JUNE 23 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#20 “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

 

JUNE 23  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#20  “O faithless and perverse generation, 

how long shall I be with you? 

How long shall I bear with you?” 

(Matthew 17:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You Lord are to be praised and You are Worthy of the praise 

that is now coming from the lips of men and You are Worthy

 of the Glory and Honor that every tongue will profess - 

Glory and Honor that belongs to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, 

for the Father has declared that every knee shall bow 

and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, 

and I praise You Jesus for completing God’s Plan of Salvation

 by becoming flesh, dwelling among us,

 living a sinless life for our sakes,

 and then becoming the very Lamb of God, 

slain before the foundation of the earth,

 the Only Holy and Acceptable Sacrifice

 to pay in full the penalty of death and blood 

for the sin of all mankind. 

Lord Jesus, my prayer is for this sinner to decrease 

and let the Savior increase in every aspect of my daily life 

as I move towards my eternal destination 

 in and with the Power of the Holy Spirit.     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus started JQ#19 announcing to His disciples that He would

 “suffer and die”

 in Jerusalem and that the ones responsible would be

 “the elders and chief priests and scribes” 

(Matthew 16:21) 

which were the teachers and leaders of Israel. 

Jesus never exposes a problem without introducing the solution 

and as soon as Jesus said that He would

 “be killed”

 by men that He immediately 

resolved the issue by stating that

 He would be “raised from the dead” 

on the “third day” 

but the disciples had not yet believed in the 

True Power of God  

because when the disciples witnessed Jesus doing all the miracles

 they had seen previously, that they saw Jesus as a man

 and failed to see Jesus as God!

 Jesus addressed their wrong thinking by telling them

 their mistake came because they were 

“not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” 

and then added that if we are to 

“follow [Jesus]” 

that 

we must take up our “cross” just as He 

was going to take up His Cross in Jerusalem. 

Then after Jesus Teaches the 

eternal significance of our “souls”, 

Jesus turns to the next Lesson with JQ#20 

as He had to “rebuke” a demon that possessed a boy 

and the disciples were unable to cast the demon from him.

 Because the disciples could not cast out the demon, 

the father of the boy took him to Jesus and said that the disciples 

“could not cure him”. 

(Matthew 17:16) 

Jesus immediately rebuked the demon from the boy 

but only after Jesus used the circumstance to point out the reason

 for the disciples failure as Jesus declared

 “O faithless and perverse generation” 

(Matthew 17:17)

 which was directed not only at the disciples 

but to the father of the demon possessed boy as well. 

Failure to cast out the demon was identified as 

“faithless” 

and since Jesus added the term 

“perverse” to accompany “faithless”

 it would be reasonable to assume that Jesus is Teaching that

 our faith is futile if we build it on the wrong foundation

 — and since 

Jesus has been Teaching that our faith is misdirected 

because we trust “the things of men” 

more than we trust “the things of God”, 

that if our “faith” is in the power of men 

and not in the Power of God Himself that we will fail 

in our attempts to use our “faith” to help others. 

Jesus is using the Question

 “How long?” (JQ#20  Matthew 17:17) 

to illustrate that He will not always be here on earth 

for us to bring our demon possessed children to and that the 

Truth of God 

is that we must develop our 

“faith” in God’s Ultimate Power 

in order that we shall be able to perform those things Jesus did, 

this working of the 

Power of God 

through us only comes when we realize that it is not the things of men 

that give us that 

Divine Power.

 Only the things of God working through men will bring the 

Power of God 

to bear on our worldly problems. Like the disciples, we see Jesus

 as a man doing miracles and fail to see that

 Jesus is the Son of God 

who came to reveal the Power of God 

and witness to the Glory of God 

and yet once Jesus had completed His earthly mission

 He would return to the Father.  

The Legacy of Jesus is that He came to earth 

and to men to demonstrate how to connect to God

 and His Ultimate Power!  

Our ability to be like God is through our 

“Faith in God”. 

Jesus was sent by God to “suffer” and to “die” 

but because Jesus had “FAITH IN GOD” 

and Jesus knew that God has Divine Power 

over Death and the Grave 

that God would demonstrate His Power to give life 

by raising Jesus the “third day” 

— we must see the death of Jesus 

not as a man being killed by men 

but as the Perfect Divine Sacrifice 

as God uses what man intends as evil 

to complete His Plan of Salvation 

and then we will no longer be a 

“faithless and perverse generation” 

— sounds  like “tough love” does it not? 

JUNE 22 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#20 “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

 

JUNE 22  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#20  “O faithless and perverse generation, 

how long shall I be with you? 

How long shall I bear with you?” 

