"He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Matthew 16:15-16 NAS

Who do you say that He us? That is the question to always be ready to answer. You may have to wait for the Lord to give the answer to you under tough circumstances. Sometimes you may have to wait on the Lord, but He promises to give the answer to you under those tough circumstances (Matt 10:19, Mark 3:11). Just as the disciples had to do in Acts chapter 1:4-5 right before Pentecost.

"But who do you say that I am?" Remember the Father in heaven had given the apostle Peter the answer to this question in the very presence of Jesus Himself. After the accession of Jesus though he had to wait before proclaiming with boldness the Christ before many. He had the calling and knew who the Christ truly was. He knew Jesus was the Messiah. After waiting on the Lord and coming out from under a prideful failure in front of Jesus, He was filled with the Spirit and ready to truly die for the Lord.

Instead of denying the Lord, he was dying to himself and became very bold before the thousands of people who accepted Jesus as their Savior on that day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1). When we wait on the Lord any results will be to His glory. Are you ready to have the calling that says, "Stand up for Me and loose your life for my sake?" Are you ready if He calls you from corporate Christianity to village Christianity? Are you ready to say, "He is the only God and Savior!" in front of whoever asks?

Are you ready to make a defense for the hope of your calling, the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15)? We live in a world where the very name of Jesus is offensive. Many will say, "He was a prophet." Many others will say, "He was a good man and a good example of how to live our lives." Wrong, He is God and the great I AM (Titus 2:13, John 8:24,58). If He is not the Lord God, the Christ, then He would not even have been a good man, for He would have been a liar. To say, "He is the Christ" is easy, to live as He is the Christ is quite another.

You see the Peter who said He was the Christ had it revealed to him by the Father in heaven. The Peter who said he would never deny Jesus was being lead by his pride and in the flesh (Matt 26:35). Though it might have been well-intended loyalty it failed. We want to be filled with the Spirit and lead by the Spirit in all we do (Gal 5:22-25), to His glory and not our own. You also see that Peter had to come to the point of surrendering himself. He came to this point after denying the Christ and weeping bitterly with a repentant heart over his sin.

It was then at that point that he was ready for use by the Christ. The Lord reassured as He always does after we sin, no matter how heavy that sin is, that Peter was truly His child. Then came the filling of the Holy Spirit with boldness to stand up and proclaim the Christ (Acts 2:4). We know that the strength to say who He is comes only from Him and nothing in ourselves. The process started with surrender and ended with waiting for the filling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4).

Truly we must come to the point of surrender. Until we surrender it all to Him we will be walking in our own strength and failing all the while. Who do you say that He is? Be ready to answer that question always especially if the cost is your pride or even if the cost is your life. Ask the Lord to fill you with His Holy Spirit and the strength to answer it according to His glory. Jesus was and is and will always be "...the Christ, the Son of the living God." Have a grace filled week in His strength, and new mercies.

In His Strength,
Adam