A while back there was a saying, “You betta recognize!” Which pretty much meant realize something, acknowledge something, get to know it. Much like the saying, “if you don’t know, you better ask somebody!” And I’ve been hearing in my spirit a lot lately, God saying that, “You betta recognize.” I hear Him wanting us to realize that He’s here. That He’s walking right along with us, that He is talking to us. And we don’t even know it.
I am reminded of the woman at the well, (in the book of John, chapter 4) who was having a conversation with Jesus about water. Side note: If Jesus is going to sit down and have a conversation with us, we ought to make sure it’s a worthwhile one. But anyway, the woman was talking to Jesus about water and as they got into the conversation, she began to reveal things to Him that He already knew of course, but she thought she was telling Him something. Like she told Him, “I know that Messiah is coming. And when He comes, He will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus had to tell her, “I am He Who you speak of.”
And God said to me that part of the reason why we don’t recognize Him, is because we have this preconceived notion of how He will come. We don’t really believe that He will come and we don’t even expect Him to come. And then like this woman at the well, some of us think that we know too much. She had all the answers and was so busy focusing on what she thought she knew that she didn’t know that Jesus, the Messiah, was right there with her. Like this woman, we think we know it all and because we know it all, we really don’t know anything. And that is why we can’t recognize Jesus.
God is speaking. Jesus is speaking. The Holy Spirit is speaking. God speaks through the people He sends our way, those He sends across our paths to encourage us. He speaks through a Word, through a song that you hear walking around a mall, in a store. He speaks in a conversation in a movie. And we don’t even recognize Him. God says my sheep hear my voice and a stranger he will not follow. But how many of us are following strangers, because we are not recognizing the voice of God?
In Luke 24, as two disciples walked on the road to Emmaus, Jesus joined them. Jesus had just been crucified and they were saddened by it and Jesus came along and He asked them why they were so sad. And they began telling Him (things He already knew), what was the matter. And Jesus walked with them and He talked with them and just like the stranger that God sends across our path, He encouraged them by sharing with them The Word. (An example of how we should encourage each other. With the Word). He told them what the Word said, that He would be crucified and He would suffer and die. And challenged why they had not listened to the prophets, who spoke of this. And I hear Him asking us the same thing, when we speak of things that we were told would happen. He says, “Why didn’t you believe it? Where is your faith? I told you, you would be persecuted for my name’s sake. That if you want to reign with me that you will also have to suffer with Me. Why did you not believe my prophet? Why aren’t you believing Me?”
Jesus was walking and talking with them, His disciples, and they didn’t even know it. And then the Scripture tells us that after a while they arrived to where they were lodging and Jesus would have kept on going if they had not asked Him to stay. Still Jesus, (a stranger to them), but yet had to be invited to come into their home. And after they sat down to eat, and Jesus broke and blessed the bread, that is when they realized Who it was that was speaking to them. And then immediately their eyes were opened, the Scripture says, and then they said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn?”
The disciples, who knew Jesus, missed Him. He appeared on their road of despair. He walked with them, He spoke with them and they didn’t even realize it. We miss Him too. Jesus steps in on the scene during our moments of “despair” and we don’t even recognize Him.
How is that possible? God said, people share a Word with us to encourage us. A Word that He has placed in their mouth, but because we think they don’t know what they’re talking about, we dismiss it. Because we think they are too young, we dismiss it. Because we think they just like talking, or hearing themselves talk, we dismiss it. We dismiss people (God speaking) to us, when they say something we don’t want to hear. Or we just don’t like them. We don’t like the way they look. Or we think, oh, that’s just Deacon so and so. Oh, that’s just Sister this. Oh, that’s just the pastor’s wife, she’s not the pastor. I don’t have to listen to her. And some of us even dismiss the pastor (the man of God, ordained by God, to speak life into your soul). God has placed words in that person’s mouth for our deliverance, just like the woman at the well, and not only do we not recognize it, often we dismiss it.
And then sometimes when it does finally hit us, that it was Jesus, a light goes off and somehow we get the revelation, maybe through a mannerism, or something that is ‘familiar’ with Jesus, Jesus leaves the scene. Just as He did with those disciples, when they realized it was Jesus Whom spoke with them, Jesus disappeared from their presence. We want to recognize Jesus while He is yet with us.
God wants us to get this. He is speaking. He is showing up in our circumstances, walking and talking with us and we are not recognizing Him. He says draw closer. He says expect Him to show up. He says look for Him. See Him in everything, everywhere. He is there; if we would only be open to hear from Him.
God is real. And He’s speaking. It would be wise if we would recognize Him.
Be blessed.
A servant of the Lord,
Sis. E
Be blessed.
A servant of the Lord,
Sis. E
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