Prejudices and the “Be” Attitudes…

                                        Prejudices and the “Be” Attitudes…

                                                    Mary Ann Wray

Under the Old Covenant people were judged harshly for crimes, misbehavior, misdemeanors, and even disrespect. We can see a huge contrast between the Old and New Covenants as to how we as disciples of Jesus should handle such matters. When we compare an Old Testament prophet to the Lord Jesus Himself, we become astonished at His grace!

In the gospel of Luke chapter nine, Jesus was going through Samaria one day on His way to Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead of Him to get things ready for the Passover Feast. This particular Passover feast (Mark 14 & Luke 22) would mark the end of the old way of celebrating it for Yeshuah’s followers.

“When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem.  When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] And they went on to another village.” Luke 9: 51-55 NAS

You see, Samaritans hated the Jews (visa versa) and of course, Jesus knew that. However, He chose to pass through Samaria anyway. It wasn’t the first time He chose this passage way. Most Jews, especially the priests, avoided Samaria like the plague! The Jews considered Samaritans ‘half breeds’. Back in the days of King Jeroboam, the Jews were exiled to Samaria. Even though they were freed in Egypt generations before, they forgot God’s covenant and it landed them right back into bondage again (see 2 Kings 17).

The Samaritans occupied a territory formerly belonging to the tribe of Ephraim and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Samaria was the capital. When the ten tribes of Israel were carried away as captive slaves, the King of Assyria sent people from the surrounding regions to populate Samaria. These transplanted Assyrians intermarried with the existing Israelites. Over time, the population embraced a religion that was a mixture of Judaism and idolatry because of intermarriage. Here’s another sad but sobering example as to why a believer in Christ should not date or marry an unbeliever! And by the way, dating is not evangelism, you know? Smile! You may wind up being terribly disappointed with the affects it will have on your faith as well as your marriage. Most likely you may wind up with a broken heart. Light and darkness don’t mix. One gives way to the other and in close associations, especially relationships that are soulish in nature, your light can get put under a basket. The good news is that Jesus can heal you if you have experienced this sort of trauma in your life.

In John Chapter 4 we see a different instance where Jesus passed through Samaria another time. There and then he had a meaningful and powerful dialogue with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well that completely changed her spiritual lens forever. That’s another wonderful story! I wrote about it in my personal blog called “Cultural Chasms and the Prince of Peace” and “Jesus and the Deep Well.” If you’d like to check them or any of my other posts out you can go to maryannwray1977.blogspot.com (Kingdom Seekers).

Getting from Galilee to Jerusalem through the city of Samaria was the quickest route-about a six day journey on foot. Otherwise, the journey would take much longer-a little less than two weeks. Jesus and the others would have had to travel along the coast of the Jordan River, costing them many more day’s journey if they were to avoid Samaria. James and John, also known as the Sons of Thunder for obvious reasons, evidently were not too fond of the Samaritans either. I wouldn’t doubt the fact that they may have grumbled amongst themselves or inwardly as to why they had to travel through Samaria to begin with! Why not take the scenic route along the river like everybody else?

Needless to say, when the Samaritan villagers rejected Jesus, these two brothers became quite indignant and wanted to call fire down from Heaven. I’m sure they were completely surprised at Jesus’ response. Rather than focusing on a negative, Jesus had better things to do for the Father, like getting ready to be crucified and raised from the dead during the fast approaching Passover Feast! With that vision in mind, He rebuked them for having a wrong spirit (attitude) towards those who didn’t welcome their presence. Immediately afterwards, they all went on to a different village.

Jesus didn’t throw up a picket sign in protest. Nor did he rebuke a territorial spirit or religious demon. He corrected the brothers for a bad attitude based on a generational bias. Jesus understood the hostility that existed between Jews and Samaritans but didn’t embrace it. He would handle unbelieving and generational attitudes a completely different way. In Luke Chapter 10 he used a parable (Good Samaritan) to further dismantle the Jews and disciples ingrained prejudices. Many of the attitudes we have or see in others are inherent from one generation to the next but a certain encounter with Jesus has a way of knocking biases right out of us. That’s why we need many encounters and epiphanies with Jesus throughout our entire lifetime! By the way, Jesus had no trouble casting out devils but in the wisdom of God, He discerned when he was dealing with a demon and when he was dealing with a particular opinion of people or mindset. You can’t cast out an opinion. That requires unlearning one thing and re-learning or learning another (2 Corinthians 10).

What’s seems even more paradoxical is that in Matthew 10, Jesus taught the disciples if they weren’t received in one village, they were to shake the dust off their feet as a form of judgment and go into another (Matthew 10: 14). He said on the Day of Judgment God would settle the score and in so doing Sodom and Gomorra would get off easier than a city who rejected Him and the Gospel of the Kingdom! However, that kind of judgment would happen down the corridors of time, in a completely different dispensational era (2 Corinthians 5: 10).

