The Spiritual Background of the Word of God
by
T. Austin-Sparks
Chapter 6 - The Value of Spiritual Revelation
Reading: John 16:1-33.
Of all that we have been saying together
in these gatherings, I think we could sum up everything in one
thought, and that is that God is seeking in this age to extricate
from this world a people for Himself, in living union with Himself.
We have traced through the Word of God the abiding antagonism
between God and this world, spiritually; between all that is of God
in this world and this world's antagonism to that. We have seen two
great factors in that state of antagonism. On the one hand the
factor of an inward constitutional "something" in the very nature of
man, by which he is bound spiritually to this world, bound up with
it; and, on the other hand, the great system of spiritual
intelligences bent upon maintaining that inward affinity. And even
where it has been broken and suspended, and there has been brought
about a counter affinity, through grace, with God and His things,
the enemy does not abandon his object. He persists right on in
seeking in some way, by force, by deception, by subtlety, to again
entangle spiritually in this world. This explains the whole history
of the Church, and of the people of God, in their continuous
spiritual battle with the world, in which so many have fallen back
again into the world, because of the strength of the world's call
and draw. The Church has again and again fallen into that
entanglement, so that ere the apostolic age was closed, you find in
that representation of the Church universally, the seven Churches of
Asia, with but one or two exceptions, an entanglement again in this
world.
All this has been a very great emphasis upon the need for an utter
separation unto God, and we shall pursue this matter, and come to
consider now another factor in the conflict, and in the victory.
The Value of Spiritual Revelation
This factor is the supreme value and power of a spiritual
revelation. It seems to me to be THE factor in the full extrication
and emancipation of a people spiritually from the world unto God. I
can see it running through the Old Testament, and I see it standing
out so clearly in the New Testament; the supreme value and power of
a spiritual revelation as the means of spiritual emancipation. It
has been God's method all along. Whenever there has been an
entanglement spiritually in this world, and God has moved again to
break that entanglement and to deliver from that bondage, to bring
out into a clear place with Himself spiritually, He has begun by a
revelation of Himself. We will not trace it through - it would take
too long - but we can touch upon one or two of the instances, which
will immediately show you the principle of God's working in this
matter.
The Case of Abram
You may take Abram; that great movement of God toward having a
people for Himself in this world, and yet utterly separated from it.
We are told that the God of glory appeared unto our father, Abram,
when he was in Ur of the Chaldees, and Abram had a revelation of the
God of glory. The issue instantly was that Abram left Ur of the
Chaldees and came out. The terms and basis of his coming out are so
strikingly akin to spiritual relationships: "...unto a place that I
will show thee... and he went out, not knowing whither he went." And
I say again, that very well represents the spiritual experience of
the Lord's people. Very largely, in a certain realm, spiritual
people are a "Don't know" people. That is, they cannot interpret
themselves to the world, they cannot explain their goings in terms
of human wisdom and understanding. To the world theirs is a most
foolish and unreasonable line of things. The world would say that it
was unpractical, it was altogether contrary to common sense. Abram
left Ur of the Chaldees. Abram, where are you going? I don't know!
What do you expect to find there? I don't know! Well, what are you
going for? Well, I have been told to go, that is all! That is not
the way of this world's business, "not knowing whither." You might
say that it is being suspended between heaven and earth, and
spiritually that is very true of the Lord's people. Yes, it very
aptly expresses, defines spiritual experience.
Abram has had a vision, and it accounts for all sorts of
extraordinary behaviour that the world could not understand. He is
sure of one thing, and that is, of God. He is sure that he is moving
under divine compulsion, though he himself cannot understand. He
will find that in the course of things he will be more and more
bewildered; things will become more and more difficult of
understanding, and impossible of explanation; and at any point in
his life, if you ask him for an explanation, of a variety of
experience and its meaning, he will have to say, I don't know. All
that I do know is that God has told me, and I have to do what God
has told me. I believe God; the rest I have to leave with Him. Where
will you be tomorrow, Abram? I don't know! How long are you going to
continue in this kind of life? I don't know! And yet, deep down, as
settled as anything can be, is the conviction that he is on sure
ground spiritually. God has appeared to him, and he is a man
spiritually outside of the world, even outside of the world's
intelligence, understanding. He is outside, and he cannot be
reckoned amongst those of this world; he cannot be judged by this
world's standards; he cannot be explained according to this world;
he is outside, resultant from a revelation.
