Words of Jesus Podcast - Do Not Abuse Spiritual Power

Episode Date: November 17, 2023

"We do not know what Spirit we are of." The disciples and the religious leaders misunderstood God. The practice of the day was to use religion selfishly to obtain materialistic goals. Jesus came to reveal the Kingdom of God. Jesus came to clarify the way to please God. The Scriptures record multiple instances where God said, "I am not like you." God said, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." The process of understanding, of becoming born from above, of following Jesus in Spirit and Truth takes diligence and time. Practice taking a longer view of life. People are watching. Be consistent. Be loving. Be obedient. ***55: Jesus Rebukes James’ And John’s Desire To Misuse Spiritual PowerLuke 9:51-56AS JESUS was making his way toward Jerusalem, he sent messengers before him. They entered a village of Samaria to make ready for Jesus’ passing through that place. The Samaritans would not receive Jesus because he was going toward Jerusalem. Two of his disciples, James and John, became very angry over this and said: “Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume them, even as Elijah did?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them, saying: “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” So they went to another village.

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Don Harris, your host. I'd love to hear from you. Would you mind writing me an email? I'll listen to anything you have to say. I'd just like to know who's listening, where you are, how you're listening. That kind of thing. It's important to the ministry.

So we know that we're being faithful stewards of God's blessing. So if you'd like to write to me, write to me at don at thinkredink.com. Just simply don at thinkredink.com. That's my personal email, by the way. So it'll get read, and I will be glad to answer any questions you have or comments you have on the program, however I can help. Let me know we've been talking in the 55th chapter of our book about jesus rebuking his disciples when they said

about the samaritans we want to call fire down on these people and jesus says you don't know what manner of spirit you're of which is a devastating thing to hear from our god but unfortunately it is very very true in a lot of cases you need to understand that you've got uh you have james and john here that is uh making this statement do you realize who these men were james and john these are the disciples of christ these are the people who have been learning from him so from so many weeks so many months they've been learning and and following him around and they still didn't know what spirit they're of is that really hard for you to believe i'll tell you what's really hard for me to believe is that you do that's

that's hard for me to believe because when let's face facts these people had a lot more advantage than we do um not if we do it right of course. But they actually lived with the Lord, and they didn't know what manner of spirit they're of. And are you thinking that a person living in the 21st century, so far removed from this particular time, so far removed from our God, from our Lord Jesus, that we do understand what spirit we're of? It's a very sobering thought, but it's certainly worthy of your consideration.

Because if this is a problem, it needs to be repaired right away. Now, he says that you don't know what manner of spirit you're of. And he says, you need to know that the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. So they went into another village. Now when he says, for the Son of Man, in King James' vernacular, they will use the word for many times.

When the word because would be a little clearer to 21st century man um he said now listen to the sentence when we just replace the word for with the word because just listen to the sentence and i think that it'll make more sense to you for you will understand what it's saying and that is he says you don't know what manner of spirit you are of because that's not my way that's not my ministry that's not what i came here to do you hear that you don't know what man it is obvious to me that you don't know what spirit you're of because i am of that spirit and that is not my intention wow well it carries a little more punch doesn't it many times we ask the lord and it's not just to call down fire on people but sometimes we ask the Lord, and it's not just to call down fire on people, but sometimes we ask the Lord for what we consider to be good things.

Something to eat, something to wear, a place to live, a spouse to marry, a bank account, win the lottery, heal a baby. It doesn't matter whatever it is we have to know the will of god for us and for everyone involved in that you ever think about how much your life affects someone else you ever wonder about people uh that that ostensibly are watching you, that see these things and what you do and what you say, how you live and the circumstances in your life affect them, sometimes hugely.

I mean, it's big changes in their life. You ever had a hero cut down in your eyes you ever found out that the person that you thought was your friend was not your friend at all you ever found out that the person that you condemned for being selfish or dishonest or whatever you find out that uh you know you you thought he was skipping church, that he didn't care about the things of God, not knowing that the people down in the homeless shelter needed to eat on Sunday morning, so he was down there making breakfast for them,

and his righteousness turns out to be more than yours ever was, and you've been condemning him. These kind of things ever happen in your life? If they don't happen, my a friend you're not paying attention because you see there's a lot of things which we just do not understand that our lord god does understand this is why we need to be whatever state we're in therewith to be content this is why we need to give thanks in all things you don't give thanks for calamity that's that's silly i've heard that you know oh thank god thank you lord for breaking my arm thank you

for killing my puppy i don't know just stick anything you want in there that's not what paul saying he's saying give thanks in all things your father cares about you. Jesus says it's his desire to give us the kingdom. And, you know, if you ask for something that, well, first of all, we need to quit asking for so much. You know, get off your tail and go work and make things happen. Quit expecting, he's not your page boy. Oh, that must be room service.