We can’t stop preaching the message of the Kingdom based on people’s rejection or become bitter; nor should we change the message in any way because of their lack of response. Some people would rather feed off of bad news than good news like the Grinch who stole Christmas. He had a huge rejection complex and as a result hid himself away in a cave on top of a hill feeding off of garbage in the bitterness of his own soul. That is, until Cindy Lou Who won his heart over through her childlike lens of faith and love. She saw past the veneer of cruelty and ugliness and recognized a lonely broken heart. Jesus modeled before His disciples that they needed to shake off the rejection and keep moving but do so with the right heart.  Rejection wasn’t their problem-arrogance was. As a disciple of Christ and a minister of the Gospel, I’m still learning to respond in the right spirit when faced with rejection. In Luke 6, Jesus tells us to bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you; including those who reject the vessel and the message we bring. When this happens and I'm tempted to get my feelings hurt, I have to be honest and ask myself this question…”How many times have I resisted or rejected a message through a messenger of clay before I’ve come to the knowledge of a truth?” How many times did I shrug off a word God was trying to convey to me in one way, shape or form?”

I’m so glad God didn’t pass judgment on me those many times. However, my rejection or stiff necked attitude against the truth cost me something called, “The chastening of the Lord” and I’ve gotten plenty of it. He has a way of allowing the enemy and circumstances to buffet us back and forth a bit like a Corn Hole toss until we get the point! Thank God I’ve been spared judgment many times when I really deserved it. The Father corrects those whom He loves. Judgment is something quite different and distinct from correction (see Hebrews 12 & Galatians 6 for more insight).

Now, let’s take a look at a different scenario out of the Old Testament involving the prophet Elisha and some young lads. Elisha also experienced a type of rejection called mockery; it had immediate and bitter consequences to a group of young bucks. There were some 42 foolish boys who began to mock and reject the prophet calling him “Baldy”. You see, under the Old Covenant if you mocked or rejected a prophet you were pretty much as good as dead at worse. At best you removed yourself from under God’s hand of protection and blessing. When Elisha heard the boys mocking him he immediately cursed them. As a result, two bears came out of the woods mauling all 42 boys! Interestingly enough, Elisha went on to Mount Carmel after that incident and returned to Samaria…the very same despised place Jesus passed through hundreds of years later but with a totally different attitude! Perhaps that’s where James and John came up with the idea of judgment on the Samaritan Village. After all, Elisha was the protégé of the prophet Elijah-the prophet of fire! (2 Kings 2: 23-25)

What should we do when we are rejected, mocked or jeered at for doing the Lords work? The soulish part of us wants to call fire and judgment down on people, but Jesus rebuked that kind of thinking didn’t He?  At those moments, we have an important choice to make! Here’s what Jesus teaches us out of the beatitudes.  I like to refer to them as the “Be” Attitudes:

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor (fellow man) and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may [show yourselves to] be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on those who are evil and on those who are good, and makes the rain fall on the righteous [those who are morally upright] and the unrighteous [the unrepentant, those who oppose Him]. For if you love [only] those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that? And if you greet only your brothers [wishing them God’s blessing and peace], what more [than others] are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles [who do not know the Lord] do that? You, therefore, will be perfect [growing into spiritual maturity both in mind and character, actively integrating godly values into your daily life], as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew chapter 5 verses 43-48 AMP

You see beloved, the true mark of spiritual maturity is not how well we preach, sing, worship or prophesy. It’s not measured by how many devils we cast out or how many people we lead to Jesus. Yes, Jesus taught His disciples to do all of these things. These are wonderful gifts of the Holy Spirit that need to be practiced and used publicly in order to advance the Kingdom of God locally and globally. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. The power of the Spirit hasn’t ceased since Pentecost. God always has a remnant who will believe, receive, obey and walk in the same power and anointing!

However, character is something we have to cultivate on purpose and is accomplished privately in our hearts between us and Holy Spirit. Nobody may see it happening at the time but they will definitely notice the change that has been developed over many seasons. It’s called the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 22-26). Jesus taught the Sons of Thunder an important lesson that day: true spirituality is measured by our attitudes and how well we handle difficulties or persecution, when experiencing opposition; not how powerful we are.

Some of the challenges we encounter may include but are not limited to members of our own household (natural and spiritual) who may misunderstand, criticize, ridicule or accuse us wrongly. How about other types of things like your flight being canceled or the drive shaft falling out of your car? Or more bills than funds in the checking account at the end of the month? These are fruit tests too. At the same time they  are great opportunities to see the goodness of God come through for us when we trust Him completely rather than run to a man or try to fix everything ourselves! The latter only results in more striving and frustration.