(Matthew 17:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You Lord are not bounded by “time” and therefore I praise You 

for Your Timelessness in both hearing our prayers and answering them

 in the “Way” that is best for us and at the “divine time” 

that benefits us the most in our spiritual growth — 

Lord I feel led to pray again the same prayer 

the Holy Spirit 

led me to pray to You in 2004 

because Your Truth NEVER CHANGES:

 “Jesus, You came down from Glory and became Flesh, 

giving up Heaven and the Highest Position in God’s Kingdom 

to become a man living among sinners. Yet, You did not make

 a great position for Yourself on earth, in fact You took on no position,

 no title, no power over man but instead You used all Your Power

 to Teach man about God while You took on the form of a servant. 

Lord, please take away my desire to be “important”, to be “someone” 

 men look up to and let me instead aspire to be “important” not to myself

 but important to the well-being of others —

 stir my desire towards helping and serving others

 and sharing Your Great Love with the world.”     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has asked some very serious Questions and they have been asked

 to get us thinking in terms of the “Spiritual” aspect of our lives

 and to consider that our “physical” lives are “temporary” 

but absolutely “necessary” to understanding the “purpose” 

of our daily lives lived in the flesh on this earth!  

With JQ#17 Jesus Taught that God is aware that we need “daily bread”

 to survive in the flesh and by performing the miracle of feeding 

“four thousand men, besides women and children” (Matthew 15:38) 

God demonstrated that He will provide abundantly for our “physical” needs

 but He does so only when we recognize the “Spiritual” 

needs that our “physical” life presents. Jesus used the phrase 

“wicked and adulterous generation”

 to describe our “physical” lives and called us 

“hypocrites” 

just before asking JQ#17  — so what was He trying to Teach? 

Jesus then Taught that when we understood

 the depravity of our “physical” lives

 that we would be given a “Spiritual” sign and that sign was 

“the sign of the prophet Jonah” 

(Matthew 16:4) —

 Jesus with JQ#17 is introducing the concept of the 

“Resurrection” 

because 

Jonah was 3 days in the belly of a great fish and 

on the 3rd day Jonah was “resurrected” — 

Jesus also used the title “prophet Jonah” which everyone

 understood that “prophets” were delivering the “message of God” 

so with using Jonah as the “sign” Jesus demonstrated 

that God is the “Power” behind the “Resurrection” 

and that God has a plan of “Resurrection” for our lives!!! 

Jesus then moved to JQ#18 where He asked the disciples

 “Who do you say I am?” 

then commended Peter for Peter’s answer 

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).

 So now the progression is Jesus taking a “physical” circumstance

 then showing how applying the

 “Spiritual Power of God” 

to our “physical” circumstances that the results are

 “miraculous” 

as first 4000 were fed with “seven loaves and a few fish” 

and then the “miracle” of Jonah being “physically” consumed 

by a great fish but then Jonah was

 “resurrected” on the third day, 

once again these are “physical” impossibilities 

and only through the intervention of the 

“Spiritual Power of God” 

can “physical impossibilities” become demonstrations of 

God’s control over the “physical” by bringing His

 “Spiritual Power” 

to bear over our “physical” circumstances! 

Then Jesus continues these Lessons of the “Spiritual” 

having power over the “physical” when in JQ#19 

Jesus introduces the Lesson by stating to His disciples 

that He Himself would demonstrate God’s Ultimate Power 

over the physical as Jesus said that He would

 “go to Jerusalem…and be killed, and be raised the third day”! 

Jesus uses these “physical” circumstances to ask the

 “spiritual” 

question to get us thinking that who we are as individuals consists of

 our “physical bodies” and more importantly to God, we are also

 “Spiritual” in our nature and Jesus says this

 “Spiritual nature” resides in our “souls” which are “eternal” —

 then Jesus introduces the “Judgement of God” when He asks

 “what will man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26) 

So with Jesus bringing our attention to the importance of distinguishing between

 the “physical” and the “spiritual” and assigning “everlasting” 

importance to concentrating on using the 

“Spiritual” to control the “physical” 

we should then pay close attention to those aspects when 

Jesus again describes our “physical” lives once again with a critical phrase

 “faithless and perverse generation” 

and then introduces the concept that in order to fulfill God’s Will for Him

 that He must “depart” from us after His “death” as He asks 

JQ#20 “how long shall I be with you?” 

and also 

“how long shall I bear with you?” 

(Matthew 17:17)

 Jesus then used His Spiritual Power 

given to Him by God the Father as Jesus

 “rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, 

and the child was cured from that very hour.” 

(Matthew 17:18) 

Again Jesus has used another “physical” circumstance to prove the

 “Superiority of the Spiritual Power of God” 

over every “physical” circumstance. 

JQ#20 is another good opportunity to take a 

“spiritual” inventory of our “physical” lives and consider that

 

our “physical” lives come with an “expiration date” 

but that our “souls” are both 

“spiritual” and “eternal” ———

 or are you not concerned what God thinks

 about our human bodies destined for the grave?