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Aug 04 2017
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Learning By Revelation

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“The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

 

Some Christians are afraid of the word “revelation.” The devil is glad of that. The devil understands that we learn Christ through revelation not intellect. I understand why some wince a little when they hear the word “revelation.” We have had our share in the Christian community of those who declare to us that they received a new revelation from God. In the early 1800’s, Joseph Smith claimed to receive new revelation and today we have the Mormons. Whenever someone claims to receive a revelation, that is contrary to the word of God, you can be 100 percent certain that it is false and you must without hesitation run from it. However, just because there are those who claim they have new revelation, does not cancel out that Christians can receive revelation from God. Yes, even centuries after the books of the Bible were compiled, God still does reveal himself to mankind.

The word “revelation” is translated from a Greek word meaning “a disclosure.” It is like taking the cover off of something so you can see what it is. Whatever it is that is being revealed or disclosed, is there already, you just need to see it. It is the same with God and His word. God is, and He has never changed. His word is settled in heaven. Revelation from God gives man the ability to see this great God and to understand His word.

Millions of people who claim to be a Christian, think they are saved because they have an intellectual understanding of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for them. They think they are saved, but have only come to believe with their natural understanding that Jesus died to save them from their sins. My whole life from about five or six years old, until I got saved at twenty seven years old, I believed that Jesus was the Son of God and that He died on the cross to save me and take me to heaven. Yet I was as lost as the next guy. It wasn’t until the Father was revealed to me that I had the ability to believe Him with my whole heart, soul, mind and strength. Believing in God with just your mind is not good enough.

 

“All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him” (Luke 10:22).

 

When you read the gospels you read how the disciples, at different times, received revelation from God. In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, we read where Peter made His confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus responded by saying “…Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but my Father, who is in heaven.” Up to this time Peter may have had a general understanding of this truth, but it wasn’t until the Father revealed it to Peter that he could make such a bold declaration. You could say in a sense, that this truth became his. Today, our Heavenly Father is still revealing things to us. Not new things, but eternal things that have been there from the foundations of the world. The Father wants to reveal things to you, dear saint of God. He wants, through the Holy Spirit, to reveal the word of God to you. The Bible says that the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit. It takes the Spirit of God to open one’s eyes to the truth of the word of God. Revelation comes by the Spirit of God. Without the Spirit, there is no revelation.

There is a work that the Holy Spirit constantly wants to do for each of you, if you will let Him. HE WANTS TO REVEAL CHRIST TO YOU. Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1:17). Paul prayed this prayer for saved people. This makes it clear that God wants to continually reveal Himself to us.

Today, so many Christians are drawn to academia. They would rather hear nice outlined teachings than listen to a message that comes forth with conviction and power and speaks to the spirit of man. It seems more and more Christians consider a sermon delivered by Spirit filled preachers as legalism. People hate conviction, including some Christians. Some of our big name Bible teachers draw from their intellect, but carry no anointing. May I even dare to say, some of them may not even be saved. They have a head full of knowledge, but have never had the word of God laid open to them by the Spirit of God. It is the anointing that makes a minister effective.

It is the anointing that makes you effective. No doubt, God gives a higher intelligence to some people. If you are one of them, I challenge you to use it for the glory of God. Just remember, you need the Spirit of God working through you, if your words are going to go any further than just the minds of people. The word of God will never become life through understanding words alone. “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power” (I Corinthians 4:20). Words are cheap. Men are liars. “Let God be true, but every man a liar.” Therefore, let GOD SPEAK.

 

“But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12).

 

The great Apostle Paul, who was an incredible intellect, declared that what he received didn’t come through men’s teaching, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Whether you realize it or not, anything you have learned of the word of God that got deep into your heart was through revelation and not by man.

 

“Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (II Corinthians 3:6).

 

One of the reasons we have a backslidden church here in America today is because many of those who minister to her, lack the Spirit and therefore can only preach and teach the letter of the law. Ministers kill the church preaching the letter without the Spirit. Without the Spirit revealing the word of God, the Bible just becomes a book of principles to live by, a mere instruction manual. Jesus said to the Jews, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). The religious leaders searched the scriptures, but never found eternal life because they refused the revelation from the Spirit. They wanted the written word of God, but not the living word of God. They accepted the scriptures, they thought, but refused Jesus, who is the Word.

Saint of God, seek out the Lord with all your heart and he will give you continued revelation of His word and His greatness.

