I have a growing sense of something that began with a 'knowing' that Yeshua was not born knowing who He was, but He saw who He was, recognizing Himself in scripture.
We are told to read scripture and insert our name into prophecies to make it more personal and real to us, but I believe that we can go even farther than that because it must have been exactly how Yeshua learned who He was, and what He was sent to do. He learned by reading the scriptures and recognizing Himself in prophecies. He saw Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son at the instruction of God. He saw the lamb of God, the Passover sacrifice and God quickened the passages to Him - who He was and what He was sent to do. Even though tested by satan many times, Yeshua believed what He saw and accepted it from His Father.
As we earnestly pour over the scriptures, I think most of us know the experience of having God "quicken" or make a verse come alive to us in a greater, deeper, more personal way than we have ever read it before. This is God speaking to us in His Word. We seek Him and He reveals not only Himself to us, but He also reveals who we were made to be. It is more than an exercise in putting our names into scriptures, it is the interaction of the Holy Spirit guiding our path into fully serving the LORD. Not everyone is called to lay down their life physically, but some are and we are all called to lay down our lives in a way that we do God's will and not our own.
There have been all sorts of people who get deceived and think they are John the Baptist, Jesus, the prophet Jeremiah or take your pick. These are devilish delusions meant to scare believers off from seeing who they are and what they are called to from the Holy Spirit's making alive key passages to us. The world cannot understand these things and think anyone who believes these things are like the delusional psychos who murder their own children or other heinous ungodly acts claiming to be God's "chosen" apostle or prophet. But is is exactly as the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth:
1 Corinthians 2:13-14 And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."
The first time we ever see God speak audibly over Yeshua was at His baptism. It very well could have been the first time The Father had EVER spoken audibly to Yeshua. I say this because of the Hebrews 2:14-17
14 He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death....17 For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, in order to make atonement for the sins of the people.
This audible voice of God spoken over Yeshua at baptism were in fulfillment of Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1. The first time it was for the benefit of John the Baptist. The God speaks audibly again on the Mount of Transformation for the benefit of Peter, James and John the brother of James. There Yeshua was transformed in glory before their eyes. James, the brother of John would be executed years later when Herod arrested Peter and James to the delight of unbelieving Jewish in Israel. Paul who had been a vicious persecutor of believers in Jerusalem before seeing Yeshua in His glory and coming to faith, "just happened" to be witness of the events that unfolded in Acts 21.
Even though he had formerly been a Jewish persecutor of Jewish followers of Yeshua, the events he witnessed in Jerusalem - the loss of James to enemies of Yeshua - would reveal to Paul a new, critical facet of his mission to the Gentiles. He would see how he too would be required to lay down his life at the Father's bidding, which Paul did when he returned to Jerusalem several years later carrying the collection of financial aid to the apostles in Israel from the Gentile churches he was responsible for overseeing.
All these things are connected to where we are all being led, into a deeper following in the footsteps of Messiah, and laying down our lives to God's purposes. In John 21 Peter questions Yeshua: John 21:20-22
20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. He was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper to ask, “Lord, who is going to betray You?” 21 When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” 22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you? You follow Me!”
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