Mark 8-10: The Eyes of the Spirit

Wow, today God poured out even more things to me! I don't know if I'll hardly be able to write it all down, but I will do through section by section and tell you what I have seen.

These three chapters God used to reveal to me the mystery of the eyes of the Spirit versus the eyes of the flesh and of mankind. This is something I'd begun to understand in my heart over the past couple of months, but my mind didn't quite understand it yet (that's, I think a kingdom principle. All things start in the heart and then the mind eventually catches up. Our world tries it backwards, by reasoning their way to God. It just doesn't work that way for some reason. His ways seem foolish to the wisdom of man. Paul talks about this in 1 Cor. 1:20-25). Anyways, here is all the riches I found today!

"The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, 'Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.' And he left them" Mark 8:11-13

I didn't understand why Jesus "sighed deeply in his spirit". It was almost like he was incredibly weary by all this asking for a sign and of the Pharisees telling him to "Prove it!". So I asked the Holy Spirit to show me and I started to understand that Jesus was just tired of them missing the whole point. They kept wanting him to do some fancy tricks for them instead of wanting to know him. (Lots of people do this to Jesus today by the way). And so he just left them and walked away. Because the signs Jesus did were not done in order to impress people, but as a door to open their eyes to the deeper things of who he was and of the kingdom of heaven. 

But when people only stop at the outer layer of things, and get caught up in the miracles themselves instead of in the truths they are meant to reveal (the truth of who Jesus is!), them they won't even get that much.

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"Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, 'Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.' And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, 'Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not they perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?' They said to him, 'Twelve.' 'And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?' And they said to him, 'Seven.' And he said to them, 'Do you not yet understand?'" Mark 8:14-21

Haha, to be honest, when I read the "Do you not yet understand?" I was like,"...Uhmm, nope, I'm really not understanding either Jesus.." :) But how cool is this, I just asked the Holy Spirit to help me again (I was afraid I wouldn't be able to understand, but I just waited and read over this part a couple more times, and it started to unfold to me). 

So Jesus asks the disciples "Do you no yet understand?" for the same reason he tells the Pharisees that he's not going to show them another sign. Both the disciples and the Pharisees had the same problem: they were not seeing things the right way. The Pharisees were seeing Jesus' miracles the wrong way (as some sort of cheap "proof" that Jesus was worth something) and the disciples were not hearing Jesus' words the right way. Because Jesus always talks in parables to the crowds, and apparently sometimes even to his disciples. And so we have to always interpret the things of God with the eyes and ears of God (through the Holy Spirit).

When Jesus said "the leaven (or yeast) of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod", he wasn't talking about bread. At all. He was talking about the ways of the Pharisees and of Herod. He was trying to show them the deeper things of the kingdom and that the religions leaders and the political leaders of their days had leaven to offer that would corrupt everything he was teaching them. He didn't want them to let in even a speck of that false leaven into their spiritual "dough". Because even the smallest amount has the power to corrupt the whole thing. (This also applies to today as well. There are teaching and traditions from our religions leaders and our political traditions that have the power to corrupt our allegiance to Jesus alone. Watch out.)

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Next there is a story of a blind man who asks Jesus to heal his eyes. Jesus takes him outside the city and heals him there and then tells him to go home but to not even go through the city so that no one would be able to see what he had done. (Mark 8:22-26)

I always wondered why Jesus told people not to tell about what he did, but now it's starting to make more sense. He knew that people were starting to misunderstand the miracles. They had started to desire the signs and wonders just for the sake of the show (Lots of people want just a show from Jesus. Listen to how people talk about a church service when it's over, "I loved the worship", "I loved the message", "I loved the jokes the pastor told". Who walks out of a service and says, "I just love Jesus." I've done this to Jesus far too many times...). And so Jesus started hiding even the miracles from them. Because they were only misusing them and worshiping the signs and wonders instead of worshiping the Lord Jesus who was doing them.

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"And he began to teach them (the disciples) that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, 'Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.'

