was NOT for Jesus to hear, nor for his benefit. Basically, it is NOT for Me! – Jesus (John 12:30).

The words “Not for Me” leaped out in my mind and spirit with that special “pay attention” unction from the Spirit of the Lord, who will guide you into all truth (John 16:13) if you will allow it. “Not for Me” was spoken out loud from Jesus as I thought about the scene. I immediately started looking at who Jesus was. Jesus is the visible image (mankind was patterned after) of the Omnipresent (everywhere at the same time) invisible God, all things were created by Jesus in heaven and on earth, visible things and invisible things. Again, all things were created by Jesus and for Jesus. Jesus is before all things, and in Jesus all things hold together (Col. 1:15-17). God, everywhere present at the same time Spirit, was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Jesus so that through Jesus the man God could reconcile to Himself (the Spirit) all things whether on earth or things in heaven by making peace through the blood of Jesus the man (Col.1:19,20). Jesus being God manifested in the flesh does not need anything. The need was for all of us.

Okay, this is where I started seeing all the stars, planets, universes, the sun, the moon, water, land, vegetation, and animals…etc. In my mind I started traveling backwards through time with the its “NOT for Me!” in my eyes and I came to a stop at the beginning of creation where Genesis one and one says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In my imagination I am looking in a direction where there is darkness, emptiness, and no forms at all. Then the voice of God says, “Let there be light,” and there was light. That still small voice says in my ear, it’s NOT for Me. Wait, that huge planet of bright burning light that we call the sun is not for God. God does not need light. God is light (1 Jn. 1:5), lives in an unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16), heaven does not need the sun or the moon to shine because God gives its light (Rev. 21:23). The sun in the sky is “NOT for Me!“, but for you.

At this point of creation being born I heard the words of Jesus “NOT for Me!” God who made the world and everything in it does NOT live in temples built by hands. He is not served by human hands. He does NOT need anything. He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. God created Adam after His Spirit image giving him a physical form, pattern from the dust of the earth and in filling Adam with the eternal breath of life by which every nation of man came from to inhabit the whole earth. God determined the times and places where mankind would live all because it was the “NOT for Me!”, but the reason was for mankind (His Children) to seek Him, reach out to Him, and find Him though He is not far from each one of us. This is the why all things are inside this present everywhere at the same time God – for us. We live and move and have our existence held together by Him because we are His children (Acts 17:24-28).

You can start anywhere in the Bible and begin to see God’s effort to get us to clearly see and clearly understand the visible and invisible things in life with the its “NOT for Me!”, but for you. The Bible is for us. God does not need the Bible to keep Himself straight. He is the Bible and beyond what the pages could ever hold. God put just the right amount of Himself inside those pages to get His point across. From Genesis to the last book of the Old Testament Malachi God has been aligning mankind up for His plan of salvation. God had set a system in place with the Jewish people as a type and a shadow of what was really to come to finally fulfill our debt owed to sin. The eat anything in the garden except from the tree of knowledge of good and of evil, which if you do will bring death was not for God, but for to protect Adam and Eve (mankind). If God did not value and care about Adam and Eve they would have died on the spot with no generations of mankind to follow. God with full intention to redeem and give us a second chance from our sinful state placed a birth of Himself as a promise to the future generations of mankind. It was not for Him, but for us.

Nameless lamb’s blood were offered in routine as a putting off temporarily the sin debt owed by mankind in the Old Testament. This was not for God, but for our sake. In the New Testament God sent an angel to proclaim the birth of His son and he should be called Jesus because he will save the people from their sins (Mtt. 1:21) and destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn. 3:8) – it’s not for Me, but for you. God purposely choose this the name of Jesus to carry in it the power to save the people from their sins. Jesus is the only Named Lamb of God whose blood completely removes sin.

John the baptist was baptizing people in the river, not that God needed baptism, but for us making the future pattern of salvation for us to follow in water baptism for the washing away of sins (Acts 2:38). John did not know who this savior was, but he was told to watch for a man that he would see the Spirit coming down upon and remaining, and this would be the one that will baptize people with the Holy Spirit (Jn. 1:31, 33). This was all for a sign to John. When John saw this man coming towards him from the crowd of people the sign he was looking for came down from heaven as a dove, remained on this man Jesus when he came up out of that water. It was not God who needed this, but John who needed to see. John cried out Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus, being God manifested in the flesh, did not need any of this for himself, because it was to fulfill all righteousness for us (Mtt. 3:15).

God did not need anything in the history of mankind for Himself, but the history of mankind was for mankind. The Bible shows us the paths of choices we can make and the end results of those paths before we take them. When you are talking to God and an eye opening thought pops into your mind take it as God is saying this is for you not me. When you are worshiping God and a divine presences starts covering you take it as God is saying this if for you not me. When you are reading the word of God and a light of understanding flows into your spirit take it as God is saying this is for you not me. When it comes to His children God never runs out and it brings joy to His heart when we receive it because it is all for you.

