The Sabbath

Jesus heals on the Sabbath, Luke 13:10-17

Remember the time when you Jesus healed on the sabbath and did work on that day, and was persecuted for it?  On the seventh day, God rested.  The spirit of the command for a sabbath was that we would be able to rest and not work all the time.  We'd be able to spend time with our loved ones and with God himself.  The Pharisees perverted this concept and did what the law was not meant for - make them legalistic and think that any sort of work was not allowed on the Sabbath, including healing the sick.  The elephant in the room here is that though he was doing it on the Sabbath, he was HEALING THE SICK, something impossible and probably not often seen among the Pharisees or anyone in that room.

Of course, the reality was that the Pharisees were jealous of Jesus and just trying to find any excuse they could to persecute him and get him into trouble.  They used the culturally traditional interpretation of God's law to do this.  Notice Jesus' response, though: he didn't expose their jealousy even though I'm sure he knew about it.  He simply pointed out their hypocracy and theologically rebuked them, saying that they did the same things, and moved on!  The underlying assumption was that their comment was irrational and based on jealousy, but Jesus didn't expose it outright (though he does later).

People often misinterpret rest as being an excuse to not do the works of God.  We lazy out, rather than go and do what we see the Father doing.  The time of rest is the perfect time to do what's on our hearts, and to love people.

THE BLAST SHIELD IS DOWN

THE BLAST SHIELD IS DOWN

2 Corinthians 5:7 "..for we walk by faith, not by sight."

The scene in Star Wars where Obi-Wan Kenobi is telling Luke to practice with remotes and fighting Han Solo's doubt is indicative of how God is training His people to fight against the recent re-emergence of doubt, atheism, and realistic rationalism in the world. Han says that he's seen “a lot of strange things”, but not an all-powerful being (force) controlling everything. Obi-Wan pulls out a helmet with a blast-shield over it, blocking Luke's vision.

“I say you try it again, Luke. This time let go your conscious self and act on instinct.”

This season we are embarking in is a season of God growing our ability to hear and obey, having faith in the dark even when we can't see anything. He is allowing this spiritual “darkness” to come because he wants us to learn to grow in our hearing and feeling. He wants us to be stronger in our faith and not rely on our gifts. He wants to see His church strengthened, because the greatest harvest the world has ever seen is upon us.

“Wha...with the blast shield down, I can't see a thing! How am I supposed to fight?”

We think our lack of vision means we will lose in warfare. But Obi-Wan explains the truth,

“Your eyes can deceive you; don't trust them.”

We rely on our natural abilities to predict, see, and have “vision” for the future, rather than just realizing God is in charge and we can just move forward in the moment with what He's saying to do. God is wanting to play a spiritual game of Marco Polo, where we abandon our reliance on our eyes and what it can see (the temporary, 2 Corinthians 4:18) and embrace what can't be seen (the eternal).

In the scene, Luke then proceeds to block every single shot by Obi-Wan's advice,

“Stretch out with your feelings!”

Pure reliance on the voice of the Holy Spirit is completely essential to releasing the Kingdom in today's world.  In order to reach out to people in a way that's personal, meaningful, and paints a picture of God that is very real to them, we must be able to hear clearly what the Holy Spirit is saying and have the faith to act, stretching out in new ways with out feelings toward God.

I've heard recently from my friend Rebecca that this season is the season of the bat. We're beyond the season of the owl where we see through the dark, and into a place where we must become reliant on echolocation (allowing our hearing to become our sight). Batman is the symbol of our time, men and women who grew up in the dark will start to emerge that were molded and shaped by the darkness, and have learned to let the light inside shine through them to become this generation's heroes.

God wants to abolish fear in His people. Fear of the darkness, of the world, of the enemy. God isn't afraid, and we have God with us, so why would we be afraid?

“You know, I really could feel something. It's almost like I could see the remote.”

Our spiritual sight is greater than our natural sight. We must abandon our reliance on even our prophetic and seer gifts as a way through, and tap into a deeper knowledge and faith that lies in hearing and obeying. Greater vision is seen through our hearing, being obedient and letting God whisper His secrets in our ears, even when we don't sense, feel, or see anything. We must build our spiritual muscles in this season so that we may be prepared for the amazing revival about to hit our nation and world.