He Knows Our Thoughts!

Matthew 12:22-32
New International Version (NIV)

 ²² Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. ²³ All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”

²⁴ But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”

²⁵ Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. ²⁶ If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? ²⁷ And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. ²⁸ But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

²⁹ “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.

³⁰ “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. ³¹ And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. ³² Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

(http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2012:%2022-32&version=NIV)

All that I can say here is “WOW!”, but maybe you would like to know why I said “WOW!” so I will write a little more.  Jesus said a lot in these passages but first I want to look at what He didn’t say.  Look at verse 25, it says “Jesus knew their thoughts”.  It doesn’t say that Jesus heard what they were saying and responded, it said that He knew their thoughts.  Satan does not know our thoughts.  You have to speak your words out loud to satan because he is not God.  Only God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit can know our thoughts.  Jesus knew their thoughts, isn’t that a WOW!  One more point to prove that Jesus was God incarnate.   God, walking amongst the people He created just like He did in the Garden.  Just like in the Garden, satan came in and tried to destroy and he worked through the Pharisees who were supposed to be men of God.  Funny how people like to blame the women for the first sin and right here we see a sin by the pharisees far greater than the sin that Eve and Adam. 

Why do I say this is sin is greater than the sin in the Garden?  Look at verse 32, it stood out to me today so strongly  “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”  Who would not be forgiven in the garden?  Yes, satan.  He spoke lies regarding God’s intent for His people.  Now Eve did not speak against God but she did get tempted by satan and ate of the fruit.  The sin was not complete until Adam too ate of the fruit.  They sinned, but they recognized their sin and they acted upon it, they hid.  This tells us that they still felt guilt, they did not sin against the Holy Spirit but they were convicted by the Holy Spirit.  The only one that sinned against the Holy Spirit was satan who had no remorse for what he said or what he did.  Now look a little closer at this passage, the pharisees told a flat out lie, trying to get people to turn against God.  They said that He was from satan.  They not only questioned His actions but they questioned His motives.  Does that remind you of the Garden, it does me.  ⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203:%204%20-%205&version=NIV)

Satan questioned the motives of God and His instructions saying that He was not looking out for the people but only Himself.  Do you see the similarities, the pharisees were questioning Jesus motives, saying they were from satan.  They were trying to divide the house of God and so was satan .

As I thought of this my mind jumped to one more person that I had always questioned if I would see him in Heaven and that is Judas.  Now, I am not the judge overall so these are just my thoughts I will only know for sure when I am sitting at the throne of God.  But from what I can tell from scripture, Judas did not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit but he did sin against the Son of Man.  What does Jesus say regarding sinning against the Son of Man, you will be forgiven.  If you look in the scriptures of the account of Judas in Matthew 27 you will find that Judas admits that he had sinned and he gave back the money and went and hanged himself.  The Holy Spirit was at work in Judas and he repented, he did not ignore the Holy Spirit but he acted upon what the Holy Spirit was telling him was a sin.  He knew he did wrong and he confessed his sin.  Judas clearly sinned against the Son of Man, just as Peter did when he denied Him (Matthew 26:69 -75) but Jesus said that it is when you blaspheme against the Holy Spirit that you cannot be forgiven.  Even those who crucified Christ, who spat upon Him and beat Him, recognized that He was the Son of God, Matthew 27:54, were they forgiven, I believe so if they confessed Jesus as Lord and acted upon what the Holy Spirit told them and in Luke 23:48 it says that “all the people that witnessed this sight beat their breasts and went away”.  I doubt the pharisees were witness to this, they could not be bothered to go to the hill and we never see where they confessed that He was the son of God.  To this day, the Jewish leaders do not claim that Jesus was the Son of God.

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as I see it is outright speaking a lie against the Holy Spirit.  This can be to others or it can be within us.  What?  How?  Satan spoke a lie to Eve questioning God’s motives, saying He cared more about Himself than the welfare of others.  The pharisees also spoke against the Holy Spirit saying that the works of Jesus were from satan.  When we are called by the Holy Spirit there is a definite fight that goes on within us.  Some people will right out deny the Holy Spirit telling Him to “go away, they want to live their life the way they want to live it and they don’t want to be bothered by Him.  They will speak against the Holy Spirit causing others to turn from Him as well.  They may appear to be people that are highly educated in the word of God, they may be people who appear to be righteous but when they divide the house of God they are not for the house of God.  We all sin but the sin that is the only one to not be forgiven is the sin of not recognizing the One True God for who He is and accepting Him as the One to guide you through life.  Taking other people down in the process is part of that sin.  The fight that goes on inside of us when the Holy Spirit is at work is the fight our will or His will.  I was told one time that as long as we feel guilty, as long as we have that fight going on inside of us, we can be assured we have not blasphemed against the Holy Spirit.  This is evidenced through both satan and the pharisees. 

Remember today that Jesus knows your thoughts, what are you thinking?   As you seek Him and find Him, you will find a God who cares deeply for the welfare of His people, you will find a God that speaks to you through His Holy Spirit and begs you to come to Him.  Don’t ignore His call, be forgiven and be free to live for Him.

 Seeking Him with all my heart,

 Sheila  

Just a little side note:  If you notice in my writings I always use an upper case letter when using the word He, His, Him if I am referring to Christ.  I always use a lower case letter (unless it is the beginning of a sentence) when I refer to satan.  I know the proper English way to write this but I was told that you always use an upper case letter when using the word “I” because you are important so I figured if I were important than I should always use an upper case letter for my Lord.  In the same way, I don’t believe that satan deserves an upper case letter and after my readings today I don’t think the pharisees deserve it either.  Proper English or not, I choose to not us upper case letters unless my spellcheck changes it in an auto correct!