And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence. And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. -Matthew 13:53-58

In this scripture in the gospel of Matthew, we can see that Jesus was not received in His own hometown – among the people that knew Him best. Why is that? Because they knew Him best. You must understand, when we become too familiar with someone or something, we tend to not see things from God’s point-of-view.

The people that knew the Lord Jesus the most, were the ones who could receive from Him the least. Now they could receive from Him – to a degree. But because they knew Him, or at least thought they did, they couldn’t accept that this was the son of God. No, they thought this was the same carpenter’s son that they watched grow up. They couldn’t get past that boy that grew up around them and see that this was a man anointed by God Himself.

People have the same problem today. Ministers of the Gospel find themselves being less respected, less welcomed, and less recieved from among those that have known them best. That’s because those people know them not first as the minister of the Gospel, but first as that boy or girl they grew up with. Then they know them as a minister. They they know them as one anointed by God, if they know them as that at all.

Today, there may be someone on your facebook page, that you went to high school with, that you’ve known all your life – that is anointed by God, that has the Spirit of God on their lives, working through them to preach, teach, set free, healing, etc and you can’t recieve from them because all you can see is the joker you grew up with. You see the class clown. You see the Walmart employee. You see your sister that picked on you growing up. You see your son that you raised from a baby that did God knows what. But now they are preaching the Word. Now they are telling you things that you might have never heard. Then again, you might have heard them before – but you can’t get past who they were and see who they are now.

Jesus had the same problem. He’s not alone though. Moses had the same problem too. His brother Aaron got too familiar and instead of seeing the mighty man of God, he just saw his brother. When Moses went up to the mountain for his 40 day visit with God (I know He didn’t visit with Him for 40 whole days), Aaron fell under so much peer pressure he just gave in. Instead of His Moses as the mighty man of God (whom Aaron witnessed do miracle after miracle), and take his word above that of the people, Aaron gave in.

Moses’ sister did the same thing as well. Miriam began to see Moses as her brother, tossing out the respect she once had for him as the mighty man of God, and actually stood against him.

There are other examples though – both Old Testament and New Testament. There are examples in the local church. There’s the assistant pastor who forgets who he works for and tries to take the pastor’s place. He forgets that he works for the Lord, not the pastor, not the people. He forgets that the pastor is the anointed man of God, not just his buddy. There’s you and I, who see someone we knew growing up and instead of listening to the Word of the Lord coming from them, we shrug it off because it came from that person. Even though it was the Word of God.

If you look back at the Gospel of Matthew, you will notice one thing. Verse 58 says, “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Notice that the miracles that Jesus did (or didn’t do) wasn’t based on His will or desire to do them. It was based on the people’s unbelief. Sometimes we think God doesn’t want to help us, to heal us, to answer our prayers, that His ways are higher than ours. Well, sometimes it has nothing to do with God at all. In fact, a lot of time it has nothing to do with God. It has to do with us.

I encourage you to not become too familiar with those around you – especially those in positions of authority in the body of Christ. You may see them as just that guy you went to church with all those years, but during all those years the Lord has been raising them up to be more – to be anointed man of God ready to speak the Words from the Lord into your life. If you will only let them.

Stay with the Word of God and the Spirit of God.