Jesus demonstrated the true love of the Father for broken humanity and a racist culture by showing mercy. Someone once said that grace can be defined as God giving us what we don’t deserve and mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve! Grace and mercy is what we really need to give out, especially when we think others may not deserve it. James 2:13 tells us that mercy triumphs over judgment. How else can someone walking in ignorance or darkness recognize the Spirit of Christ on the inside of us? It takes supernatural grace to do this beloved. Our natural man does not possess such attributes! Grace is Divine. What we need to understand is that when we were Born Anew we inherited God’s DNA (Divine Nature and Attributes) in seed form and received a King Size Jesus in our hearts. Jesus paid it all! Our part is to be disciples and grow in grace and favor the same way He did! 

It’s like we have to grow into our Daddy’s shoes because our natural ways of thinking need to be constantly renewed (Romans 12: 1-2).  When I was a little girl, I loved walking around the house with my dad’s wing tipped leather shoes. After I helped him polish them up, I’d slip them on my tiny size 6 feet and stumble around the living room. I always managed to get a chuckle out of him when I did that. It was cute but it was a bit awkward. That’s how our Father sees us when begin this journey of walking in the Spirit by faith and even after we've been walking a while we still stumble and make missteps. It takes continutally growing up in Christ and it takes lots of patience on the Father's part. How patient are we with each other as we stumble and grow into Christ likeness? When we've reached adulthood we realize that childish ways have been put aside and more is expected of us in terms of how we think and how we respond to personal challenges (1 Cor 13: 11).

Jesus said by loving those who hate us (who love us less than others, per the Greek Lexicon) we demonstrate that we are His children. When we love the unloving we show that we are the true sons and daughters of Our Father in Heaven. That would be the marked difference between us and the world. Jesus also said that all men will know we are his disciples by the love we have for one another. If we can’t love one another in God’s household the way the Father loves each one of us, how can we expect outsiders to believe that the Father loves them too? How then can they be converted to believe in a loving Jesus who died and laid down His life for them if they don’t see His love demonstrated in the church? That’s the power of forgiveness! Agape love takes no account of the wrong done to it and casts the offenses into the sea of forgetfulness 70 X 7 if necessary!

There have been of times when I’ve ministered in jails, churches, women’s conferences and even one on one, where people have laughed at me, mocked, got up and walked out in the middle of me speaking, or rudely carried on a conversation throughout my message. I’ve seen others get up and leave when I’ve given a tongue with the interpretation. The enemy would want us to analyze people and even begin to question ourselves. Rather than go there in my mind, I check my heart attitude first and if the Holy Spirit says “free and clear” I don’t worry about it. Sometimes He’ll check me on my tone or delivery. I’ve even received critical feedback from other ministers that helps me check my own motives. I ask myself and the Father, "Did I share this word to be approved by man, or did I share the message from your heart and did I speak how and what You would would have me to say?” That’s all that matters at the end of the day. There will always be critics and always be room for improvement but remember, ministry is not about performance-it's about obedience.

Yes, my flesh wanted to rise up plenty of times but Holy Spirit taught me in those instances to exercise self-control and focus on the mission not the distraction. You see, God is not moved or deterred by such behavior. Neither should we. There are souls in those same places who are hungry, needy and want what God has to give them through you as His vessel. That’s what we must focus on. We must not allow the enemy of our souls to distract and detract us from a much more important thing.

Once while ministering at a woman’s jail, I learned a valuable lesson I will never forget. I went to see a group of about 15 women all sharing the same jail cell. They had been in there together for weeks awaiting their trials. There was one white woman in there and the rest were black. After I introduced myself to them, a few of the ladies began to snicker, make rude comments and argue about something-what I don’t even remember. I thought to myself, “Jesus you better show up and show up quick!” and kept pressing forward, ignoring the rabble-rousers. I introduced the purpose of the song I wanted to bless them with called “Welcome into this place” and told them that The Holy Spirit was going to show up. Now, I’m not the best singer in the world, but I know from the Bible and other experiences, there is an anointing on certain songs and music so I went in there armed with that revelation. God anointed a rooster to confirm a message to Peter, so I’m not worried about hitting every note perfectly. I’m over that. It’s the anointing that breaks the yoke.

As I began to sing from my heart with the accompaniment background tape, the presence of God entered into that place and a boldness with complete peace filled my heart. Some of the women started to weep. Most of them had tears in their eyes or running down their cheeks. You see beloved, the anointing can crack the hardest of hearts. It’s the anointing that breaks the yoke not our eloquence!

