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For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrews 9: 13-14

 The first question we should ask is, “What are dead works?” Let’s look at

Romans 10:3: For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

We can’t earn God’s favor and righteousness by doing works. Jesus became our righteousness. When we believe God, we submit to His truth and the accomplished work of Jesus on the cross for us. The Lord desires for us to do good works which were purposed for us from beginning of time. However, man in his fallen state desires to do his own works which are dead works. When man is rightly related to God, he is dependent on the Lord to set the agenda for his life including the works he will do. However, when we are not rightly related to God, we use works to feel better about ourselves!!

Dead works give false security about our relationship with the Lord. Man leans on his performance and understanding to ensure he’s doing ok. It is our soulish reference point. When all else fails, and we don’t see clearly then our identity comes into question. At that point, dead works become the Adam’s leaf that hide our insecurities or our shame. Dead works give us significance. It can be the sacrifice that hides our disobedience (Look at 1Samuel 15). It becomes the narcotic that calms our anxious nerves.

Dead works are not only dead, but they are deadly!! The more you do them, the more addictive they become because they have a momentary sense of pleasure to them. What we don’t see right away is that they trap us to do more dead works. If we stop doing them fear takes over. The thought of getting forgotten and becoming insignificant come like hunger pangs ready to tempt us to give in to this soulish manna. The feelings of withdrawal become so strong that sometimes it makes you think that you are committing spiritual annihilation  if you don’t do some more dead works!!

The good news is that the above scripture tells us that the blood of Christ cleanses our conscience from dead works. What an entrapment we have when we have lived for so long with dead works!? It has seared our conscience. It has become the measure we use to determine if we are right with God. Our conscience, the very place that is supposed to discern the difference between good and evil, the place where we need to get convicted by the Holy Spirit is defiled by dead works!!

The only thing that can cleanse our conscience and renew it is submitting to the work of Jesus through His precious, cleansing blood. Jesus had no sin, he had no dead works. When we apply the blood of Jesus, a spiritual transformation occurs. It cleanses our conscience from dead works. We are no longer in bondage to it; we are no longer enslaved by it, because the blood of Jesus has opened the door to a new covenant.

The rules of engagement in the new covenant are totally different than the ones we were used to in the old covenant or in the world. Dead works are not our master! However, we need to believe and not feed them anymore. We cannot rely on our own understanding to evaluate how we are doing, but we need to rely on the Lord. Our challenge will also be that other believers may continue to do dead works, but we can’t allow that to derail us either.

We need to continue to seek God, stop striving, stop being worried about getting forgotten, and start trusting Him in faith. We need to trust that if we need to be doing something, the Lord will show us what it is. He will not be playing hide and go seek with us. He wants us to diligently seek Him, and the scripture tells us that when we seek Him we will find Him!

This is a continuation from last devotional. This devotional is a very general analysis of injustice we face and the justice of God. However, there are times when an individual or a group of people are under great danger of abuse. This message may not have what you need, so I encourage you if you are in a abusive situation, please contact your pastor or your local police.

5. Don’t let injustice affect your love for God. We have to stand in the place of humility and say “Lord if you’re not going to deal with it right away, I still trust you and love you, and I know you have the best for me. You don’t love the perpetrator more than me or have turned the other way”.

6. Love the one who has been unjust. We need to ask the Lord to help us love this person, to forgive them and leave the consequences in His hands. This doesn’t make their behavior ok, but it releases us from carrying the burden and the yoke of their injustice.

7. Guard your heart. Injustice can create great offense in our hearts. This closes our hearts towards people. It can cause distrust, suspicion, and even make us cynical. It can make us shut down. This is another battle that has to be fought. We need to use wisdom and watch that our hearts don’t become hardened by offense and others’ sin. The scripture tells us, “for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God”. James 1:20 When we get angry and frustrated, we are out of line and out of God’s will and authority to deal with the situation.