Come in. No, get up and go do something. That's just an aside. But in a lot of cases, we ask for things, and we're just absolutely sure that they're good. And we don't understand why the Lord doesn't give them to us. Can you give thanks in all things? Boy, I can. that they're good and we don't understand why the lord doesn't give them to us in that and can you give thanks in all things boy i can have you ever been thankful that he didn't give you what you

asked for five years ago that he didn't give you the girl that you wanted to marry so badly and found out later that probably would have been a real big mistake yeah okay you might have been cursing god five years ago you might have been mad Okay, you might have been cursing God five years ago. You might have been mad at him. You might have sat and wondered, why can't I? Why won't you answer my prayer? But five years down the road you think, I'm sure glad he didn't.

Listen, these kind of things can happen. Can we just be a little bit more mature than to realize that our life does not consist of the five minutes in the past and the five minutes in the future? Can we just be so mature as to believe that our life is not this little circle around us that our eyes can see or the circle that our ears can hear? That's not the world it might be your world but it's not the world and his his concern is for the whole world the idea that jesus um that our lord god's will is that that mankind that the world might be saved uh there's uh you know there's good in that and there's hope in that in that scripture but there's also a caution in there you're not the only one in the world it's not all about you it's not the

world doesn't revolve around you as my father used to say who do you think you are that's a good question but we all have these problems and the lord knows we have the have these problems and although you may not explain every little detail to you um you know when things don't happen the way you think that they should or the way you prayed that they would you should be thankful and give thanks in all things this is what paul was telling us and in whatever state you find yourself in therewith to be content i i think that it would it would serve many of us to be a lot happier now i also wanted to give you some background on this story because there's some things in there that are kind of confusing when

you when you close the story down to a couple of paragraphs that this book has done. This little particular paragraph that we're reading is really several pages of Scripture because when you find this story in the Synoptic Gospels when you find in it that this story and pieces of this story were brought from different places and different gospels and you put them all together to tell one story, which, by the way, I've done in the calendar DVD.

I don't know if you're aware that Think Red Ink Ministries produces a video called The Creator's Calendar. But if you like these sort of things and these in-depth kind of things, I would encourage you to write to info at thinkredink.com and ask for, send your address. No, I don't know where you live. No matter how bad you want it. But if you'll write to me at info at thinkredink.com,

give me your address and tell me you're interested in the calendar DVD, I'll send you a copy. Absolutely. And we talk about this particular story because it has tentacles that reach out into the calendar of Jehovah because Jesus followed the calendar of his father. He did not follow the calendar of the Samaritans. He did not follow the calendar of the so-called Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem at that time. He followed the calendar that his father laid out in scripture.

You didn't know that the father laid out a calendar in scripture? Yes, he did. He laid out a calendar in scripture yes he did he laid out a calendar for us to live by we've rejected it we've changed it you know we've renamed it we took all the months that he gave us and we gave them the names of pagan gods and we pretty much adulterated the entire calendar and we found out that our calendars didn't work and instead of going back to his which works perfectly by the way instead of going back to his we said oh we need we just need a a new uh a new theorem we need a new um we need pythagoras and he got involved in calendar issues by the way i mean a hugely intelligent mathematician to try to keep the calendar accurate. Because we don't want to do it God's way. We want to do it our way. We're pitiful.

We're just pitiful. Anyway, Jesus was on that calendar and he was in Samaria. It happened to be that he was there on the Day of Atonement. And you remember when he was there and his disciples went into town to get food? They came back and he wasn't interested in eating. You remember that? And they said, has anybody given him anything to eat?

How is it that he doesn't want to eat? Well, it was because for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he knew that this was the Day of Atonement. The Samaritans didn't know that. And the Jews didn't know that. But he did. So he fasted on the Day of Atonement. Makes sense to me.

But nobody else knew. And Jesus says, you know, there's more important things than eating guys look at look look what i'm in the middle of here i'm talking to this woman here at the well and uh and none of the disciples ask him you know what are y'all talking about but he says you know we got things to do the woman at the well one of my favorite characters in the bible no i don't think she was a slut no i don't think she was a slut. No, I don't think she was a whore. No, I just think she's pretty much like a whole lot of, even American women today.