The Case of Israel
Later in his life the revelation of the divine purpose developed;
and God, in His foreknowledge, in His eternal present, saw the seed
of Abram in bondage in Egypt, and had regard to His determined
purpose to bring them out of that bondage. In order to get them out
of the world, He will proceed along exactly similar lines to those
which He has used in getting Abram out - by revelation. And so, in
the 15th Chapter of Genesis, God appears to Abram again, and says to
him, Thy seed shall be captives (bond-slaves) in a strange land. He
gives him certain details, and then says, after four hundred years I
will bring them out. That revelation has come through, as you notice
in the chapter, by great conflict, tremendous conflict. God did not
say that to Abram until certain things had taken place, until the
ground of emancipation had been typically laid, in the sacrifice,
the altar, the flame, the torch. You see in these all the symbols of
our emancipation from this world - the shed Blood of the Cross, the
mighty power of the Spirit, and then powers of darkness beating
down, and a horror of great darkness. And then the revelation is
given. It seems as though all hell is out to frustrate that
revelation, because once that revelation is through - something made
known by God - it is something God can never go back upon. Once He
has expressed Himself and committed Himself to man, He is bound to
do it. And so, to prevent the revelation, all the forces of darkness
rage, but God gets His revelation through to His servant in spite of
the horror of great darkness and the vultures, and all the forces
working in opposition. And the fact - this is the point - the fact
that a revelation has come, is the certainty of an emancipation. The
emancipation hangs upon the revelation. The revelation is the ground
of the emancipation. That is the law that we are indicating.
You see that at work many other times in the Old Testament. In the
case of Israel's later emancipation from their captivity the same
thing happened. Revelation came, and through the revelation came
their deliverance.
Now, when you come to the New Testament you find the law still at
work, that God must first of all, according to the law by which He
has bound Himself, work according to a revelation. He first of all
gives a revelation, before He acts in relation to it.
The Case of Paul
We take the outstanding case in the Scriptures. What is the position
peculiarly and uniquely represented by the ministry of the apostle
Paul? Undoubtedly it is the Church in the heavenlies. A Testimony,
in a word, to the real, spiritual nature of the Church, the Body of
Christ, as not being something of this world, but while, in part at
least, here in this world, as certainly quite apart from it
spiritually, having a heavenly life, a heavenly relationship, and
everything heavenly. That is Paul's ministry, that is the thing
which he represents. Before ever that could come about, God had to
give a special revelation to an instrument, to secure it. We will
touch that again later. I am simply trying to indicate the working
of this law, that to certain divine ends, before God takes in hand
the practical aspect of it, in the working out of it he always gives
a revelation of it to some instrument, individual or collective; and
it is that spiritual revelation which is of supreme value and power
in accomplishing the extricating work.