8. Choose God over injustice. We have to determine in our hearts that if I have to choose between the Lord and fighting injustice in a situation, I will choose God. I will surrender my rights to defend myself or fight for myself, and I will allow the Lord to vindicate me. If injustice makes us lose our focus from the Lord by seeking our rights or desiring to settle matters, then seeking justice is an idol that has become a stronghold in our lives. While justice in and of itself is God’s desire, but only within the confines of His word and His will. Otherwise it is out of order and can take over our emotions, actions, and dominate us terribly!!!

9. Jesus saw injustice around him all the time. He saw how the governmental leaders had put the people in bondages. He saw the religious leaders causing injustice in people’s lives by proudly thinking they were better than others. While he addressed these issues a few times that was not his focus. He didn’t even want people to have to choose between him and the other leaders. His focus was to do God’s will by showing humility, tenderness, and peace in the midst of all the injustice and ultimately to die for our sins.

10. Jesus wasn’t changed because of injustice. Jesus’ knowledge of God was so profound that the religious leaders could not mar the image of God and His love for Jesus. He always spoke and lived from the position of the Father’s love and the Father’s will. Not the other way around. He never acted or said He was oppressed because He had given Himself to the father’s will. He wasn’t forced into it. That’s the key. Oppression is an act of a person or people upon others against their will. However, the moment you decide you are submitting to the acts of injustice, you are free from oppression!! Daniel experienced this, and so did Joseph. This is where victory has been achieved. We spend most of our time either being held to the bondage of oppression, or being disappointed with God. We want God to change our circumstances, and it causes us to become bitter because He doesn’t.  We can even get angry when we see others in oppression.

I believe we have been called to fight oppression in our own lives as well as in the lives of others. However, there is a time and place where we have to surrender ourselves to it as well. When do we know what to do?

A) Come from God’s perspective not from your own emotional experience. Stay steady. Don’t be tossed to and fro by the situation.

B) Be willing to say “yes” to whatever God says is ok even if it doesn’t seem fair to you, or it doesn’t support your view. If you already have your mind set on a certain position, it is a lot harder to hear the Lord and gain His perspective on it. Give time for the Lord to form your perspective or position.

C) Don’t shop for answers because those who love you will tell you that you deserve better.

The Lord’s focus is what you need! Don’t focus on what you think you deserve. While sometime it seems harsh, the injustice is cutting away those things that are not of Him, so we can look more like Him.

D) Speak on injustice with love and meekness. You may or may not be received, but as believers who stand for truth and righteousness, we are called to speak the truth as the Lord leads us.

E) Leave the results with the Lord. There will be times that it will feel that the Lord doesn’t care or He is allowing injustice, mockery, or oppression to go on. We don’t know what the Lord is doing in those times as it is hidden from us. We have to believe what the Bible says about the Lord in those times. Proverbs 11:1 states, “Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight.” He hates dishonest and false evaluation of things. I should only hate it because the Lord hates it and he has put the same thing in my heart. I can’t hate more than He hates and I can’t love more than He loves. Also, I can’t do more than what He wants me to do.  He has a plan and I just need to walk in His plan. The final analysis belongs to the Lord!!

The Lord is a God of justice, and He sent His son to bring forth true justice on the earth. This was Jesus’ purpose. Let’s look at the below scriptures

“Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
² He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
³ A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.
⁴ He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands shall wait for His law.” Isaiah 42:1-4

True justice can be accomplished only by the one who sees the whole situation, understands all sides, and has no bias in His view. That’s why the scripture is very clear about not judging situations prematurely. Many times, we only know part of the story, or we have a vested interest on one side. That makes us unqualified to be a fair judge. On the other hand, God is holy. He loves everyone, He is not partial and knows all sides. He is the perfect judge, and He is a merciful father! That’s a beautiful combination that keeps us in awe of Him, but it also gives us comfort and security.

The Justice and the mercy of God demonstrated themselves beautifully in Jesus Christ and Him being crucified, so the justice of God was met through His mercy!! Where there is no justice, oppression is the order of the day. People are in bondage to the yoke of slavery, fear of man or to a system.

In Isaiah 58:6 the scripture tells us:

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?”

