Christianity is Revelation
"On one occasion Jesus spoke thus: Father, Lord of heaven and earth, to you I offer praise; for what you have hidden from the learned and the cleaver you have revealed to the merest children." Matthew 11:25
A saying that is popular these days is that the longest distance in the world is the 12 inches from our head to our heart. There is some truth in that. A lot of things never do make that trip, much to our detriment. What is even truer is the fact that Christianity is severely deformed and stunted until it moves from our heads to our hearts. When Jesus reveals our true Father to us by revelation to our hearts, things change in our lives. A flaming arrow from heaven pierces our heart and the scales fall from our spiritual eyes.
No longer are ’The lights on but nobody is home." The light of revelation has gone on, and Jesus is home! Jesus now lives enthroned in our heart. No longer do we only know the stories about Jesus, we know Jesus. No longer do we only know stories about heaven; heaven has come and taken up residence in us. We know deep down who we are and where we are going. The Holy Spirit has witnessed with our spirit that we are sons and daughters of God. (Romans 8:16) Our Christianity is now based on intellectual knowledge AND personal revelation. We "own" our Christianity. It no longer is a "hand-me-down" story.
For our Christianity to remain fresh, vibrant and alive, we need personal revelation on an ongoing basis. One of the major ways we receive this revelation, is through our personal, intimate prayer time with Jesus and His Holy word. This is not corporate prayer but prayer completely alone with Jesus. Jesus frequently went off by himself to spend time in prayer with His Father to receive revelation of His Father’s will for Him. We can do no less. If we don’t, we will end up doing our own thing or worse yet, the thing of the enemy.
Recently in my prayer time, it seemed like the Holy Spirit was showing me that I needed to grow in faith. The more I read the biblical accounts in the gospels and the book of Acts, the more I became convicted that my walk of faith was lacking. The power demonstrated by Jesus and his disciples was not evident in my life, as it certainly should be, according to Jesus.
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father." (John 14:12)
The scriptures I read were calling me to read and meditate on the Word of God. Romans 10:17 says, "Faith then comes comes through hearing, and what is heard is the word of Christ." In Matthew 11:15 Jesus says "Heed carefully what you hear!" In Romans 10:14 it says "How can they believe unless they have heard of Him?" and finally Psalm 46:11 says "Be still and know that I am God." It was clear to me I needed to be still, docile and teachable before the lord while I meditated on the scriptures about Jesus’ miracle working power.
Over the course of a few weeks, I read, memorized and meditated on Isaiah 53:5.
"He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins;
Upon Him was the chastisement that makes us whole,
and by His stripes we were healed. Isaiah 53:5
I then made the scripture a little bit more personal:
He was pierced for MY offenses, crushed, crushed, crushed, for My sins; Upon Him was the chastisement that makes ME whole, and by His stripes I was healed!.
Then more personal still:
Jesus was pierced for MY offenses, Jesus was crushed, crushed, crushed for My sins: Upon Jesus was the chastisement that makes Me whole, and by the stripes of Jesus I was healed!
Then five verses later comes the kicker to the whole theme:
"The Lord was pleased to crush Him." Isaiah 53:10
God our Father was pleased to crush Jesus to provide our salvation AND healing. What an incredible love our God has for us. His plan for us is divine health in spirit, soul and body.
Some days later as I was reading and meditating on Matthew 9.35, "He (Jesus) proclaimed the good news of God’s reign and He cured every sickness and disease." Then a few verses later in 10:1 "Then He summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority to expel unclean spirits and to cure sickness and disease of every kind. Then in 10:7f "As you go, make this announcement: The reign of God is at hand! Cure the sick, heal the leprous, expel demons. The gift you have received, give as a gift."
As I read those scriptures that morning, something broke in my spirit. It was as if the word of God was tearing down walls of unbelief in my mind. I realized that I had badly missed God for many years. His command is to heal the sick, raise the dead, cure every sickness and disease. That has not been my attitude. I have not understood clearly God’s will concerning healing. I have accepted an "offer it up;" "If it be your will mentality." A flaming arrow from heaven pierced my heart with the revelation of how I had missed God. I cried my eyes out in repentance.
How I must have grieved the heart of my Father when I attributed sickness and disease as His plan for me when:
"He was pleased to crush Jesus" for my healing.
How I must have grieved the heart of my Father when I prayed "If it be your will" to heal me when:
"He was pleased to crush Jesus" for my healing.
How I must have grieved the heart of my Father when I accepted sickness and disease so passively and "offered it up" when:
"He was pleased to crush Jesus" for my healing.
Revelation from God our Father is the lifeblood of Christianity. We will spend eternity receiving day by day, new revelations of the love of our Father for us. But even now, God’s revelations are available to us as when we are still, and know that He is God. His mercies and revelations are new every morning for those who will seek them in His Holy word.
Seek Him While He May Still be Found!
***** JESUS IS LORD *****
