Chapter 9 - Divine Revelation

Never approach the Lord as you would approach any other literature. The Holy Spirit is needed for its revelation.

Truth cometh by revelation, and that by the Spirit of God; not by our mental processes, but by the Holy Spirit, Who reveals the things of God to us. (1 Cor. 2:10)

Teachers are those who have gotten into the Word, move in the Spirit, and have revelation, light, and Truth from God by the Holy Ghost. I have the Bible, and I have the Holy Spirit, but they run parallel in their responses. Just as soon as I move in the Word of God, I have to move into a broader, and more glorious revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “I am the Truth.” This means that all Truth is personified in Him; all Truth becomes articulate; all Truth becomes fully expressive in this dynamic, marvelous, living Christ, and the nearer we get to Him, the more we love Him. Oh, those profound unfoldings by the Spirit, Who takes us into the Person of Christ, in Whom are hidden the treasures!

If the Holy Spirit has been gracious enough to take us into the darkness, and has said: “Look, you have made a discovery,” we come out enriched, because we have found some little, simple treasure in the personality setup of Christ.

There is much that we can have which is quite visible and tangible; what we call the articulate aspect of Him. But there is so much of Him which is evasive. It is abstract, but it is in this Christ, and that is where I get blessed. When Jesus was here, He said, “I am the Truth.” He means by that: all Truth is summed up in this revelation. “He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.”

You see, He is talking about a manifestation of the nature and character of God.

The people who gathered about Him, and heard Him speak, saw His manifestation in miracle power. They were recipients of His grace, and even of His healing, but how many of you think they had any inner revelation as to His identity? No, they didn’t—even His disciples did not.

It took Him three Years of intensive work for the disciples to even recognize that He was the Messiah, let alone the Son of God! That never entered their brains when they first started out with Him, It was a long time before they even found Out He was the Son of God, They all supposed Him to be the son of Joseph. Later on they perceived by His learned exposition, and, finally, through His works, miracle working, and all the rest, that this Man did not teach or speak like any of the rest of them. Well, of course not!

Finally, after three years, they could accept Him as their Messiah, but that is as far as their acceptance went! When Jesus came down from Caesarea Philippi, He turned to His disciples, when alone with them, and asked, “Whom do men say that I am?” Now if He had been revealed in a long white robe with a halo in the back of Him, do you think He would have asked that? NO. Then He asked, “Whom say ye that I am?” He pins them down, He doesn’t want a general opinion from them. Peter answered: “Thou art the Christ.” (Christ means the Messiah). But he says something more, “The Son of the living God.”—“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father, Who is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17) This was a revelation by God the Father. Truth comes by a revelation of the Spirit, not by reasoning, logic, scientific deduction, philosophy or any other scheme.

“No man knoweth the Son, but the Father.” (Matthew 11:27). Then it takes the Father, through the Holy Spirit, to reveal Him to us, but the Father is really the only One Who knows Him.

Jesus Christ, and the Word of Life run parallel. If we are studying the Word of God as Truth, we will have to have the parallel revelation of the Lord Jesus running with it. Jesus doesn’t stand over there, static, as we study something in the Word here. We have to have an inner, personal fellowship with the Lord running parallel with the Word, or there is no life or Spirit in the Word at all. We may have wonderful insight as to the letter of the Word, but there is no corresponding insight into the Lord. We do not have an inner consciousness of entity; no awakening. Anyone who is finding Truth in these deeper, fuller revelations of life in the Word of God, who is still entertaining the same vision and conception of Jesus he had fifteen years ago, is not very far along in spiritual growth. Why? The revelation of Christ, the personality of Christ, must unfold, and unfold, and unfold until we begin to find the treasures of this revelation —TRUTH HIDDEN IN THE CHRIST. It is hidden. Where will we get this Truth? It comes only by a parallel revelation. I never can read that Word of God, and get anything unless there is a continual, parallel revelation all the time in my spirit. I am discerning something new in Him. I see Him in some new slant of light. Why? As I read the Word, I see Him! He’s the WORD! Keep that parallel. Don’t try to divorce the Lord from the Word.

Keep your parallel: The opening of the Word of God under the power of the Spirit, and the opening as to this wonderful Christ—God—the Eternal Son. God, coming to us in flesh, going home, but coming again in the power of the Spirit. Keep that, all the while, in parallel with the Word. It is a double revelation, and it is sweet, and we should have it!