APRIL 11 THE JESUS QUESTIONS
JQ#13
* Is your life a plus or a minus in God’s kingdom?*
“How can you, being evil, speak good things? ”
(Matthew 12:34)
LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer
JESUS, Lord, my Savior, Praise, Glory, and Honor to the Son of God Most High.
Jesus, my prayer today is that the Holy Spirit will totally consume me
and overflow from my spirit so that all that will be seen in me is Thee!
Today I pray for the total destruction of the old man as I share
Your Story of Grace and Forgiveness by the “Way”
I live my day-to-day life.
Lord, I know that without Your Grace and Forgiveness that I would still be lost
in “self” and drowning in my “sin”, grant it Lord that all the words I speak today
will be Your Words, that all my desires will be towards “loving others” as
You have commanded. Forgive me mine iniquities, let Your cleansing Light
be all that remains in my life.
AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
Jesus Himself has always made His Lessons and Callings personal —
we see Him calling out His disciples one by one and not only just calling
them out individually but He called each one by name and made it clear
to each one that they were to use their talents now
to advance the kingdom of God!
The way they were to learn “how” to advance God’s Kingdom was the same
command Jesus has given each individual that will heed the Voice of Jesus,
“Come, follow Me.”
(Matthew 4:19)
In JQ#13a, b and c we must understand that Jesus is asking the Pharisees
to look at themselves and see that their false accusations are damaging
themselves more than they are damaging Jesus. Jesus starts explaining
this to the Pharisees by pointing out to them that the “reality” of their
accusation has the root motivation of “division” and that even in the
strongest of kingdoms there must be “unity of spirit” or the kingdom
itself will weaken and eventually crumble:
“Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation
and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.”
(Matthew 12:25) .
The fact that the Pharisees attributes the good works and miracles that
Jesus had been performing was “by Beelzebub” points to the fact that
“Satan” himself has been the motivating “spirit” directing the Pharisees
to attack the good works of Jesus and the Miracle Power of God —
“Now when the Pharisees heard [Jesus was performing miracles
and casting out demons] they said, ‘This fellow does not cast out
demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons.”
Matthew 12:24
If we look at what Jesus had been doing in terms of healing and casting out
demons we must concede that the “physical” results of these miracles
can only be accounted for by the “Spiritual” Power of God being exhibited
through Jesus — for never before in all of history nor ever will it happen in
the future that anyone has or will “cast out demons by Beelzebub”!!!
However, the Pharisees could not deny that miracles were being performed
so they had to draw the multitude’s attention away from God’s Power and
therefore the Pharisees were given the “idea” from Satan himself to draw
the focus of the miracles away from God and to give Satan the “credit” for
this healing and casting out demons!
The really big problem here can be seen as the ridiculous claim it really is —
by saying that Jesus is “casting out demons” by the power of “Beelzebub”,
the accusation itself reveals it as another fabrication by Satan
to draw us away from the
Truth of God!
If Satan controls all the demons then why would Satan make himself look
bad by putting demons into someone and then turning around and drawing
them out again which would only put Satan at “cross purposes” with himself!?!?
Jesus points out that Satan would be fighting against himself and that would
be self-destruction — but on the other hand, Jesus points out that by just
the very mention of the name “Beelzebub” in their accusation that the
Pharisees have exposed the source and supply of their false accusations
and their true motivation which is to “divide and conquer” the followers of
Jesus who is Teaching the Truth of God,
doesn’t that sound exactly like what is happening in our world today?
Jesus knew that this problem would plague all men just like the universal
problem the world has with sin and self and if Satan can draw your
attention away from God then he has divided God’s people! It is as true
today as it was when Jesus first spoke it,
“Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation,
and every city or house [or church group or family]
divided against itself will not stand.”
(Matthew 12:25)
That verse started with, “But Jesus knew their thoughts…” and the Lesson
we must learn is that as soon as the name “Beelzebub” or “Satan” is
mentioned we must look to find the false accusations that will be present
against God — for the goal of Satan is “desolation” of God’s people!
Satan himself knows that
“God so loved the world that He gave [the sin filled world]
His only begotten Son [Jesus], that whosoever believes
in [the acceptable Sacrifice of God’s SON
on the cross for our sin by] Jesus
that they shall not perish, but have everlasting life!”
( John 3:16)
John 3:16 explains why Satan would attack and accuse Jesus —
for it is Jesus that defeats Satan and frees all men from the slavery
of sin and self! Satan has used the “separation-from-God” weapon against
the children of God ever since Adam and Eve to “divide” and hurt all
that seek to be the children of God! If we remain in our sin then we will
perish and have to live our Eternity separated (or “divided”) from God,
hence our “desolation” is Satan’s victory!
Do you see now why Satan attacks the Truth of God and why Jesus is
pointing this out with JQ#13? Jesus clearly points this out so that we will
know that Satan always attacks God by attacking God’s people, and
Satan’s favorite weapon of “desolation” is false accusations against God
to get us to turn from God to ourselves where temptation and sin will
consume us and separate us from God?
If Jesus points out a “problem”,
don’t you think a “solution” is quick to follow?
Remember,
“If the Son sets you free,
you are free indeed!”
(John 8:36)
