Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen.

Mark 16:14

After the most dramatic day in history, and probably one of the most traumatic to the disciples, the Lord’s passion, the Lord appeared to the twelve.  Yet, the recorded portion of the content of His message on that day was not the substance of most sermons today.  Instead, He rebuked them for unbelief and hardness of heart.

Today, these are two of the things we must not have in our midst.  Unbelief, the belief in the natural over the Spirit, is the “un”-faith that will not see the things of God.  When Jesus ministered on the Earth, this was the thing that stood in the way of His mighty works (Mark 6:5).  Hardness of heart, however, is translated as “stiffness of heart” by the YLT.

Is our heart soft towards Heaven?  Can we perceive the soft and subtler things of Heaven?  Or do we need, as some need today, to see only the might signs and wonders in order to believe?

Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished,  for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.

Mark 6:51-52

There is something about the miracles of God that is more than simply the outward effect, which even the carnal man can observe.  From this passage, the disciples apparently were expected to have gained insight from the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.  Instead, because their hearts were hardened, stiffened and deadened, they did not see much beyond the externals of the miraculous.

HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM. These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.

John 12:40-41

For God has hidden some things from some people, in His perfect wisdom, justice, and righteousness, and yet Jesus, God, expected His disciples to perceive.

Later in the same Gospel as the loaves, Jesus questions the disciples when they still have not understood about the loaves.  Knowing their thoughts, He said to them, “Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart?” (Mark 8:17).

You see, there is a Kingdom involved here.  There is a spiritual realm or dimension of heaven that is to be known and understood by the saints of light!  The Lord expects us to learn, and to grow in the realms of heaven, and to begin to believe in the substance and actions of heaven.

If all you can do is to draw people’s attention to the miraculous, you have done nothing but promote a circus.  Jesus spoke to the crowds, exhorting them not to seek Him or to work for bread that perishes, the provision of this Earth, but rather to labor only for the bread which endures to Eternal life.  He is that bread in all of who He is, God and Man, it was the hardness of the hearts of the disciples that kept them, who lived with Him daily, from seeing it in the dimension that their Teacher expected them to.

There is something there, when you feel it.  If you wait on the Lord, and look further beyond the surface and exterior, to that other thing.  Atmospheres matter, as Jesus found in certain cities dominated by a spirit of unbelief or when He led the blind man outside of the city before healing him.  Perception matters, as Jesus indicated when He said He felt virtue leaving Him.  If He felt it, that means that the virtue, the anointing, of God can be felt!  Understanding matters, as Jesus portrayed to the disciples when He warned them to pray, lest they fall into temptation.  It may not be conveyed HOW He knew that, but in whatever mechanism the revelation came, He knew how to recognize and receive it, and to speak up to warn his disciples.

There is an excess that is to be avoided, yet this ultimately comes down to the same lines of “soul vs. spirit” that is the distinction of living by the Spirit and living by the flesh.  But, when we refuse to perceive what the Lord is desiring us to learn, we will still be talking about natural bread when He is talking about the heavenly.  We will still be amazed and astounded when He does something in our midst when we had the opportunity to come into a greater understanding through the last one.

The aim and goal of this is to learn to live in faith and the anointing consistently, all of the time.  This is the same as learning to live in His love and in His Spirit.  If we abide in love, we abide in God, and He does not withhold Himself to those who ask.  Simply living Him, who is the bread that endures to Eternal life, is the substance of the Gospel.  Not just the outward acts.

It is a hardness to be unwilling or unable to perceive the Master even in His own acts among us.  We do not seek signs and wonders.  While God does great and mighty things in our midst, rains gold dust, gem stones, heals blind eyes, cancers, and every physical ailment, it is the anointing, the abiding presence, power, and ability of the Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ that offers us our hope.  He is the seal guaranteeing our inheritance to come (Ephesians 1:14).  He is the reason to labor.

And whether that comes to us directly or through another of His children, like the disciples after His resurrection or after the multiplying of bread, He expects us to perceive Him, to see and to recognized Him, through faith!

For a softened heart is a heart open and susceptible to love, able to hear, receive, and respond to the still, small wind of whispers from His heart.