Post by lrtillis on Mar 22, 2010 13:53:45 GMT -5
And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. Luke 17:22-24
Let me first say what I believe this Scripture is actually referring to. At the time, there were many that did not believe Jesus as the Messiah which would cause them to continue to look for the coming of the Messiah as the end of the age approached. This leads me to believe that there would be some that would arise and claim to be the Messiah and others that would mistake other individuals as the Messiah. Jesus tells them not to follow after them but know that at His second coming all would see him, believer and unbeliever alike. Hence Philippians 2:10-11.
Okay...so as I was reading the other day and not looking for this Scripture in particular or anything concerning this subject, it stood out to me because recently I have been hearing people give personal accounts of seeing Jesus. I am not sure if they mean that they see Jesus in visions, dreams or if they see Him just as I would see you with my eyes. A couple say that Jesus has come to them while they were in prayer. Because of the many different encounters that I have had with people and their personal experiences with the Lord I have become one to say, who am I to call anyone a liar just because I have not had the same experiences and also just not being fully sure about what the Word says about certain things. I have also (gradually) come to understand that I don't have to call anyone a liar if and only when the Word of God can say so.
As stated above, I believe Jesus taught this so the disciples would not follow after the vain imaginations of unbelievers but how does this, if applicable, translate to believers in this age? As I pondered this Scripture I also rehearsed some of the accounts that were given from the individuals who claim to see Jesus. From my understanding, they see His face as well as His form. To my recollection in Scripture, there has only been one person that has a documented encountered with the presence or person of Jesus on earth and that would be Saul in Acts 9. Acts 9:3 says and suddenly there shined a light round about him and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying Saul, Saul why persecutest me thou? Saul or Paul (as we know him) did NOT see the face of the Lord nor His form but he saw a light that shined round about Him. Not only that but He was knocked to the ground. I do not know if this was because of the brightness of the light or because of the power that he felt by being in His presence but nonetheless there was a, what I will call, a VERY humbling reaction. He was trembling AND astonished for fear of the Lord. The passage goes on further to say that those that accompanied Saul were speechless because they heard the voice but saw no man.
From this passage of Scripture I will not and cannot say that no one has ever or will never have some sort of physical encounter with Jesus nor that they cannot hear his voice audibly (as I believe I have had one instance that I can speak of...it was crazy but it was monumental...I am willing to share if anyone is interested) but to see His face? To encounter Him in a way that you can actually see Him as a person without His glory? Yes, He appeared to the disciples after His resurrection, but again to my recollection, He did not appear to anyone else AFTER his ascension into heaven in this manner. This is what causes me to question the accounts that I have heard.
The encounters seem so casual and out of place. I was in a prayer meeting and one of the young ladies said that Jesus had appeared to her as we prayed. Since noone else saw Him or felt Him or heard Him, it made me think that she had an imagination of what she thought Jesus say, do or look like at that moment. Honestly, I feel that there are some in the Body of Christ that are being led astray with strange doctrines and practices and labeling them as supernatural experiences. Yes, God is supernatural in the sense that He far exceeds our natural (sorry I couldn't find a better way to say that) but so are UFOs and ghosts and physics. What I am trying to say is that we should keep God in the context of His Word. God is who He tells us He is in His Word and as He reveals by His Spirit (remembering to test EVERY spirit to see if it is of God) not who we want Him to be based on our experiences because as much as we would hope that they would be, I do not believe that all of our experiences with spiritual things are from God. In other words, some are just taking things to far!
There are songs that we sing and prayers that I am sure some of us have prayed requesting to "see His face" or that we want to "seek the face of God" but for me I believe the sentiments behind this are "Lord I want to get to you know for everything that you are." I know that we should definitely be looking and preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord but should we expect that He will show us (some of us if not all of us) Himself now before He comes back to receive His bride?
And if anyone has any experiences they would like to share please do so and please let me know how it is that you know that who or what you encountered was actually the Christ.
Let me first say what I believe this Scripture is actually referring to. At the time, there were many that did not believe Jesus as the Messiah which would cause them to continue to look for the coming of the Messiah as the end of the age approached. This leads me to believe that there would be some that would arise and claim to be the Messiah and others that would mistake other individuals as the Messiah. Jesus tells them not to follow after them but know that at His second coming all would see him, believer and unbeliever alike. Hence Philippians 2:10-11.
Okay...so as I was reading the other day and not looking for this Scripture in particular or anything concerning this subject, it stood out to me because recently I have been hearing people give personal accounts of seeing Jesus. I am not sure if they mean that they see Jesus in visions, dreams or if they see Him just as I would see you with my eyes. A couple say that Jesus has come to them while they were in prayer. Because of the many different encounters that I have had with people and their personal experiences with the Lord I have become one to say, who am I to call anyone a liar just because I have not had the same experiences and also just not being fully sure about what the Word says about certain things. I have also (gradually) come to understand that I don't have to call anyone a liar if and only when the Word of God can say so.
As stated above, I believe Jesus taught this so the disciples would not follow after the vain imaginations of unbelievers but how does this, if applicable, translate to believers in this age? As I pondered this Scripture I also rehearsed some of the accounts that were given from the individuals who claim to see Jesus. From my understanding, they see His face as well as His form. To my recollection in Scripture, there has only been one person that has a documented encountered with the presence or person of Jesus on earth and that would be Saul in Acts 9. Acts 9:3 says and suddenly there shined a light round about him and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying Saul, Saul why persecutest me thou? Saul or Paul (as we know him) did NOT see the face of the Lord nor His form but he saw a light that shined round about Him. Not only that but He was knocked to the ground. I do not know if this was because of the brightness of the light or because of the power that he felt by being in His presence but nonetheless there was a, what I will call, a VERY humbling reaction. He was trembling AND astonished for fear of the Lord. The passage goes on further to say that those that accompanied Saul were speechless because they heard the voice but saw no man.
From this passage of Scripture I will not and cannot say that no one has ever or will never have some sort of physical encounter with Jesus nor that they cannot hear his voice audibly (as I believe I have had one instance that I can speak of...it was crazy but it was monumental...I am willing to share if anyone is interested) but to see His face? To encounter Him in a way that you can actually see Him as a person without His glory? Yes, He appeared to the disciples after His resurrection, but again to my recollection, He did not appear to anyone else AFTER his ascension into heaven in this manner. This is what causes me to question the accounts that I have heard.
The encounters seem so casual and out of place. I was in a prayer meeting and one of the young ladies said that Jesus had appeared to her as we prayed. Since noone else saw Him or felt Him or heard Him, it made me think that she had an imagination of what she thought Jesus say, do or look like at that moment. Honestly, I feel that there are some in the Body of Christ that are being led astray with strange doctrines and practices and labeling them as supernatural experiences. Yes, God is supernatural in the sense that He far exceeds our natural (sorry I couldn't find a better way to say that) but so are UFOs and ghosts and physics. What I am trying to say is that we should keep God in the context of His Word. God is who He tells us He is in His Word and as He reveals by His Spirit (remembering to test EVERY spirit to see if it is of God) not who we want Him to be based on our experiences because as much as we would hope that they would be, I do not believe that all of our experiences with spiritual things are from God. In other words, some are just taking things to far!
There are songs that we sing and prayers that I am sure some of us have prayed requesting to "see His face" or that we want to "seek the face of God" but for me I believe the sentiments behind this are "Lord I want to get to you know for everything that you are." I know that we should definitely be looking and preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord but should we expect that He will show us (some of us if not all of us) Himself now before He comes back to receive His bride?
And if anyone has any experiences they would like to share please do so and please let me know how it is that you know that who or what you encountered was actually the Christ.