Revelation of - Not Extra to - the
Scriptures
Seeing that law - (I do trust that you have grasped it. I am not
wanting to give you just truth. I have a tremendous revolt in me
against increasing truth and doctrine as such, and if there is no
real eternal, heavenly value for us from what is being said, and it
is all for naught, I would pray to be delivered from words. But
this, to me at any rate, is of very great importance) - seeing,
then, that law clearly in the Word of God, let us seek to get inside
of this thing, to reach its inner meaning, and see that, back of all
things which are said, there is a spiritual reality and meaning,
even in the Word of God. The Word is necessary, but it is only a
vehicle. It is a vehicle of light, of truth. The things that are
written in this Book have back of them something which cannot be
seen, only as the Holy Spirit illumines it. Back of all things said,
there is a spiritual reality and meaning for which we need a
spiritual faculty. This Book can be an absolutely closed Book,
though you may read it through and through, unless the Spirit of God
illumines. But once the Spirit of God begins to illumine, this Book
lives, it lives from end to end. What is it that you have in the
Book? Perhaps you have had it in your pocket all the time, on your
desk, on the shelf; but now you have something more than the printed
page, even more than the words, and the sentences, and the chapters;
you are receiving God's Mind back of it all. That is revelation, and
it is that which is the emancipating thing. It is that which
extricates, and which is of such tremendous power to deliver the
life from bondage. We may organise the Book, organise it into very
clever, able, interesting, fascinating Bible Readings, addresses;
organise its material into subjects and themes, and what-not, and
still there be no spiritual emancipation. The criterion is always
this; not, Have we had an interesting time, a very interesting Bible
address or Bible reading, a very fascinating presentation of
scriptures? The criterion is, How much spiritual revelation has it
brought to us? How much have we been brought out spiritually into a
larger place in the Lord? That is the test. Back of the things said
there is a deeper reality and meaning, and to possess that is to
have revelation. I want to emphasise that, because some people think
that when we use the word "revelation" we mean something extra to
the Scriptures. Let that thought be dismissed from any mind if it
has come in. We are bound by the Scriptures, and would not move into
any realm of what is extra to the Scriptures. We have no need to. At
any rate, for my own part, I have no desire for that, because I have
found that the Scriptures have given me far more than enough with
which to be occupied without having anything extra to them. When
this Book lives, beloved you do not want anything extra. You will
find your life is in this. Blessed be God, it can be like that! Now
that is what we mean by revelation; it is that deeper reality and
meaning back of the things said. That is a power that is of
tremendous value.
Experience Necessary to Understanding
Of course, there is one thing that goes along with revelation, and
that is experience. I mean this; the disciples had a great many
things said to them. They had all that is contained in the four
Gospels, at least, and we have reason to believe that they had a
very great deal more. John tells us at the end of his Gospel, that
if he were to write all the things that the Lord Jesus did and said,
he supposed the world would not contain the books. So evidently they
had a very great deal more than we have recorded in the four
Gospels. But we have a good deal to go upon in saying that they
understood very little of it. They had very little of what we are
now calling "revelation." We find that when the Lord Jesus had been
crucified, their light had gone out, and John 16 was surely
fulfilled: "Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice."
You will be in sorrow, you will mourn. Then after His resurrection
one of the first things that the Lord Jesus did on resurrection
ground was to take up the Scriptures as they had them, all the
Scriptures of the Old Testament - Moses, the Psalms and the Prophets
- and to give them some revelation, with the result that they did
not say, Was not that a fascinating exposition of the Old Testament!
They said, Did not our HEARTS burn within us..." That is revelation.
"The eyes of the heart being enlightened..." It was emancipating.
But for the fuller appreciation of all the things that the Lord had
said and done in their presence, they had to come into an
experience. And as they went on through experiences, some of them
deep and dark, through trials, through those weeks of testing and
breaking and emptying in their lives, through the pressures, they
came into a deep heart understanding of what the Lord had said. And
it was by reason of the way in which the Lord had led them, that
they came into a real living appreciation of what the Lord had said.
It is ever thus. You and I have discovered the meaning of the Word
of God by reason of the experiences into which we have been led. We
have come into revelation through being broken, through being
emptied out. Something has happened, in which our spirits have
become open to the Lord, our hearts have been touched. In suffering,
in sorrow, in adversity, in trial our hearts have been touched, and
we have come into a heart appreciation of the Word of God, and it
has become alive to us. Let a life encounter a real good bout of
conflict with the devil, and such a one can well understand what
Paul has written. You say, Now I know what Paul is talking about. Or
again, how some of us remember having plodded away for months and
years in ministry, giving the Word of God! There came a day when a
brother came and said: "I believe I can see what you have been
talking about all this time." Just that; and when that comes about
there is life, something can happen, there is emancipation.
