From Gifts to the Gift
It is important not only to receive God’s love. This is where you start, perhaps. But also give our love to God. Why did Christ say to Peter, “Do you love Me?” He wasn’t talking about His love – He didn’t ask him, “Have you received My love?” But, “do you love Me?” – then show it…
Revelation
“Two springs on the earth were shown. One was deep in the ground, and purest water was flowing from it. Another spring was on the surface, and its water only looked pure. This water was mixed with dirty waters that were flowing along the surface. Both types of water were sold, and the water from the deep spring was sold with an affordable price. The first deep spring was full of purest water, which made alive those who drank it. But the time came when the water level went down so that the water was now really deep down. In order to dip it and drink it one had to make big effort, this is why this water now cost a lot, which caused it to lose its popularity.
Another spring on the surface was so full now that its water became rally cheap, so that the majority of people start buying this water. The waters from this spring flooded and got mixed even more with the dirty waters. In order to be able to drink this water they started cleansing it with different filters that could actually cleanse it to look and taste nice, but the water contained heavy metals, which gradually poisoned those who drank it”.
This is a very important revelation. There is this spring of pure water that flows from deep beneath the ground, it flows from the mystery of God. But there are these waters on the surface – this is human Christianity, which appeals to the mercantile interests of Christians, satisfying selfish needs, when God’s grace is applied to satisfy one’s ego.
So the deep spring became expensive, because popularity gained those cheap ones, people turned away from the expensive deep one, they want cheaper. You know it, discounts are attractive – he walks by, sees a discount and goes in, not because he needed that thing, but because it is cheap.
Such thinking must not be with Christians toward grace. We don’t want cheap things. Once they asked me, “what do you value?”- I said, “that, which is expensive” Cheap is always cheap.
Spiritual grace is not a cheap matter. It is given for free today, not because it is cheap, but because Christ’s blood can’t be valued enough. And our eyes should be focused on those deep waters, they are very expensive. One has to put a lot effort in order to drink them, but they are pure and precious.
Therefore, pay attention, what kind of waters you drink, what kind of waters you hunt, and perhaps they do poison you and produce the sludge that ruins your spiritual health?
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I will speak on a very important topic of God’s revelation. It is a vast one, and I will start with the foundation of the nature of revelation.
You know that from the very beginning, when Adam was still before his fall, He spoke with him in the cool of the day. But after Adam had been sent out from Eden, Adam did not see the Lord anymore, the way he saw him, because cherubim with the turning sward was placed by the tree of life to guard the way.
And there the era of revelation began. Noah came to be, the Lord gave him a revelation to build an ark. After him men of God arose to call the name of the Lord. Then were the fathers, Abraham who heard the voice; he needed revelation to know what to do. Sometimes the Lord showed him in visions the city of heaven. Men like Samuel and David came who also experienced revelation – “I saw You in the sanctuary”. So it began and it continues, and today in order to know the Lord you need not education, but revelation. I can learn all the wisdom of the world, but revelation surpasses this wisdom. Because revelation speaks by itself that God has chosen you and manifested His perfect will as He initiated His visiting you. The very fact of having revelation speaks a lot, that He has counted you worthy to give you revelation. God doesn’t come to strange people, it is written “to My own I will manifest Myself”. And He comes to the man. Why is that to one person He gives revelation and to the other He doesn’t? One doesn’t have to seek revelation, he has it, and the other one thirsts for it, asks for it, but can’t receive it? This also speaks a lot.
Apostle Paul asks from God revelation for us:
“ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” (Eph.1:17-19)
He is saying that it is impossible to learn to know Him and the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory and the exceeding greatness of His power – one has to comprehend this through revelation. And it is amazing how God gave the shortest way for man to know Him – this is revelation.
Flash with His lightning and reveal Himself. Revelation is like a radiant light – it may be very short and powerful, pulsating light, and it may me long-lasting continuous smooth light, which shines at the righteous ones.
The representation of how the Lord reveals His revelation is the ark, the tabernacle. I want to take you through a little journey of how the Lord reveals, of the principles of revelation.
“You shall put the ark-cover on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony (Revelation) that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the ark-cover, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel”.(Ex.25:21-22)
First the Lord orders to Moses to ascend the mountain, and Moses is hidden on the mountain for 40 days, neither eating nor drinking. The Lord prepares Moses and gives him stone tablets, where with His finger the Ten commandments to man were written. And these stones became the stones of revelation. And since that time when the stones were put inside the ark, it becomes the ark of revelation. Before that it was just a carried box, but when the revelation lay in it, it became the ark of revelation.
