Beholding the power of Jesus

The power of beholding is the power of change. Beholding Jesus is the power of being transformed into an “In Him” state. As He is, so are we (the believer) in this world, 1 John 4:17. Today, as I was reading through Peter’s account of walking on water to Jesus in Matthew 14: 25-31, the Holy Spirit reminded me of a story in the Old Testament with a covenant man name Jacob in Gen. 30: 34-43. As I read through Genesis 30, I couldn’t see a parallel. I can see God working in both situations, but why call to my remembrance about these spotted and specked sheep? In Matthew 14, Jesus instructed the disciples to go over to the other side. In the process of going to the other side, they found themselves in a storm and what appeared to be a ghost walking on water, frighting them even more. 

Jesus Saves

Jesus heard their cries of fear and spoke immediately, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I do not be afraid.” Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.” When Peter got out of the boat, and he walked on water to Jesus. As long as Peter looked to Jesus, he walked on water. But when Peter saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid and began to sink. He cried out, saying, “Lord, save me.” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him and said to him, O’, you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. In the story of Jacob and the sheep in Genesis 30:37-Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white rods. And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. The herds conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. Okay, maybe the sheep beholding the streaked rods created what they beheld, but how? A 2001 study by Keith Kendrick, who is now at the University of Electronic Science and Technology in China, found that they can recognize and remember at least 50 individual faces for more than two years. That is longer than many humans.

In the study, Kendrick’s team trained sheep to distinguish between 25 pairs of sheep by associating one member of each pair with a food reward. The Lord God knows the mind of His creation. At the time, Kendrick told BBC News: “The way the sheep’s brain is organized suggests they must have some emotional response to what they see in the world.”

Caroline Lee of the CSIRO in Australia has also studied sheep intelligence. She discovered that sheep could learn how to navigate out of a complicated maze. The enticing sight of their fellow sheep friends awaiting them at the finish helped them reach the exit. Perhaps Jacob knew the nature of sheep since he was a shepherd, but there was no way he could’ve learned how to breed various shades of flocks; only God could do that! In Jacob’s story, he worked for his uncle that deceived him and changed his wages ten times. The final agreement was that Jacob would get all the spotted, speckled, and striped flock. Then Jacob went among the fold removing all the spotted, speckled and striped herd. 

But God was working!

I’m sure Laban thought Jacob couldn’t breed speckle or spotted without some speckled or gray shaded sheep among the flock, but God was working. The Angel of God spoke to Jacob in a dream. He said, “Lift your eyes now and see, all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled and gray-spotted; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you, Genesis 31:11-12. God gave Jacob a vision! Now, that’s a message to the child of God-God is omnipresent! It was God that took the livestock away from Laban and gave it to Jacob, Genesis 31:9. Jacob was a man of the covenant. He knew God was with him, Genesis 31:4. Okay, I’m beginning to see some similarities. Peter beheld Jesus and experienced the supernatural Jacob knew God was with him, and he experienced the unnatural. God made all things work for their good, Romans 8:28. You can’t perish with the Lord Jesus in your boat, and you can’t fail when you know God is on your side!