The Lord wants to set us free completely. God also requires us to be just people. We all desire justice and fairness in life.  We abhor injustice and partiality. The reality is that the issue of injustice is not going away, so how do we deal with it?

1. We can’t look at injustice the way the world does. According to Isaiah 58 we can live life free from oppression or bondage because we belong to Jesus. If I have not been given a place, position, or power to change the unjust situation, I can say, “Lord you are allowing this, so I submit to it”.

2. We don’t have to be afraid of injustice. God used the greatest injustice in the perfect man, Jesus, to become a sin offering. This illustrates how injustice in the hand of the Lord can be redeemed and can bring forth life giving eternal fruit.

3. Don’t allow injustice or the unjust person to define who you are. This really should be true in any situation. We have to be insulated from the world or people’s definition of us. We belong to the Lord and anything that doesn’t line up with the word of God for our lives; we can’t allow it to define us. For example, having grown up in a culture where males were preferred, that was unjust and wrong. I can’t let that define my identity and who I am. The Lord calls us His sons and daughters and he doesn’t see us through the eyes of favoritism. I have to stand on God’s word rather than on the voice of the culture or family members. This is where faith has to conquer injustice. The injustice cannot be changed by us, but we can stop allowing it to keep us in its grip!!

4. Recognize God is merciful and patient, and he desires for no one to perish. However, He also sees everything and justice is in His hands. If God is not dealing with it right away it doesn’t mean He doesn’t care or He is passive.  He knows how to deal with each situation at the right time. For instance, Noah took 100 years to build the ark while wickedness was going on that whole time. Jesus cleared the temple where it had been turned into a money making business center. The temple had been having that business going on in it for decades or centuries until such a time that Jesus, led by God dealt with it very strongly!!

We will continue with this subject in the next devotional. In the meantime, ask the Lord to examine your heart for any areas that you have been dealt with unjustly and allow the Lord to minister to you. Ask Him to give you a new perspective about the situation or the person involved.

This morning I feel like the Lord has something for each of us through these scriptures. Take time to allow these verses to minister to your heart. There are areas that you have been seeking Him for quite some time. He wants to speak to you today through these scriptures.

Isaiah 62

For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, And her salvation as a lamp that burns. ² The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, Which the mouth of the Lord will name. ³ You shall also be a crown of glory In the hand of the Lord, And a royal diadem In the hand of your God. ⁴ You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the Lord delights in you, And your land shall be married. ⁵ For as a young man marries a virgin, So shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, Soshall your God rejoice over you.

“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” Ephesians 1:4

The more we walk in true holiness, the more whole we become. When our desire, passion, & pursuit are to honor Him with our lives, He strips us of the world, and He purges us of ourselves. Holiness is a long process.  The words “in love” are the key terms that define this process.

As performance oriented people, we are too concerned about accomplishing milestones, rather than allowing God to lead us on a journey of a lifetime!!  Deep inside we hope that we can become complete or whole quickly, so we can go about doing His work or fixing others.

The Lord continually reminds us that we can’t solve the world’s problems but we can allow Him to work in us. If God’s will and His kingdom are not established in us, then we can’t influence His kingdom to be established around us. To the level that the Lord has gotten hold of our lives, is the level our lives have the potency to affect change around us. As we grow in Christ-likeness, we become the salt and light that the world needs us to be.

Many times in our Christian Cliché’ we say that we love Jesus, and He is in my heart. The issue is not whether Jesus is in our heart or not, but How much of our heart belongs to Jesus? That’s the essence of our lives. We cannot allow Jesus and self to be the master at the same time. The Lord will continually allow us to get tested, so what is in our heart can get manifested. The Lord will not relent until He has it all. This heart of ours needs to be completely captured by God. Every room, closet, basement belongs to Him. He searches room by room, closet by closet, the basement, and under every unsuspecting good intent until He exposes everything. There is no complete victory until everything that belongs to self, or the enemy, has been either captured or obliterated. No idolatry, no religious piety can stand anymore!!

The central control of our heart must be given over to Jesus. We must apply the cross to our ideas, thoughts, opinions, and past experiences. They are done. It is finished. The authority and the kingdom have been given over to someone more powerful. He is the ruler. He sets the order, and He sets the rules. Anything His new government establishes is the order of the day. The old is dead, and has no power, nor authority.

