All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
A supposed revelation on why they didn't recognize Him after the resurrection
Well I've been pondering the whole idea behind why the disciples didn't recognize Jesus when they first saw Him after His resurrection.....
Yesterday I kept hearing these verses from Jason Upton's song "Blinded":
"I don't know
Where I'm going
More and more each day
It's becoming just alright with me
Cuz when I know
Where I'm going
My eyes keep me
From trusting in Thee"
"My eyes keep me from trusting in Thee..."
This morning I awoke to hearing "Cuz when I know Where I'm going My eyes keep me From trusting in Thee"......over and over and over again.........
This has become a frequent and familiar pattern that the Lord uses to talk to my heart and mind. Repetition. A key verse or statement. It's up to me to maintain my dignity and learn to discern what's being given me faster than in the past LOL I've been a bit slow in "getting it."
So I thought, "What in the world? The second I open my eyeballs, I'm hearing this same verse? Where's my coffee??" But I sat down in front of my pc with my bible in front of my face and asked (like I generally do) for the Spirit to lead me to scripture with relevance to this verse, as I knew He was trying to say something.
I opened immediately to Acts 10 and in reading it, I came across the following:
"They put Him to death upon a tree, but God raised Him on the third day and made Him to appear, not to all the people, but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead."
Now, at first I thought, "Ok, what does this have to do with the verse?" Sometimes I'm really that blind. "...on the third day, and made Him to appear..." there's His appearing and not appearing, right? I can see Him...but then I can't. Initially, we think of not being able to see Him as a bad thing, or at least disappointing. But Jason takes it a step further and claims that it is when he can't see Him that he fully trusts in Him to lead him. That when he's unable to understand why or where he's going in a direction, that he has to put his full trust in Jesus...and that's when he experiences that inner peace that comes from knowing that He's all we need. It's in his blindness that he can truly "see."
I also picked up in the part that talks about "those who ate and drank with Him after He rose." Now couldn't this include all of us who've received Communion, then? Couldn't we be chosen to see Him as well?
So this got me to thinking about the resurrection appearances and the times they didn't know it was Him...at least, first they didn't. I've always thought this was strange. How could they have been with Him for 3 years and not known it was Him?
There have been many theories on this matter, including one that poses the possibility that if Jesus maintained His crucifixion scars, i.e., the nail holes and the one in His side from the Roman's spear, then it would make sense that maybe He maintained them all. The scourge wounds, beaten face "beyond human likeness" which implies someone that's beaten so badly that he wouldn't have been recognizable to anyone period.
However, this creates a problem: why would this fact never have been recorded in scripture? That's where my own personal experience comes in handy...
I had a series of dreams several months ago...7 dreams, 7 nights in a row...in which Jesus appeared to me. However, He didn't appear as Himself right away. Not until another dream months later, in fact. This made me really inquisitive as to why He'd show up this way, when I knew it was Him, though no one else did. First, why did He want to appear "in disguise"? Second, why would He allow me to know that it was Him and no one else?
So here's basically how all the dreams went...
I was watching a crowd of people, all gathered together in an effort to impress this "guy" by using worldly methods of flashing wealth, image, dancing, fast cars...etc. It was kind of comical. It was obvious that they saw Jesus as some guy who would be impressed by the things that keep the world just what it is...worldly. He just stood there watching and unimpressed, no expression on His face and there was a sense of boredom, for lack of a better explanation. This isn't what He was looking for, clearly, in the dream. But they tried and tried in the same ways to grab His attention for whatever their purpose might have been.
I just stood in the background wondering when they were gonna realize that this wasn't working. Then, in each dream, He turned to me, took my hand and led me off into seclusion, as if He were simply conveying to me that He noticed that my heart was different, and that I was in the right state of mind. He told me that they did not know Him because they were of the world and that is why He chose me.
In the final dream, He appeared as a Special Forces soldier (Spec Ops/Forces are soldiers I've always had a lot of respect for) and He took me to the side and showed me a manual of sorts. In it was the layout for a mission of tremendous importance which He told me He needed me to take on. It seemed impossible for many human beings to accomplish, much less me alone...which is what He was telling me I had to do. I was thinking to myself,
"There's NO WAY I can do this! It's so much bigger than me. He must have the wrong person..."
I didn't have a chance to speak before He uttered the following words:
"Don't doubt yourself. Your whole life has prepared you for this. You're already strong enough. It's going to be hard, but I'll be with you. Now follow Me..."
For whatever reason, when He spoke those words, that was enough for me. I was filled with a sense of power and strength like I've never known. Just to know that He would be with me the whole way was enough. So I gladly accepted this "mission." For His own reasons, He has taken the memory of what the mission actually was, but I know that in His time, He will reveal it to me again. I sense that I am currently in a preparation mode, being chastened and molded in the way that will suit His will.
Now here's my thought...
If He showed up that many times as a completely normal guy in ordinary circumstances, yet I knew it was Him, wouldn't it make sense that maybe this is what happened 2000 years ago when He appeared post-resurrection? Maybe, for divine reasons, He chose to be known only after each person He appeared to had whatever individual revelation they needed to have and had found some level of understanding or faith that may have been lacking up to that point? I don't know. But it "feels" right to me.
I'm no prophet. I'm not claiming to be. But I believe that every believer who truly seeks His face and desires understanding of those Kingdoms things we treasure, will be allowed to see whatever God determines is in keeping with His will for our lives.
