Where Else Would I Go?

When Jesus gave his sermon about "eating his flesh & drinking his blood", can you imagine what must have been going through those people's minds? (John 6:48-68) I mean sure, we have hindsight to understand what he was talking about. But many of the "would be" disciples turned away explaining "this is a hard saying; who can understand it?"

Even the twelve disciples were complaining amongst themselves. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, asked "Does this offend you?" In vs. 63, Jesus says "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I speak to you are spirit and they are life." Simply put - you can't understand the Word except through your spirit. The words themselves make no sense unless you are receiving them not only through your mind, but in your spirit.

This was Jesus weeding out stage, in vs. 65, He says "therefore, I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father." In vs. 66 the Bible explains "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more." But I LOVE this, in vs. 67, Jesus looks at the 12 disciples left and asks this ALL important question "Do you also want to go away?"

When we hear a hard saying, or God asks something difficult of us, or we just find that this walk with Jesus is harder than we anticipated...between the dying of our flesh to follow Him, and the attacks of the enemy to try to convince us to "go back and follow Him no more"...this Christian life can be a hard road to travel. In these situations, we must answer the question Jesus asked His twelve disciples "Do you also want to go away?" - or maybe we wouldn't think of going away, maybe it would be more like settling, compromising, or becoming complacent. The Bible is clear about this point, "many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers you out of them all". (Psalm 34:19)

So, here's Peter's answer to Jesus question: vs. 68 "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life". I've invested many years to my relationship with Jesus. Over the past several years, the spiritual battles my family & I have fought numerous battles and they do NOT appear to be slowing down. In fact, they seem to be getting more intense. At times we may feel like giving up, slowing down, or going backwards...but in the end, we always come to the same conclusion as Peter "where else would we go?". A few months ago, when I was praying and seeking God, I felt a quiet voice in my spirit say to me "we're in it for the long haul". I was so encouraged to know that was God telling me, we're a team, and we're going the distance. Some days that means I feel like I can storm the gates of Hell with all the power & authority that Jesus has given to me...and other days, it's all I can do to say "Lord help ME, I feel overwhelmed". I know many of you can relate to this, and all of our troubles are different, some big, some small, but none impossible with God.

Check out the video on my blog of the song "Rescue". It really blessed me this morning, hope it blesses you as well.