Were you aware that God is not overly interested in our resumés nor our list of spiritual accomplishments? Paul, who had an impressive one himself, considered his to be as worthless as ‘dung’. (Phil. 3:8 KJV). And those folks in Matt. 7:21-23 who according to Jesus, had been busy doing a lot of impressive things for His Kingdom...yeah...God was not ‘wowed’ by them either. In fact, they were ‘denied’ entrance into the kingdom for one reason alone: They continued to practice sin.

And then there were those Pharisees I mentioned yesterday, the ones Jesus had a run in with in John 8. It sounds as if they were leaning heavily on their ‘lineage’, boasting how ‘of course they were children of God’ given they were descendants of Abraham (8:33-39). You know the type...overly smug and confident, bordering on self-righteousness because they are a ‘fifth-generation- (insert denomination of your choice)’. They are so steeped in their ‘church’s’ doctrines and traditions that they actually get offended when they hear other passages and scriptures that don’t ‘fit’ with their church doctrine. (Mark 7:6-13)

Do you remember what Jesus flat out told them? He said that the ‘devil was their father’ and that they were unable to even ‘understand’ His words. (43-44).

Did you know that the condition of our hearts sets the stage for our ability to even understand what God is saying? No, really...take a look at Matt. 13, in the parable of the sower that Jesus spoke about. Someone who has a hard heart, when they hear the word of God and does not understand it...the wicked one comes and takes it away from their heart. (19). But the person who had ‘good ground’, or a good heart...received the word and understands it’ ...and ends up producing a lot of good fruit. (23). Fruit matters, and so does the condition of our hearts. (Matt. 15:1-9; 12:33-37; 1 Sam. 16:7)

So what was Jesus suggesting the condition of these Pharisees hearts were in by saying they were not even able to ‘hear or understand’ what He was telling them? And if you are not careful, you will miss this very important truth that followed Jesus telling them they were children of the devil, despite their resumés and pedigree - “The desires of your father...you WANT to do!”

Once again, so much of this turning to Jesus, and beginning to follow or ‘abide’ in Him boils down to our ‘want-to’ factor. We talked about this yesterday. And the amazing thing about Jesus is He gives us that opportunity to express to Him what it is that we want. We even have several recorded instances where He just flat out asked people: “What do you want?” He did that with a man who was infirm for 38 years (John 5:6) and then Bartimaeus, the blind man in Mark 10:51. And what was this blind man’s response? - “I want to see”.

Guess what Jesus did for him right then? We are told: “...immediately he received his sight...and followed Jesus on the road.” (52)

So what do YOU want? Would you really like to see your faith revived, your eyes opened and your understanding of truth made clear as to what is really happening today in this hour? Before you answer that question, what you really need to be sure of is this: Are you ready to take your ‘faith’ to a new level that goes way beyond ‘just believing/trusting’ in Jesus...where you actually ‘take up your bed and walk’, which means you ‘follow Him’ and ‘do whatever He tells you’? (John 2:5) Because if you really love Him, you will. (John 14:15)