Heart of a Pharisee...

If you are reading this…drop what you’re doing…. Draw close and take heed: Pay more attention to the spirit of God. Listen to what he’s really saying, and see what He’s trying to show you. After he reveals to you the truth…STAND ON IT!! Grab hold of it and guard it with your dear life. Please…don’t let the deceits of man and the enemy seep it from between your fingers.

I emphasize the point of being sensitive to the spirit because for the past months I have gone through a crazy season of hearing the voice of God. God would show me the spirit of man that’s pure, who everyone labels as wretched. Then God would show me the spirit of a man that’s tainted with the obsession of self, but on the outside appears to have everything in place, but everyone else would want to cling to. I asked God, what is it that I’m seeing that they aren’t seeing? Why am I getting something different from what they are telling me about certain individuals? And God revealed to me in my spirit and whispered, “Because you see the spirit and heart of a man…and their heart is gold. What others are telling you are mere observation and head knowledge, but not divine wisdom.” Suddenly, my spirit rested, I smiled, I exhaled, and I laughed because finally it all made sense. Many Christians today have the heart of a Pharisee.

We view people with our natural eye and carnal mind. We cast stones from our tongues with words of slander, judgment, and gossip. We don’t see that the spirit of the man is actually pure, and their heart is geared towards truth. We only see the outer state of a man, the mistakes of their flesh, and subjective behaviors that can be misinterpreted in every way. Jesus was a just man…He knew no man after the flesh. Like God, he saw the spirit of a man and who they can become in Him. Jesus preserved the life of the harlot from the condemnation of the Pharisees, attempting to cast stones upon her. He simply told her to that her sins are forgiven, and to rise and sin no more. Jesus saw her spirit, while the Pharisees saw her flesh. Just as the Pharisees, being Jews and chosen children of God, condemned someone of their own nationality, the harlot also being a Jew and child of God, God’s modern day children judge not only sinners, but each other within the body of Christ.

We are the Pharisees. The Pharisees viewed Christ with a natural eye and natural mind, and never once tapped into the spirit and viewed Christ with a spiritual eye. Never once did they receive the revelation of the Holy Spirit that He was the son of God. They missed God, all because they, with their indoctrinated, finite minds, could not come to grips with the fact that this quirky looking guy with bad facial hair, a jacked up hair dew, and no class could possibly be Son of God. Look at Him, he looks like a bum and he operates like a bum. For crying out loud he heals the blind with dirt from the ground and his own spit…yuk! He can’t be royal, he doesn’t look royal.

As Christians we scorn at the Pharisees for how they treated Jesus, but we are blind in realizing that we condemn Jesus as well. How? We condemn his very children. Those who may seem to struggle with their flesh on the outside, may have a heart of gold, a heart of repentance, and a heart of perseverance, but because we view man with a natural eye and carnal mind, we surpass and override our own siblings in Christ. Before you know it, they have entered the kingdom of Heaven before we have.

Lord I’d rather be viewed as an outcast, and go against the odds of social tolerance and popularity, than be out of your will. May I never overlook an individual based on their past history, or present struggles.

“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” – II Corinthians 5:16

Lord, may view people with our spiritual eyes, and fall in love with the spirit of a man. For a man’s spirit is his/her true identity.

May God Bless you according to your faithfulness and obedience to Him.

In Him,
Ashley
Philippians 3:7
Ashley Card 2008 ©