Friday, February 10, 2017

The Spirit of Revelation

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
Ephesians 1:17

The Apostle Paul was such a humble man concerning his love for God's people that he would continue to pray for those who are the set apart ones to be equipped with wisdom and revelation. He knew in his dealings with church people that he could deliver a message that would be filled with wisdom and the people seemed to grab hold of those things he had taught them, only to realize that they would forget and sink back into their place of spiritual darkness. Every pastor and leader who serve people see the same questions or problems over and over as if there has never been any discussion of the issues. A stranger can come and say the same thing and they will act as if it is the first time they have ever heard the statement and in reality, it is because they can't hear you.

Jesus reveals this phenomena when He taught on the parable of the sower in which He gave four types of people who hear the word. He categorized these four types of people in the various cities that he traveled to and he summed them up this way. The wayside hearers, rock hearers, the thorn hearers and the good ground hearers. Luke 8:4-8. We are so excited about the "good ground hearers" for they make our lives so exciting. We are thrilled as we pour our hearts out teaching or giving a word to these people because they have revelation of what you're saying. You can see the excitement in their spirit as the word take root within their heart because they are good ground for the seed to grow in. They are a pleasure as we watch their growth in Christ and the fruit that they bear. Unfortunately, we don't get the opportunity to minister to too many good ground people.

The frustrating people are those who hear the preacher/teacher give the word and right after service or a counseling session ask the same question as if the minister hadn't taken their precious time to teach the information they need. They just didn't get it because Satan quickly came to the wayside and the rock christians to trample and effectively wither the word so that it would be of no effect to them. The word couldn't take root and we have to recognize the types of people we minister to. The most frustrating type of Christian are those who are the thorny christians. They appear to have an understanding of what has and is being taught. They will amen your sermon and appear to be right there with you riding every word, but then you witness something else as time goes on. There is no growth or fruit; they are at a standstill struggling with the same issues they were shouting, high-fiving and affirming as you spoke. There was affirmation, but no revelation. They heard your words and agreed with what you were saying, but didn't get a revelation of the principle, therefore there is no wisdom when a problem arise. It takes time to see whether the thorny christians have an understanding because growth takes time and wheat and thorns look identical when they begin to grow. We see what looks fruitful and promising in the ground, but in due sesson, we then realize it's thornes and not wheat. This is the most frustrating part of pastoring...they can't hear you. No fruit was produced because they allowed the enemy to snatch the word by trials or doubt.

I'm so glad it is God's business and not mine in how they hear. My job is to deliver the word in truth and God's business in how they hear. We are instructed in Ephesians 4:11-13 tells that Jesus gave the five-fold ministers the responsibility to equip the people for works of service and to build up or to edify the Body of Christ until WE ALL come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect or mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of God. That means we can't become frustrated and decide we're not teaching or ministering to hard headed people anymore. It's not about us; it's God business. You were anointed, appointed and charged by Jesus Christ to take those He has brought put of darkness and into the light by the hand and walk with them down the difficult road of training so that in due season, hopefully they will receive wisdom and revelation.

I had to realize just because I recieved wisdom and revelation on a truth of God doesn't mean that everyone else recieved it at the same time. I must be patient until others placed in my midst recieves the things of God. That is why the Bible repeats the principles of God over and over in different Books, often times using the sam verbage. God desires that we all "get it " so He anoint some and make them wise and reveals Himself to them so that they can teach others to follow hard after Him to recieve His word in time and power by His Spirit. He wants to speak to them too, so He uses you to teach them how to hear and to be patient in waiting on the Lord.

Apostle Paul tole the people that he gave them milk and not solid food because they couldn't handle the wisdom that he walked in nor could they handle any revelation from God. They were wrangling with arguments and jealousy, just like the modern Church and these worldly issues that prevent them from walking in the love of Christ. Deep calls to deep and if the people are yet immature, they can't recieve the deep things of God. Some will hear and mature to become wise and enjoy revelations from God to equip others and then, there's the other three groups, the wayside, rock and thorny christians who will struggle, going to church, always hearing and learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. God is faithful to the ones who humble themselves and submit to Him to rise to the heights of glory to receive all that God delights Himself to reveal them in times of worship.

Cynthia Brooks

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