Spiritual Triage

Sometimes we look at things in the natural when in reality it needs to be viewed in the supernatural.

Let me give an example here from the gospel of Matthew.

Jesus, Peter, James, and John have just come down from the Mount of Transfiguration and they walk smack into a problem the other nine disciples are having concerning the healing of a young man. In the absence of Jesus it appears they were not able to secure what was needed to relieve the boy from his problem. It also appears that there was some confusion as to what was actually wrong with the boy.

The boy's father thought it was epilepsy. 

Matthew 17:15 (AMP) - "Lord, do pity and have mercy on my son, for he has epilepsy (is moonstruck) and he suffers terribly; for frequently he falls into the fire and many times into the water."

Apparently the disciples believed it was too.

vs. 16 - "And I brought him to Your disciples, and they were not able to cure him."

 In the natural, and not discerned through spiritual eyes in a supernatural Holy Spirit manner, it would very well look like epilepsy. It did then, and it would also today.

HOWEVER...

...Jesus intervened.

vs. 17 - "And Jesus answered, O you unbelieving (warped, wayward, rebellious) and thoroughly perverse generation! How long am I to remain with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to Me."

"Bring him here to me."  Jesus preferred they would have handled it. This is why He gave us the authority to heal the sick and cast out demons. He wants US to deal with it! Particularly since He is now seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. We are His Body (The Church). We need to sharpen our discernment. We need to see between the two realms of the natural/supernatural because we live in both as believers.

18 - "And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly."

It wasn't epilepsy! The boy wasn't a "lunatic" (effected by the moon phase). 

It was a demon! Jesus knew it immediately, and He rebuked the disciples for not knowing what it was!

They were not operating in the gift of discernment. They were not using their supernatural authority.

In Jesus' eyes they failed. Failure brings rebuke. None of us want to be there.

Jesus also accused the disciples of not being prayed up, and perhaps not fasting. He says that the type of demon the boy had was best dealt with by those who were sharp in their spiritual discipline (vs. 21).

If we are going to be The Church (instead of just "doing" church), then we have to learn to discern, and be mindful at all times of who we are, where we are, and what we are doing. 

If we are going to shake the gates of hell and proactively disallow hell to prevail against us, then we need to be sharper than what we have seen in this passage.

We have an advantage. We have the Spirit of the Living Christ in us, which was something the disciples did not have at that moment.

Keepin' it Real,

Pastor Kevin <><

www.reallifect.com