Luke 7:37-39
³⁷And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, ³⁸And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. ³⁹Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.
To behold is to look and perceive. You can invite Jesus in your life and still not behold the manner of man you have invited in your life!! The Pharisee had invited Jesus but nevertheless didn’t really perceive who He truly was but this woman knew something, she knew this was her beginning and the end, her access point, her redemption, her forgiveness and cleansing, she knew this was a man worthy of laying aside pride and shame alike if she was to enjoy of His glory.
We have seen men kiss the feet of men of God, and it seemed like worship of a mere Man, but Have you ever come to that place of perception ask examine why a Man of sound mind would do an act of that nature, what the revelation behind it could be, have you looked beyond to see what they see?
We have read of men in the ancient, Lot (Gen 19:1), Balaam among others met angels and bowed not in worship but in honor because they beheld!!
Numbers 22:31
Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.
The Pharisees saw a mere man in Jesus (Luke 7:30) and missed the point, rejecting the purpose of God towards themselves while the Samaritan woman saw something far beyond humanity that she said come see a man ( John 4:29)..There was something she saw, something she perceived and in that she received a part of Christ that the Pharisees missed.
What is it that drove the woman with the alabaster oil to spend the luxury at Jesus’s feet!! Judas saw a waste of resources yet he was a said disciple of Jesus,(most likely a fan not a true follower!) It is one thing to perceive the kind of man that you serve under and that thing that He holds, to look beyond and see beyond the surface of the man on the pulpit, because there is something peculiar they hold, the key to unleash everything, the secrets of heaven all embedded in one man through Christ, the Man behind the Man of God!!
It is the Christ that breaks chains, that breaks boundaries, racial prejudice, the one in whom all things consists.
Mary kept at the feet of Jesus possibly because she beheld something others didn’t behold. Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying” (Luke 10:39). She knew that deep within are rivers of Life flowing from within this Man Jesus, that even when Lazarus died!! She still waited on Jesus and said if only you were here he wouldn’t have died; (what faith even in evident defeat/loss she still knew He held the key to life)
John 11:32
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
She knew Jesus was far beyond men that He would even cross beyond death! Like a river that carried life to wherever it went.
When the word of God came to Jeremiah, he was asked that which He sees repeatedly, more than once emphasis is on seeing and perceiving… ( Jeremiah:1:11ff).
It is one thing to look and another to behold (that that you behold you become!! ..)
That is why it is written that we behold the word as we become. One can be part of a prophetic ministry and miss out because they have failed to Behold. They have eyes but don’t see, surely let us not be blind folded like Balaam ( Num 22:21-31) who saw not the angel before Him, nor the Pharisees that they saw not the manner of man Jesus was but let us behold and in beholding is where everything bursts forth, like a life flowing river , every thing comes to life that is in its path.
Child of God, position Yourself in the rivers paths.
Prophetic Utterance:
I discern God, I discern the life of God in His word,
I receive the living word of God, my life is no more in the flesh but in the quickening (life giving Spirit of God)
I Live because He lives.
I receive His message packaged in His messenger.
I have the life of God in me.
Guiding Text:
John 4:29
²⁹“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰They came out of the town and made their way toward him.