Seeking Jesus First - Aug. 22, 2023
Both Jesus and Paul speak of revelation that is still yet to come. In John 16, Jesus says you can’t handle the truth, but Holy Spirit will teach it to you. In 1 Cor. 13, Paul says we still see through the glass darkly. Is it possible that God reserves unveilings for each generation?
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:12–15, NKJV)
“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:12–13, NKJV)
God, by His Holy Spirit, comes to dwell with us and make us one with Him in spirit. This is the result of seeking Him by faith. We believe that He is AND He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. We come to Him through faith in His beloved Son. We believe that He loves us and desires to be a father to us. We believe in the one whom He sent to reveal His love to us. And this faith leads to a personal relationship with The God of Heaven who loves us and adopts us as His very own family.
Maybe you think that is a stretch, but the understanding that God is waiting to reveal new things to those who seek Him diligently certainly seems possible and plausible to me. The Holy Scriptures reenforce this belief as well. God knows more than we do. God has more power than we do. All wisdom and truth originates with Him.
It is true that our parents can’t find Him for us. We must seek Him and find Him for ourselves. Others can tell us about Him, but no one can know Him for us. God desires for us to know Him as we are known by Him. We are taught that God is infinite, that He is Creator, omnipotent, omniscient, beautiful, light, love and life and so much more. Are we able to find out all that He is, does, and knows in one lifetime?
Go through The Holy Bible. Yes, read it. Does God reveal Himself all at once or little by little? Even when Christ Jesus came and said, “When you’ve seen me, you’ve seen The Father.” But, as the scripture above points out, the disciples seeing and knowing Jesus face to face was not enough to know all of God. Don’t err here. Seeing and believing Jesus is enough to receive The Father. However, there remains more to receive in The Father than what we see in the man Jesus.
A person must believe, but then they must receive and commune with Holy Spirit who knows the mind of God and searches out the deep things of God for the purpose of revealing them to us.
“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:6–14, NKJV)
This passage really makes it plain. God has more new things to share with His sons and daughters who are filled with His Spirit and pursue Him in faith while being motivated by love.
God reveals the unseen and unheard things from His realms of glory by His Spirit which dwells in us. He doesn’t even hold back on the deep things. He freely gives them to us and tells us to share openly what we hear in the secret place. Sharing things openly is a result of faith. (Caveat: Holy Spirit may tell you not to share some things, as happened with Paul. One can only think that God did not think that humanity was ready to receive them yet. 2 Cor. 12:4)
We have received the Spirit of God. Have you received the Spirit of God? Does The Spirit of God dwell in you? Have you opened up yourself to the indwelling Spirit of God? How do you think it will feel to have Holy Spirit dwelling in your spirit? This indwelling makes you one spirit with The LORD (See 1 Cor. 6:17). If Holy Spirit dwells in you, do you think you can know Him? Experience Him? Experience and know God through Him?
How do you think He will speak to you? He will speak to you in anyway that you are willing to hear Him. He will speak to you through The Word of God and through The Word of The LORD. The Word of God is written in The Holy Bible. The Word of The LORD comes through revelation by The Spirit of God through audible voice, through dream, and through vision. God also uses angels to speak to people, but make sure angels are not saying anything contrary to Scripture and make sure you have the witness of Holy Spirit. God also uses signs, wonders, spiritual manifestations and miracles to get our attention.
But what good is any of it without the existing word of God to build on and the Holy Spirit to interpret it for us? How do we judge what we receive in the spirit? We judge it by The Spirit of God and by the currently revealed revelation from God.
This means that our every day walking relationship with The Father through faith in Jesus and through the ministry of Holy Spirit is of paramount importance. If we are just doing what others tell us to do, they have become our door to The Father. This suffices when we are immature, but we each should really pursue our own personal relationship with God so that we can be mature in Him and know His voice for ourselves.
The spirit of man is the candle of The LORD through which He searches the inward parts.