Luke 6:1 – 7:50 To hear Him speak
So we know that Luke was a Gentile physician and companion to Paul, so there was no way for him to have been present when Jesus preached His sermon on the mount. Acts chapter 9 tells of Paul’s conversion which didn’t happen until after Jesus’ death and ascencion back to heaven. It is documented that Luke got most of his writings from eyewitnesses of each of the events recorded in his Gospel. This makes sense to me because Luke’s recording of the sermon on the mount is far less detailed than that of Matthew, who was one of the first 12 disiples. I believe that this sermon was aimed at the 12 disciples based on Luke 6:20 which states, “And turning to His disciples, He began to say…” then Jesus began with the beatitudes and the multitude that followed Jesus sat and listened along.
A centurion guard has faith!
Having faith, even an amount the size of a mustard seed, is enough for Jesus to show you what He can do. A Roman Centurion guard apparently had a mustard seed sized amount of faith in Jesus and in who He was. This guard had a servant that was ill, to the point of death. His mustard seed sized faith told him that Jesus could heal his servant by just saying the words. His exact words to Jesus were, “Lord do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; for this reason, I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word and my servant will be healed.”
He didn’t even consider himself worthy enough for Jesus to come to his house, or to even stand before Jesus, he sent some friends to deliver that message and ask Jesus to just speak the words of healing. Jesus responded to the crowd around Him by telling them, “Not even in Israel have I found such great faith.”
Thoughts to contemplate;
1) did the centurion guard figure that Jesus could heal his servant by just speaking the words because he heard through the grapevine that Jesus had healing power, or
2) did he actually see Jesus in action one time, OR
3) was he familiar with the writings of Moses, especially the book of Genesis where it is documented that “God said” and it was so?
The question I present to you is this; knowing that God spoke everything into existence, did the centurion figure if God spoke and it became so, then maybe Jesus could speak and it too will be so?
There is a song from one of my favorite Christian artists, The Newsboys, it’s titled “One Word”, it’s from the album/CD Restart, and here is the song.
Can you imagine hearing His voice? What would it be like to have the voice that lit the sun speak to you?
I have three occasions in my life where I whole heartedly believe He spoke to me. And I’d like to share them with you.
Occasion #1 ~ Shouldn't we be dead?
I was in my early, early teens. I knew and believed the story of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit. I remember walking down the hallway of my house, deeply contemplating, “how are we all here”? If God told Adam and Eve they would surely die if they ate the fruit, how are we here? Well, they did eat the fruit, so if they died, how are we here?” As I plopped myself onto my bed, asking that question, the moment I landed on the bed, the answer poured over me. “They died spiritually!” was what I heard. Ooooooooooohhhhhh! The light bulb turned on.
They became separated from God on a spiritual level, they no longer had that instant relationship with Him. Like us today, when we enter the world, we are separated from God and must make the choice to accept His gift of eternal life so that we can have that instant relationship with Him again.
Occasion #2 ~ I need a job
YEARS later, I am married and our daughter is four years old. We were struggling financially, the job market was at an all-time low, hubby had been unemployed for almost a year, and I had been trying to find employment as well to help as much as I could. I too kept getting those dreaded thank you but no thank you responses. Since we were home schooling, I needed to try and find something I could do at home. One day, I just lost all hope, I started to cry, and the tears and fears just kept coming. My precious little four-year-old came in the room and asked, “Mommy what’s the matter?” In my tears I responded, “Oh sweetie, daddy needs my help to bring in some money and mommy is not doing a very good job helping daddy.” She looked at me and asked, “do you need a tissue?” That made me laugh and I said, “that would be great sweetie.” She handed me the tissue and went back down the hall to play. I continued to cry, and in frustration kept whispering, “I don’t know what to do. Hubby needs my help with income, and I can’t find anything I can do here at home. I don’t know what to do!” As I took a deep breath because I was about to start sobbing again, that breath was stopped dead in its exhale tracks and once again an answer poured over me that said, “It’s not your place. It’s not your responsibility.” I was holding onto that deep breath as those words poured over me, and as I exhaled, I said, “Ok” and not one more tear fell down my face. The crying stopped and I had a peace that I had never felt before. I mean, such peace, indescribable peace. I got up from the couch, dried my face with the tissue my daughter had given me, and went on about my day, NOT looking for employment.
Occasion #3 ~ I hate my job
I would say about a half a year after the events of occasion #2, I was approached by a church member about being involved in the starting of a school in our church. The position of Administrator was offered to me. (You have got to be kidding me, right!) I did pray about it, and felt no spiritual red flags, so I accepted the position and got started helping to open a Christian school for our community. What could go wrong? It is a ministry of the church, a Christian alternative for education for our community.
Just before the school’s grand opening, our church held a leadership seminar. I remember asking the speaker how do you know if/when something is from the Lord? I told him I took this job with the school our church was opening, and I wondered how do I know if the Lord is telling me, I should be a part of it? He answered my question with a question. He asked me, “did you get biblical backing? Do you have a bible verse confirming you are supposed to be working at the school?” I know I looked at him kind of dumb founded, you know that deer in the headlights look because I had never thought of that, but I responded, “I can’t say that I do”.
Roughly two years after the seminar and two years into school, I am stressing out.
Did not look forward to going to work. Dreaded having to attend the monthly board meetings. Experienced continual sleepless nights. ~ ~ ~ This was not good!
One such sleepless night, after a board meeting, I finally got out of bed and went into the living room. It was 2:30am. Bible in hand, I said these words to the Lord, “what am I supposed to do? I hate going to work, Lord this is a Christian school, in our church. How can I not be happy with being a part of that? I don’t know what to do Lord.” I think I may have even asked the Lord to tell me what to do, but I do not recall that sentence. So, I let my bible open on its own and it landed in 1 Corinthians. I proceeded to read everything on the two open pages, starting with 12:27 and ending at 15:14. Well, I didn’t get to 15:14 because when I read 14:33 I stopped dead in my tracks and wrote my letter of resignation!
1 Corinthians 14:33 told me this; “for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace…”
On that note…..I would love to hear how the Lord has spoken to you. As briefly as you can, because space is limited, share with the DLSK community how and when you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the God of the universe spoke to you.
