Matthew 16:16-23 says, ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.

²¹ From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. ²² Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” ²³ But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

Dear Reader,

For clarification purposes, let me explain the title of this blog, “Jaws of Victory.” Usually, I think of jaws of anything as a defeat, right? In this case I’m thinking of a lion receiving the benefits of capturing his/her prey. The lion eats the catch and benefits from the nutrients it offers. I know that may sound a bit crude, and there may be a better analogy, but it likens to me the idea of destroying the works of the devil and without the devil’s influence, the Kingdom of God and all the benefits can more clearly be seen and experienced. Sometimes it does take a bit of ferociousness to overcome whatever thought patterns to which we default like words that may reside on the tip of the tongue demanding  to be expressed. Or maybe, its the lies that exist in the facts that distort what appears to be. A bit of backbone and scriptural knowledge is needed to be strong and with words of faith, counter the lies.   Facts are not to be denied, but neither are they the final word when Jesus is Lord.

Easy to say, not always easy to do…Consider Peter.

I’m starting in the middle of Matthew 16 when Peter had just received the revelation of Jesus as the Christ (vs 16-20) and afterward Jesus revealed more about His suffering, Peter’s natural strategy kicked into gear, and he rebuked Jesus. His soul took over. His emotions and his mouth went into overdrive. This is not a new thing for Peter, he was impulsive before the Holy Spirit got a hold of him (Acts 2) and his impetuousness turned to fortitude and boldness. The Holy Spirit will change us. He changes what has been twisted by misconceptions, lies and manipulation into qualities of holiness for His Kingdom’s Sake, if we let him. We do become perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). But it does take some “reprogramming” and adjustment as to who is in charge, our soul (feelings, intellect, reasoning) or the Holy Spirit who gets a hold of us and dwells within, teaching, comforting, revealing, etc.

Peter, still battling with natural impulses, wanted to protect Jesus whom he had grown to love and believe in as the Messiah. In his error, he believed he was right because it made sense to him and had the outcome he desired. According to Peter’s wisdom, it didn’t make sense that Jesus would suffer. It was in this instance that the moment of faith was snatched from the jaws of victory for Peter because all he was seeing was what the facts revealed, and how he could fix the situation to avoid what he did not want to see happen. His obedient words of faith were short-circuited by his own reasoning and impatience because to him, the whole picture was evident and being set in his ways according to his own understanding (see Prov 3:5-6), he blurted out his own ideas which revealed an opening where Satan could enter and tempt him to abandon the moment of faith for one he could more readily understand and control.

Sin/disobedience is the way faithful people can be derailed and fall short of receiving the rewards of the Kingdom that God wants them to have. God doesn’t want that to be. It hurts the ones He loves, and it delays the plan of God not only in their life, but also delays their part in the plan of God to be accomplished. An example might be Balaam, set on his own error to be paid for a prophecy against the Israelites. God took a moment to address him personally so he could see his error and live in victory. But he had to be rebuked by his own donkey to get his attention and highlight the stronghold upon his own heart that the enemy was using against the people of God. He could not see the big picture of what God was doing because it was clouded by his own ambitions and desires. Did Balaam change? Did the highlighting of the sin in Balaam’s heart change him? I don’t know. I do know that he was obedient to prophesy over the Israelites only what God told him to say. So, it may indicate he did have a change of heart. If not, then that tells us something, too. He still feared God and regardless of this personal ambition, he was not going to do anything to incur God’s wrath upon himself. (It wasn’t until later that the enemy got the Israelites to sin by marrying into the enemy camp and thus, they were eventually compromised in that way.)

But wait….

There are more facets revealed in this chapter regarding faith and what stands in the way of victory.

A little earlier in the same chapter the disciples realize that they had brought no bread with them. They began to discuss the matter and strive to solve the issue, looking for answers among themselves for a natural need.

Back up to Verse 5.

^“And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread. ⁶ And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” ⁷ They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.” ⁸ But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread? ⁹ Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets full you picked up? ¹⁰ Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets full you picked up? ¹¹ How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” ¹² Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

My first question was why did they forget the bread in the first place? Could it be that they had their mind on spiritual matters to such a degree that the natural need for bread in the future forgotten? Was it really neglected? Or were they in their spiritual existence resting in the reality of Christ among them?  

As soon as they started to get hungry in the natural, they dropped their focus from the Spiritual (4D) to the Natural (3D) realm. They now looked for a natural solution to the “oversight “to satisfy the need. They they looked to their own ability to answer the need. The disciples sank from a 4D experience with Christ (walking in Faith) to a 3D experience (soulish demands and evidence) and began to do what was natural from childhood:

Employ their own ability to solve problems.

The problem was not that the disciples were using their God-given creativity to solve a problem. The issue was that they did not remember Christ among them had the answers and ability to provide regarding the need. They did not remember, until Jesus reminded them, that the Kingdom was at hand (Matthew 3 and Matthew 4, Matthew 6), and they did not need to strive while within His care. To be honest I catch myself in this as well. It is getting more automatic to remember, but I had to train myself to do this. It wasn’t automatic. It wasn’t because I am a sinner that I went into auto pilot striving to satisfy a need, but I did need to be corrected because BEFORE Jesus was Lord of my Life and the Holy Spirit became integral part in my walking out my salvation, I WAS a sinner and learned some bad habits.

It is by these moments of faith and obedience that we move from glory to glory.  Through obedience we gain understanding of the bigger picture of what God is doing and Who He is and who we are in Him. Through worship we receive His downloads and corrections as we focus on Him. He reveals more of Who He is, and we worship Him. As we worship Him we see more of Who He is and Who we are in Him….etc..

The more we deny self and step into faithful obedience despite our feelings and intellect, apply the faith word to the world facts, we will see Truth of Christ and His Kingdom. Moment by moment, step by step the light of Spirit Life illuminates Truth.

But what about the leaven Jesus warned of? How does this fit in?

Tune into the next Blog to find it out.

In the meantime,

Be blessed and encouraged. May moments of faith you encounter and obedience with which you respond reveal what God is doing and your next steps of faith as part of that plan.   May you continue to act faithfully in all you accomplish and may your faithfulness testify to the Love of Christ. The moments of victory are at your fingertips if you will believe in the one who provides them and be obedient to do the good works prepared in advance for you to accomplish.

Grace and peace,

Anne

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18