Judge With Righteous Judgement

But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, “Where is He?” And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, “He is good”; others said, “No, on the contrary, He deceives the people.” However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.
Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.
[John 7:10-14 NKJV]

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While there was much complaining among the people, Jesus left the feast and went to the temple to teach. Wherever Jesus is in the midst He brings peace — He is the ‘Prince of Peace’ — but you will not find Him where the prevailing spirit is confusion and enmity coming from unbelief.

Again and again, we find that people say, why didn’t Jesus move into that situation and bring peace, why did He not end that conflict or heal that disease? And the answer is simple. We have the freedom to choose yay or nay. He will not intervene where His presence is not welcome. Have we not seen that? Jesus shows us that He will not perform ‘signs and wonders’ to change a situation, because our amazement at such things does not change the heart — amazement is all it achieves.

Where is He to be found while we squabble amongst ourselves about this or that thing of little consequence? He is teaching in the House of God, which is where you will always find Him if you are seeking. And in that place, Jesus will present His case, reveal Himself; that is to say, you will only be given truth, and He will say “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” [John 7:24 NKJV]

Belief must be the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a persuasive power, but a deliberate launching forth on God, and on what He says, until I am no longer confident in what I have done, I am confident only in God. The hindrance is that I will not trust God, but only my mental understanding.

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