Searching the Bible, I found not one time that the words “sit over” were used together. Three times I found the words “sit under” used together. In Judges 4:5 Deborah would sit under a palm tree. In Zechariah 3:10 neighbors are inviting neighbors to sit under their vine and fig tree. In Micah 4:4 people sit under their vine and fig tree in peace. I also found a couple times that the words “sit with” are used together. And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him (Acts 8:31). Philip was asked to sit with a man that wanted to know about Jesus. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne (Revelation 3:21). Overcomes sit with Jesus on His throne. “. . . even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus . . .” (Ephesians 2:5-6).

“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me” (John 6:56-57). “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe” (John 6:63-64). From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” (John 6:66-67). It is interesting that Jesus did not condemn the ones that walked away. He did not line them up in front of the twelve that remained and declare his authority over them – He did not obligate them because they once walked with Him. Jesus walked in the spirit and taught in the spirit and trusted the spirit. The people were not ready to hear what Jesus had to say, but it had to be said. “And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse” (Ezekiel 3:11).

The disciples that were held captive to their sins and the oppression of the ruling religious leaders refused to hear. Out of the twelve that remained, eleven listened. After the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the ruling religious leaders had no problem lining up the believers and telling them what to say and what not to say. But Peter and the others did not listen to the ruling religious leaders that claimed authority over them – it was really Jesus and the Holy Spirit that the religious leaders wanted authority over – it was, is, and always has been Satan wanting to rule over God. Jesus sat with sinners. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples (Matthew 9:10). Sitting over is of Satan; sitting with is of God. It is not too hard a thing to see, that we sit together and no one sits over nor does anyone sit under. Maybe it is something you are not ready to hear, but it has to be said. Jesus dwells in me, brought by the Holy Spirit, and I cannot sit Jesus under any man. Let’s walk together, and sit together, and grow together in the Lord and, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10).

© 2008, Tim D. Coulter Sr.