The Exalted Words of Jesus

Lately I've been looking at some of the phrases Jesus spoke to His disciples.  Amazing.  And we are supposed to live up to them?  We're supposed to honestly believe them and walk out our Christian faith using them as our guideposts?  Really? 

Simply put ... yes we are.  But I find at least for me, that it's a great big leap up just to try and grab hold of even the purest and simplest statements Jesus taught.  Of course, why be satisfied with only mediocrity as far as your faith is concerned, using only enough to get by on ... until something comes our way that takes what I will call ... great faith.  Like in Mark 9:23 where Jesus said ... "If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes."

The exalted words of Jesus.  Stay with me and take a look at some more of them ...

John 14: 12-14 ... "I say unto you, he that believes on Me, the works that I do shall he do also: and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father.  And whatsoever you shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."

Am I right?  Would you agree that these are exalted words.  I have absolutely no problem believing that God can do these things.  My problem is trying to believe that I can live up to these exalted words of Jesus.

Phillip Yancey, in his book ... "Disappointment with God" ... asks this question: "How can we reconcile the exalted words of the New Testament with the everyday reality around us?"

To reconcile means ... "make or show to be compatible."  With the everyday reality around us?  Let me think about that for a moment.  Now that's a hard one.  

In truth, we can't reconcile them ... but the Holy Spirit wants too.  That's why Jesus said in John 14:16 that God would send the Holy Spirit to help us to do just that. 

The very titles given to the Holy Spirit … "Intercessor … Helper … Counselor … Comforter" … imply there will be problems.  But with God nothing is impossible.

The world is a dark place without Jesus.  He is the light of the world.  It's dark until sunrise.  The closer the sun comes to where we are viewing the horizon from, the brighter it becomes until the darkness is dispelled by the approaching morning light. 

Which makes me wonder ... can we really see Jesus, as the light of the world, until we have been in the dark a while?  No ... you do not have to sit outside in the dark.  If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is required.

Maybe darkness is required to really see the light of Jesus in this world. 

Back to more of the exalted words of Jesus ...

Mark 11:24 ... "I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them."

I've quoted this scripture in prayer more times than I want to think about.  I am not saying that just repeating this scripture and a few other exalted worded ones always brought the answer I wanted from God.  The reason I'm not saying that is because it didn't.

So here I am, trying to be as honest as I can, without doing harm to the Scriptures ... when the Lord starts speaking to me about the exalted words of Jesus and my faith.  And it happens to be the same four words that Jesus spoke to Peter in Matthew 14:31.

"Why did you doubt?"  Every time I hear these words myself, and He has asked me that question in my spirit a few times before, it cuts to the heart.  Why do I doubt?  Or question?  Or what I'm good at ... trying to explain it away?

The words of Jesus should be exalted words.  After all, His nature and heart is that of God the Father.  Shouldn't we want Him to speak things of faith that are beyond our natural reach, things that make us grow our faith. 

It's called the good fight of faith.  And yes ... it is a battle.  But God's not a liar.  Neither is Jesus.  So when Jesus speaks words of faith ... shouldn't we believe them?

Yes ... many of the exalted words of Jesus seem so far above our reach of faith that we don't even consider them as a real promise.  But they are.

When the Syro-Phoenician woman and her plea for help was basically ignored by Jesus, she was not deterred or discouraged in her mission to get His help for her daughter.  She fought for the only hope she thought she had, and that hope was in the mercy now being denied from Jesus.  So boldly she says to Jesus ... "Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters table."

So ... receiving the "whatsoever" you ask, depends upon your faith in "believing" ... the exalted words of Jesus.

Let's not be satisfied with the crumbs anymore.



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