They're really having a hard time finding a real man to marry and stay married to because men are, you know, they're evaporating. They're just going into smoke. They're just gone. You know, I always feel sorry for women who are looking for a husband today. Of course, I feel sorry for men looking for a wife today. Not much to choose from out there, and it's a fact.

Women need to be more picky about the man they marry, and men need to be more picky about the woman they marry. And men need to be more picky about the woman they marry. Do you realize how much that would change things? But everybody's willing to make concessions. You're not making concessions. You're just canceling out rules so you can get whatever it is you're after. I never heard a preacher talk like that. Well, you have now um but you know this this woman at the

well she was a wonderful gal she's one of my favorite people in the scriptures hey let's face facts jesus he's standing around you know at the gate of jerusalem a bunch of pharisees walk up they realizing that you know this guy might be the christ he might be the one sin from god he might have answers that we've been looking for well pray tell guys what has been on your mind all these hundreds of years how can i help you so you're thinking okay we're going to get some we're going to get some deep theological questions here right you're going to get they're talking to the pharisees the sadducees the scribes you know the the men of the sanhedrin religious leaders of that day so we're going to hear some really i mean just

mind-twisting situations that only messiah could work out. No, no. They're just wondering, hey, how is it that we can have more than one woman? You know, tell us about this divorce thing. Do you think we can just dump our wives because we want to, or do we have to have some reason? So here you got all these scribes and Pharisees or whatever that are just, you know just trying to jump into bed with some Jane or Sue somewhere

and do it legally. They want to figure out how can we do this and not break the law of God. Good luck with that. And their concern is strictly flesh, strictly sinful, strictly selfish. And here you have a woman who, realizing that Jesus Christ was indeed the Messiah, indeed the one that would come. Matter of fact, she told him, you know, because we know that when Messiah comes, he's going to answer all these questions.

And he says, you know what, sis? I've got good news for you. I am he. That is me. I am the Messiah. Buddy, when she got a hold of that, what do you think her question was? How can I justify the five husbands that I've had?

How can I justify the guy I'm living with that is not my husband? Well, you think she was concerned about herself? You think, no. You know what we find? We find a woman with a spiritual question on her mind. A question that those silly Pharisees should have had on their mind.

But they didn't. They just want to know, how can we stand and get by? And she's wanting to know, how can I please my Lord? It's been for years. My people and your people, Samaritans, Jews, have come to loggerheads about this particular problem for centuries.

Can you answer this for me? What's your question? Should we worship in this mountain or should we worship at Jerusalem? What does she mean? Feast of Tabernacles. It was on its way. And according to the Samaritan calendar, it was going to occur in two days. And they asked him to stay with them he stayed the two days but when their feast began he got up and left now do you understand why they were mad at him because he was going to jerusalem when you first read that you think what why are you mad at jesus because he's going to jerusalem how is that a problem for you why are you mad at him because he's going i'd be king james says his face was set and i don't think that uses the word set in that particular scripture but he says his face was as though he

would go to jerusalem when a person has their face set, it means that they're determined to do it. And it really ticked them off. What, he's not good enough to have tabernacles here with us? He doesn't want to worship in Mount Gerizim? Now she made it clear to him, our fathers told us and have told us for years that if we're going to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, if we're going to keep the feast of tabernacles if we're going to keep any of god's feast they need to be kept here in mount gerizim this is a commandment

with us but your people say something totally different and i just want to know what's the right way to do this that's a good question and it's a question that seemingly they weren't able to answer through the scriptures very well uh the jews you know their attitude is well it's just like we say it is and and the priest of samaria we're saying well it's just like we say it is so they couldn't come to an agreement but now Messiah is with them and If there's anything that's common among the Middle Eastern religious folks It is that when Messiah gets here. He's gonna explain it all you know Christians have a little taste of that, too You know we have the attitude and very very many situations. I know we don't understand now, but one day he's going to explain it all, right?

Well, that might sound nice and pious. That might sound, you know, holy and sanctified or churchy or whatever you want to call it. But here's the fact. Just like he told that woman, what are you waiting for, sis? Well, we're waiting for Messiah to come. I got news for you. He's here. It's me.

