Spirit-words produce life

Jesus sensed that his disciples were having a hard time with this and said, “Does this rattle you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen. Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this.” (Jesus knew from the start that some weren’t going to risk themselves with him. He knew also who would betray him.) He went on to say, “This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.” (John 6:61-65)

Jesus knows when we are having a hard time taking what he says as truth, so we should not be surprised when he challenges us to come to a place of complete belief. Some of his teachings were kind of hard for those early disciples to swallow, so they resisted placing their trust in him. Whenever we resist his teachings, we can be assured that we are being asked to 'risk' something that we may not want to risk. We may not be fully vested in what he teaches, but if we allow the Word of God to sink in little by little, we find that resistance will soon depart.

Every word Jesus speaks into our lives is a "Spirit-word" - meaning it can and will produce life wherever it takes hold. If you have ever struggled with a habit that was just too powerful to break on your own, then laid it at his feet one day, admitting you have been trying by sheer willpower to 'make it go away', then you likely also encountered some of these "Spirit-words" in those moments. Deliverance comes when life is spoken into the dead places of our heart and when those life words come in, the broken places seem to come together once again.

Risk yourself and you might just realize the 'risk' wasn't all that hard. Resist repeatedly and you will likely come to realize the burden you were carrying just got ten times harder. The message of life Jesus was bringing was hard for some to lay hold of, either because they could only see him as a carpenter's son from the town of Nazareth or he just didn't 'meet their expectations' of what the Messiah should look or act like. If you know anything about the times in which he walked this earth, you would know they were looking for a 'deliverer' from their Roman overlords. They expected the Messiah to wield a sword, not heal the sick and talk about being the Son of God.

Jesus won't always meet our 'expectations', nor will he always live up to our imaginations, but he will always speak 'Spirit-words' into our lives that bring life where they are embraced. Resisting those words is like pouring vinegar on an open wound. We hear because we listen. We receive because we stop resisting. We change because we did both! Just sayin!

Not feeling it?

Albert Pike reminds us, "We have all the light we need - we just need to put it into practice." There are times we already know what to do, when to do it, or how to do it, but we just stand still, not doing anything. Why is that? It could be we just don't 'feel' it at the moment - causing just a bit of a delay or lag in our 'obedience' response. We have 'light', but light is meant to reveal and reflect. We must remember all steps toward God are good, but when light is given, it is meant to illuminate the steps we are to take - God provides 'plenty of light to live in' both now and in the future.

Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.” The Pharisees objected, “All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on.” Jesus replied, “You’re right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I’ve come from and where I go next. You don’t know where I’m from or where I’m headed. You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don’t make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn’t make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father. That fulfills the conditions set down in God’s Law: that you can count on the testimony of two witnesses. And that is what you have: You have my word and you have the word of the Father who sent me.” (John 8:12-18)

God's Word acts as a guide for our steps, but when all we do is 'take it in', we are seriously misusing a very important tool God left for us. His Word isn't just 'nice' to read, making us feel good now and again, but it is meant to be used to help us stay motivated, know where we need change, and what actions we need to take both today and in the future. The religious leaders of Jesus' day didn't understand that he spoke the Words of his Father - so they weren't going to embrace them. After all this time, all the evidence of miracle after miracle, and no evidence to the contrary, they still balked at accepting him as the Messiah. They still found it hard to believe he was the one sent from God himself.

We might find it hard to be in God's Word some days, but if we neglect this resource, we can become as narrow-minded and 'religious' as the leaders of Jesus' day. They studied the Law of Moses, the Torah, and the prophets, but they still missed the coming of their deliverer. All the study in the world doesn't do much good if the light we possess is merely 'saved up' and not used. Light is given to illuminate - illumination brings direction - direction is given to get us safely from one place to another. As Jesus said, "You can depend on it being true." His Word will give us direction - we just need to count on it being true and then walking in it to the best of our ability. The next time we aren't 'feeling it', we might just want to challenge ourselves to stop relying upon our feelings so much, and just walk in the light we are given! Just sayin!