15th November 2019
We see this root of self operating and presenting itself all the time in the scriptures and in particular in Jesus’ disciples throughout the Gospel.
In Jesus’ disciples we say?
Certainly not! They left everything and were wholeheartedly committed to living for Jesus.
Certainly you mean the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the lawyers and their scribes, not Jesus’ disciples that this root of self was operating in?
Luke 9:51-56 is a perfect example of what I am describing. When James and John do not get the response that they expect, their reaction is one that exposes the root of self that is within them.
We will all manifest what is truly within us when put in the right situation. When we squeeze an orange we receive orange juice. When a follower of Jesus gets squeezed, it’s then that we see who truly lives within each of us. Does the spirit of self manifest and present itself or does the spirit of the Christ come forth?
Jesus says to James and John that they do not know what spirit they are of. Jesus knows what Spirit is operating and presenting itself right now and it’s not the Spirit that lives in Him. It’s the spirit of self. The spirit of self is always in opposition to the spirit of Christ and finds itself completely unable to model Christ like behaviour, especially in times of pressure and opposition to what self wants.
James and John are not just any disciples. They are part of Jesus inner leadership team. The ones He took with Him on the Mount of Transfiguration. The ones that He took a bit deeper in the garden of Gethsemane. The ones He took into the house of Jairus the synagogue official to heal his daughter.
John is the one who constantly told the other disciples that he was the one Jesus loved, as if Jesus loved him more than the other disciples?
It is one thing for Jesus to love John but a completely entirely different reality for John to love like Jesus. John and James are being found out for the spirit of self that is currently living within them. This is the spirit of self that must be crucified by the Word of the cross. The Word that is foolishness to the root of self, but is liberating to those of the spirit of Christ.
Ask yourself how you react when things don’t go the way you expect and why you may respond the way you do which is not Christ like?
Christ is loving us with an all encompassing love while He desires to do a deep inner work of purification in the deep recesses of who we are. Only Christ can build His church the Way He intends, so my prayer is we as His people will all be surrendering and being found in this true inner building work of the Spirit.