REVELATION OR MANIFESTATION?
"For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Ro.14:17).
What qualifications must I meet in order to be a member of the Kingdom of God? Must I study and learn all of the great doctrines of the faith? Must I understand and categorically be able to recite all that pertains to salvation, sanctification, regeneration, and consecration? How about if I recite the "Apostles' Creed" and prove to you that all of my doctrinal understanding from soteriology to eschatology is correct? Does my UNDERSTANDING of truth qualify me as a Son of God? One brother said he heard another brother say, "I know the Bible from Generations to Revolutions, I'm well reversed in scripture, and I'm the very prince and power of the air!" Am I qualified by what I know or is there some other criteria that I must meet to be a member of God's great Kingdom?
Let's say, just for fun, that I am having lunch with an herbalist and all that we have for dessert is one orange. Let's say the herbalist begins to list for me all of the benefits of eating that orange. He explains the digestive process and tells how the elements of the orange are broken down so that our bodies can easily recognize and utilize them. He then begins to draw a diagram on a napkin of how the vitamins and minerals from the orange are absorbed through the intestinal walls and ultimately reach our bodies on a cellular level. Now, let me ask you, how will the knowledge that the herbalist has benefit him if I eat the orange and he does not? By eating the orange, I take it into my body and it becomes a part of me. If I eat enough of them over a period of time the result will be seen in my physical body. The life of the orange has been laid down so that its' life might be manifested through me and I don't have to understand the process in order for the principle to work.
I know some people who are somewhat simple minded. They love Jesus with all of their hearts but they may not be able to explain, systematically, the process by which the Word is being worked in them to cause them to become partakers of His divine nature (II Pet.1:4). They simply received the Word with meekness and have bowed themselves low before the Father. They have YIELDED to His dealings, YIELDED to His leading, and have OBEYED His voice! They have ceased from their works (their will and way of doing things), and have entered into His rest (His will and way of doing things). They have said "YES" to Jesus in full surrender and have not resisted His will. The result is that I am able to see the NATURE of my Father in their lives. I see their humility, brokenness, and their identification with the slain Lamb of Calvary. The peaceable FRUIT of righteousness in their lives is evidence that the life contained in the seed (Christ) is being manifest through them regardless of their intellectual ability to understand the process.
In my hunger for deeper truths I must tell you that it is not what I don't know that troubles me--it's what I DO know! The Father is calling for a manifestation in my nature of the truths he has revealed to my understanding. This is indeed a work of the indwelling Spirit and does not involve in any way my effort to "make it happen". We do not have to struggle to produce the nature of Christ in our earth. If His SEED is in us then His SEED contains the genetic code to produce His likeness in us. This is what the process of reGENEration is all about. We do, however, have to lay our lives upon His alter in full surrender to Him. We have to say "YES" to His dealings and to His process. Only when we are yielded and still before Him is the process made as painless as possible and the fire of His presence does not burn us nor does His flame kindle upon us. My heart's cry is that the Father would bring into manifestation the Word that He has revealed to my understanding--to bring the invisible into the visible.
In the twelth chapter of Exodus the children of Israel were instructed to eat all of the passover lamb. They were to eat the head of the lamb which speaks of coming into the mind of Christ and having our understanding enlightened, the legs of the lamb so that our "walk" is affected, and the purtenance or "guts" of the lamb which speaks of coming into His divine nature. If we eat the purtenance of the sacrificial lamb then we will minister one to another and to creation out of "bowels of mercy" and "bowels of compassion". Regardless of how well someone may be able to preach, if mercy is lacking in the message then it is lacking in the life of the person preaching. Hard-nosed, judgemental preaching out of a pharisaical spirit is evidence that the one preaching knows nothing of the "fellowship of His sufferings". It is also evident that a person who ministers out of this harsh spirit has never known what it is to have the seed inside of them crushed. The seed of Christ within us only comes forth when it is mixed with pain, sorrow, and crushing as so beautifully illustrated by Gene Edwards in his book, "A Tale of Three Kings". Mercy and compassion in a christian's life is evidence that the nature of the Father is being manifested; not how much a person knows or how well he or she may be able to communicate it.
In the tenth chapter of Revelation, a voice from the heavens spoke to John and told him to,"Go and take the little scroll which is open in the hand of the messenger which standeth upon the sea (duality or double mindedness) and upon the earth (adamic or carnal nature)". When he asks for the scroll the messenger tells him, "Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey." Honey speaks of revelation--having our eyes enlightened when we see a new or deeper truth in God's Word. At these times we are able to "taste and see that the Lord is good"! The scroll makes our belly bitter when it gets into our spiritual digestive system and starts to change our natures from the inside. Manifesting His nature requires a dying to self and it can be painful at times--especially when we do not understand what is happening to us. This is when we are made conformable ti His death (Ph.3:10) and begin to identify with all that the Lamb of God is in His death, burial, and resurrection. Revelation 12:11 says that they overcame him (satan--forgive me for not capitalizing his name) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony (their personal identification with the slain Lamb), and they loved not their lives unto the death. Our lives must be emptied and given to Him in complete surrender that He might fill us with Himself.
The Kingdom of God is established in our earth not by what we know but by what we manifest. Revelation that denies conflict is nothing more than religion. Revelation that embraces the conflict expressed in "bitter herbs", "fiery trials", and a "bitter belly" will bring forth His image in us. As He is seen in us we find the righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost that is the evidence that the Kingdom of God is present.
Jesus, be Jesus in me
No longer me, Lord, but Thee
Resurrection power
Fill me this hour
And Jesus, be Jesus in me
(Author of song unknown)