Jun 29 2017
1

God Said

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GOD SAID

By: Terry Fischer

 

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3).

 

January of 2017 marks the fifteenth year I have been a pastor. I have ministered in the same church all these years. Without much thinking, I can tell you the one thing I have stressed more over the pulpit than anything, and that is the need for the saints to read the word of God. I believe I have preached and taught every main fundamental truth of the Bible numerous times, yet there is nothing I have mentioned more than the need for every believer to read the WHOLE word of God for themselves and read it regularly. Let me add, there is one more thing I probably mentioned as much and that is the need for the saints to have a real quality prayer life.

The third verse of the whole Bible has these two words, “God said.” That dear saint of God, is where discipleship must start for us all. If you have been a believer for awhile and you have not started with what God has said, then you can just delete what you have learned and start from the beginning. The reason there is such a lack of like-mindedness today amongst God’s people is because when people get saved they are taught more of what man says than what God says. They are taught man’s version instead of the Spirit of Truth’s version of what God says. Imagine what a powerhouse the church could and would be today if she lived by what God said.

The Holy Bible is what God said. It is a record of the words that God has said. You can be certain that He is still saying those words and that they still speaks into the life of the believer today. There is one very disappointing thing that I have discovered through the years and that is the infrequency that professing Christians read their Bible. There are numerous, probably more than fifty percent of Christians, who have not read the whole Bible all the way through. Not that they would have to read it in chronological order, but that over a few years would have managed to read all the books of the Bible. There are Christians who have given little, if any, attention to the Old Testament. Paul, in referring to the Old Testament said, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (I Corinthians 10:11). If you believe what Paul said, you should be eager to read the Old Testament, in which are the very books Paul was referring to,that has so many examples for us to learn by.

The lack of Bible reading leads to a lack of spiritual knowledge and wisdom. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children” (Hosea 4:6). David craved for the word of God and believed every godly man delighted in the word of God, even when it seemed to be more of the law than anything else. “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2).

Christian, you are fooling and depriving yourself if you think that it is not that important to be in the word of God daily. It should not be something you have to be legalistic about, it should be something you desire to do. If you don’t, then you need to make a commitment to discipline yourself to have a determined time that you will read the word every day. You may miss a few days here and there. You may get a little behind, but nonetheless, you are reading your Bible. I hate legalism in the church, but I do see the need and value for a disciplined life. After all, doesn’t everything we do in life require some discipline? Some more, some less?

Reading the word of God is not sufficient in itself. You must believe that which you read. You must believe it truly is the word of God. Even then, that still is not enough. You have to read it with the desire or at least the willingness to be changed by it. One of my favorite quotes is from a Chinese man, Brother Yun, who was put in prison for his faith. He said, “No one can ever really understand the scriptures until they are willing to be changed by them.” How true it is. If a person is not willing to be changed by the word, then he has to be reading the word with a hard stubborn heart. He has to refuse to open his heart to let the Spirit of Truth work in his heart to change him from a carnal to a godly man.

It is amazing to me, in a bad way, when I hear of people who have been Christians for many years and they tell me they have not yet read the Old Testament. A man, who was a deacon at one time, told me that he was reading the Old Testament for the first time in his life. Don’t get me wrong, I was so glad that he was determined to read it, but it made me wonder how does someone become a deacon and they haven’t even read their whole Bible?

Saint of God, I can’t say it enough. YOU NEED TO READ YOUR WORD; YOU NEED TO EMBRACE THE WORD; YOU NEED TO EAT THE WORD. And then let it do the work it does. Fools reject and doubt the word of God. But for believers, THE WORD IS LIFE. If you don’t read the word for yourself, then you will fall prey to believing what people tell you it says. Even worse, they will tell you what they think it means. If you read the word for yourself, the Spirit of Truth won’t tell you what He thinks it means, He will tell you what it does mean. If all Christians would submit to the truth of the word of God as the Spirit of Truth reveals it, denominationalism would collapse overnight. There would come an unbelievable unity to the body of Christ as we would all come to “speak the same thing.” Denominationalism is accepted as the norm in the Christian church today. Denominationalism is not a biblical principle. It is accepted, not because saints read and believe their Bibles, but because Christians don’t! For the most part, when someone gets saved, they are brought into the denomination of the person who led them to the Lord, and there they stay for the rest of their lives. Never questioning what the church believes. Never honestly checking it out to see if everything the church believes lines up with the word of God.