In the Old testament revelation was given through prophets. In the New testament Jesus Himself became the revelation of the Father, He became the embodied Word. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and revelation was put inside Jesus. When the Dove came upon Him and in Him, and rested on Him .
Do you see the analogy? Revelation was put in the ark, and it became the ark of revelation. The Dove came upon Jesus, baptized Him, and Jesus became the ark of revelation. And He becomes the revelation of the Father. It is impossible to be revelation of the Father without God’s Spirit.
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory”.
God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit. This mystery of godliness was revealed in Christ. And this is fullness of revelation. Revelation is not any thoughts for prophecy! The Apogee of revelation is to be a carrier, to be an ark of light! It is to become a gift yourself. This is to be gods. The Scripture says, “You are gods”. Attain immortality, in order to walk in the power of resurrection and become the sons of resurrection.
If to study lives of certain people, who attained immortality, one could see they had no strength to live with the intensity and the fire they moved in. But they moved in the supernatural; it was the spirit that prevailed lifted all the fleshly things to heaven, and the flesh, like with Moses, submitted to the spiritual realm. You know that Moses’ face was shining, because he was in God’s presence. How can one not drink water for forty days?
We should not perceive these stories with our mind, but listen with the spirit! Rather open up wide and receive this divine empowerment! Receive the power of immortality! Receive the power of the eternity!
Apostle Paul goes further and he understands these things how Christ became the carrier of revelation and the ark. And he also wanted to follow and become the same kind of man. This was his goal and this is what he attained, as he says in Ephesians 3:
“ To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” – that is, Paul revealed to the Gentiles, all those “Socrateses”, “Platos”, “Aristotles” – which are whole philosophic teachings and directions. If to take philosophy today – it’s like thick wood with different clearings that lead to dead ends. Philosophers say it themselves. They paved way to those directions, but they lead to nowhere, they don’t take to revelation. God does not reveal Himself where they take you. God reveals in Jesus.
Paul understood all these things, he had an extraordinary mind and was able to speak to all those educated and intelligent people: “that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places”. And in another Scripture he says, “God called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me” (Gal.1:16) This means, Paul became an ark, in which revelation was put. Until revelation was put in it, it was nothing more but a box of shittim wood, laid up with gold with beautiful cover and cherubim. But when the stones lay there, and the ark-cover was put on it, then it became the ark of revelation.
“So Moses raised up the tabernacle, fastened its sockets, set up its boards, put in its bars, and raised up its pillars. And he spread out the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent on top of it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. He took the Testimony and put it into the ark, inserted the poles through the rings of the ark, and put the mercy seat on top of the ark. And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, hung up the veil of the covering, and partitioned off the ark of the Testimony (Revelation), as the Lord had commanded Moses”. (Ex.40:18-21) – This is where the ark is called the ark of revelation.
“And he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and hung up the screen of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle”. (Ex.40:33-34)
And we move further. And when the ark was inside the tabernacle of meeting – so it was called until the ark of revelation was inside. But the moment came, in Numbers 1:
“The children of Israel shall pitch their tents, everyone by his own camp, everyone by his own standard, according to their armies; but the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the Testimony (Revelation)” (vs. 52-53) – It is not the tabernacle of meeting anymore, but the tabernacle of Revelation, just as the ark became the ark of Revelation, when the Revelation was put there.
Do you see – wherever revelation appears, all of it becomes holy!
“This is the law of the temple: The whole area surrounding the mountaintop is most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple”. (Ezek. 43:12)
Not only the top, but the whole mountain is sanctified and becomes the Holy of Holies. And today the Revelation, Christ, sanctifies us, both our spirit, our soul and our body. This is very important to understand, to allow this light to stream.
And Christ had this in Him. He went up the Mount of Transfiguration and He was shining so powerfully, that even His clothes were white as no one on earth could make them. It doesn’t mean His clothes were changed, and some new robes were given to Him from heaven. It means that the light was shining so powerfully from His Spirit, that going through the soul and body it was like an incredibly powerful floodlight.
The Spirit that was shining on Moses, was shining multiple times stronger in Jesus Christ. And His clothes was shining. If Moses was able to cover himself and there was no light visible anymore, perhaps only dim light through the fabric in the darkness, with Jesus no clothes, no thick blanket could hold the light. It hit through anything, the radiance of a thousand suns in Jesus.
