Revelation

 

Revelation

 It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord (2 Corinthians 12:1).

 Spiritual revelation is the uncovering of hidden knowledge and wisdom about the wonder and adventure of living our lives in Christ. It is to discover that all God’s intentions toward us are good in bringing us forth into the image of His Son. The awareness of His goodness and infinite love is to find fulfillment in Him, which brings great joy to our hearts. Revelation is to see God exalted in His works and ways and to marvel at His wisdom made manifested in mercy and grace. How wonderful to see Him as Father and to discover the ways of being a son to Him. Even if our lives are a mess, God sees the incredible wonder of His Son coming alive, emerging, growing and maturing in us who believe. He opens our eyes to see the same in the lives of our wives, children, brothers and sisters. Revelation is God’s way to let us experience Him through His senses. He allows us by His Spirit to see what He sees, hear what He hears and feel what He feels. How glorious when He reveals to us His desires and pleasures and we revel in His joy.

 Revelation is the basis for hope in God. Hope is a vision that comes through revelation from the Spirit of God with an expectation of fulfillment. Hope is the food for our faith, which create substance in a world of unseen realities. Faith is one of three qualities Enoch and Elijah had in their relationship with God. Hope and love is the other two dimensions in a relationship with God. These graces are the doorway to dwell in the Spirit with God. They received a testimony that they pleased Him and never tasted death. When God took them they could not be found among the sons of men. Without a revelation, vision or dream people perish. Without revelation there is no hope. Without hope there is no faith to create substances for the pleasure of God. Without faith you cannot please God and he who does not manifest faith that is worked by love does not know God.

 A relationship with God starts with a revelation from God. Revelation starts with seeking and searching for godly wisdom by giving yourself to prayer and the word of God. This is the road to faith and hope that is worked by love. This is pleasing to God. Trust and love do not develop outside of a deep relationship.

 God reveals Himself to us in dreams, visions, revelatory gifts of the Holy Spirit, parables of the word and the audible hearing of the Gospel and even messages from angels. The interpretation of His riddles brings understanding to the mind and unspeakable joy to the heart. How much He delights in you when you search out concealed matters. Revelation is not so much an understanding of what God can do for you or what you can do for God, as it is an assurance of what He is to you, and a plan of what you can become to Him. Revelation comes to you that you can grow into a substance of fulfillment for God, the household of faith and the rest of the kingdom of God. The image of His Son is His delight.

 The kingdom of God is all about relationships. The purpose of God for your life is to become a son to Him by conforming to the image of Christ according to the anointing that is working in you. Revelation is most often an enlightenment to draw you in a closer relationship with God and your neighbor. It is an ever-growing awareness of what He is in you, for Him. It is a discovery of the anointing that is working in you so that you can fulfill the purposes of God for your life. Revelation is normally an unveiling of the hidden Christ who lives in you but it can also be an unveiling of any other hidden matter. However, revelation is never complete until you see God exalted and glorified in the matter. If you fail in your relationships the revelation knowledge that you obtain will puff you up and you will not grow into a fountain of worship to God and an anointed substance for others, which is not the image of Christ.

 Because of Adam’s transgression all of his offspring, unredeemed men, are dead to God spirit, soul and body. Unredeemed men are confined to the prison of the natural realm and cannot observe God who lives in the liberty of the realm of Spirit. So the realities of the Spirit are foolishness to carnal men for they are not able to see, understand or experience it. How can the dead understand the Living, or what does death and life have in common? Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand (Matthew 13:13).

 Though natural man knows God from the witness of creation, he did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful but became futile in his thoughts. The natural man cannot help but to be foolish and arrogant because he is conceived in sin and shaped in unrighteousness and iniquity. He is born blind and unless he becomes born of the Spirit he will remain blind until he dies in his sin.

 The carnal man is blind to his own place in creation. Having chosen the destructive way of independence from God, he does not understand that he is pulling the entire creation down with him. It is in this evil and destructive independent state of heart that he destroys others and creation.

 From the beginning God intends to have sons and not performers. Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, did not love God like his father David, who loved God with all of his heart. Solomon desired God’s wisdom apart from a relationship with Him and ended up a fool serving the idols of his wives and concubines. Balaam, a mighty prophet of God, whose heart was not entirely set on God ended up in error. A revelation of God’s character and power, which is His Glory, without a deep relationship with God, does not make sense because it is the relationship that ministers life and not independent works. Anything divorced or independent from a relationship in God is legalism and brings forth death. This is to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good (law or legalism) and evil (lawlessness). Good is better than evil but it is still fruit from the tree that introduced death to the earth. This is nothing else but a quest for self-righteousness.

