Copyright © 1997 Warren Litzman (Christ-Life Fellowship). From the booklet This Then is The Message Which We Have Heard of Him. Used by permission.
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This is The Message Which We Have Heard of Him Point Five: The Revelation
The Scriptures tell us that aside from the Holy Spirit's teaching, we cannot come to know who we are in Christ. Paul's key word for this teaching is revelation. Paul said that the Gospel is a mystery. The Greek definition for mystery suggests that another must explain this truth. And so it is that the Holy Spirit was sent to explain to us the mystery of godliness, which is simply "Christ in us." God had this great secret before the foundation of the world, and now He says that it is time to make it known (Romans 16:25 and Ephesians 3). It has been hidden. It was not known by any prophets of old, but He now wants the whole church to know it. If it is to be known, it must be made known by the Holy Spirit. God will not turn it over to man. There won't be some church which says they have the mystery explained. There won't be some doctrine which, if believed, will reveal the mystery. The Scripture is clear. You must receive it by a revelation from God.
In Galatians 1:15-16 Paul says, "When it pleased God ..." -- not when it pleased him or man, but "When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb ..." What do we get from mothers? One thing we get is containers --bodies. Paul said, "When I got my body from my mother, it pleased God who called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me." Reveal is the big word --revelation. There is a question I must ask you. You may be born again and have spiritual gifts, but are you able to put your finger on a time, in your walk with God, where you can say that God revealed His Son in you? I can tell you, and it will mean nothing. The Church can tell you, by its doctrines, and it will mean nothing. Paul says that it must be told to you by the Holy
Spirit.
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In Ephesians 1:17, Paul says to the church at Ephesus, I'm praying for you that you might have "the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him." He says again, in I Corinthians 2:9-10, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." Have you received that revelation?
But I want to go one step further. I want to tell you that without the Holy Spirit's revealing to us that Christ is our life (that being the essence of the Gospel), we will belabor ourselves to death by self-works and we will be unwilling tools of Satan. This can happen right in the church, right where signs, wonders, and miracles take place, unless we see that the Holy Spirit must reveal Christ.
In Matthew 16:13-18, Jesus said to the disciples one day, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" They did not know for sure. Finally, He looked over at Peter and said, "Whom say ye that I am?" and Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." It is the next statement that is important. Jesus said, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven ... And Peter, upon this rock I will build my Church." Devastating as it is for some to hear, the rock was not Peter. The rock was the revelation. The true Church is based on a revelation, not on a man.
It was never God's intention to raise up men to bring this revelation. Even as we see them today, they are out of order. His intention was to raise up a church which had received divine truth by the Holy Spirit -- not by just sitting down and searching the Scriptures and putting them together in their own special collection. The true Church is raised up by a revelation of the Holy Spirit. Do you belong to that Church? Are you a part of that Church? A church which Jesus could look at and say, "This church is built on the revelation that Christ is the Son of the living God"? And carrying it further, John said, in his Epistle, that unless every believer could say that Christ has come in the flesh -- even in his flesh -- he is still being manipulated by the anti-Christ (I John 4:3). What an awesome truth!
But let us go a step further. Not only is the true Church based on this revelation, but the true Gospel is also. In Galatians 1:11-12, Paul said, "But I certify you brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." How many will you hear preach today who will say that the true Gospel comes by the revelation of Jesus Christ? Are we ready to say that? Are we ready to strip ourselves of all these unnecessary unmeaningful truths, doctrines, and ideas, and get ourselves stripped down to what God is saying? The true Gospel is based on the believer's knowing that Christ is the life of that believer and he has been birthed by God who wanted a son just like Himself. The revelation of Jesus Christ is imperative to our growth. Not only is the Church and the Gospel based on this revelation, but the whole of what God is saying to humanity hinges on our coming to know this liberating secret. This is what makes the difference between religion and the Christ-life.
Copyright © 1997 Warren Litzman; used by permission. The Bible text in this publication, except where otherwise indicated, is from the King James Version. This article appears on the site: http://www.peterwade.com/.
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