Rewards when receiving a 'God-sent'
In Mark 6:1-6, the Bible records a passage where Jesus went to His hometown and where He ministered through His teachings. His listeners were amazed at what He was teaching BUT they were offended by His earthly origins and His past upbringing. Earthly speaking, Jesus was coming from a regular family and He had a career in carpentry before the ministry (reference verse 3).
Those two elements offended His audience, even though they were amazed by His teachings. Jesus audience could not receive Him as a true Prophet (though He was more than a Prophet) and as a result of their incredulity, they could not experience significant miracles from Him, except for a few healing occurrences.
In Matthew 10:41, Jesus says:'Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.'
You cannot receive the full rewards of a prophet or of a righteous if you don't fully receive them. In Mark 6:1-6, Jesus was partially received due to His earthly origins. They would listen to His teachings but their personal views would be blocked by His earthly origins.
There will be times in your life where you will pray for God to send you key people who will help you in your life assignment. But know this: ' sometimes,God will give you people in a package that you won't like'. You may not like the package or you may even feel offended by their package but they are fully qualified to help you in your life assignment. Those God-sent people are the responses to your prayer.
You have to be careful not to be offended all the time. Most people in Jesus audience were offended by His origins just like many people get offended by the package containing the responses to their prayers. The offense can get you out of your destiny in the blink of an eye...
In my opinion, I think that Jesus audience had an expectation of what a Prophet or a God-sent should be. And their expectations clashed with God's response. All too often, people fail to receive the answer to their prayers because they set human expectations on how God's response should look like. And as long as God's response does not match their human expectation, they will do those two things:
1. Either they will crumble in personal doubt
OR
2. they will keep saying: 'if this is from You, Lord, please show me a sign...'
--
In 1 Kings 17:7-16, God sends Elijah to a destitute widow. If you read the story carefully, you will notice that God had directed the destitute widow to supply food for the prophet. The widow was given clear instructions on what to do before the prophet came.
God is not an abuser and He will not give you stones if you ask Him for a bread (reference Matthew 7:7-12). In order to help you in overcoming doubt and the fear of abuse, God will speak to you in advance about the people He will send to you, just like He did with the Zarephath widow.
It was possible for the Zarephath widow to supply food for Elijah because she had a headstart (in terms of instruction) from God about Elijah and on how to treat him (reference verse 9).
When God will send people in your life, He will also speak to you about them. However, if you can't receive the God-sent, then there is a problem in your relationship with God. In other words, you still don't really trust God. Though 'doubt' is a natural-fleshly inclination that may occur in most people's lives, it remains a dangerous place to choose as permanent residence.
You will never get any reward or praise for permanently doubting the word of God. Sooner or later, you will have to overcome doubt by following the voice of God.
If you really trust God, you will do as He says. People ,who don't trust God, live according to their doubts.
The Zarephath widow received her full reward because she received Elijah as she was instructed to do so.
On the other hand, Jesus could NOT do miracles, except lay hands and heal a few sick people, because He was not fully received since His audience did not believe in whom He was (Mark 6:5).
Sometimes we expect a God-sent to fully perform and reward us while we fail to receive them. And sometimes God,in His mercy,can allow for the performance of few signs through His God-sent in order to clear any stubborn doubts as in Mark 6:1-6.
Besides healing miracles, signs can be inclusive of other things such as wisdom or any other gift. And the expression 'God-sent' does not only limit itself to a prophet or a preacher, but it is also inclusive of any person that God sends in your life.
Either way, the spiritual math remains as Jesus described it in Matthew 10:42:
'Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”
If you fail to receive a God-sent, there will be no rewards. But if you succeed in receiving a God-sent, then you will get your reward.
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Those two elements offended His audience, even though they were amazed by His teachings. Jesus audience could not receive Him as a true Prophet (though He was more than a Prophet) and as a result of their incredulity, they could not experience significant miracles from Him, except for a few healing occurrences.
In Matthew 10:41, Jesus says:'Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.'
You cannot receive the full rewards of a prophet or of a righteous if you don't fully receive them. In Mark 6:1-6, Jesus was partially received due to His earthly origins. They would listen to His teachings but their personal views would be blocked by His earthly origins.
There will be times in your life where you will pray for God to send you key people who will help you in your life assignment. But know this: ' sometimes,God will give you people in a package that you won't like'. You may not like the package or you may even feel offended by their package but they are fully qualified to help you in your life assignment. Those God-sent people are the responses to your prayer.
You have to be careful not to be offended all the time. Most people in Jesus audience were offended by His origins just like many people get offended by the package containing the responses to their prayers. The offense can get you out of your destiny in the blink of an eye...
In my opinion, I think that Jesus audience had an expectation of what a Prophet or a God-sent should be. And their expectations clashed with God's response. All too often, people fail to receive the answer to their prayers because they set human expectations on how God's response should look like. And as long as God's response does not match their human expectation, they will do those two things:
1. Either they will crumble in personal doubt
OR
2. they will keep saying: 'if this is from You, Lord, please show me a sign...'
--
In 1 Kings 17:7-16, God sends Elijah to a destitute widow. If you read the story carefully, you will notice that God had directed the destitute widow to supply food for the prophet. The widow was given clear instructions on what to do before the prophet came.
God is not an abuser and He will not give you stones if you ask Him for a bread (reference Matthew 7:7-12). In order to help you in overcoming doubt and the fear of abuse, God will speak to you in advance about the people He will send to you, just like He did with the Zarephath widow.
It was possible for the Zarephath widow to supply food for Elijah because she had a headstart (in terms of instruction) from God about Elijah and on how to treat him (reference verse 9).
When God will send people in your life, He will also speak to you about them. However, if you can't receive the God-sent, then there is a problem in your relationship with God. In other words, you still don't really trust God. Though 'doubt' is a natural-fleshly inclination that may occur in most people's lives, it remains a dangerous place to choose as permanent residence.
You will never get any reward or praise for permanently doubting the word of God. Sooner or later, you will have to overcome doubt by following the voice of God.
If you really trust God, you will do as He says. People ,who don't trust God, live according to their doubts.
The Zarephath widow received her full reward because she received Elijah as she was instructed to do so.
On the other hand, Jesus could NOT do miracles, except lay hands and heal a few sick people, because He was not fully received since His audience did not believe in whom He was (Mark 6:5).
Sometimes we expect a God-sent to fully perform and reward us while we fail to receive them. And sometimes God,in His mercy,can allow for the performance of few signs through His God-sent in order to clear any stubborn doubts as in Mark 6:1-6.
Besides healing miracles, signs can be inclusive of other things such as wisdom or any other gift. And the expression 'God-sent' does not only limit itself to a prophet or a preacher, but it is also inclusive of any person that God sends in your life.
Either way, the spiritual math remains as Jesus described it in Matthew 10:42:
'Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”
If you fail to receive a God-sent, there will be no rewards. But if you succeed in receiving a God-sent, then you will get your reward.