- John 10 : 4 Jesus goes before them.
As long as you place Jesus right in front of you , As long you keep Jesus in front of you, mercy and goodness will pursue you - Psalm 27:1-6. Eat up my flesh = disease. Why enemies are around you, take David’s confidence: behold the beauty of the Lord. to do: seek Him even more, behold Jesus’ beauty. If you behold Jesus in times of trouble, God will lift up your head.
- Luke 4:28-29 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.
If it feels like you are being forced to the edge of a cliff, perhaps by one negative medical report after another, one financial challenge after another, or one accusation after another, pray that you will see yourself in Christ passing through your challenges completely unscathed. - Psalm 129:3 The plowers plowed on my back; They made their furrows long.
When the Romans soldiers brutally scourged Jesus His back was so lacerated it looked as though it had been plowed many times. But He chose to bear every stripe. Plows and furrows are for the sowing of seeds. The seeds for your healing have already been sown. So even if you have not seen your breakthrough yet, keep holding on to His promises. - The feeding of 5K is the only miracle mentioned in the 4 Gospels. John 6:9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” If you are overwhelmed by the vastness of your need and only see the littleness of the supply. What are they among so many? Start giving thanks for what you have, don’t focus on what you lack. Lord Jesus did not look at the vastness of the need or the littleness of the supply. He gave thanks even for the little – and the little became much.
- Songs 6:7 “Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.” Pomegranate’s seeds are the picture of thoughts. Jesus says that Church’s thoughts are alive and constantly washed in His blood. It represents holy worship.
- Psalm 84:11 No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
What is “walk uprightly” under the New Covenant? Walk uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel that “believing that you are loved,all your sins are forgiven, you are so near to God when you pray, as if Jesus Himself pray to the Father” - Matthew 11:11: “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” “The child who knows the story of the cross possesses a key to religious knowledge which patriarchs and prophets never enjoyed.” Not even John the Baptist.
- Nehemia 8:10 “Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” It is not your joy but God’s joy. You are His joy
- Deu 33:25 “As thy days, so thy strength shall be.” Natural strength will be depleted as we grow old but the bible says you are stronger as you grow old
- John 6:11 “Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.” God did not stop the supply, people did.
- At the road to Emmaus, Jesus revealed things concerning Himself to Cleopas and his journey partner. This is the antidote to their worries and fears.
- In the presence of Jesus, there is no death. Jesus had to die first before the thieves beside Him at the Cross could die
- I am eternally saved, completely forgiven, always righteous
- 2 Peter 1:2-3 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.”
- Grace – charis : undeserved unmerited favor, peace – irene (greek), shalom (hebrew) :
- Knowledge here refers to experiential knowledge (kenneth wuest)
- Grace could grow incrementally, like in the story of Mary. She was highly favored. Grace could manifold like in the story of Jesus, he increases in favor before God and men. But more than that grace can be multiplied
- Knowledge comes by studying and also by intuition. In the case of Bezalel, God dropped him something he had never had before. If God drop a gift, it will carry you, it holds you up. You rest, it bears you.
- Exodus 31: 3 “And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, 4 to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, 5 in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship.”
- Christ is my wisdom. A person can take Christ for righteousness, but take Him for everything. Counsel a person successfully by God’s wisdom
- The word knowledge is epignosis which means revelation. Revelation is light to what is already there. It is not mere “gnosis”. If you get gnosis, favor charis and peace shalom is multiplied
- Shalom is not only peace of mind. It is aggressive peace that guard heart and mind. Shalom is also wholeness, healthy and well adjusted. When you are stress, you are not at rest
- In the seeing Jesus, knowledge (epignosis – revelation, exact knowledge, full knowledge) , not only gnosis – knowledge. Be a revelation addict, not just knowledge. Knowledge puff up, but revelation humbles you.
- Revelation is not fresh knowledge, but light to what is already there. In the story of Peter, Jesus said upon the rock, He would build His church. Rock refers to the revelation that Christ is the living God.
- In the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, no ram (adult sheep) caught its horn to the thicket by accident. The ram did it on purpose
- God institutes Jewish custom to show how he does things. Jewish marriage custom is a picture of the marriage between the Lamb and the Church. See more in https://www.gotquestions.org/Jewish-wedding-traditions.html
- Pertaining to life and godliness. Churches preach on godliness but life is underpreached
- Ezekiel 3:1-3 “Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll. 3 And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.”
- Sweetness of God’s word will heal you. It tastes like honey. In the story of Emmaus, it causes warm heart.
- If you study bible in scholarly way, you find it is not sweet.
- Bible is for eating and feeding. Draw sweetness portion out of the bible, study until you get sweetness.
- God’s word is like honey comb, sweet to the soul and pleasant words, health to the bones
17. Your unbelief does not negate that the sun still shines. “Believe because it is real”, it is not “believe to make it real.” You believe will make you in line with the truth of God’s word.