Luke 17: 20-21: “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Luke 17: 30: “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” This Scripture does not say, when the Son of man is seen or observed (revelation knowledge is not the same thing as physical sight).
If someone reads the Bible, a newspaper article or a book with their physical eyes, this is not revelation. When you come across a certain Scripture or a sentence in a newspaper article or a book and something is quickened in your spirit by the Holy Ghost—this is revelation from God. The Lord is shining His light (revelation) upon that Scripture or that sentence—it may even be one word—so that we can better understand it. Some people call this a Rhema Word or the Spoken Word.
“The kingdom of God cometh not with [physical] observation.” The kingdom of God comes to purified vessels and is perceived by the spirit by the Holy Ghost. It is a spiritual kingdom; it is not a physical kingdom that you can see with your physical eyes.
The Second Coming is not a physical Jesus coming through some physical clouds for His bride to be seen through the physical eyes. The Second Coming is the Holy Ghost revealing the Lordship of Jesus Christ to purified vessels (dead to self) who can see with their spiritual eyes. These people are not into the letter, but the Spirit, because the letter kills and the Spirit gives life.
Let’s say that the natural, unsaved man can see for twenty miles. Your basic believer in Christ should be able to see for fifty miles (I am speaking figuratively). The Christian believer is spiritually alive and should have spiritual insights that the unbeliever cannot have because the unbeliever is dead in his trespasses and sins. Your basic prophetic Christian should be able to see one hundred miles or five hundred miles ahead of him--or you could say that the prophet can see five years or ten years or five hundred years into the future (this is why prophets are hated so much and are thought to be crazy—they see things way before other people see things and their lives and words convict people of sin).
Revelation from God is spiritual, but the Lord uses our physical bodies/senses/eyesight for His will. The physical body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Our physical body/temple is used by the Lord, so that He can reveal His will to us, so that we can obey His will--this is how we develop and strengthen our spiritual sight.
In 2007, I bought my first pair of reading glasses. As I get older, my physical sight (for reading) is growing weaker, but my spiritual sight is growing stronger. I must decrease, so that He can increase.
A Prophet's Eyes
The Second Coming
The Kingdom of Heaven
The Prophet by A.S. Pushkin
Breaking off the Greek mindset
“The man whom Christ illuminates with His message has eyes, and that resolves the old difficulty of blindness; but he must use his new eyes in a blind world, and that creates another problem. The world in its blindness resents his claim to sight and will go to any lengths to discredit the claim. The truth of Christ brings assurance and so removes the former problem of fear and uncertainty, but that assurance will be interpreted as bigotry by the fear-ridden multitudes. And sooner or later this misunderstanding will get the man of God into trouble. And so with many other of the blessed benefits of the gospel. As long as we remain in this twisted world, these benefits will create their own problems. We cannot escape them.
But no instructed Christian will complain. He will rather accept his problems as opportunities for the exercise of spiritual virtues. He will turn them into useful disciplines for the purification of his life and will rejoice that he is permitted to suffer with his Lord. For however severe may be a Christian’s trials, they cannot last very long, and the blessed fruit they bear will last while the ages endure.”
--A. W. Tozer
A Prophet's Eyes
The Second Coming
The Kingdom of Heaven
The Prophet by A.S. Pushkin
Breaking off the Greek mindset
“The man whom Christ illuminates with His message has eyes, and that resolves the old difficulty of blindness; but he must use his new eyes in a blind world, and that creates another problem. The world in its blindness resents his claim to sight and will go to any lengths to discredit the claim. The truth of Christ brings assurance and so removes the former problem of fear and uncertainty, but that assurance will be interpreted as bigotry by the fear-ridden multitudes. And sooner or later this misunderstanding will get the man of God into trouble. And so with many other of the blessed benefits of the gospel. As long as we remain in this twisted world, these benefits will create their own problems. We cannot escape them.
But no instructed Christian will complain. He will rather accept his problems as opportunities for the exercise of spiritual virtues. He will turn them into useful disciplines for the purification of his life and will rejoice that he is permitted to suffer with his Lord. For however severe may be a Christian’s trials, they cannot last very long, and the blessed fruit they bear will last while the ages endure.”
--A. W. Tozer
Amen Tim! Encouraging word! That is exactly what Father was stressing to me the last couple days about seeing into the future. Praying we all stay close to His heart.
ReplyDeletepeace!
Deirdre: Too many Christians are carnal and only see things through their physical (natural) eyes because they are not dead to self. Carnal Christians (cultural Christians) mock spiritual Christians because the demons in carnal Christians hate the power of the Holy Ghost in spiritual Christians. Carnal Christians love the letter and hate the Spirit.
ReplyDeleteJohn 4: 24: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
I Corinthians 2: 14-15: "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man."
Deirdre: A foreshadowing of carnal Christians mocking spiritual Christians can be found in the Old Testament. In the Book of Genesis, Ishmael mocks Isaac. Isaac is the son of God's promise and Ishmael is the son of Abraham's self will. Self-willed Christians usually mock spiritual Christians.
ReplyDeleteVery true on this point, and there are many other foreshadows of this throughout the Bible, including their mothers, Hagar (law) versus Sarah (grace.)I've even come to realize that spirits that hang around what you call "carnal Christians" can way better point out to me the "spiritual Christians" than I would be able to discern with my own natural understanding.
DeleteWe do seem to have some differing views, such as with the Second Coming, as I do have a more literal view, and whether a demon could actually be "in" a Christian. However, I wanted to give you a nod of encouragement, brother, and to tell you to "keep on keepin' on!" God bless :-)
Tim,
ReplyDeleteAnother excellent word and very important for today. This is absolutely something folks need to keep their eyes/ears open for. "Ishmael is a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone..." sound familiar?
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteThis is very encouraging. Seeing and hearing in the spirit is often misunderstood that I always need the Lord's strength to speak of what I receive as revelation; especially when some Christians dismiss it as nonsense.