 You need to be born again to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit. How else will you see the kingdom of God? If you are not born of the Spirit through faith in Christ you are dead to God and you cannot enter the realm of God’s Spirit where the riches of His knowledge and wisdom is found. Jesus is the true Light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. When you turn to Christ, God commands light to shine out of darkness into your heart to give you a revelation of the glory of God in the presence of Jesus Christ. When the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ shines in your heart the ignorance that exists because of blindness, is removed. It is in His light that you see the Light of the world. The cry of the Spirit is, “Allow Me to reveal the Son of God to your heart that you may be changed into the same image.�? The nature of the Spirit of God is to open the way by leading you into all truth, which is Christ.

 Revelation is to perceive God with the eyes of the Spirit that we may come to know Him. Eternal life is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. The choice that God made to hide so many wonders from us is an act of love in that He draws us to Himself to continuously seek His face. Eternal life is for those that fervently seek to live in the presence of God and discover His hidden beauty. How will we be conformed into His image if His glory is not revealed to us or how will we tell about His power if we do not see Him exalted in His wondrous works and ways.

 It is difficult for a carnal Christian to receive spiritual revelation because the carnal man is dead to God and thus unable to receive the things of God. His fleshly mind is unable to perceive the things of the Spirit. Because he does not receive or understand the things of the Spirit he is enmity with God. He who lives according to the flesh set his mind on the things of the flesh, which is death. This is a picture of the life of carnal man that tries to figure out the things of the Spirit with his fleshly mind. Such one must pray that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Father of Glory, may give to him the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The answer concerning mysteries and secrets is with God. Often, a person has no or little revelation because he does not seek to know the answers to the mysteries of God. A revelation has not come to maturity unless you see God exalted in His works and ways. In the day that you seek God with all of your heart you will find Him revealed in the woodwork of the detail of the Scriptures.

 During Old Testament times, God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at various times and in various ways. The Lord does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). The Old Testament prophets prophesied concerning Christ and concerning His suffering. Yet they did not understood it as God has veiled His wisdom in plain sight from them. The wisdom of God is revealed in that Jesus has become the Mediator of a better covenant. All the things that were written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man were accomplished. Thereafter God spoke to us by His Son that He may reveal Him in which image we must come forth. A revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ set us free from the curse of the law and causes us to come forth into His glorious image as we behold Him in the Spirit. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. When we behold Him through the Spirit of God we lay hold of Him in the same manner that He laid hold of us. If the revelation is not united with faith it does not profit us. It is through faith that we are transformed into the perfect image of Christ that we behold in the Spirit. His image is the end from the beginning and it is an ever-growing image. Just as a tree planted at the waters we grow from glory to glory in Him. Every stage is perfect in Christ. To know Him is to grow and mature in Him according to the anointing that is working in each one of us. The anointing of each member of His body is unique according to its purpose and function.

 For every member to function in the glorious body of Christ emphasis must be placed on servanthood. The Lord will surely reveal His secrets to His servants the prophets. Your service to others must coincide serving the purposes of God in accordance with the anointing that are working in you. So, if you are in Christ, you are a servant of the living Christ (the Head and body). To be a servant of the purposes of men is not serving the purposes of God. O Lord our God, masters besides You have had dominion over us (Isaiah 26:13a).

Jesus the servant of the Lord, died for the joy that was set before Him, which is to see His seed. Jesus said, “Take My yoke [yoke of servanthood] upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls�? (Matthew 11:28). The greatest desire of God is to see us coming forth into the image of His Son, in other words, to conform to the servanthood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees (by revelation) the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son does in like manner. We are to follow in the footsteps of the Captain of our salvation and do likewise for the Lord is the vine and we are the branches. If we abide in Him, we bear much fruit. Without Him we can do nothing. In the Son, we share His godly wisdom to do the will of Him that sent us and to accomplish His work. The Holy Spirit is the One that lead and guide us into all truth. We must do what we see the Lord is doing, and do it in like manner. This is the way to enter into the labor of the Servant of the Lord and thus enter with Him into the rest of God.

Often we jump the gun and get involved in activities, which we believe might be in the will of the Lord. This is not the way to walk if we believe we are conforming into His image. We must first see and hear and afterward do as we were instructed. To live a life where Christ is not manifested in our flesh is a life severed from Him and accounts for nothing. The just shall live by faith. Faith is based on hope and hope is based on revelation.

Search for the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord diligently. In seeking the Lord with all of your heart He will reveal Himself to you. Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:3-6). The Lord reveals Himself in wisdom and understanding.

The Lord did not sit in an armchair at night and say, “Father, please give me the agenda for tomorrow�?. Often, the Lord went to the Mount of Olives to pray throughout the night. In the days of His flesh He offered up prayers, and supplications with strong powerful crying and tears. The Lord prayed with intensity of spirit and in doing so the Father revealed His will to Him.