Praise God for His goodness. Praise God for His authority and His power to bring about the change that He can only bring. The Emancipation Proclamation!!!

“Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many days.

 “And the Lord spoke to me, saying: ‘You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward.  And command the people, saying, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. ⁵ Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.

 “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” Deuteronomy 2:2-7

The Lord gave specific instructions in this section of scripture to Moses. The Israelites are about to travel through territories of their brethren, the descendants of Esau. The Lord tells the Israelites that these people will be afraid of them (verse 4). He also gives them instructions in verse 5 and 6 on how to pass through the territory. The Lord goes on to tell Moses about other territories the Israelites will be passing and that He has not planned on giving this territories to them.

This chapter of scripture is very important for our desert seasons of life. When we are going through the desert process there could be long seasons where we have empty hands. We haven’t been given the opportunity to build. We cannot plant because we are in transition. At this point of scripture the Israelites have been on the move for 40 years. They couldn’t build houses, or support themselves, but God sustained them by providing Manna for forty years!!

The book of Genesis describes how God created us in His image and He called us to be fruitful, multiply, & subdue the earth. As people, we have a desire to create, work, produce, prosper, & increase. However, in a long desert journey those needs have to get suspended and we need to allow God to do the work He wants to do in us. He is a faithful God. He will give us what we need, but often in that season He will not give us what we desire.!!

In desert seasons, we need to allow our desires to be subdued by Heaven, or our desires may run our lives. These desires could create dissatisfaction in our lives. They will try to redefine us based on our perceived lack in life. This can lead to jealousy and envy of others who may be in different season of life.

The Lord knew the wandering Israelites would be faced with temptations as they passed through the various territories, so He warned them that none of those territories belonged to them. He had already chosen who should have ownership of those areas. He also didn’t want the Israelites to expect these tribes to treat them with special care or give them something for free. This is the same temptation that we can face in desert season. If we look at others who are settled, we will want what they have. We may expect them to help us get what they have, or expect them to give us something for free because after all we believe someone should pity us!

Patience is hard in desert seasons because you can’t keep yourself busy with just doing things to pass the time. You begin to feel the length of time more than ever. Patience does not have an objective timeline, but it is subjective upon God’s will.  Abraham and Sara experienced this. It wasn’t as if Abraham and Sara hadn’t waited a long time, but they didn’t wait long enough!! As a result they moved into action in the flesh thinking that they have waited long enough.

The root of impatience is unbelief. If we move in haste, it could alter the destiny the Lord has for us, or it could postpone God’s process. We can also bring things into our lives that the Lord did not intend. Abraham’s choice of Ishmael caused this for him and his descendants!!

Today, let’s ask the Lord to give us the grace we need to be patient with His process!!

Who are your friends? How well do you know the people around you?

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. John 2:23-25

Commit: to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in, of the thing believed, to credit, have confidence.

Jesus came to lay down His life for us, so we can have life!!  Jesus declared, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends”. John 15:13 Jesus was not afraid of loving us and giving Himself for us. It was for this purpose that He came to the world; that we may have life and have life more abundantly.

Jesus also knew that although He dearly loved people and His disciples, His relationship with them was not a peer to peer relationship. He was very aware that no matter how much He loved the people, no one was going to love Him the same way that He loved them. Here, we can observe the three types of relationships that Jesus had with people. He had his natural family, his mother, and his brothers. He also had His disciples whom He was training for the Great Commission, and finally He had the crowd who followed Him.

His Natural Family – In these relationships, when his natural family wanted to speak to Him, he very clearly declared, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?”  And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!  For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” Matt 12: 48

Basically, while Jesus was a man who loved us deeply, he knew that the priority of His relationship and commitment with his people would need to be in relation to how they relate to the father. He would not give priority to natural family affections over the spiritual commitment. On the other hand, while on the cross He asked John to look after His Mother (John 19:27). This was showing us that He still loved her deeply and cared about her welfare after He was going to leave her, but regardless it that didn’t stop Him from doing the will of the Father!!

