Deeper Life #304

But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

—Luke 9:55

YOU PROBABLY THINK YOU ARE open-hearted and honest. But if you read about John and Thomas, you will find that sincere disciples may be rebuked.

Jesus Christ was preaching through the villages of Samaria and certain villagers would not tolerate Him. What did John say? “Let us call fire down from heaven and consume them.” But Jesus rebuked him and said, “You do not know what spirit you are of.” Thomas got his rebuke after the Resurrection, when Jesus told him, “Be not faithless, but believing.”

If you have had your natural fascination for Jesus broken, thank God. If you have tried your loyal best to follow Him—if you have worshiped Him, given all you know how to Him, and yet it is failure and defeat and disappointment—you are just in the place to receive the Holy Spirit and be born again from above.

Whenever people who are doing a sincere work for Jesus talk about their sense of failure as “carrying their cross,” they simply do not understand. Only the Holy Spirit can expound these things to them.

Prayer Thought: Lord, help me to learn when I receive some rebuke from You.

SUGGESTED READING: Luke 9:51–56