Jesus after speaking to His disciples went with them to the Kidron valley where there was a garden. Judas knew the place for He went there many times. Judas came with the soldiers, they were with torches and weapons. Jesus asked them who they sought and they answered Him Jesus. Jesus admitted it was He and they went back and fell to the ground.
This is the only recorded falling backwards in the gospels, and it was not the disciples but the Roman soldiers. The disciples always fell prostrate on their faces towards the ground in worship and reverence.
Today we see many people fall like these Roman soldiers and many get excited and are in a hurry to rise and testify and then continue to live the selfish way of life they are used to be revealing that the experience did not change them but only excited them.
What is from God will only lead you to God. To know Him more, to love Him more, to deny yourself more....
Jesus asked again and said He was the one they were seeking and they should let the disciples go free.
Peter drew his sword and cut of the ear of a soldier but Jesus picked up and healed Him.
Jesus asked Peter to put back His sword, for the Father had given Him the cup to drink. The sword was not to defend Jesus. Jesus did not need Peter to defend Him. He already heard the voice of the Father concerning the situation He would face and the Lord said that He had to go through that way for Him to fulfill His purpose. Even the disciples, God does not exempt us from all the sufferings others face in the world, but He allows us to experience part of it mostly for our chastening and purification. 1Pet 1:6-7, 4:12-13, Heb 12:5-11. Each disciple have their own share of afflictions, and if we are listening to God, we will not be stranded. The most important thing that every disciple must learn is to develop a listening ear to the voice of God. This we learn through meditation on God's word and spending time in prayer.
The voice of God always leads you to the way of the cross. To crucify your self-life will and it's desires to do God's will. The voice of God always brings deep peace within. Rom 8:6, 13-14, Gal 5:16-17.
Jesus was arrested and taken to Anna's. Simon Peter followed Jesus together with John. He could not have entered but because to the high priest, they were allowed to enter. If Peter came alone he could not have entered, and also he could not have been tempted to deny Jesus.
We learn here that God will not shield us from facing temptations, but in the temptations, He wants to make us conquerers. It is through facing temptations and overcoming them that we grow spiritually, just like it by doing tests in a school that students move from a lower class to a higher class. Therefore, whenever you face a temptation, you should know that you have been given an opportunity to go to a higher level, a higher maturity, to a greater glory than before. God has promised that He will never allow you to be tempted beyond your ability but with every temptation He will make a way out so that we can endure it. 1Cor 10:13. This means that you can overcome every temptation that will ever come to you and there is a way out of every temptation, thus you need not fear.
Peter denied Jesus three times as we know. Why did God allow that. This was to humble Peter. He was self confident and even had said He would never do such a thing and He was even to die with Jesus even if all the others wouldn't. Luk 22:33-34.
God allows failure even today to humble our self-confidence. God must bring us to a point where we acknowledge that without Him we will definitely fail. Where we cannot dare do anything without seeking His power. Where we recognise that there is nothing good in our flesh and that our flesh is capable of committing every manner of sin that men commit. To reach us here, God has to humble us repeatedly through failure and in most cases He does not succeed because many do not surrender completely.
It is only when we are brought to this place that God gives us His authority. Many are powerless because God has not succeeded in breaking them.
Have the failures you have experienced succeeded in humbling you?
You are blessed to be a blessing
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@Blessed Mshindi Mambo
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