Key Words – Spirit and Life

I see a table with plates, spoons, forks, knives, napkins, glasses, and each plate has a Bible on top of it laying open, all very neatly arranged. As the meal progresses, reading of the Word, all the words remain in their black letter forms until I see a key word begins to float upwards towards the person’s face changing into a glistening silver and gold with a slow sparkling tail trailing its ascent into the person’s being. The person’s eyes widen slightly as though they have seen something awesome that they had not seen before.

Their eyes light up as they take inside the word, feeling in their spirit that extra attention coming upon them as a still small voice begins to speak (saying, “…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” Jn 6:63). At that moment Jesus is speaking to your spirit directly feeding you personally a spoon of truth. You can hear as the others around the table continue the reading, but you are captivated by that glistening light of understanding you have received. What is happening to you is the Spirit of God has made something that has always been there in black and white to leap out in a lively way revealing spiritual life to you. It is a call to your mind, heart, and soul to “come and dine” (Rev. 3:20). Now, your mind, heart, and soul are standing before two paths. Do you rejoin the others running through the words they are reading from the Bible or do you stop and turn down the path with the words of light shinning upon a path that has always been there, but unseen by you?

Fork in the road: this is where the decision is made to follow format and traditions or follow the leading of the Spirit of the Lord. If flesh is allowed to control the meal spiritual things God wants us to have will be lost (1 Cor. 2:14) like the seed by the wayside – quickly forgotten; among the rocks – lightly taken; among the thorns – weakly accepted to be choked out later. If our spirit takes control the spiritual thing God is trying to share with us falls under the slow down, follow, enjoy every bite, savoring this truthful flavor because I want to see this that has an extra touch on it for me and I want it to stay (Mtt. 13:11-16) – good soil.

The majority of times people read the Bible is read in a fast fashion and it is over, done with falling into the routine of a quickly forgotten event. A meal we just swallow and go. This sitting down meal with the Bible is a living and spirit filled substance that cannot be afforded to be missed. There is an adversary of our soul wanting us to eat, drink, and be merry quickly in this world only appealing to our flesh overlooking the end of our time in this world. The Bible is here for us to eat and live above and beyond the bad endings of this world. The words should be a meal of life to our soul each time we read it. We need to sit down with a hunger of expectation to find exactly what will nourish our soul at that present time and the times to come. We should not live by the foods of this world alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Mtt. 4:4).

Our flesh does not care about the condition of our soul, but only the happiness and pleasures this world can bring to it. Our flesh will never accept God and become a follower of the Word of God. It is our spirit that will live on forever from what it has digested and accepted as the life to be lived. The question is do we allow our flesh to control the reading of the word of God or the Spirit control the meal we can have in the word of God?

What happens when you sit down with the word of God on your plate in front of you and trust the Spirit of the Lord? You are staring into the deepest spiritual food bar of all you can eat that can mankind could ever find. The words coming to life off of those pages can show you a journey that no Pirate story could ever match. When the words of the Bible come to life into your understanding it has a substance about it no other words can hold. When those words change from black letters to a lively glistening gold empowering life changing form, the substance of pure wisdom flows down over your spirit with a peace that passes all understanding bringing your spirit submissively to a halt considering what is transpiring before you feeling the privilege of mercy’s fullness and good fruit that is given birth within you guiding you to impartiality and sincere truth (Ja. 3:17).

When the Lord allows His word to leap off the pages and open my understanding it is like being born again anew. It is as though He is standing right beside you breathing Spirit and liberating Life directly into your spirit. He is telling you something personally to help you and those you speak with in the days to come. He is filling you up with living bread to be shared with others. We are not to live this life by earthly food alone, but by heavenly bread words of life spoken by God.

The Spirit gives life to us if we are asking, seeking, and knocking for it to be opened to us. What blows my mind away is the fact when God sends His word into our eyes and ears opening with living perception and understanding He is sending forth a substance of Himself that will not return unto Him empty, but will accomplish that which pleases Him and will achieve the purpose for which He sent it (Is. 55:11) because we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth (2 Cor. 13:8). Dare we read over the Word of God with fleshly memorization only or do we read with an expectation for the Spirit to jump a word of understanding for us to personally follow to the end of the spiritual path? Look for Him in every thing you are doing and you will find Him sending you words of life when reading, spiritual pictures when praying, breezes of accepted worship, invisible hands of love, and much much more than you can imagine.

I look forward to those glistening words of life to leap off the pages from God’s word awakening your mind and spirit to the gold treasures of heaven.