Jesus said these words to His disciples while explaining the reason, why He had spoken in parables to the crowd that was following Him:
“Therefore, I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand and seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’”
Matthew 13:13-15 NKJV
Parables were often used in the time of Jesus to relay spiritual truth. The same thing happens today also, when stories are being used to transmit spiritual truth. But it’s going to take a person with the mind of Christ to be able to understand, the parables of Jesus and the stories of these days.
Many are often disconnected from the spiritual truth in these parables and stories, because their hearts had been sealed up from understanding them. They can’t perceive spiritual truth as their focus is mainly on the things, that they can only physically or emotionally connect with. They are living by the flesh and not by the Spirit, therefore their mind is focused on the flesh; even though they are saved and do have the Spirit of God in knowing the truth (Romans 8:5).
Jesus knew very well that no matter how clearly, he had explained His parables to the crowd with Him, the core messages in them would have been lost with the sentiments among them, about the miracles which they had witnessed Him performing.
That was why He was more focused on His disciples in explaining their meanings to them, because they would be responsible for teaching these things later on to His followers, as they continued with His works on the earth.
There are Christians who are often listening to or reading God’s word; but who are not really focused on it at all. They are more focused on the things of their sinful lust. It’s however in other to get our attention, that Jesus had often started some of His parables with expression like: “verily verily I say unto you”.
What was He doing with such a statement before saying what He needed to tell us? He was simply trying to get our attention, so that we can listen to or pay careful attention to the spiritual truth that He was about to relay to us.
However, the Lord is seeking for those whose hearts are steadfastly focused and obedient to Him and His word. He is searching for those who are holding on to Him and His teachings from the holy scriptures.
Many are allowing the opinions of the world to affect their understanding and application of the scriptures to their practical lives.
And just like the crowd that Jesus was referring to in the above scripture texts, there are some whose ears are dull of hearing God’s word today. They are shortsighted in seeing the spiritual truth that are in the scriptures.
And as a result of this they are walking in disobedience to God’s word. They may acknowledge what God’s word says about their situation; but they are not really doers of it in correcting them. By disobeying God’s word, they are rejecting the correction and discipline of the Lord. Many are living in complete disregard to the word of God, while belittling the godly standard for living in it to their own detriment.
They have become callous minded, and the hardening of their hearts has spelt doom for them. Some of them have fallen sick; while the written Word of God which they are ignoring is readily available to heal and deliver them.
As Paul once said it’s:
“Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,”
Colossians 3:6 NKJV
The disciplining of the Lord is for all His children. There is no one who is perfect as a Christian. The only perfection in our lives as Christians, is the one which Christ had given us.
Therefore, if any Christian is resisting the chastisement or discipline of the Lord God Almighty, such a person is being set up for the wrath of God. The Lord is patient and merciful; but He is also a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29).
That’s why heartache and afflictions often come with the wrath of God to the disobedient.
Just as there were many who were disobeying the word of God in the time of Jesus, there are many who are doing the same thing today also. And as a result of their blatant disobedience; they are suffering spiritually, physically, emotionally and financially.
The pain and struggles of their lives comes as a result of their disobedience to God’s commandments. The sense of satisfaction and contentment with life is therefore unattainable to them.
Even though the Lord God is pointing them in the right direction of life; they however are unable to recognize His presence or receive anything from Him. The disobedient will always live in distress and misery.
The afflictions of the enemy are there to make anyone who is disobedient and rebellious, to become dull in hearing the voice of the Lord and His word.
This is the aim of the devil in hardening their hearts against God. When Satan afflicts them with sicknesses and diseases, the aim is to prevent them from hearing the word of God which will heal them.
He will make such disobedient people to be hardened at heart towards God, because he is seeking to destroy their lives. And there are many people who are in this category today. They are consequently seeking their healing from other sources apart from the word of God.
They are aware of what the scriptures teaches about healing, but their disobedient heart can’t apply it for their healing. Some of them can even quote certain scriptures to show that they are somehow scripturally literate.