And it wasn’t the light like the one of the sun, that hurts the eyes, but such light is not to be found on earth. It was the heavenly light! The heavenly light comes with odors, with all the colors of the rainbow and even more, it comes with music, with contrition and glory, with the admiration of the spirit. There comes the delight that is altogether called “Bliss”. This is God’s light, because God is light. This is no light for eyes – this is altogether, the Kingdom! It shines! And this Kingdom, the Paradise, is within you! This kind of God’s light, not simply light.
They could’ve died of it, they were in a trance and said, “Lord, lets’ make three tents, because it is so good for us to be here”. Man has no desire to drink or eat, or go to his dear ones – he quits this space and doesn’t want to return. He feels has returned to his very spring. He returns to his home, to the keenest home land, because he was taken from there and to there he is to return.
This is what God’s light is, and this is what revelation inside the ark is.
Revelation came from God to the tablets, from tablets to the ark, and it became the ark of revelation. From the ark of revelation, with the tablets and God it came into the tabernacle of meeting, and the tabernacle of meeting became the tabernacle of revelation. And the stone of Christ is put in the ark. And the cloud covered the tabernacle, the cloud of glory. This is what kind of cloud came on the day of Pentecost and manifested in the tongs of fire, above God’s people – the very same light, radiant light.
There are levels of revelation. It comes from the Holy Spirit through His gifts, we love those revelations. Today I read this revelation about deep waters, they are precious, but not everyone comes to them. Everyone wants Jesus to help them today, now, cheap and fast. But there are different waters. Today it is all about these water, today I am giving you these waters to drink.
There’s revelation through the revealed Word, when the Lord reveals it, and we draw incredible purity of revelation.
There’s a level of revelation of revealed knowledge of God, when knowledge of God comes as our inner nature, when we know God, which is also the Spirit of revelation and wisdom. Not only revelation, but wisdom, as it works continuously – not pulsating light, but continuous, lasting. Revelation is pulsating light, knowledge of God is continuous light.
There’s revelation of Jesus Christ in man, when man himself becomes a carrier, an ark, he dwells amidst God’s cloud and carries the light that comes with odor, praise, pleasure, with the nature of worshipper and the angelic realm, and man is no longer just man but being, because God’s Spirit is shining in him. Man-Being.
God revealed Christ through Paul, and Paul became God’s gift himself: “ But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood”(Gal.1:15-16) – That’s it, freedom! Paul removed all the limitations and entered straight in the Son of God, in His Heart. He rejected all the fears, all the doubts and strongholds, and people’s opinions. He entered the Son of God and never left from there.
Think, brothers and sisters! Looking from this high place I see how sad and poor Christianity is that doesn’t accept this.
But we are called to be the arks of God. And we must gain these three dimensions: the tablets of the truth of the Word of God, that Christ may inhabit and dwell in us, that we become the house of Christ! That our soul may become the house of Christ, that He is not any guest there coming for a visit, but that He may dwell there and feel well.
Also the rod of authority was put in the ark, a symbol of resurrection, when many rods were put there, but only Aaron’s rod budded, gave flowers and ripe almonds as well. This is the rod of authority and power of resurrection. And as arks we must have this rod of authority and power of resurrection in us.
The living fountain springing river flows through us! Believe God! Believe God! Believe His Word! What’s wrong with you? Why are you discouraged, when you are supposed to believe God? BELIEVE GOD! BELIEVE GOD!
This is bold! This is fierce! This is scary for a carnal one – he is scared, he’s got burn blisters! Because a coal has come who believes God!
And the third symbol was put in the ark – this is manna, revealed Word of God, unceasing. It was put there for ages, so that you could dip your finger and feed yourself with the eternal life, eternal bread. We must have evidence of eternal life in us.
So we have spoken of the nature of revelation. Revelation doesn’t mean you catch a prophecy, as if you caught a thought like a bird, throw a net on revelation and catch a prophecy, a dream or a vision. Those are the gifts of the Spirit. Revelation lies deeper and comes not from outside, but from the inside, when it continues like a powerful light, growing light, and you know. The Spirit of wisdom and revelation. I pray Apostle Paul’s prayer that God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ may give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, knowledge and gifts, so that we may know Him and the power of His resurrection. Everything that God prepared for us is given through the Spirit of revelation.