And I did not recognise him, but the one who sent me to baptise with water said to me, 'The one on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining--this is the one who baptises with the Holy Spirit.' John 1:33 (NET)
"I did not recognise him." Think about the magnitude of this confession that John makes. John, whom Jesus describes as the greatest of the prophets who came before. John whose very ministry and calling was to point to and reveal the Lamb of God at his coming. When the time came, John admits that, at least with his natural eyes, he did not recognise Jesus!
If that was true for John, it makes me consider if at times it is not also true for us too. Like Jacob's exclamation of Bethel there can be times where "Surely the Lord was in this place and I knew it not!"
I think of the Emmaus road, where two disciples whose hearts burned within them as they saw Jesus revealed in the pages of the scriptures, were still ignorant of the fact that the Lord himself was walking beside them.
I think of the parable of the sheep and the goats, where some will say "When did we see you naked or hungry or in need of clothing?" They had met with Jesus and knew it not.
You see, I think the greatest act of discernment is not seeing Jesus in the heavens at the right hand of God where we worship him as Lord and saviour. It is not seeing Jesus in the pages of the scriptures, as exciting and heart stirring as that is. It is not even recognising the dynamic charismata in the church gathering. It doesn't take much discernment to see when the Spirit descends like fire. No, it is in the peaceful abiding anointing that rests on our everyday brothers and sisters who walk life's road beside us. When we recognise that Jesus walks beside us in the peaceful abiding anointing of the Spirit that is on our neighbour in the church. When we submit to one another out of reverence to the presence of Jesus himself. It is then that our eyes have truly been opened.
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