your emmaus road

Our walk with God as believers is a journey. It has seasons. It has purpose. It has a starting point, initiated by a decision to enter into covenant, a relationship with our Father. A point of initiation inspired by the Holy Spirit.

What we must acknowledge is the natural immaturity we carry when entering into something new. Unaware of the relationship's various seasons and their divine purpose. Unable to anticipate, recognize, or navigate the natural changes and the passing of time that are fulfilled within a relationship.

One of God's divine purposes in the journey is the development of maturity in His children. It is His device in the perfecting of His child, bringing you to completion.

No father wishes his child to remain an infant but rather to grow strong. If man, being evil, desires this good thing for his child, how much more does our Father in heaven, being good, desire maturity in His children.

Matthew 7:11

¹¹ If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

seasons with purpose

This divine purpose of growth and maturity runs through the whole of Scripture. It was the partial purpose of the wilderness experienced by the Israelites, a journey designed by God to grow and mature His people in Him.

It was the partial purpose of Abraham's journey as he walked with God, from being called out of Ur to becoming the father of God's chosen people.

It was the partial purpose of Joseph's journey, from being thrown into a pit left for dead, to being sovereignly guided by God to the right hand of Pharaoh.

Kingdom citizen,

your own meribah

You will often find yourself questioning the relationship you have entered into with our Father, simply because you are not able to anticipate, recognize, or navigate the seasons you are enduring in the midst of your journey and their divine purpose, sovereignly designed by our Father.

And so, in your human nature, like the Israelites, you murmur and complain from the very corners of your own Meribah. Despite past provision, present provision, and the promise of future provision. This is when your heart begins to harden, in the forgetfulness of His past provision and protection.

Exodus 17:7

⁷ And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD , saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?

Meribah. Meribah from riyb (ריב), Strong's H4809, strife, contention, provocation, the place of quarreling. (Hebrew)

Naturally, you are immature to the understanding of the seasons and their purposes. But you must grow in this understanding.

Your relationship with our Father is not determined by what is seen or experienced in its seasonal highs or lows. It is determined by the choosing, the commitment, the trusting, the covenant of the relationship itself.

You see,

there will be moments in your walk with God where you will question who He is, why He has brought you into this particular season, and whether He has forsaken you. You will question who you are.

Like Job, you may even question your very own existence. And again, in your childlike nature, you will murmur, complain, provoke, and tempt our Father.

While God does not accept this behavior, in His love and mercy He allows it as you mature and grow in the midst of your journey. This is His designed, sovereign wilderness of development. Your road to Emmaus.

I share this with you today for two reasons.

First, that you may better understand the seasons and seek their divine purpose in your faith journey, your walk, and your relationship with God.

Second, that you may know that He does not forsake you in these moments, but rather ministers to you with love and conviction, that you may fulfill the divine purpose that season was designed to produce.

how will you move forward?

The second reason is where I now want to shift your attention. Because the question is not whether these moments will happen.

They will.

The question is, when they do, how will you move forward? In disbelief shaped by what you have experienced or seen, or by faith in who your relationship is with?

Oftentimes your disbelief is established by experiencing something other than what you believed or thought should have happened. It is in these exact moments that you are presented with the opportunity to mature in your relationship with our Father.

Learning to re-establish the foundation of your belief, your faith. Not in what you see, but in who He is. This is the purpose of the illogical seasons God allows you to encounter.

It is in these experiences that you see our God operate outside of your simple understanding, helping you grow in releasing that which only He controls. Moving you out of wishful blind faith into bold, knowing faith.

Now let me be clear.

astonished, but not believing

Faith is not established by signs and wonders. Signs and wonders are simply evidence allowed by God in the deepening of your relationship with Him.

The seeing of miracles often leads to astonishment of the mind, but does not always lead to belief in the heart. The two are not the same nor inclusive. You can be astonished and still not believe.most highlighted & shared

This is why people witness miracles, are amazed for a moment or a season, yet their hearts are not changed. Only their minds are amazed. Belief is rooted in the heart's acceptance, not the mind's amazement.

Matthew 12:39

³⁹ But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

When you are rooted in a heart of acceptance you are not moved by what you see or do not see. This is faith, the unwavering belief in that which is unseen.

Miracles for a believer are nothing more than stacked evidence toward a belief in the miracle worker. A belief that has already been established in your heart. The constant in the believer is the faith and trust in God.

However,

for the person astonished in the mind by the miracle, their faith in God is dependent upon the evidence of signs and wonders. This is why disbelief is established in a believer who experiences something other than what they believed or thought should have happened.

So when you experience disbelief you must ask yourself, am I questioning my Father simply because things have not worked out as I intended? Is my faith in Him based on whether I am pleased with the outcome?

This is where you mature in your walk with Him. Where you grow from being the center of your relationship to Him being the center. This is where He begins to lead rather than you leading.

Your prayers begin to shift from what I want to Father, what do you desire? This is the perfecting purpose of the season.

