Sunday during my hubby’s excellent message I was praying in the Spirit (I assured him I was listening even though I was praying audibly in tongues); and I distinctly heard the Spirit say, Holy Heart burn, look for it. I knew He was speaking of the two on the road to Emmaus who didn’t realize that Yeshua was walking with them as they went along the road to conduct their normal business. (Luke 24:13)
A little backdrop, the ladies had come back from an empty tomb and an angelic encounter, to tell the guys that Yeshua was risen and according to Luke it seemed like foolishness and they did not believe them. Peter did go to check it out but came back still unconvinced for Luke says he came back wondering what was up. Next a couple of the guys were going to Emmaus and were discussing the events trying to find a reasonable answer and behold Yeshua came near them. The kicker is they didn’t know it was Him. Can you imagine Cleophas’ chagrin later after finding out it was Yeshua who walked with him in that he had actually accused Him of being ignorant of what had been taking place? Oy Vey, Yeshua who had the only first hand experience of all that was going on as well as the spiritual understanding of it all, was being told basically that He was obviously a stranger to not know what had been going on. Pause in the Scriptural description, have we not also been guilty of accusing Yeshua of the same thing? We are going through perplexing times, stressing times, times of life and death for some of us and we have the audacity to ask Abba where He’s been? Or perhaps Ruach (the Spirit) comes with a word of grace and glory and we ask, ‘do You know what’s going on in my life, have You seen the state of the economy….” If Ruach were factious He might say, ‘Yo, We know everything, We are in control of everything, nothing has slipped up on Us. We are not having a strategic planning session due to changed circumstances to decide how to proceed from here. Our plans are right on track! Now you need to get with the program’. Actually He does speak to me in such a tone many times and I love it that He does what I call ‘nowspeak’ He uses crazy vernacular to really get my attention.
Okay, on the road again (all right, I couldn’t resist that fun pun) Yeshua plays along with them and ask what ‘things’ they are talking about. Arghh, they tell Him that a great prophet who they thought was ‘the One’ who was going to redeem Israel had been killed and now there were crazy rumors from the ladies that claimed to have talked to angels who said that He was alive. They then told Him some of them had at least been curious enough to go check it out and sure enough He wasn’t there but they didn’t see Him. I personally am extremely glad that He stopped them then lest they go from ignorant reasoning of the human kind to actual blasphemy. Have we not also been guilty at times of saying something along the lines of, ‘I thought God said that He was going to…I thought He would help me out of this situation, I thought I could depend on Him to help me out of this but it looks like I will have to do it myself…’ Note that Yeshua called them fools and slow of heart; I think the slow of heart is important for they had been trying to reason things out and had left out the heart part out of the equation. Our heart is extremely important in this journey on this road to Abba, it is written that we must guard our heart for it is the issuance of life (Prov. 4:23). Dave’s message contained the Scripture from Roman’s 10:9-10, with the heart one believes... (told ya I was listening); hence Yeshua was pointing out to them that by being slow in heart, they were slow to believe what the prophets had said concerning Messiah. This slow of heart had made them foolish (unwise). This should cause us great pause in the fact it is the ‘foolish virgin’s’ lack of preparing for His coming that causes them to find themselves on the wrong side of the door.
I find many believers who are preparing for the economic down turn, for college tuition for kids, for retirement, for vacations, for….(fill in the blank) but I don’t often hear them preparing for His coming!!!! Don’t be foolish, He is coming, and may I say, sooner than later.
Yeshua continued to expound to them in length the ‘proofs’ about Messiah leaving no doubt that He had fulfilled them all. They still did not know Him at this time but knew that this ‘Man’ was on to something and it appeared that He was going further down the road than they were so they pressed Him to stay where they wanted to stop. Isn’t that always what it seems like is happening, He is on the move and we want to stop and camp out for a bit and have Him hang out where we are instead of finding out where He is going? He is gracious and goes in to bless their meal and then they suddenly know it was Him and bang, He disappears from their sight. Suddenly they acknowledged the Holy Heartburn, their hearts had burned while He was opening up the Scripture to them but now He was gone, too late to worship Him while He was with them on the road so they did the only thing they could think of; they returned to the original scene of great occurrence (Jerusalem) and found the eleven and told them what had happened only to be told that Peter had seen Him as well. Now the really cool part is Yeshua is not like us getting ticked off that we miss out on some of the most important times of close encounters, nor does He hold grudges at constantly having to explain to them/us that He really does know what’s up and is in control. Nope, He shows up again!!
Oy, Oy, Oy, I wish I could say they were overjoyed and had a woo-hoo time and rejoiced at seeing Him but alas and alack (their lack and ours) they got freaked. Actually they were terrified cause they thought they saw a spirit. He showed them proof of life or rather death in the scars but they still stood shell shocked the Scripture says with joy and did not believe. I suppose it means they thought it was too good to be true. He asked for food to eat in front of them and dispel the notion that He was merely a spirit.
Without going further in my accounting of the story, let me finish by saying. He said Sunday, Holy Heartburn, look for it. Don’t miss His presence this week for any cause, not by reasoning out things, not by thinking no way this is too good to be true, not because you expected Him to do something and He didn’t do that thing, and no matter how ‘freaky’ the encounter might seem don’t be afraid especially when He says, ‘Peace be to you.’ Prick up your ears, prepare for this encounter, pray for the scales to fall off your eyes, put away your expectations of how, when and where and anticipate this heartburn and at the least hint of warmth in the heart area, embrace Him.
k
