WEDNESDAY 20TH JUNE 2018 MORNING PRAYER DEVOTION
SCRIPTURE READING:- JOHN 18:1-11
TOPIC:– THE DISCIPLES COULD NOT RECOGNIZE JESUS
TEXT:- JOHN 18:7
There are many places in the Bible, most especially in the Gospels where Jesus appeared to His disciples when on earth. Yet they could not identify Him or recognize who He was despite the fact that they have been very close and had stayed together for the period of about three years.
We shall discuss where this happened and the reasons why they couldn’t recognize Jesus:
1. The first place in the Bible when they couldn’t recognise that it was Jesus was when He walked on the water/sea. They thought that He was a ghost because it is impossible for ordinary human to walk on the sea. Therefore it seems strange to them and they couldn’t recognize that it was Jesus until He revealed Himself to them. The reason why they could not recognize that it was Jesus was due to the power of prayer that Jesus had just undergone that transformed Him from an ordinary man to God nature in His human form. See Matthew 14:22-29.
2. The second place was at Gethsemane where He was with the eleven disciples as Judas Iscariot was not there with them, because he was on his way to betray the Lord Jesus. When he later returned with the soldiers to arrest Jesus, he couldn’t recognize Him. The funniest part of the story was that Judas and the enemies could not recognize Jesus until He said by Himself “I am here”, John 18:1-11.
In the instances mentioned above, Jesus was unidentifiable because of His prayer life i.e. much time spent by Jesus to wait on God in prayer.
3. Another place where Jesus could not be recognized was after His resurrection on the third day that Mary Magdalene was weeping at tomb of Jesus in search of the Lord. But she could not recognize Him despite the fact that Jesus was standing by her side and she mistook Jesus for a guard. Not until Jesus called her by name, then she realized that it was Jesus, John 20:11-18.
4. Two disciples were traveling after the resurrection on the way to Emmaus, a village near Jerusalem. On their way Jesus appeared amidst them and in about seven miles of the journey as they discuss, they could not recognize Jesus. Not until after their understanding before they could remember who Jesus was. See Luke 24:15-16;
In the stated above, Jesus could not be recognized due to the fear of the Jews, in order that the disciples will not also be arrested and also their unbelief.
Let every unbelief, fear and lack of the knowledge of God’s word give way in your life henceforth.
Prayer Points:-
1. Lord God, the way You appear and reveal Yourself to the people of old, do same to me henceforth, in the name of Jesus Christ.
2 Enough is enough! Jesus must increase in me henceforth so that flesh and self will decrease in me, in the name of Jesus Christ.
3. Holy Ghost, break me completely and remold me into your perfect resemblance, in the name of Jesus Christ.
