Questions Jesus Asks

Some Thoughts:  Hal and Debbi Perkins lay out the premise that we can be “Discipled by Jesus” just as Jesus’ early disciples learned and were discipled while Jesus was on earth with them physically.  Jesus asked five important questions of His disciples during the three years they were together, and these are important to us today, as well.

*Who do you say I am?
*Do you understand (see the good) what I’m doing?
*Are you listening to Me?
*Do you love Me?
*Do you believe?

I’ve come across a few more questions Jesus asked: “What do you want Me to do?” (Luke 18:41), “Do you also want to go away?”  (John 6:67), and “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6).

“What do you want Me to do?” (Luke 18:41)  We limit the Lord by only remembering what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past.  God does what is absolutely impossible.  “The most impossible thing for you is to be so closely identified with the Lord that there is literally nothing of your old life remaining.“ ~ Oswald Chambers  (Feb. 29 – “My Utmost for His Highest”)

Shame keeps me from asking specifically what I want Him to do.  Do I have an incorrect perception of “Who He is”?  Is He “Santa Claus” god?  We can go overboard with thinking we can ask and He will mete out unlimited gifts.  But we can also fear coming and asking because we don’t want to appear that we’re viewing Him as an ultimate “Gift-giver.”  If I’m afraid to ask because of what I think He might be thinking of me, this is coming from a place of shame.

When I remember my earthly parents, I remember how “Santa” visited our house every year, even in the lean times.  My parents did their best to give us what we asked for.  “If your earthly father gives good gifts, how much more your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit.”  Is it the Holy Spirit only?  Or earthly gifts, too?  Is God stingy with answering our requests and only giving what we need – and no more?  Or is he like earthly parents who desire and long to lavish good gifts to their children?

“Do you also want to go away?” is another question Jesus asked.  (John 6:67)
When Jesus’ disciples turned back from walking with Jesus, they weren’t going back to sin, but walking away from Him.  They were distancing themselves.  This is what prompted Jesus’ question.  Today, I see that it is easy for many of us to pour our lives out working for Jesus – so much so that we are not really walking with Him.  We need to maintain our “oneness” with Him.  This requires a discipline to maintain.  All that is required is to live in absolute dependence upon Him.  Why do we complicate it?  We must discipline ourselves to continually walk with Him – in sync.

“Do you want to be healed?”  This seems like a silly question – who wouldn’t want to be healed!  Yet, Jesus asked it for a reason.  In looking at the situation of the man Jesus was talking to, this man’s identity was pretty well-ingrained.  His answers were from a victimized, excuse-making, shame-induced place.  This man (and sometimes ourselves, as well) had come to a place of resignation, self-pity, and comfort in the dysfunction.  Sometimes the remedy seems painful and we resist transformation, and would rather remain stuck in the familiar and broken identity in which we’ve become “comfortable.”

As I go back to the five questions I answer daily in my own devotional time and in regularly scheduled “Discipled by Jesus” meetings, I see how answering the question “Who do you say I am?” has helped me grow in my knowledge of Him – not just about Him.

“Do you understand what I’m doing?”  is helping me to see more than the surface view of visible answers to prayer and the things He is doing FOR ME.   I am beginning to see through better lenses of the things He is doing IN ME spiritually.  I hope and pray that He is doing a work THROUGH ME in which I am reflecting Christ to someone else.

In answering “Are you listening to Me?”, I usually sense I’m hearing Him speak through His Word.  But I am open to new ways of listening.  I hear Him in listening to others share what they are hearing from the Holy Spirit.  I am hearing (and seeing) Him more and more through nature.  I am practicing being still before Him and listening to what He wants to say or sing over me.

“Do you love Me?  Do you believe?”  I’m still learning day-by-day what it means to truly love Him “more than these”.  I want to love Him and others because He deeply loves me.  The “others” that He brings into our spheres are those that we can love and help and minister to – only through Him who fills us with His power and strength to do so.  This is the believing part.

In our journey toward wholeness and holy-ness, Jesus’ questions are important to reflect upon on and answer.

Prayer:  Jesus, I am so grateful to walk with You. There is no time I would ever want to be out of your presence.  Thank You for being a patient teacher and meeting me where I am in my journey.  I pray that others will come to know You in such an intimate way, that they will recognize Your voice above all other voices.   I pray that each of those who call me their “pastor” will have ears that listen attentively to You speaking, and eyes that see what You are doing.  I believe You can and will do abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine.  Amen

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