His Disciples– He spent 3 ½ years of loving, teaching and pouring Himself into these disciples. His focus was always on the fact that at some point He was going to have to leave them. He revealed this to them over time as they were together. Sometimes His statements disappointed His disciples because they were so worldly focused that they were thinking in natural terms about the Kingdom of God. Jesus didn’t change His message to ensure the happiness of the disciples, but He prepared them for what was coming up in the near future, which was going to drastically change their relationships. Just before Jesus went to the cross, in the book of John He tells them, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15.  Their relationship had changed from the position of serving and being taught to the position of friendship with Jesus. Jesus had to observe a level of growth and commitment from the disciples before He could make that kind of statement.  Jesus knew that they needed a certain level of maturity and understanding before he could bring them so close to His heart and His mission.

His relationship with the Crowd– Jesus knew very well that His message wasn’t going to be received by everyone, and He even warned His disciples that they will be persecuted in His name. However, Jesus went a step further. The above scripture (John 2:24-25) tells us that even when people received Him, Jesus did not commit himself to them because He knew what was in people’s hearts. The word “knew” speaks of very intimate knowledge of someone, as a husband and wife would know each other. Since Jesus knew people intimately and what was in their hearts, even when they received Him, He did not commit himself to them. The word “commit” means He didn’t put confidence in them. He knew that people can receive something to be true but unless they are tested, they will not know how strongly they have believed and received something. Time showed how true that was. The very people who cried out on the streets, “Hosanna, Hosanna..,” the following week were shouting “Crucify Him”. Peter, His own special disciple who was the first one in the group of disciples to declare that Jesus was the Messiah, was the one who denied Him three times when he was tested!!!

If Jesus had committed himself to anyone, He could have easily gotten discouraged and given up on God’s plan for His life as well as God’s plan for humanity, but because He didn’t commit Himself to them, He stayed stable and constant in the midst of shifting opinions and hearts.

If we are going to be effective people in our walk with God, we have to be very careful who we commit ourselves to. This is not a casual decision. It cannot be made based on emotion or even based on being heard or understood. This decision needs to be led by the Spirit, or it will lead us astray. We must be patient to allow God to take the relationship through its process and through testing. This will allow people’s character, their commitment, and their trust to be tested before we can see the person or the relationship clearly. This could avoid a lot of offenses, wrong expectations, and hurts in the body of Christ and in our lives. It will also keep us stronger in the faith and less vulnerable to people’s opinion of us. We must stay focused on Christ and understand His will for our relationships!!

Are your natural affections submitted to the Will of God?

Set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth. Colossians 3:2

The Lord Jesus loved us so much that He gave His life for us, so we may live. One of the two greatest commandments is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Love and affection are part of God’s kingdom. That’s who He is and that’s what He desires from His children and from the church. However, we must set our affections on the things above or we will not be able to fulfill God’s purpose in our lives!

From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”  But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Matthew 16:21-23

Jesus loved His disciples very much. He had spent 3 ½ years with them in ministering to them. He ate with them and shared His heart with them. However, He knew that those relationships had a much greater purpose than to just have natural affections for them. If He were to be moved by His own emotions, He would never have wanted to leave them. He loved them deeply, but He also knew that the same God who gave Him the privilege of having these relationships was the one that would one day ask Him to surrender those relationships in order for the will of God to go forth.

Job declared, The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job 1: 21 This is the heart of Jesus.  He was going to be crucified and His relationships with His disciples would forever change. He was willing to do what the father had called Him to do because ultimately that was better for the disciples and for the entire world!

In each of our lives, there are seasons of blessings that come our way. The Lord blesses us with close friendships and relationships that we enjoy and grow from. Then a time comes that the Lord wants the relationship back. It is a test of our faith and our obedience to stay in step with the Spirit and do what God calls us to do. There are times that the Lord tests us to see what is in our heart; to see if a relationship has taken an ungodly place in our lives. This was the case with Abraham being asked by the Lord to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22). Isaac was God’s idea for Abraham, but oh how quickly God’s idea becomes our passion!! The Lord had to test Abraham to ensure that Isaac had remained God’s idea and not Abraham’s idea!!

