Hi, my name is Robert Henderson and I lead Robert Henderson Ministries and Global Reformers. This is God Today. Thank you so much for joining us. YOu know, in Galatians 4, the apostle Paul begins to speak to the Galatians that he had given birth to this church. He said, “You guys loved me.” It says, “You guys literally would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me because of how blessed you were.” And he said, “Because you received me as an angel.” The he said, “No, wait. You received me even as Jesus Christ himself.” That’s what Jesus said, “He that receives you, receives me.”
The apostle Paul is saying, “Look, you add high esteem, you add high value to me. I need you you to understand. You can only receive from that which you honor. If honor ever leaves your heart toward anybody, you have just left the capacity to receive from them. Whether it is your pastor, an apostle, whoever it may be. You can only receive from that which you honor.” So they are receiving Paul as an angel, even as Jesus Christ.
Then he says this to them, “How is it then that I became your enemy?” He began to talk about how they no longer esteemed him in that way. Let me tell you why that happens. When you sit under someone’s ministry, in an ongoing matter, the enemy tries to work into you a spirit of familiarity. In other words, that you become so familiar with them after the flesh that you can no longer receive who they are in the spirit realm. This happened to Jesus in Mark 6. He comes to His hometown of Nazareth, remember? They said, “This is Joseph’s son. We know him, we saw him grow up.” Because of the spirit of familiarity that birthed the spirit of unbelief. Unbelief had its roots in familiarity. It said, “He could do no mighty works there except heal a few sick people.”
They missed out now who Jesus was because of familiarity working in their hearts toward Him. We have to guard our hearts with all diligence towards those who minister the Word to us, towards those who God sends to influence us. We have to guard our hearts and say, “God, never let me become so acquainted, and think of something so common that the spirit of familiarity begins to come in and I lose the ability to value and esteem it and therefore cannot receive from it.
God wants to break this off of you. If you went ahead and read what the apostle Paul said, it said, “The reason this had happened is because they were courting them. There were others that were courting them.” That is what you do before you get married – you court. In other words, you need to “woo”. You need to understand, there are spirits in the world that would court you, that would whisper to you, that would say things to you, that would make you start suddenly thinking negative things about something. Scripture says, “A whisperer separates the best of friends.” Proverbs says, “Guard your heart with all diligence. Out of it flows the issues of life.” When we do that, may we always walk in this spirit of honor that allows us to receive and esteem those that are ministering into our lives.
Remember what Jesus said, “He said you will not see me until you can say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” If you are going to see me, you are going to have to accept those who come. Let me pray. Father, I pray right now and I break the spirit of familiarity. Anything that has caused us to be critical, anything that has caused us to be cynical, I ask that would be taken off. With a freshness we would value those you have sent to us, that we might receive that which you have entrusted them with. Thank you for that, in Jesus’ name. Amen.