11/05/2018
Are you one who has been waiting on the promised Christ to return? Do you rise every morning and go to church throughout the week in anticipation of His arrival? If so, what will you say to Him, and when He presents Himself will you know for certain that it is Him? We like to believe that we will easily recognize him, but will we? If you aren’t immediately lifted to join Him in the sky, or if you aren’t privy to a miracle... will you know Him? Will you believe this man is Jesus? If an everyday carpenter dressed in work clothes introduced Himself... would you believe He was Jesus... or just disturbed?
“Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.”
Luke 2:25-26 ESV
Simeon had waited all His life for the Messiah to arrive. He wasn’t in Bethlehem when Jesus was born, no angels appeared to him announcing Christ had arrived, and yet, when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple... he knew Him immediately. How was he able to recognize Him? This was a devout man, and although the Holy Spirit had not been given to reside in him, he spoke to the Spirit. He recognized Jesus because he recognized the Holy Spirit.
I met a man in the airport in Washington DC, and there was something about him that made me believe I knew him. As I questioned him while waiting to board, it was revealed that he was a pastor returning from the Middle East. When I boarded my plane, this man was seated right beside me, and we talked faith, and I prayed for him, and anointed him with oil, all the way to Nashville this continued. it was a flight like none other before it, or since. When we landed in Nashville, Pastor Habte Adane, the pastor of an Ethiopian congregation, said something to me that confirmed what I already knew; he said... “when we met in the airport I didn’t know you, and you didn’t know me, but our spirits knew one another.” On that day I was given instruction to pray for this man always, and for the past years I lift him us in my morning prayers every day. I don’t know why, and I really don’t know this man, but my spirit knows his, and it also guides me in my prayers for him. This is how Simeon knew Jesus. This is how we will know Jesus.
On that same day in the temple...
“And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Luke 2:36-38 ESV
It is not surprising that this devout woman knew who Jesus was, after all, she had been waiting for him to arrive for most of her life. Her spirit recognized His instantly, and she immediately began to give thanks to God.
I had been working at trimming bushes all day long, and had loaded them into the bed of my son’s truck, then drove to the local convenience center to dump them. Upon arrival there was a vehicle in line before me that was filled with trimmings, and had large branches piled high on top of it. A man dressed in work clothes stepped out, and although I didn’t know him, I knew that he needed help. After a quick introduction I helped him unload, and we finished the task in short order. Standing there he recognized the college sticker on my son’s truck and it turned out the three of us had attended the same school. Something about this man kept gnawing at me, and my spirit would not rest, so I used the few facts that he had given me in conversation to look him up on the internet... he was the Senior Pastor at a nearby church. I emailed him to find that he had been searching for me. Pastor Ian Sears and I have been friends since that day, and as mysteriously as with Pastor Habte... I was told to pray for him in my morning prayers as well, and I have been faithful in that calling all this time. This too is how we will know Jesus... by divine revelation.
So are you listening to the Holy Spirit when He speaks to you? Is your heart circumcised so that you will feel the slightest movement of God in your life? Then, when these moments of spiritual significance come, are you ready to obey... are you courageous enough to step from your comfortable worldly life into the incredible flow of God? If the answer is yes then you needn’t worry about recognizing Jesus. Sure you will know Him when the clouds part and you see Him descending from the sky, but you will also know Him in the meantime... when He comes to you in whispers, dreams, visions, chance meetings, or speaks to you through the Spirit. Just wait expectedly as Simeon and Anna waited, prepare yourself in devotion, and be prepared to respond when the occasion presents itself.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit. Thank you Lord for the bold introductions, the soft whispers, and the miraculous signs, that reveal your will to us, your calling, and the movement of Jesus in our lives. Help us Holy Father to not only recognize your subtle revelations, but to have the faith to obey you in them, and the courage to act in heroic fashion when our human nature tells us to be still. You are amazing Merciful Father; you bring us to know your saints, and to lift them up in prayer. You introduce us to those who are divine and sinful alike, and expect us to do your bidding in each circumstance. How many saints do we pray for, and how many sinners do you set before us as we pray for lost souls? Sometimes you use the wonders in our lives to draw them, sometimes the sorrows, and occasionally the suffering, but in every instance they come, and you whisper in our ear that this is your child. Give us wisdom Father, and guide us in doing those things your will dictates. Make us courageous in the face of sin as we witness to sinners, and humble before saints as we lead them even closer to you. Great are you Gracious Father, who reaches out to all, and beckons them come. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who wishes that none be lost, and who uses your believers to extend your hand.
Rich Forbes