"Phillip said, 'Lord show us the Father and we will be satisfied.' Jesus replied, 'Phillip, don't you even yet know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you?' " John 14:8-9....."But My servant Caleb is of another spirit from the others." Numbers 14:24....."What comes forth from our hidden times with Him is a more accurate knowledge of the Father." Alicia Britt Chole
I've a good friend who served as a missionary in South America, and he likes to tell of one of the differences between their culture and ours. When they are asked about a city or place, the question will come along the lines of "Do you know Buenos Aires?" Their answer, if they have never visited that city would be, "No, I don't know Buenos Aires." They may be well versed in facts about the city, and have seen countless pictures of it as well. But because they have never been there, walked its streets, seen with their own eyes its beauty, they did not know it, in spite of all their mental knowledge of it. I think this is a good illustration of far too many of us in the Church when it comes to describing to others the wonders and beauty of the Kingdom. Of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We've read the Book that tells of Him, listened to the stories others have told of Him, but we've never "been there" ourselves. We're like Thomas. We've been around Him, but we have yet to come to really see and know Him.
If you're familiar with the story of Caleb, you know that he, along with Joshua and ten others were sent out to explore the promised land that the Father had given Israel. When they came back, he and Joshua told of the wonders they had seen, of all the beauty and promise the land held for them. The other ten could speak only of the troubles and difficulties that lie there. They saw everything, even the smallest details, through their eyes of flesh and the filter of their own understanding. His Word tells us that Caleb, along with Joshua, walked and saw through the power of His Spirit. They saw everything, including the smallest details, with Kingdom eyes. The eyes of Christ. This is what Jesus is saying to Thomas, and it's what He continues to say to you and I today. Does He go on walking with us, ministering to us, and yet we don't see Him in everything? Don't know Him in everything?
In my last Heart Thoughts, I wrote of how the Father uses the desert places of life to reveal Himself to us in deeper, higher, and wider ways than we thought possible. He will use the barren, hidden places of life to reveal more of Himself than we thought it possible to know. We will enter into a knowledge of Him that can never be found from the place of comfort and what we consider to be "the blessed life." Of this Beth Moore once said, "People with blessing centered lives have no power to speak into the lives of those who are not experiencing those same blessings." We speak without power when we speak from the place of entitlement. Yet words that have their birth in the wilderness place with Him are filled with His Life, eternal life. These words come from lives that walk "in another spirit." Not the spirit of the world and flesh, but of His Spirit. Of the Kingdom. His Kingdom.
Who are we really more like today? The ten, who saw everything from their own limited perspective? Or, as Caleb, who saw, as the old Amy Grant song goes, with his Father's eyes, with and in another, different spirit? Do we live in and seek the blessing centered life, that sees little, and knows and understands even less, or the Kingdom centered one? The one that sees everything through His eyes? How long must He be with us until we know and see Him as He is, fully in control, even of the smallest details? The world and Church cry out for those who live and walk in another spirit. Will we be among them?
Blessings,
Pastor O
If you're familiar with the story of Caleb, you know that he, along with Joshua and ten others were sent out to explore the promised land that the Father had given Israel. When they came back, he and Joshua told of the wonders they had seen, of all the beauty and promise the land held for them. The other ten could speak only of the troubles and difficulties that lie there. They saw everything, even the smallest details, through their eyes of flesh and the filter of their own understanding. His Word tells us that Caleb, along with Joshua, walked and saw through the power of His Spirit. They saw everything, including the smallest details, with Kingdom eyes. The eyes of Christ. This is what Jesus is saying to Thomas, and it's what He continues to say to you and I today. Does He go on walking with us, ministering to us, and yet we don't see Him in everything? Don't know Him in everything?
In my last Heart Thoughts, I wrote of how the Father uses the desert places of life to reveal Himself to us in deeper, higher, and wider ways than we thought possible. He will use the barren, hidden places of life to reveal more of Himself than we thought it possible to know. We will enter into a knowledge of Him that can never be found from the place of comfort and what we consider to be "the blessed life." Of this Beth Moore once said, "People with blessing centered lives have no power to speak into the lives of those who are not experiencing those same blessings." We speak without power when we speak from the place of entitlement. Yet words that have their birth in the wilderness place with Him are filled with His Life, eternal life. These words come from lives that walk "in another spirit." Not the spirit of the world and flesh, but of His Spirit. Of the Kingdom. His Kingdom.
Who are we really more like today? The ten, who saw everything from their own limited perspective? Or, as Caleb, who saw, as the old Amy Grant song goes, with his Father's eyes, with and in another, different spirit? Do we live in and seek the blessing centered life, that sees little, and knows and understands even less, or the Kingdom centered one? The one that sees everything through His eyes? How long must He be with us until we know and see Him as He is, fully in control, even of the smallest details? The world and Church cry out for those who live and walk in another spirit. Will we be among them?
Blessings,
Pastor O
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