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.'" Mark 8:31-38

Lord, please help us to set our minds of your things and not on the thing of man! Here, even Peter, the one who moments before declared that Jesus was the Christ, is not seeing things clearly. Jesus is revealing to them his very destiny, to die on a cross and then raise from the dead in three days, and Peter does not understand. He thought Jesus being the Christ meant that Jesus was going to ride in and mess up the Romans with an army of Jewish followers. He thought the kingdom of heaven was meant to be the physical reign of the Jewish people on earth as it had been in the days of the great kings David and Solomon. But then Jesus starts talking about how he going to die and all this other nonsense and Peter decides he has to set things right and explain the whole plan to Jesus all over again. "No Jesus, remember, you're supposed to lead us in battle. You're going to set up a kingdom and show the Romans who's boss! How many times to I have to tell you this Jesus?"  And Jesus turns to Peter and says, "Shut up Satan! You're missing the whole point. You're using your fleshly eyes and ears again and not your spiritual ones. You just can't understand what I am telling you unless you start seeing things from my perspective and not your own."

And then he starts talking to the crowd about this exact thing. He starts explaining to them that if they want to enter the kingdom that he is establishing (not the one they thought he was setting up, but the one he really is), they need to do everything they possibly can to throw aside the flesh and the things of man and the ways that we think about the world that are just plain wrong, and we have to see things with the eyes of Jesus. Instead of trying to save our lives, we have to lose them for Jesus. Instead of trying to get power (gain the world), we have to keep our souls. Instead of being ashamed of Jesus in front of the powerful and wealthy of the world, we have to start living as if we believe that one day, very soon, he is coming back with the glory of God and an army of angels right behind him! And if we were ashamed to proclaim his name before that happens, he will be ashamed of us when he returns as the King of all heaven and earth. We must start looking at the incredible power of God and not at the power of man. We have to start using the eyes of Jesus and the Holy Spirit within us (he will help us if we ask him) instead of with our mankind eyes that cannot understand the things of God. There's way to much at stake not to brothers and sisters. 

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There is so much more I wish I could tell you, but I have to start my school work sometime today. :) And so I'm just going to talk about the Transfiguration. 

"And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And peter said to Jesus, 'Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, 'This is my beloved Son; listen to him.' And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only." Mark 9:2-8

Wow! Can you imagine the glory that this must have been?! And this is a perfect place to end because the Transfiguration, I just realized, we like a small glimpse for just Peter, James and John, into the reality of Jesus and the world. All along they thought Jesus was just some manly, carpenters, revolutionary leader who they were lucky enough to know and be on good terms with. They had not even begun to understand the fullness of who Jesus was. 

But suddenly the veil between heaven and earth is throw open before their eyes and they see Jesus for who he really was - we just a glimpse of his heavenly glory upon him. And they were terrified. Because in this moment of incredible grace, Jesus showed they disciples earthly eyes what most of us will only see with our spiritual eyes until we reach heaven. They were given the incredible privileged of having their eyes opened to the deeper things. To the mysteries that we are only just  beginning to understand of God and of His Son Jesus. And the sight was blinding! 

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The rest of Mark 9 and 10 are Jesus revealing the kingdom layer by layer to the disciples. I recommend reading through it yourself and asking the Holy Spirit to show you more of what I'm talking about: all this stuff about the eyes of the Spirit and seeing things the way Jesus sees them.  

He shows them that the only way to cast out demons, is to see things with His eyes. He shows them that in the kingdom, power is measured much differently. It's measured in how much you serve others and go lower (the kingdom of heaven is upside down and inside out right now. all will be turned right side up and the things inside will soon be brought out into the open). He shows them that sin is serious business in the kingdom and that going through life purposefully crippled and maimed now in order to not sin is better that missing the kingdom of heaven because we couldn't control ourselves here (Mark 9:42-50). He shows us that divorce is seen in with kingdom eyes as ripping one person in two rather than just separating to individuals (which explains alot about why divorce is so destructive to husband, wife and especially children. Something more than just a marriage certificate has been torn up) He shows us that in the kingdom, it's the children and the small and the outcasts that are the great men and women of God walking the earth right now. So it seriously matters how we treat them. They are seen as incredibly valuable by God. He shows us that wealth, from the kingdom perspective, can actually be a nearly impassable hindrance on our way into the kingdom and that a rich man coming into the kingdom is as hard as shoving a camel through the hole of a needle. 

All this and more He is waiting to reveal to those of us who ask him. He will not deny his children when we kneel down and ask him to give us the very things he is wanting to give! Love you guys so much!