Would Jesus stand up for you? (blog)
I've had this on my heart for weeks now. The Lord works in me through titles. What do I mean by that? I mean, I hear Him say something, and then I write it down as a title given to me for either a blog or a word that is to come. I pray into it until I sense the Lord would have me share more about it. This came to me as a question: Would Jesus stand up for you?' That certainly got me to thinking and praying.
These last few years, the Lord has certainly moved us all out of a place of comfort where many fell asleep while allowing our enemy to move into our schools, government, entertainment, workforce, churches, and even our homes. I often call this the frog in the pot, and recently shared on that in a Prodigals podcast, where I see how they did it with great patience. They (the Luciferians) put together a plan many years ago and then had the patience to walk it out. If you have a pot of cold water and put a frog in it, he will be fine, comfortable, and enjoying the space, never noticing that the heat keeps getting turned up because it happens so slowly, and if that frog doesn't figure it out or feel it somehow, it will literally die because there will come a time when the water becomes too hot, boils and cooks it.
Although our times are very different from Stephen's in the book of Acts, the truth is that we have all gone through some pretty tough stuff and more persecution than we've ever experienced in our lifetimes. Only 20 years ago, we were considered a Christian nation, and then all it took was Barack Obama to come in and tell people that we were no longer a Christian nation, and people just accepted it. Oh, many of us grumbled about it, but honestly, what did anyone, including Christians in the House or the Senate, and especially the Church, do about it?
In these last days, the Lord has raised up countless prophets. Many that we'd never even heard of, and most of them had to make a decision to hear the voice of the Lord and stick with it, no matter what the media or others in the church thought or said. Sadly, some literally fell into deception and apologized publicly about what the Lord had told them about the 2020 Election results, and that brought even more confusion to the body of Jesus, as well as great persecution. In the middle of all of this, God was showing us who the Pharisees were. He was separating the sheep and the goats, and now we see that countless Christians became goats in our sight overnight.
Acts 7:51-53 NKJV
51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, 53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
One of the most important things we all need to know is that if we are doing the right thing, persecution will come. What I love about Stephen is that he never backed down or walked back his words to please men. He always preached the gospel. In fact, he was leading people to Jesus up to his dying breath. He was in a terrible situation and being accused of lies so that they could kill him in good conscience. Why? Because religion and religious people reason everything in their minds. They do not have the Holy Spirit. They do not ask the Holy Spirit what to do or what to say. They exalt themselves as gods and go with their mind that God has already told us is at enmity with Him (Romans 8:7).
We are aware of Hebrews 8:1, which says that Jesus is our High Priest seated at the right hand of the Father, which is why the story of Stephen is so amazing, because Stephen does not see Jesus seated; he actually sees him standing.
Acts 7:54-56 NKJV
54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
To me, this clearly means that Jesus stood up for Stephen. He saw what the people were doing to him, and He stood up as if to say, " That's it, now you've done it. It is, of course, after this that Saul is knocked off his horse, and amazingly, He says, why are you persecuting Me? This is an important statement because Saul was standing back and watching the men stone Stephen, but when Jesus addressed Saul, he didn't say, " Why did you do that to Stephan? No, He said, why are you persecuting Me? This is mind-blowing. It means that Jesus took it very personally when Stephen was killed and beloved, I believe wholeheartedly that He feels the same about you and me.
Acts 7:57-60 NKJV
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Why would Jesus stand up for you or me? Well, I believe that verse 60 tells us exactly why. Stephen was an exceptional man of God. Notice that while they were persecuting him, he continued to preach to them all from Abraham to the Prophets, he taught them until they would no longer listen. Stephen modeled Jesus in that he had a heart for the people. These evil, wicked religious men, in their jealousy, and probably fear and even ignorance, were deceived by the father of lies and made a decision to kill Stephen, but Stephen would not let them have his joy or his faith. The words of Jesus came out of Stephen's mouth in that verse.
Acts 7:60b NKJV
“Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
I will close by saying none of us is perfected in this, but if we truly walk with Jesus, obeying the Holy Spirit, we will become like Him. That is what Stephen did. He was completely sold out to Jesus, and even knowing the suffering that he would experience when those stones began to hit him, he still chose to shine. He chose to teach, preach, and love them anyway. He followed our greatest example of love and forgiveness, which is Jesus. He trusted God, and the Lord allowed him to look into the Heaven's and see that He was no longer sitting but standing up for him and that if there was any vengeance to take, it would be His. Jesus was clearly able to see who it was that had decided to touch His anointed.
1 Chronicles 16:22 NKJV
“Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm.”
Sheryl York 🕊️
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