Listen Up!

Matt. 16:21-22  From that time on Jesus began to show His disciples, how He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, be killed, and be raised (from death to life) on the third day.  Then, Peter took Him aside, and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid, Lord: this shall not happen to You.”

As many times as I have heard this scripture, I never saw the fact that Peter missed the beauty in Jesus words.  What was the beauty?  We will get to that in a minute.  First, let me give you a background story.  Peter is one of Jesus followers who has been, in today’s terms “ride or die” concerning Jesus.  Imagine a good friend of yours telling you that he will have to die soon.  Naturally, we would flip out which is what Peter carnally did.  Peter naturally heard the negative and overlooked the positive aspect of what Jesus was saying to him.  All Peter heard was, “Yo, I gotta die..” and he immediately rebuked Jesus words.

Careful, because we can easily look at Peter as reacting too harsh, but we often do the same thing concerning God or people in general.  Have you ever found yourself only taking the negative out of a conversation before really listening to everything that was said?  What if your job was trying to promote you?  Your supervisor calls you into his/her office and says we are doing away with your position, but we want to promote you to Sr. Exec with the company.  Now, if you choose to turn your ears off at “we are doing away with your position..”, you can potentially lose an opportunity for promotion.  Can you imagine rebuking your superior because of poor listening skills?  Peter missed the beauty of Jesus death, burial, and resurrection because he was only focused on His death.  Perhaps we are missing the beauty of our salvation because of our “death.”  What is prolonging God resurrecting things in your life and restoring you because you are so focused on what has to die first?   We have to make sure we are being fully attentive of what God is speaking to us because if not, we are liable to go off of self which has never lead us in the right direction.

Now get this.  Peter did not stop at just not listening.  He took it even further that even after this conversation, Peter in rage cut a man’s ear off when it was Jesus time to be crucified.  Think about it.  A seemingly “honorable” thing can potentially be a downfall not only for us but for those around us.  In the natural sense, Peter thought he was protecting his friend, all because he didn’t fully grasp what Jesus was trying to tell him.  Peter retaliating Jesus destiny could have sent us all to hell.  Think about it.  If he would have successfully kept Jesus from dying that would have been the end to all mankind.  That is how serious it is for us to actively listen and not react off of emotions.  Jesus also spoke later in scripture about counting the cost of discipleship.  We glaze over that because we think we are supposed to get everything we pray for and when we don’t, we get angry with God.  It all trickles back to our listening skills.  Counting the cost did not add up to a pretty lifestyle nor a perfect one, but there is still beauty in being a disciple which brings me to my next point.

So, here is where the beauty was missed.  Jesus did not stop at death in His conversation with Peter.  He said He will be killed AND raised from the dead on the third day.  Now, if Peter was truly attentive, he would have asked the right questions instead of talking out of emotion.  In New York slang, “Whatchu mean you gonna die and live again, Jesus?”  That seems more appropriate, right?  Again, It is very easy to “correct” how Peter dealt with Jesus telling him His Purpose but we often do it too.

How many times has God told you something and you only heard what you wanted to hear?  You didn’t fully digest what He was trying to convey to you and then got aggravated when it starts to come to pass because it is not happening how you imagined.  Point being, Peter carrying his frustration when cutting a man’s ear off due to his lack of listening skills when Jesus told Him what had to be done before that actually happened.  In that same token, we  “hear” that God will bless us to birth a ministry, but we choose not to hear that it will cost us something.  So, when we start losing people or things we act out of frustration and not in remembrance of what was told to us beforehand.  I remember when God told me to move to New York and how excited I was about it.  One day, I was sitting on the couch at my parents home and He said, your move will be hard, but I will help you and will never leave you.  It pierced my heart.  I stopped watching television and thought about what He told me and then said, okay, Lord.  Since my journey to New York, His words ring every time I have an obstacle.  There are times I act out of frustration and there are times I praise Him for the forewarning coupled with the assurance that no matter what I go through, His Spirit will help me endure which is literally what has kept me thus far!  So, I urge you to listen up!  What is it that God is trying to tell you that you are missing?  This is not the time to hear what we want to hear because The Bible talks about the danger of that.  Hear what The Spirit is truly saying to you and hold fast to it!

Be sure to let this word be active by accepting the task at Tag You’re It!  If you need help with this task please feel free to mozy over to Answered Prayers/Testimonials and I will gladly pray with you!  Until next time…PEACE!