Matthew 16: 13 -23, When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying,“Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.
From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
You see, Peter has just been commended by Jesus for the revelation God gave him identifying Jesus as the Christ...(it takes the Holy Spirit to know that Jesus is the Son of God). Jesus prophesied on Peter, declaring what God will do through Peter in the near future. Well, Satan heard those words and he didn't waste time to strike by using the same Peter to try dissuade Jesus from fulfilling His mission on earth. Imagine, Peter trying to rebuke Jesus to stop Him from getting killed. Well, Jesus knew it wasn't Peter talking and immediately told the devil to be gone. Why didn't the devil speak through John, James, Phillip or any other apostle...why Peter? It is because Jesus prophesied over, connecting him to the Church He will establish on earth. Satan came to do his job on Peter, those words from Jesus were red alert. This is what Jesus told Peter in Luke 22: 31-32, "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."
We need to be careful when we receive prophecies so we do not get deceived by the devil. We ought to be prayerful, vigilant and allow the Holy Spirit direct us so we do not make wrong decisions that can keep us away from fulfilling our destinies. Remember Abraham was told by God that he will have a son, well what did he do? He and Sarah decided to help out by involving the maid Hagar to get pregnant, the world is still suffering from the result of that pregnancy. Maybe Peter allowed the prophecy to get to his head and decided to caution Jesus, the moral of this story is for us all to allow the Spirit of God direct us in everything, our words, thoughts and actions. God bless you.
God bless u 2 dear blogger
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