ESOCS Devotional 2 August 2023: But Who Say Ye That I Am

ESOCS Devotional 2 August 2023

MEMORY VERSE: “Thou at the Christ, the son of the living God.” Matthew 16:16

TEXT: LUKE 9:18-27 (KJV)

And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?

¹⁹They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again.

²⁰He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God.

²¹And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing;

²²Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.

²³And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

²⁴For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

²⁵For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

²⁶For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.

²⁷But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God.

Read Yesterday’s ESOCS Devotional here

A perfect understanding of the person you associate with or want to be friendly with makes the intimacy or trust worthy without elements of doubt. Many friends don’t really trust themselves because they fully have no understanding of who they are dealing with. Some know only the name of their friends; others have only interacted few times without knowing the character of such individual knowing somebody on the surface, conceals significant aspects such as is he/she a gossip, thief, deceitful, liar, false witness and the likes. However, when you trust a person to the extent of becoming friends, the friendship will be sustained for a very long time or eternally. That is true friendship.

In the same manner, Jesus did not just want friends, disciples or Apostles but wanted the friendship between Him and His disciples to be everlasting, thus he said, “whom do ye say I am”. This is to assure himself that the Apostles knew him, understood Him so well to be able to undertake the missionary assignment he was soon to hand-over to them. In verse 19 of the text above, some in answering the question said he was John the Baptist, others said He was Elias, many others said one of the old prophets have risen again (Matthew 3:1, Luke 11:7-8).

In the context above, the word “believe” is very important. This is because you cannot have what you do not believe in. If you think that Jesus Christ is John the Baptist; he can only accomplish for you what John the Baptist who was the forerunner of Jesus can do. In this vein, if you believe that Jesus Christ is one of the old prophets who have risen again, He can only do for you those things that one of the old prophets were commissioned to do. No more. This is because people are commissioned based on their talents or gifts or anointing. No more, no less.

Every prophet, visioner, seer, pastor or evangelist etc. has his portion of anointing based on the assignment he is commissioned to execute while on earth. Here is the paradox, the supreme intelligence himself, the son of the Most High God; who is the embodiment of all the portions of anointing that God Almighty has ever released into heaven and earth (Matthew 28: 18 “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth; Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost…”) was the one speaking. Really knowing him well it was very important.

It is obviously very important to know Jesus the Christ without atoms of doubt as it concerned His personality to be able to accomplish His commission on earth. Peters answer, gave him sigh of relief though he commented, only my father in heaven would have revealed this to you.

In summary, we are compulsorily expected to know, trust and obey the word of God to the extent of being empowered to do His divine will by the power of the Holy Ghost who is here with us.