This is the process that normal and natural men to do supernatural things for God. First and foremost there was our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Heb 12:2 says that for the JOY that was set before Him, He endured the cross and despised the shame. The first encounter and continuing on through each and every encounter that Jesus had with satan, His actions and words were summed up in Mt 4:4 which is a quote from Dt 8:3. I'm not going to live by bread alone. I am going to live by every by EVERY word that comes out of the mouth of God. The essence that Jesus built His life around was wrapped around what He could SEE in God's Word, not what He could see with His physical eyes.
Because He SAW things differently He acted differently and got different results than anyone else did. He said in John 11 that Lazarus was asleep and He was going to wake him up. He actually TAUGHT His disciples that He would be crucified but then rise again, ONLY because that was what the Word of God said about Him. They believed the crucified but not the rise again. Does that sound familiar? Jesus was the only one that believed it. No one else could SEE it. None of His disciples, but John, stood with Him as He went through the trial, the beatings and the crucifixion. However, Jesus had a JOY set before Him (Heb 12:2) and that kept Him focused on the job that God had for Him and not just what He could see with His eyes.
In John 8:56, Jesus showed just how far a man of faith could reach just by thinking and meditating on EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD. He told the crowd, believers and non-believers, that Abraham SAW His day and was glad. The Greek word for glad in that verse actually means to rejoice exceedingly. God told Abraham in Gen 26:4, that his seed would multiply as much as the stars in heaven and that in Abraham's seed all nations of the earth would be blessed. The only things Abraham knew about the earth being cursed was when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. As well as a curse, God spoke a redemptive Word to Eve. It was a redemptive Word to Eve but it was a destructive curse to the satan, the serpent. God told satan that the seed of the woman would bruise his head. As Abraham walked through his life, he saw all types of sin, sickness and poverty with his PHYSICAL eyes. But, with his SPIRITUAL eyes, or his heart, he saw one of his grandkids destroying the works of the devil. He not only SAW it on the inside, but, according to Jesus' own Words, Abraham was "glad." Abraham did not get "glad" about what he was looking at with his natural eyes, he got "glad" about what he saw with his "spiritual" eyes.
He learned the habit of "meditating on the Word." David, the great king and warrior, wrote in the first Psalm that the blessed man was the one who got excited about the Word of God and meditated on the Word day and night. Notice that David did not say that the blessed man meditated on his circumstances or his surroundings. Our problem is that we tend to let what we hear and see on the news dominate our meditations. Anyway, Abraham started the habit of meditating on "every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." He taught that life-secret to his son Isaac who handed it down to his sons. Only one picked it up though. The day that Abraham's servant brought Isaac's future wife Rebekah, Gen 24:63, she saw Isaac walking through the field and "meditating."
The apostle, Paul, was able to harness the power of God's Word by meditating on it instead of what he was going through at the time. He wrote in Phil 4:8 that we should be thinking about things that are true, honest, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and things that could be praised. Even if you are going through "hell" at this point in time, "hell" does not have to dominate your thinking. You are the one that is the master of your thinking. Change it to what the Word of God says about you.
Everyone could see Jesus was fixing to be whipped up on by the Jewish religious leaders. (It's always the RELIGIOUS that cause the most problems with Christians these days.) It was and absolute no-brainer, right? Even though Jesus knew that to be true, He chose to meditate on and rejoice in EVERY Word that came out of His Father's mouth. He CHOSE the believe that He would rise again and that the curse over mankind was about to be lifted. HE CHOSE to SEE and BELIEVE that millions of souls would be freed from the grips of sin and degradation through what He was going through because it was God's will for Him for THAT MOMENT ONLY to be crucified. He knew, like every one else did, that crucifixion would only last for a moment and that death would follow. Yes, crucifixion would last for only a moment, but His resurrection would last throughout eternity. THAT is what He meditated on and rejoiced in.
Joyful living my friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment