Give God Time Devotional
- Prayer and Praise.
Jesus said, “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” Matthew 26:40, so we start our journey of giving God time to work in us, by praying this hymn…
JESUS, MY LORD, MY GOD, MY ALL
A Word in your ear.
John 1:43-51 More and more Jews follow Jesus
(Acknowledgements to the Complete Jewish Bible).
43 The next day, having decided to leave for the Galil (Galilee), Yeshua (Jesus) found Philip and said, “Follow me!”
44 Philip was from Beit-Tzaidah (Bethsaida), the town where Andrew and Kefa (Peter) lived.
So as soon as Jesus was immersed by John the Baptist, He recruited Andrew, Peter, and now Philip. They were all from the area of Galilee, where the religious leaders didn’t have the same amount of influence. Walking from Bethsaida to Galilee was just another day in the life of Jesus as the disciples would discover!
45 Philip found Natan’el (Nathanael) and told him, “We’ve found the one that Moshe (Moses) wrote about in the Torah (Law), also the Prophets — it’s Yeshua (Jesus) Ben-Yosef (son of Joseph) from Natzeret! (Nazareth!)”
Philip picked up immediately how special Jesus was, and became an instant evangelist, bringing Nathaniel along, by saying that the person Moses had prophesied about had arrived. So Moses’ prophecy was common knowledge. Some already saw that Jesus was the One it referred to, and yet Jesus had not yet even shown His hand! In fact, His ministry had not even started formally.
46a Natan’el (Nathanael) answered him, “Natzeret? (Nazareth?). Can anything good come from there?”
Natnanael questioned Philip… ‘Jesus of NAZARETH?! Can anything good come from there?’ (ie He was asking ‘But there’s no prophecy about anyone coming from Nazareth, is there?!’) But actually Isaiah 9:1 does allude to God doing something unique in Galilee. It is discreet – by being indirect. What is the purpose of only alluding to it? Well, it’s so we know for sure that Jesus really was the One who all the prophets were referring to. How? Because there are so many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle all fitting together to create the profile of Jesus exactly… (Eg. The prophets record that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, flee to Egypt, and grow up in Nazareth! There can be no mistaking who all that refers to!)
46b “Come and see,” Philip said to him.
Philip couldn’t answer him, so he advised a face to face meeting with Jesus! We could learn so much from that simple answer!
47 Yeshua (Jesus) saw Natan’el (Nathanael) coming toward him and remarked about him, “Here’s a true son of Isra’el — nothing false in him!”
48 Natan’el said to him, “How do you know me?”
Immediately, Nathanael was curious! Jesus already knew him and his heart!
Yeshua (Jesus) answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
Jesus knew Nathanael and now he was listening! Jesus could only have known him by revelation.
49 Natan’el (Nathanael) said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Isra’el!”
Nathanael recognised the Divine knowledge Jesus had and therefore changed the preconceptions he previously had. We could learn from that too!
50 Yeshua (Jesus) answered him, “You believe all this just because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than that!”
51 Then he said to him, “Yes indeed! I tell you that you will see heaven opened and the angels of God going up and coming down on the Son of Man!” (Acknowledgements to the Complete Jewish Bible).
Summary:-
Jesus was so pleased that Nathanael’s heart meant he put the truth before his preconceptions, that He promised him, ‘You will see much greater things than that.’
People start joining Jesus almost immediately! Now tells Nathanael ‘You will see the angels of heaven coming to Me’, and Jesus quoted from what we now refer to as Genesis 28:12. This is our God, the Servant King!
Worship and Prayer.
“… He went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” Matthew 14:23.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever;- Amen.
Prayer suggestions;-
- The world. (ie ‘For those in authority.’ Suggest India this month.)
- The ‘suffering church.’ (Updated daily by the Barnabas Fund.) https://barnabasfund.org/nz/pray/daily-prayer/#previous-dates
- Your own situation. (I suggest ‘needs’ rather than ‘wants’.)
Today’s Verse…
Who is Jesus? John 1:49 Natan’el (Nathanael) said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Isra’el!”
Today’s Challenge
Jews have to withstand a lot of peer pressure to become disciples of Jesus…
Are we as Gentiles also prepared to go through as much as they do, for the sake of the truth, as Nathanael demonstrated?
For further study …
i). Click this link to a challenging and stunning testimony … https://found.rest/restored/
ii). Click this link to see the shocking number of Christians murdered by the church for getting baptized by immersion as believers. This is a spiritual battle, and we remember them so that we never forget … https://www.homecomers.org/mirror/index-anabaptists.htm
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