John 8:23 But he continued,“You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”25 “Who are you?” they asked. “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. 26 “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”
27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. 28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” 30 Even as he spoke, many believed in him.
The ones questioning Jesus did not understand who He was and what He was doing here. I can't imagine what it would be like to physically see Jesus. To sit down in a conversastion with Him and talk to Him about heaven and living on earth and kingdom things. Those who were questioning Him were missing the point of believing in Him and believing Him. I.Y.O.K. stands for If You Only Knew and sadly that is the condition of many believers today. It's like those questioning are thinking about the time lapse between when Jesus walked on the earth and now and that possibly His power would wain and His truth would not be applicable in today's world. Questioning is ok to do but not to the point of deterioting your faith in the hope we have in Jesus. In verse 26 Jesus says "But He who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from Him I tell the world." God is worthy of our trust and our questions should be focused in on the most important things like "How do I grow in my relationship with Jesus." Or "Lord show me the way to becoming more like you." Or "Lord show me any wicked ways in my life."
There are many more questions to ask Jesus and those questions will draw us closer to the Lord, but using doubt as a premise for asking those questions is a waste of time. I believe Jesus answers a lot of our questions from a heavenly truth foundation and the more we learn about Him the more questions fade away because He is pouring His truth in our hearts and our minds. James 1:5 speaks to the I.Y.O.K. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 But test everything; hold fast what is good. There is a lot of "truth" out there and much of it is based on many different factors like denominational teaching, personal preference, humanism, and our past life experiences. So many of us cannot get beyond our childhood impressions about life itself and those chains keep us from walking into a deeper, more fact filled, relationship with Jesus. Which makes us no different than those asking Jesus questions in the above verses. They were just trying to figure everything out from their upbringing and some of that upbringing was very flawed. The end result was them missing the deeper things of God, including salvation, because their worldly reasoning couldn't handle the real truth about things per the Word of God.
Jesus was teaching such radical things tha tHe caused those people to ask "Who are You?" When we move away from all the things we were taught from a worldly standpoint and move to a more Godly way of looking at things everything changes. But making that transition is difficult for those asking the wrong questions. We feel uncomfortable and the prospects of a major change in our belief system is just too much to handle. When we veer away from accepting the truth of Jesus' teachings head on we miss the radical life change that God wants to make happen in our lives. We, like the ones asking the questions above, cannot get beyond our worldly indoctrination and we miss the spiritual walk God intends for us all. I.Y.O.K. trumps any of our past secondhand indoctrination and we learn to walk in the light as Jesus is in the light and a whole new realm opens up to us all. In John 17:17 Jesus said in His prayer for you and me this, Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
To wrap it up keep in mind that we have been indoctrinated to certain truths all our lives and there is a good chance some of those truths are not truth at all. Those have become comfortable for us and the uncomfortable truth of the unfiltered Word of God needs to be our compass in life. But it won't be easy and our pride will well up to stop this radical change of reasoning that Jesus calls us to. But keep in mind. If we face these truths like the learned teachers of the law by saying "Who are you" teaching these things then we are asking the wrong questions. It is time to ask this question "Jesus what are you trying to show me?" And the completion of that question is accepting that truth as coming from God through Jesus to us. Jesus said this in John 8:23 But he continued,“You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.
I want the wisdom and truth from on high, so I must break out of the indoctrination about life that was poured into me from my birth to now because much of that truth is holding me back from the abundant life that has peace, hope, faith, and truth in its quiver. I need those arrows to live my life and I need to teach those truths to all who come in contact with me. But keep in mind they will have to take away their filter to understand just what God is saying to them personally also. No more second hand faith. Only the purity of the Word of God. I.Y.O.K. you would think differently about living this life given to us by Jesus through His blood. We live in a world with half truths and inuendoes, and that is just in the church. The story below states just how important proclaiming unfitered truth is and it's effect.
In the early 1900s George Riddell acquired the sensational London newspaper The News of the World. Meeting British journalist Frederick Greenwood one day, Riddell mentioned that he owned a newspaper, told Greenwood its name, and offered to send him a copy. The next time they met, Riddell asked Greenwood what he thought of The News.
"I looked at it and then I put it in the wastepaper basket," said Greenwood, "and then I thought, 'If I leave it there the cook may read it,' so I burned it."
Burn anything that is not from Jesus and received the unfiltered Word of God and live it.
The Pilgrimage continues......
David Warren
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