God who inspired the Scriptures is the same God that talks to us about its interpretation. Seeking diligently the interpretation of God’s riddles is to develop our spiritual perception and revelation of godly wisdom. In seeking God’s ways we will always be dependent on God, which lead us into a deeper relationship with Him so that we may grow into the image of His Son. We reach into the Lord in faith, which is beyond revelation where we are one with God and one in God that the world may believe that the Father sent Jesus to the glory of His name.

If you have a basic understanding of the interpretation of dreams and visions then the other ways in which God choose to reveal His wisdom and knowledge to you will be understood much easier. Reading the Scriptures is reading the dreams of God that needs interpretation. A dream is a series of thoughts and images in the form of a story or event. Most revelation is the response of the Holy Spirit toward God’s dealings with you or as a result of much activity. For a dream comes through much activity… (Ecclesiastes 5:3a).

People that can interpret dreams and visions are often blessed in interpreting the Scriptures accurately. Dreams, visions, tongues and parables in Scripture are events or stories that most often needs interpretation. An interpretation is the translation of objects and/or sounds into an understandable language. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter (Proverbs 25:2).

Dreams, visions and pictures occur in the imagination of man’s heart. Man is created in the image of God with an imagination like God’s where His omniscience dwell. To explain allow me to use the following example: Although Jesus suffered on our behalf as God’s Lamb to take away the sin of the world two thousand years ago, the Father told us what He saw from the beginning of the world, namely: And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of the lamb slain from the beginning of the world (Revelation 13:8, emphasis added). You may say but that was what John saw in a vision. That is true but God shared some of His omniscience with him at that moment in time. This is supernatural knowledge obtained, which would have been otherwise unknown.

Because people do not know the Scriptures (dreams of God) and the revelatory power of the Holy Spirit they err much in interpretation. I do not refer to the ability of quoting scriptures but perceiving the word of God through revelation. And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err [deceive, wander], because ye know [see, perceive, understand] not the scriptures [writings], neither the power [the ability] of God [Holy Spirit] (Mark 12:24).

God’s greatest dream is to bring us forth into the image of His Son but revelation is also directives given to us to make certain godly decisions or to prepare us for future events. Paul saw a vision about a man from Macedonia that asked for help. That was a revelation of God’s love for the Macedonians and His will revealed to Paul to preach the gospel to them (Acts 19:9-10).

Every dream and vision in the Bible and every meaningful dream thereafter has a purpose for which the Lord has sent His word to perform His will.

 The revelatory gifts (word of knowledge, word of wisdom and discernment of spirits) are also ways in which the Holy Spirit reveals to us knowledge and wisdom otherwise unknown. Often these gifts are working in conjunction with the interpretation of dreams and visions or serve as a revelatory aid to interpret the Scriptures.

 The revelatory gifts can work in isolation or together. Let me give you an example. A while a go I was in a busy shopping mall in my city. Normally I am communicating with the Lord keeping my spirit open to Him. All of a sudden a woman cursed me using the vilest language imaginable. I did not know in what way I have offended her. I look at her and said to her, “Your father raped you when you were six years old. When you were at age you marry an accountant, which abuse you before your marriage and afterward. The last straw was when he assaulted you and burned your clothing. You divorced him, left your country and you are working now in this city as a nurse.�? She was astonished and asked me, “Who told you this because all of what you had told me is the truth.�? I said to her, “God loves you and has a plan for your life.�? She started to cry uncontrollable. After ten minutes I left. I had no chance to lead her to Christ. I knew at the time that the Lord wants to deal with her on His own.

 Another occasion was when a man visited us. We sat at the kitchen table and we shared the gospel of Jesus’ saving grace with this fellow. This man started to pretend he knew God. I looked at my refrigerator and saw a vision of an African Green parrot in a cage on top of it. When the parrot saw me it flee away with a distinct noise through the bars of the cage and hid behind the refrigerator. The experience was so real that the natural and spiritual surroundings were blended into the one world of Christ. I got up to look for the parrot behind the refrigerator. It is needless to say that it was not there. In the vision I discerned that the man was in bondage (the cage) and that he was just repeating what he heard in the past (like a parrot) from his mind (color green). The Holy Spirit showed me he was pretending.

 At all times be a humble servant of the Lord. Do not be intimidated by my experiences. These experiences do not happen all the time. By sharing what the Holy Spirit has shown you from the Scriptures can be equally effective. Often you will not even realize that you have ministered to somebody’s need.

 Stay humble by making sure that the other party is blessed and edified. Do not draw attention to yourself. Do not be puffed up by the revelation the Holy Spirit has given you. Remember you are a servant of the Lord. You serve the purposes of God and you enjoy living in the presence of the Holy One. Enjoy Him.