Scripture:
"Jesus said unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples dare ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord." - John 21:12

The disciples were in quite a dilemma. All their natural methods of recognizing the Lord had been shattered. Before the cross they could recognize him by his familiar countenance. Now all that had changed. His features had been terrible altered by the crucifixion.

Adding to this was the fact that they had seen the gruesome reality of his death. The image of the cross still loomed heavily upon their minds. "How could this be possible?" they must have reasoned. They knew he was dead. But now he was standing before them alive. Unbelievable!

While all of this was rapidly being processed through their confused minds; they wrestled with mixed emotions and mental conflicts. "Who are you?" they reasoned. But they held their peace knowing inwardly that it was the Lord. Although they could not fathom the reality of His presence externally, they perceived it to be him through a witness in the spirit.

Today we may be confronted with similar dilemmas. A few of us have learned by experience to recognize the Lord through our religious surroundings. We have become comfortable knowing the Lord through our religious forms, rituals and ideologies. All of us have felt at ease when He manifests Himself in familiar settings.

Let me ask you this. What happens when familiar landmarks of our faith are devolved? Are we able to know him then? Can we know Him when he appears to us in unfamiliar settings?

We must learn to know him by the inward witness of the spirit and not by external manifestations. External things can always be subject to change but we can always recognize him by our fellowship in the spirit. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:" Romans 8:16 So when the fog of circumstances clouds our ability to see and recognize the presence of the Lord. We need to remind ourselves that we always have the abiding inner witness of the spirit. Never substitute what you see externally for that which can only be seen in the spirit.