Men have always had a difficult time trying to understand our Heavenly Father. Because God is a Spirit, men couldn't see Him or know Him as they searched Him out. John 1:18 (Amplified) says that, "No man has ever seen God at anytime; the only unique Son, or the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom (in the intimate presence) of the Father, He has declared Him (He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him and made Him known)."
The only way we can see the Father with our natural eyes, is through Jesus. Man has had a difficult time serving an unseen God. Natural man could only believe in what the five senses could contact. The only other way to have a revelation of God, is through His Word. Until we see God as Father, we're still in the same place as the Old Testament people were in. Jesus came to reveal the Father (not the God) Image to His people." John 1:18 (Amplified) says that, "He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He can be seen."
Hebrews 1:1-3 (Amplified) tells us that, "In many separate revelations (each of which set forth a portion of the truth) and in different ways God spoke of old to (our) forefathers in and by the prophets." Verse 2 says, "(But) in the last of these days He has spoken to us in (the person of a) Son, Whom He appointed Heir and Lawful Owner of all things, also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and the ages of time (He made, produced, built, operated, and arranged them in order)." Verse 3 says, "He is the sole expression of the glory of God (the Light-being, the outraying or radiance of the divine) and He is the perfect imprint and very Image of (God's) nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His Mighty Word of power, When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sin and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on High."
Man in his carnal mind, cannot imagine God. So, God sent His Son in His Own Image so that we (natural man) could finally see and understand Him. At this time, no one was born again because Jesus had not yet gone to the cross. The only thing the people could see was a Man Who walked in the power and glory of God.
It was hard for man to believe the revelation that Jesus was actually God in human form because man had never seen God. The scriptures revealed this truth for centuries, but because man wasn't "spiritually alive" at the time, they couldn't see Him. When Jesus rose from the dead, ascended to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit, men could be born again and actually see God by revelation of the Holy Spirit.
Satan has tried for centuries to stop the Word of God to hide the revelation of Who He (God) is as Father. In the day of grace in the wake of the new covenant, we have lapsed back into what the old covenant people walked in. We could see Jesus as a Man, we could identify with the Man Who was sent, we could see Him as He walked among men, we could even see Jesus on the cross and raised from the dead and we could see and identify with Jesus as He ascended to heaven before His disciples. But, this is where our identifying seems to have stopped.
Once Jesus ascended to the Father, our identifying with Him went back to seeing Him in the Spirit again. Most of the time, we don't minister much about the risen, seated and reigning Christ. We seem to still only see God by natural means and not by revelation. Without the Holy Spirit's revealing God through the now risen Christ, we continue seeing Him in the Man form of Jesus.
Most of the sermons we hear or preached, come mostly from the Gospels because this is where we identify with Him. We've failed to realize that Jesus was now talking to those who were under the old covenant Law. He was revealing bits and pieces of the new covenant that would be at His resurrection. John 16:12-13 (Amplified) says, "I have still many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them or to take them upon you or to grasp them now." Verse 13 says, "But When He, the Spirit of truth (the truth giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the truth (the full, whole truth) for He will not speak His Own message (on His Own authority) but He will tell whatever He hears from the Father; (He will give the message that has been given to Him) and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come (that will happen in the future)."
Jesus was stating here that once He was crucified and risen and ascended, the ministry of the Holy Spirit would be their teacher. The things "that were to come," were the things that would come once Jesus ascended to the Throne. The ministry of the Holy Spirit would reveal the Risen Christ and not just the Man Jesus, to us.
The Apostle Paul spoke about this more than any other teacher in the new covenant. He was the one who never saw the "man" Jesus, but only the risen Christ. Paul never knew Jesus except by the Spirit. In 2Corinthians 12:2-4 (Amplified), Paul, speaking about Himself, says, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago-whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows_ was caught up to the third heaven." Verses 3-4 go on, "And I know that this man-whether in the body or away from the body I do not know, God knows was caught up into paradise, and he heard utterances beyond the power of man to put into words, which man is not permitted to utter."
This is the revelation given by and to the Spirit. This revelation can only come to man now, by revelation in the Word of God. Paul was taken into the presence of the Lord (he said he didn't know if he was just in the spirit or his entire body was there), but he knew he was there. He was given a revelation of the Risen Christ that no other man had at that time. This revelation could only be seen now, by the eyes of the Spirit, as revealed by the Holy Spirit.
Because the Church still walks (mostly) with unrenewed minds, we still walk and see like natural men. The revelation of the present day ministry of Jesus remains mostly unknown to the Church. We've lapsed back into thinking in the natural mind after the resurrection. And, for the most part, we only think of His ascension as a way for us to go to heaven.
Paul's revelation was something that caused division even among the other disciples. Many of those in the early Church, believed that salvation was only for the Jews. When the Apostle Paul was given the revelation in Acts 10:34-35 (Amplified), "Peter opened his mouth and said; Most certainly and thoroughly I now perceive and understand that God shows no partiality and is no respector of persons. But in every nation he who venerates and has a reverential fear for God, treating Him with worshipful obedience and living uprightly is acceptable to Him and sure of being received and welcomed (by Him)." Acts 11:17-18 (Amplified) says that, "When they asked (or objected) about Peter and the Gentiles, Peter quieted them with his sayings, If then God gave to them the same Gift (equally) as He gave to us when we believed (speaking of Cornelius and his house) in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) the Lord Jesus Christ, Who was I and what power or authority had I to interfere or hinder or forbid or withstand God?" Verse 18 goes on, "When they heard this, they were quieted and made no further objection. And they glorified God, saying, then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto (real) life (after resurrection)."
Paul's writing bring forth that which can only be understood by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. We have had a send knowledge or mental assent to the Word more than the revelation knowledge of the Word. We say we believe the Bible and we can (and do) read the words. I can have a knowledge of what the words mean, but have no revealed knowledge of what the Word actually says. Jesus commented on this in His earthly walk. He said the people had ears, but don't hear and have eyes, but don't see. They heard and saw only with the reasonings of the carnal mind or the mind of the flesh.
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