When the Soul Recognizes a True Solution.

Let’s start with a fundamental fact of reality.  Passion for God, a desire for Truth, the search for holiness, will always reach out in spiritual hunger.  I.e., it will manifest itself in some form or fashion.  It does not remain dormant; it can’t just sit back, wait, and see what might happen.  No... it hungers, it desires, it pursues.  And it finds what it seeks, because ultimately it discovers God has never stopped pursuing us!

You can see this in Luke’s Gospel, in the narrative of Jesus and His healing of blind “Bartimaeus” {Mk. 10:46} in 18:35-43.  In v. 36 the tense of the phrase “he asked what was happening” literally says, he “kept on repeatedly inquiring, ‘What is it? What is it?,’” as he heard the commotion of the crowd going by.  You see my point?  His inquiry is answered in v. 37 as the crowd tells him Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.  The parallel of Luke 18:38 is Mark 10:47, which say’s as soon as Bartimaeus heard this he began to “cry out”— to shout over and over— “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  “Son of David” is a Messianic title, and it reveals how Bartimaeus recognized Jesus as the Messiah.  And he did it through the eyes of faith.

Now, consider the faith of this hungry, worn out, bedraggled beggar contrasted with the words of John the Baptizer, Jesus’ very own cousin, in Matthew 11:2-6.  In this section Matthew say’s, “When John heard in prison what Messiah was doing, he sent his disciples to ask Him, ‘Are You the One who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”  This is from the mouth of the same man who said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” {Jn 1:29}; and in John 1:34, “I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”

What happened between the time of John’s powerful ministry in the wildlands of Judea and his present moment of doubt and despair?  The man who used to roam free in the desert and mountains is confined to four small, ever-shrinking walls.  In the midst of these walls, he has relinquished his focus, taken his eyes off the only One who could bring him peace, stability, and strength.  Jesus, His Messiah and His King, had done nothing to free him from these chains— He’d organized no jailbreak, torn down no walls, burned no prison doors, nothing!  What kind of deliverance was this, anyway?  You see, John had been placed by God in a position where he was utterly helpless, a point at which Abba say’s to us, “My Child, there is a greater plan at work here, a higher purpose which you will never comprehend and never understand until you orient to it in faith and humility with these words— ‘Father, Your will be done!’”

“Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the Good News [‘the Glorious News of Grace’] is preached to the poor.”  What Jesus says essentially is, “Everything which has been prophesied concerning Me and the purpose for which I was sent is working out exactly according to plan.”  He goes on to say in v. 6, “Blessed is the man or woman who does not fall away on account of Me.”  The problem here is Jesus wasn’t working quite as fast as John would’ve liked, nor in the method and manner John had expected.  Sound familiar?  “Blessed are those who keep from stumbling and staggering their way out of the will of God over Me” {RRExp}.

When the soul of Man recognizes a true solution, it turns its faith in that direction.  And there it is: the difference in spiritual hunger and spiritual apathy, in deep desire and comfortable complacency, in passion for Truth, for righteousness, for reality, and the sort of listless dissatisfaction which pervades post-modern Christianity— listlessness with the fact that God’s not doing what I want.  Well, maybe, just maybe it’s because what you want is not what you need.  And Abba loves you too much to give you what would destroy you.  Ever considered this?  May I suggest, as kindly as I know how, “You might want to give it a try.”

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
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