But their heart can never grasp with comprehension whatever they are quoting, because of the disobedient attitude in them towards God. God’s word is speaking to them, but their hearts of rebellion and disobedience are always rejecting, everything that He is saying to them.
Especially dangerous is the moment when the confessions of their mouth have become stout against God. They will start speaking like the people of the unsaved world, even while their health situation is deteriorating.
Spiritual ignorance has plunged them into the bed of affliction. And since being spiritually ignorant can open the door of poverty into the life of anyone, the enemy moves through this door of ignorance to enlarge the curse of poverty in their lives.
That’s why they often see living in poverty as a normal way of life, because the devil has smeared their heart into believing his lies. Their finances easily get afflicted by the devil, who is constantly stealing from them. As the Prophet Haggai once said; “they have bags or pockets with holes” for their finances (Haggai 1:6).
All these has come upon them because the enemy (Satan), who has deceived them into rebelling against God and His word, is preventing them from listening to hear the wisdom of God, which can lead them into their different places of prosperity.
The ultimate goal of the devil is to destroy their lives. He knows that God’s grace is always available to rescue anyone away from his grip; no matter how estranged from God’s plans and purposes for their lives they might have gone.
Honor God by honoring His anointing in others
The arm of the flesh will always struggle with the Spirit of the Lord; but those who are wise are always quick to submit to the discipline of the Lord.
When King Saul disobeyed God by putting his fleshy desire above that of the Lord’s, he was rejected by the Lord God immediately from being king over His people (1 Samuel 15).
As a result of his disobedience the scripture says that:
“But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him.”
I Samuel 16:14 NKJV
A life that is stressful will become the habitation of the distressed. Heartache and the spirit of despair are both companions to those who are distressed. Depression comes as a result of these things to many people.
And in our world today many people are suffering in this way. God never brought it on them. It’s their own disobedience to God’s word, that opened the door for the enemy to afflict them.
The absence of the presence of the Lord with the anointing oil over the life of King Saul, left a spiritual vacuum in his life which was filled up by an evil spirit, that was allowed to afflict him by the Lord.
This is what happens to those who are rebellious at heart towards God. Saul had to live like this for the rest of his life; until the Lord God finally led him into the war against the Philistines in which he died.
The Lord God could had removed him immediately by taking his life. But the anointing oil upon Saul prevented God from doing such a thing. That would have set God up against Himself; thereby opening the door for the devil to accuse Him of going against His own anointing.
David knew this spiritual truth. That was why even though the Lord God gave him several opportunities to kill Saul; he never did it. He never laid his hands on Saul, because he knew that he had to honor the anointing oil over the life of King Saul.
God Almighty was the One Who had anointed Saul as King. If David had done such a thing, he would have set himself up for the wrath of God. By seeking to protect the anointing over the life of King Saul, David was also protecting his own anointing.
A lot of Christians need to learn how to protect the anointing oil that’s flowing in their lives. This is done by always honoring God in all of our ways. Christians who are always seeking to be on God’s side in everything that they are doing, are the ones who are honoring God and His word.
Those who are seeking to please the world are dishonoring God before the world. And there are consequences for these things. As the Lord God once told the high priest Eli, as he treated the sins of his two sons mildly:
“Therefore, the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.”
I Samuel 2:30 NKJV
When we are honoring God before the people of the world, He will honor us. We honor God before the world by putting His written word, as the final authority in everything that we are doing for the world to see.
When the world sees us doing that, the reverential fear of the Lord God comes upon those of the world. They will honor God because they can see the hand of the Lord in our lives.
Eli as the high priest of Israel was belittling the sins of his sons at this time before God. He was therefore not honoring God before the people of Israel. His two sons who were anointed to minister with the sacrificial offerings of the people before the Lord God, were not living by the standard of God which was given to them by Moses. They were corrupt and sexually immoral in the ways they were treating the anointing over their lives.
