A New Day; Luke 9:18-22

There were a few things that I learned from commentaries on this passage of Scripture. Generally I like to complete my study BEFORE I look at a commentary. Luke 9:18-22 seems straight forward enough. As a matter of fact, it seems like all the information I glean from this passage has been given to me in the chapters and verses that came before. Praise Elohim for minds that are wiser than my own.

• This is the first time Luke does not have Y'shua praying alone (Luke 4:42, 5:16, 6:12)

And while he prayed alone with his disciples, he asked them and said, "Who do the crowds say about me that I am?" Luke 9:18 AENT

My human mind is able to gather facts but there are times that truth comes by the breath of Elohim and his word, in my heart or lap. Herod asked who the people said Y'shua is. None of their answers rang true to him. But there is no evidence that Herod was able to put the facts and opinions together to come up with the truth. His fear told him one thing, his servants were divided over different answers, but none of their answers were the truth.

When YHWH puts a question on your heart (like he did to Herod, like Y'shua did with the disciples), where do you go to find the answer? Even though today we "see as by a mirror, in dark reflection;..." 1 Corinthians 13:12a and must request "That the Elohim of our Master Y'shua the Mashiyach, the Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit of Wisdom and of revelation in the recognition of him. And that the eyes of your hearts may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, ..." Ephesians 1:17-18 we can still run to prayer with the Word for Truth.

Pray with others. I can testify that he speaks to individuals (glory of glories) but has promised to be in the midst of two or more who gather together (Matthew 18:20) Who do you say that he is?

• The One who sets us free must suffer.

Then he said to them that he, the Son of man, would suffer many things and that the elders and chief priests, and scribes would reject him. And they would kill him and on the third day he would arise. Luke 9:22

It shocks me that the very man who has already set two people free from the grip of death, who has healed sickness that no doctor can cure and sets men free from the dark spirits that have taken hold of them cannot prevent his own suffering. At the cross the crowd will taunt him, "he saved others, he cannot save himself" But he did not come to save himself, he came to save me, to save you, and the cost was overwhelming. He paid the whole cost. In return he will ask that we pick up our cross (the penalty for sedition in Rome) and follow him as our only King.

Don't decide this emotionally, go to prayer, challenge him to be real to you. A cross will not be thrust upon you. You cannot inherit the result of someone else picking up the cross, you must prayerfully pick up your own.

He was in the world, and the world existed by His hand and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But those who did receive Him He gave to them authority that they might be the sons of Elohim, those who have believed in His name. Those who neither by blood nor by the will of the flesh nor by the will of a man, rather were begotten by Elohim. Yochanan (John) 1:10-13