And you know what? The Christians who sit around and wonder, you know, is this right? Is that right? How should we be baptized? Frontwards or backwards? Can we have grape juice and saltines? Or does it have to be actual

fermented wine and unleavened bread or any of the rest of this this silly religious ritualistic stuff well it is um and instead of uh of that jesus has come to eliminate these kind of things and develop a relationship between us and god she got that what was her concern that she was doing it right or that she was pleasing her god i am convinced that her concern was pleasing her Lord. And so she took the opportunity to ask these things to Messiah to get an answer. What was the Pharisees concern? Themselves. How they can pleasure themselves. Wow. What a horrible testimony

to men. I mean to tell you, that's awful. But hey, anybody want to agree or disagree that it's not typical? I don't think so. Not if you've been alive for more than 20 years. You know that that's typical. Now Jesus was in this situation knowing that he was going to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. However, as the story continues, and if you get that calendar DVD,

you're going to see this story continues. Jesus is asked by his disciples to go to the Feast of Tabernacles, and he says, nope, time's not right. Now it's okay for you, but it's not okay for me. Man, there's preaching in that too there's preaching and all this stuff i just need to read and try to comment as little as possible but you know the the the fact of the matter is jesus was on a different clock he was

on a different schedule he was on a different punch list he was on a different punch list. He was on a different list of priorities. This man was trying his best to live out his ministry in a sinful world. A world that didn't recognize him. And it was difficult at times. But every once in a while, he ran across a guy like this. That knew who he was and knew he could answer questions. You want to know what the answer to the question was? Of course you do.

If you've got a drop of the Spirit of God in you, you want to know what the answer to the question was. He explained to her that, you know, the days of ritual are gone. The days of obeying letters written on a page they're gone the day is now that we're going to obey the spirit of god you see if you're going to worship god so what was what was her concern was it getting what she wants no was it uh to obey rules? No. Her concern was to worship God because Jesus on that subject, on that very idea and thought was saying to her,

if your intention is to worship God, here's the way you do it. You worship him in spirit and in truth. Friend, you can't worship God with a bad theology. You can't do it. You can't worship god thinking that he's a trinity because your sunday school teacher told you he was you can't worship god because he's omniscient or omnipresent or any of the rest of the monikers that we stick on him you have to worship him in truth i don't care what he is i just want to know what he is and that's the way

i'm going to worship him i'm not asking the lord to reveal himself to me the way i always thought he should be i'm asking him to reveal himself to me the way he actually is i'll change i'll change my mind it's okay i'm not married to this religion idea down here. I'm just doing the best I can. You show me that you're different than this, I'm with you. I'm your boy. I'll listen to what you have to say. No, that's not what we do. This is why we don't go before him and allow him to speak. We don't want him to speak. Just sit there and be quiet and appreciate what we're doing although it's pagan although it's selfish although it's just pure ritual although it's you know worthless we want you to accept what we do to you for you because we love you love me you don't even know me

um but we're we insist that we we love him he says when you go into this country telling joshua and going into the into this pagan land don't even ask how they worship their gods and say you're going to do that to me i told you i want to be worshiped you did when did you say that you remember passover you remember keeping the the the first of the year the sacred new year do you remember day of atonement do you remember the the time of in gathering the feast of tabernacles do you remember pentecost all these things i told you yeah those are the holy days i want you to keep yeah but these people keep Christmas and they keep Easter and they keep Halloween and they keep St. Valentine's Day and

St. This and St. That day. I told you how I want to be worshipped. How do you know how they worship their gods? I told you not to ask. We have a lot to answer for. Okay, so it gets a little uncomfortable. Doesn't have to stay that way. We can decide to worship God in spirit and in truth. Bad theology is not truth. He's explaining to her that this is a spiritual thing. It's not Mount Gerized or jerusalem it's not being baptized

frontwards or backwards or in salt water or fresh it's not all this ritual stuff this is in spirit people ask me all the time you think you can be saved and not baptized no I don't. Well, wait a minute now. Baptize how? You know, the question isn't, do you think you can be saved and not baptized? The question is, do you think you can be baptized and not saved? That's the problem. But we work it out so that we can all be comfortable. Look, the idea is not to be comfortable.

I have not a bit of interest in the world in making you comfortable. My intention is to help you worship God in spirit and in truth. Truth is going to be kind of easy for you because it's just good theology. It's just doing what we're told to do. Spirit might be a little more difficult because many of us have to admit, hopefully before the Lord tells you this, we don't know what manner of spirit we're of. We are of an inclusive spirit.

We are of a lovely, loving spirit of God. Nothing less. We're going to take it up here next time. If you'd like to write to me, do so. At Don at ThinkRedInc.com And until next time, Think Red Inc., my friend. Bye-bye. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you