Eli saw his two sons living in sin, but he did not remove them from being an embarrassment to God before His people. Honor belongs to those who are honoring God by living in accordance with the standard of His word.
We read later on in the scriptures about how Saul was once informed by Samuel; that the Lord God had rejected him as King over Israel.
After hearing about the judgement of God Saul asked Samuel to honor him before God’s people. He was the King of Israel. God’s anointing oil was still on him, even though he had been rejected by the Lord God.
The Bible says:
“Then he said (to Samuel), “I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.” So, Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.”
I Samuel 15:30-31 NKJV
Samuel had to obey this request from Saul, even though he knew that God had rejected him. He had to honor the anointing oil over the life of Saul, as the King over God’s people.
And by honoring Saul, Samuel was also protecting the anointing over his own life. He had to protect that anointing by honoring God with Saul in the presence of the people of God. By doing this Samuel was honoring God before the people also.
If he had refused to honor Saul at that moment, it would have created a problem before God and before the people. There would have been confusion among the people about what was going on.
During the years of David in the wilderness, as he was on the run from Saul, who was after his life; he had several opportunities to had killed him. But David never did it. If he had laid his hands on Saul by killing him, he would have set the stage for his own downfall, with the anointing oil over his life for the kingship after Saul in Israel.
So, he refrained from doing such a dangerous thing.
This is what the enemy is doing to destroy the people of God today, by setting them up against one another. Ignorance of such spiritual truth is being exploited by the devil to set Christians up against one another.
There are Christians who are not honoring the anointing of God over their own lives, by not honoring others. There is a diminishing return in the anointing over their lives to function as it should as a result of this.
The Lord God sees this as evil. Instead of going from glory to glory with their anointing, they are dwindling in power with their anointing.
When you are belittling your fellow Christians in the presence of other Christians, you are belittling yourself and the anointing over your life. You are killing the light of God in your own life. God does not treat such things lightly. And in the fullness of time there will be a harvest of these actions.
David knew this spiritual truth about Saul and his anointing oil. So instead of allowing the devil to have the upper hand in his life, he decided to live in the wilderness for decades like a fugitive, while allowing the Lord to prepare him for kingship over Israel.
David would not lay his hands on the man under whom he had served as a military leader. Saul was the person that the Lord God had used in promoting the anointing over the life of David. King Saul was his master, and David several times treated Saul with the respect that goes with the anointing which was upon him. He refused to “bite the fingers that had fed him”.
Even though they both had the same anointing upon them for the kingship over Israel; but that doesn’t change anything for David. He had to honor that anointing upon Saul. He knew that he was honoring the Lord God by doing so.
There are consequences for any child of God who is mistreating another child of God, just because he is in a position of spiritual authority over him or her. God does not treat such a thing lightly.
Paul once told Timothy about what he had suffered while at Ephesus in the hands of certain people like that. He told him:
“Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words.”
II Timothy 4:14-15 NKJV
Alexander had refused to honor the anointing in the life of Paul. Paul was his spiritual mentor, but Alexander had been deceived into believing some false doctrines, that had crept into the Church from the Greek world. Paul had ordered him to step aside from leading the Church; but Alexander had refused to step aside.
Alexander consequently went ahead to start another gathering of believers, which made the original Church to be dishonored in the community. This was a great harm done to the missionary work of Paul at Ephesus.
There is a reward for resisting and mistreating the anointing over the lives of others. The Lord does not see it lightly.
Have you ever been involved in anything like this before? It’s better to repent of this evil, so that the Lord God can cleanse you and restore you from where you have fallen.
There are Christians who are sick as a result of this today. Ministries and Churches are lacking in the resources of Heaven to do God’s work, as a result of this. For the Body of Christ to triumphantly take the gospel to the end of the earth, Christians must start honoring the anointing that God has put in others.
And if you had disappointed God in this way before; He is offering you an opportunity now to get it off your heart. He wants to bless you more and more; but He can’t do it until you begin to honor your fellow Christian with the anointing over their lives. Shalom!