James 1:4

⁴ But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Teleios. Teleios from telos (τέλος), Strong's G5046, to have reached the intended end, full grown, complete, wanting nothing. (Greek)

Tamim. Tamim from tamam (תמם), Strong's H8549, complete, whole, without defect, full maturity, nothing lacking. (Hebrew)

the road to emmaus

I now want to shift your attention to Luke 24:13-35.

It is here that we see two individuals in the midst of their own wilderness. Two believers questioning God because things did not turn out the way they believed they should and would.

Two believers, discouraged in their faith, standing at their own waters of Meribah. Two believers operating from a misunderstood doctrine.

These two believers are a picture of you. You can see through them the very seasons you experience in your own journey as you walk and grow deeper in your relationship with God.

Let us read the scripture.

Luke 24:13-35

¹³ And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. ¹⁴ And they talked together of all these things which had happened. ¹⁵ And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. ¹⁶ But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. ¹⁷ And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? ¹⁸ And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? ¹⁹ And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: ²⁰ And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. ²¹ But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. ²² Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; ²³ And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. ²⁴ And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. ²⁵ Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ²⁶ Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? ²⁷ And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. ²⁸ And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. ²⁹ But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. ³⁰ And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it , and brake, and gave to them. ³¹ And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. ³² And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? ³³ And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, ³⁴ Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. ³⁵ And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

Ekratounto. Ekratounto from krateo (κρατέω), Strong's G2902, to hold fast, to restrain, to keep from, to be held back. (Greek)

Now before we go any further I want to create context around what is taking place and what we know about these two individuals accompanied by Jesus.

For starters,

These two had spent time with Jesus. They knew Him, spent time with the apostles, and were familiar with Scripture and prophecy. These two are possibly Mary, the sister of Jesus's mother, and her husband Cleopas. This is suggested by reading John 19:25, where in the Greek, Cleopas and Cleophas are the same name.

This is speculation, not fact. But it is a speculation that teaches us something important. Proximity does not exempt you from moments of disbelief.

This event takes place following Jesus's resurrection, which they had heard about and were aware of. They were leaving Jerusalem with discouraged hearts. In a moment of disbelief.

As I stated, these two believers are a picture of you. Every believer will be faced, in their own way, with the experience that reveals the validity of their faith. Every believer will have their heart made known through the hunger and suffering of their faith.

Deuteronomy 8:3

³ And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

Not as a means of punishment, but as a means of growth and development through refinement. And you will. You will question that which you believe and know to be true.

But today I want to encourage you. Because while you can see yourself in these two, you also have the opportunity to see the character and nature of our Father in Jesus.

how jesus met them

Now let us look at Jesus's response. He is our good shepherd who left the ninety-nine to come for His one. Jesus did not wait to appear to the gathered apostles in Jerusalem. He went to these two discouraged believers before them.

He did not condemn them in their season of disbelief. He did not cast them away because of it. He went after them, patiently spent time with them, ministered to them from the Word, and ate with them.

What is so fascinating is how He went about this encounter. He did not reveal who He was so that they might be simply amazed into belief. No.

He took His time and allowed the Word to reveal the truth and build their hearts of belief back up. He fed them the Word. He sustained their faith in the midst of their weariness. He will sustain yours.

I Corinthians 1:8-9

⁸ Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

He questioned them in a manner that their answers would reveal the state of their faith. He gave them their point A and walked them through to their point B, which was belief in who Jesus was. He met them in their confusion and walked them all the way through to clarity.

Lastly,

He took His time with them. He did not rush. He walked through the Word in detail, communed with them in their home, and was close and intimate with them. He ate with them.

It was then that He opened their eyes that they might see who He was. That is a Father who desires that His child grows and matures in their faith, and who takes His time in the process of their maturity. He does not force. He does not impose.

Kingdom citizen,

operate from a declaration

You serve a faithful God who will not forsake you. He will sustain you in the relationship, through the seasons you cannot anticipate, at times cannot recognize, and find challenging to navigate.

No longer question whether you will continue in belief, or whether He will bring you back to belief if you enter into a season of disbelief. No longer operate from a question.

Operate from a declaration. My Father is faithful. He will longsuffer for me. He will sustain me in seasons of unbelief. He will strengthen me when I am weak and discouraged.

In your weakness His strength is made known. It is perfected.

II Corinthians 12:9

⁹ And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Rest in Him choosing you before the foundations of the earth. Not in your performance or your self-will to continue believing.

Today I want you to rejoice in this understanding and declare it over yourself. He does not seek to cut you off or forsake you in the midst of your childlike seasons of disbelief.

He will come for you. He will comfort you. He will sustain you in Him.

And He has not left you to walk this journey alone. The same Father who walked with the two on the road to Emmaus has sent you a Comforter. One who will walk with you through every season you cannot anticipate, every moment you cannot recognize, and every road you find challenging to navigate.

John 14:16-17

¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; ¹⁷ Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

Parakleton. Parakleton from parakletos (παράκλητος), Strong's G3875, one called alongside, an intercessor, an advocate, a helper. (Greek)

He does not send you into the wilderness without provision. He sends the provision into the wilderness with you.

Ask, seek, and knock. And our Father, who gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask, will sustain you through every season of your Emmaus road.