My own lessons from this experience/revelation are still growing in number, as has been the case with everything of God since I began to follow hard after Him. One concept I've grasped is that our vision (that of our eyes) is not a critical part of the things of God. I mean, that's where faith comes in, right? From believing and knowing that which one cannot see or prove? And it is our minds and surrendered will that allows us to know anything of the Kingdom at all. Maybe it also means that we should strive to recognize Him in every thing, person and situation. That He's not "up there" or anywhere but here, all around us, even though we can't see Him. Was this the lesson for the disciples and the others? Was this the lesson to all who hear the Word? You tell me.
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Comment by Jessica Robertson on September 7, 2010 at 9:10am
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HALLELUJIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PRAISE JESUUUUUUUUUUSS!!!!!!!!!!!
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Comment by David Velasquez on September 7, 2010 at 1:04am
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The Lord's Supper/Communion/the Holy Sacraments are to be taken in remembrance of Him.
1 Corinthians 11:26 (New International Version)
25In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes
You should partake of the Lord's Supper as often as possible, but as far as saying that Jesus used it for you to be free from whatever residue you may or may not have had my dear sister, I do not know. The important thing is that you are FREE. :)
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so u think thats why Jesus told me (w/out directly saying it) to take the Holy Sacraments? interesting indeed! i'm gonna go read her comment now...
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Vomiting gets rid of all the residue of demons in a person’s body girl, so communion helped you get rid of whatever was left from the demonic influence in your life. I have talk about this before, check out Joan's responds to my question about vomitting:
http://www.allaboutgod.net/forum/topics/demonic-activity-fallen-ang... :
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and you're right. i see it now. He took the memory to force me to lay everything at His feet. and i'm getting better at doing that :) things are happening a lot faster in my spiritual growth these days than they were just a couple of months ago.
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DAVID!
it's so funny....you just posted the same verse i read today about this. i was actually thinking about including it in this blog but you just did :)
i had a dream the night He came to me to release me (when He told me i am free from the demon) and that night i dreamed He was showing me different body parts (7 I think, it was a small and not even number) and He kept saying "the Holy Sacraments...the Holy Sacraments..." over and over again. i didn't and don't know what this meant.
i went to a spiritual warfare retreat with my church a couple of weeks later and i took Communion. within 10 minutes i had a skull-splitting headache and was severely nauseas. less than a mile from the hotel on the way home i had to vomit. i didn't wanna vomit the Sacraments so i got back in the car. another mile down the road and i vomited again but this time couldn't stop till it all came up. then mysteriously i was fine within half an hour like it never happened. migraines take HOURS to get rid of. this one was gone almost instantly.
it's almost like a puzzle. He showed me my mission and i recognized Him. He showed me the Sacraments. i took them this time with deeper meaning and i was forced to vomit them up? maybe my eyes were about to be opened for real and satan didn't want this to happen so he forced it out of me. i don't know. it's so weird to me.
i've been praying about it but nothing is clear yet...
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Hey you,
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) did not recognize Jesus until He broke bread.
It seems that they were supernaturally prevented from recognizing Jesus this time:
16 but they were kept from recognizing him. 17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
But we are not told what the purpose of the blindness was to accomplished. I have read some opinions about the plausible reasons. I like yours; it is very possible that Jesus knew they needed to have the conversation they had with him, for their faith to grow, without recognizing him first.
For His own reasons, He has taken the memory of what the mission actually was
I will tell you why He took it back. It is how He deals with us because He knows our tendency to run to do things without including him. Let me explain. When God told the Prophet Samuel to go anoint the next king, which was to be David, God could have told him it was David from the beginning, but didn't so Samuel could continue to depend upon Him. He gave him enough information for Him to get to the right place, but did not give him the most important part of the job, why? Well for the same reason He took the memory of the details of your mission. Because if He gives us details, we would run with the info and forget to include God. God wanted Samuel and He wants you do be dependent upon Him (to take Him with you to accomplished the mission He has given you) to accomplished the things He wants you to do for Him and the Kingdom. He will continue to give us what we need to know for the season job as we continue to abide in Him. God's servants know God's will, but only if the continue to abide in Him.
If we knew every detail, we are so silly that we would head out depending on our own strengths to do His will for our lives. By not giving us the details we are force (a good kind of forced) to run to Him for instructions. We are force to include him. At least that is how I see it.
GReat blog. I enjoyed reading it guerita.
Love you girl.
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Comment by Gayla on September 5, 2010 at 10:36am
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Wowo Jessica...very deep indeed.
The number 7 represents completeness.... so that is a start.
The special ops forces & manuel represent your calling.
Jesus showed me my calling in a similar way, and it was divine at the time, however, in the daily grind of things, it tends to get lost, yet, it will never go away. It will resurface when the time is right, and that may be momentairly, just for a little bit, for a special prayer, or other some other special something. You will not know until that moment, or just afterwards, that what you just did, was very powerful, very special, and will bring huge results. You will not be prideful, because God hates pride, but, you will "know" that this was part of what Jesus just revealed to you. You will not be able to do this on your own, only as the Spirit wills, nor will you have any advance knowledge of what you are to do. It will happen as it is supposed to. This was Gods way of letting you know what is to be.
The wealth, image, dancing, fast cars, etc. represents the hearts that have not been prepared.....and the ones that he will say to "Depart from me, I never knew you." These will be dreadful words indeed.....as these people think they are saved...yet...God knows that "Their hearts are far from him"
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