I just began telling them that Jesus loved them all regardless of their color, sins, history and crimes then started preaching the cross and the importance of forgiveness. Before it was all said and done, they were asking for each other’s forgiveness and embracing one another with agape love. I invited them to receive Christ and all but two of them reached their arms through the bars for prayer through the jail cell door. I had to hold back my tears as I saw those women's hands pass through the bars from spiritual bondage to freedom while Jesus forgave their sins and set their hearts free! They may have been contained behind iron bars  that day, but Jesus released them from a spiritual prison that only He can do. He is our defense attorney and advocate! He stands before the Father on our behalf, pointing to His blood sprinkled on the mercy seat and pleads "Not Guilty Father!"

After we prayed and I exhorted them a bit more, I told them to make sure they ministered to the other ladies who didn’t come forward and love them to Jesus! I never went back there again, but I know they had an encounter with Jesus that day that left a lasting impression on their minds and hearts. One plants, one waters, but God is the one who brings the increase. We can’t measure our success based on statistics. How can we follow up with every person we’ve ever witness to or prayed with anyway? That’s between them and God.

The Father is not willing that any would perish but that all would come to a saving knowledge of the truth. Whatever truth He wants to impart through us at any given time, we must ensure we are delivering it with the right spirit. We are not responsible for the condition of people’s hearts. We are just responsible for sowing the seed of God’s word in grace and truth. I recently watched an interesting video called “Quantum Preaching.” The minister said that sound waves have two signals: a carrier signal and a modular signal. Within those signals are what you hear and the atmosphere or affect that sound brings. He said you can have the right modular signal (truth) but the wrong carrier signal (arrogance). Without both signals conveying the message of grace and truth we won’t be effective.

I haven’t always passed the sound barrier graciously. There have been times I said the right thing but had an arrogant tone. There were times I said things with the right tone but wasn’t truthful enough. Out of fear of rejection, I held back the complete truth of the Gospel message. I am growing in grace and favor just as Jesus did too. The only difference is He never missed the mark-we do! Grace is something we all need as we grow and are constantly being changed from glory to glory. We are still jars of clay but the Excellency of the Power is of God-not of us in the first place (2 Corinthians 4: 7)!

It’s in those difficult situations and times The Father calls us higher by challenging us to walk in our new nature-the nature of Christ. Ephesians 4: 23-24 tells us to put on the new man which is created in the similitude or image of Jesus and put off the old man that was crucified with Christ (Galatians 2: 20). The old man, or our old nature before we received Christ, was full of deceitful desires and lusts. That man died, got buried in the waters of baptism, and raised to newness of life in Jesus. Hallelujah! Our minds just need to catch up with it and it’s a day by day journey! The old man wants to ‘Get even Steven’. The old man wants retribution, retaliation, vindication, and proven to be “right” in every disagreement or argument.

I recently finished a really good book by a young prophet I know. He relayed an incident where somebody told him, "Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” not “I am the way, the truth and I am right!" The author said those words pierced his heart like an arrow and he knew God was trying to deal with his heart attitude. Now we know Jesus is always right but God was trying to get his attention through the indirect comment of his friend! The only One who is right 100% of the time is God Himself.  Jesus demonstrated the way, the truth and life by reflecting the nature and character of His Father. Would we rather prove to be right 100% all of the time or walk in the light 100% of the time? If I had to choose one I would choose the latter-walking in the light. This is a dark world and I need the light of His way to guide me when I don't know where I'm headed or what's around me sometimes!

I love being right, but I’m not a whole lot of the time! I don’t think it’s possible to have 100% of both while we are in this earthen vessel. One day we will be completely glorified, and thank Jesus for that. In the meantime, humility is paramount to maintaining or getting back into a right heart attitude and right standing with God. He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Jesus paid the full price of our redemption, but we have the command to keep pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. Paul said he hadn’t apprehended the prize yet, so neither have we. We all have things to work out in our soul salvation but Praise God we have a comforter and helper, The Holy Spirit, who gives us refreshing, truth and light in His glorious presence!

Here’s a wonderful promise we can claim, confess and walk in right now! Pray it, confess it aloud and ask Holy Spirit to give you the grace to walk in His Light day by day. We will continue to  encounter various trials and opposition that will test our faith and spiritual fruit! But let's remember, the Light of the World has already come and we have the victory in Jesus!

 “Arise [from spiritual depression to a new life], shine [be radiant with the glory and brilliance of the Lord]; for your light has come, And the glory and brilliance of the Lord has risen upon you. “For in fact, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness will cover the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you [Jerusalem] and His glory and brilliance will be seen on you.” Isaiah 60: 1-2