At other times, the Lord wants the relationship back because it has lost its fruitfulness and it no longer produces good fruit. As a matter of fact, at times it could produce bad fruit or poison in the life of one or more people. This is when the Lord wants to cut a relationship off. When God asked Lot to leave Sodom and Gomorrah and to take his wife and two daughters, it was because the relationships in those two cities had become dangerous and poisonous to this family and God was about to judge those two cities (Genesis 16). Unfortunately, Lot’s wife still had affection to the things of the city and the people of the city and didn’t want to let go of them. This caused her to look back and she turned into a pillar of salt.

It is best to cooperate with the will of God even when it is difficult. He may call you to let go of a relationship that has been near and dear to you for a long time. Sometimes the Lord wants to change the relationship because one or both parties have changed. We need to stay in tune with the Holy Spirit and not allow our natural affections to impede the work of God in our lives. Losses are not enjoyable, but we need to remind ourselves that what the Lord asks of us is for our good and for the good of others who are impacted with this decision. Our obedience is always a blessing to us and those around us.

Are you a confident person? The Bible tells us that we can be a confident person.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. Ephesians 3: 12

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels (jars of clay in NIV), that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 2Cor 4:7

Definition of Confident: to trust, trust in, to have confidence, to be bold, to be secure.

Our culture thrives on confidence and looks for every which way to teach us to be confident. Many times the messages we hear from the culture boils down to self-reliance and feeling good about ourselves and our achievements. While there could be some value to that kind of confidence, it doesn’t address our true nature and our true need. We are fragile, needy people. Paul called us, “jars of clay”. A jar of clay has great uses, but it is very fragile. Nowadays, we use jars of clay as colorful decoration pieces in our homes. In Biblical times jars of clay were grayish containers used to hold water or food. They were not decorative items. They had a very useful purpose, but they were fragile and not showy!!

In order for us to be truly confident people, we can’t rely on ourselves but on the one who chose us. Jesus called us and we accepted Him, so our relationship with Him gives us confidence. We can approach the throne of a holy God with confidence at any time of day or night. We have access to the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, because of what Jesus has done for us. Our confidence should not be in our personality, our background, or past experiences. Our confidence should be based on our relationship with God the Father.

Our relationship with the Lord also gives us confidence in areas of our weakness. He will guide us through those times when we lack confidence. Thankfully, we are not left to ourselves to figure it out, but He has given us the Holy Spirit as the counselor and comforter to help us navigate through life. He also has given us instruction in the Bible to learn and to grow from, so we can become mature people.

As we grow in our confidence in the Lord, we depend less upon our own confidence.  We realize that the old ways of doing life don’t work, and as a matter of fact they have caused great damage to ourselves and those around us. We also recognize our vulnerability as a person as to how quickly our emotions can change and take us to the pit of despair or the heights of anger or rage. We recognize that without the Lord we have the propensity to be destructive with our tongue.  It is only in humbling ourselves and asking Him to help us that we show self-control in difficult situations and not lash out at people.

Sometimes people are afraid of seeing their true nature.  If we don’t pay attention to our true nature, which is sinful, it will cause pride and arrogance in our hearts, which in turn affects our relationship with the Lord and others. As a result, in our relationship with the Lord, we feel entitled to all kinds of blessings. Our thinking is, we are special and we are loved!! Now, in our relationships with people, we begin to think that every time something goes wrong it’s the other people’s fault, or the other person is jealous of me because I am called and anointed!!

We are fragile human beings, and when we have accurate view of ourselves it keeps us humble before our God and before people. The accurate view of ourselves brings humility which gives us greater opportunity to get to know Him. Knowing Him builds our confidence because we recognize that the God of this universe invited us to be in relationship with Him. A healthy view of ourselves compels us to depend on Him. We desperately need to be changed by His love and we can’t forget who we are without Him!!

Are you humbly confident?

