Not About People

John 7:^3-5 “and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.”

We will start off today’s devotional with our final thought from yesterday. You will notice that in our study of the Book of John we will trail off our discourse from previous days because of the way John links every detail and every thought. Also, some things will be repeated for the sake of emphasis, so that we will get all that God is teaching us and our lives will never remain the same in Jesus Mighty Name. So, please do not dismiss any detail, we are on a journey.

James and Jude the brothers of Jesus were not His disciples while Jesus was on earth. In fact, by the time they came into the full revelation of who their brother was, Jesus had come, completed His assignment, and had resurrected. Before they came into the revelation of who Jesus was, they mocked Jesus as we see in today’s anchor scripture. But after they came into the revelation of who Jesus was, this is what they said. James 1:¹ “This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ…”. Jude 1:¹ “This letter is from Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James…”. These were the same people that mocked Jesus. Revelation is so powerful. And the big lesson for us here is, Jesus did not wait for them to accept Him before He became who God called Him to be. If Jesus had waited for their approval before He became all that God had called Him to be, He would never have fulfilled His destiny, never!

Jesus went ahead and fulfilled His destiny regardless. When you fulfil your destiny regardless, the same people that mocked you will say, “know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” [2 Cor. 5:16, KJV]. The New Living Translation of 2 Cor. 5:16 reads, “So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!” In other words, we cannot relate to this man, this lady by the flesh. This is a huge lesson so do not sit around trying to convert people to be your fans. Some people will never be your fans, get over it. Some people will only become your fans after you have become who God has made you to be. So, why are you waiting for them?

Go ahead and be a champion. John 7:³⁵ “The Jewish leaders were puzzled by this statement. “Where is he planning to go?” they asked. “Is he thinking of leaving the country and going to the Jews in other lands? Maybe he will even teach the Greeks! Galilee was that part of the country where people were very lax and there was nothing very useful happening there. They talked down on Galilee but Jesus associated with them. John 7:³⁶ “What does he mean when he says, ‘You will search for me but not find me,’ and ‘You cannot go where I am going’?”  Jesus was talking about His resurrection, “I am going to a place you do not know, and you cannot come.’ And how will He get to that place? He needs to die and resurrect. This is purely about now, our time, Jesus is saying I am going to the Father.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, even as You fulfilled Your destiny, so will I, in Jesus Name. Amen!