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
¹⁹ To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”Luke 4: 18-19

This scripture tells us that Jesus came to bring recovery of sight. That means there was a time that we were able to see, but then couldn’t see. Jesus wants to heal those who don’t see. Spiritually, this means that we may have come to salvation years ago, used to see very well, and perceive the things of God, but over time things changed. Offenses, bitterness, and un-forgiveness cloud our vision and taint our perception. We no longer could see clearly, we only see through the prism of our pain; we interpreted everything through the eyes of rejection. When people speak to us about a different reality, we push them away accusing them of being insensitive or blind!!

“Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.

²⁴ And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.”

 Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. ²⁶ Then He sent him away to his house, saying, “Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town.” Mark 8:22-26

According to Webster spit means to eject saliva as an expression of aversion or contempt

In these scriptures Jesus is healing a blind man physically. We can also have Spiritual blindness which impacts how we see God and others in our lives. First, we live for ourselves and don’t really think or care about how our life impacts others. Then we come to salvation and we can see better to some degree. We are excited about our vision because compared to the past, we see a whole lot more. We love God and we have a new appreciation for people. Sooner or later, the very people we thought we loved start to annoy us. We see another side to them that we don’t like or don’t really appreciate. This begins to make us wonder if loving our neighbor as ourselves is that easy. Those scriptures about back-biting and gossiping that seemed so foreign to us now begin convicting us because we now have the very issues that we never thought we would have with others.

Years go by, and we live at a plateau thinking we are doing pretty well until someone brings up the name of the person we have tried to avoid for a long time. Every part of us wants to scream and defend ourselves and tell everyone how we see this person, but now we realize that there isn’t really a lot of love on our part for that person. The offenses, the hurts, the un-forgiveness, have created a tree out of this person or group of people. They look like trees without the image of God on them. This is the reason you can so easily talk badly about them, or at the minimum think evil of them. The image of God has been stripped off of this person. If he/she is a brother or sister in Christ, the image of Christ has been stripped too. A tree is an object. It doesn’t have a soul, so we don’t give our affection to it. We lose compassion for people, and we lose sight of the Lord’s love for them.

Sometimes we see people as trees because they are obstacles to achieve our goals or happiness. In ministering to others, people lose their uniqueness to us. We may have a cookie cutter answer to their issues because we don’t want to take time understanding their pain, fears, or issues. We have an objective and clinical answer to this object called a tree. This is when the Lord has to heal us the second time!!

What is interesting in verse 23 is that Jesus uses spit to heal this man!! Do you know how that word was used in other places in the New Testament? It was used when they were mocking Jesus and ridiculing him that they spit on Him. You see, spit does not seem to be a loving action. It actually appears humiliating; but when Jesus used it, the blind man wasn’t offended because He knew that Jesus was touching him for good not for evil. When things happen in our lives that don’t make sense or look humiliating, we need to wait and see how God wants to use it to help us see Him and others better instead of jumping to conclusions.

Do we always know that we are blind? According to Revelation 3:17-19, we are not always aware that we are blind. It is the work of the Holy Spirit; sometimes those who really love us tell us that we are blind. The Lord wants us to have recovery of sight. He wants us to know Him intricately; to know people more deeply and allow their humanity and uniqueness to touch us. This will allow us to minister to them better.

We are called to receive the recovery of sight. If there is a person, or even the Lord, who looks like a tree to you, would you ask the Lord to heal your vision? It will take humility before we can see. You can read Acts 9 about Saul and his amazing conversion!! He became a humble man because the Lord had to blind him before He could restore his true vision. When he saw believers as trees, he was out to get them and persecute them because they looked like a threat to him, but now that He saw Jesus the TRUTH, his vision was completely restored. He became a humble man and a servant of all and was willing to lay it all down for His sake.

Lord, please heal our vision. If we have become blind, give us the recovery of sight. If we see you or people as a tree, please forgive us Lord and heal our vision. If we have blind spots to certain areas where we have resisted you and others, please give us another chance to see those areas. Father thank you that you are the healer of our sight!! We want the 20/20 vision. We want to see right and perceive right. Amen!!