The Lord has to do things in relation to His Word in order to bring
us into the good of it. Revelation is not only the study of the
Scripture; it is our being wrought into it, sometimes by heartbreak,
and having it wrought into us. Facts as facts have never yet
constituted a messenger of God. Now, you young preachers, take that,
and write it down inwardly, and not only in your notebooks. Facts
merely as facts have never yet constituted a messenger of God,
neither have they constituted a vessel of testimony. The essential
to a messenger of God and a vessel of testimony is spiritual
understanding; and spiritual understanding comes by life, by
something inwrought; and that usually by experience. The Word is:
"That ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding."
Spiritual understanding! You cannot gain anything spiritual, only by
spiritual life and spiritual experience. It is not a matter of
manuals and text-books; it is not a question of what certain people
stand for and teach; such may know the teaching for a very long time
and never enter into it. That is the danger. I have not infrequently
had letters asking me to send literature to certain people, because
they would like to teach our teaching and give out our truth. This
is a false and perilous position. Nothing makes me recoil inwardly
more than that. Such reasoning is not the fruit of life, but the
work of the casual mind in the things of God. As an expression of
life, it can never be merely a question of a teaching for which
certain people stand, of which you come to the conclusion that it is
very good teaching, and that everyone ought therefore to have it,
and you yourself will do your best to get the teaching out; however
justified and right your approval of what is taught may be. God save
you from doing that! It is all too possible for people to be in the
presence of teaching in that way, and yet never to have come into
the real spiritual good of it, while their approval and taking up
with it in that way has been thought to secure this; and that is the
condition which gives rise to the blind spot in a life. The earnest
and active dissemination of the truth as the result of life,
while it may involve outward activities of a like kind, is yet quite
another thing.
In order to get into the spiritual good of it, really to have
revelation, time is very often essential, and a good deal of
emptying. Revelation requires a spiritual state, and a spiritual
condition, and an emptying of the natural life. There are two
factors.
The Way of Revelation
Firstly, time. If you are going to be in a hurry about this thing,
you are not going to have it. Time is a great factor.
And then there is the other factor of seeming to be losing rather
than to be receiving. You lose what you have, it seems. Yes, the
Lord empties out, and then begins right down at the bottom of the
vessel to fill up in a new way, but this time it is not mixed, it is
something that is pure spiritual understanding. That is a thing of
pre-eminent value and tremendous power. It means that such
instruments or vessels are brought into a heavenly position, which
represents something very great for the Lord spiritually.
Spiritual understanding! What is spiritual understanding? It is, as
we have said, the inward apprehension of that deeper meaning and
reality of the things said and written by the Lord. It is a thing of
the Holy Spirit, with which only the spiritual are conversant. Let
me illustrate. When the people of Israel went into captivity, as you
know, they were in captivity for seventy years. That meant that all
the old men and all the middle aged men died, and only the younger
ones were left at the end of the captivity. That again means that
the youthful and infant part of the generation had grown up in a
foreign country, with a foreign tongue spoken all round. Their
fathers and their grandfathers had died, and left them with a
foreign language. They learned that foreign language, and forgot
their own, so that when the remnant came back from the captivity,
they had lost their own language, and you find that in the 8th
Chapter of the Book of Nehemiah certain men, who were conversant
with the language of the Hebrews, were called upon to stand up in
the midst of the congregation on that great day, to read the law,
and give the sense thereof. Why give the sense thereof?
Because the people did not know their own language, so that these
interpreters of the law would read something and say, Now that means
so-and-so. From infancy they had learned another language and had
lost their own.
Out from that there came the official set of people called the
scribes. The scribes were the official or professional interpreters
of the law, and they took the law and read, and then said, That
means so-and-so. So you see the perils of a professional party of
scribes taking hold of the law and saying, That means this. Get away
from the spiritual men who really have a spiritual insight into the
law, into the merely professional realm where there is only a
scholarly understanding of the language, and you get two distinct
realms. In the New Testament you find a great deal referred to in
the use of the phrase: "You have heard that it has been said..." The
Lord Jesus used those words. The interpreters have said that it
means so-and-so, "but I say unto you..." The Lord Jesus never
contradicted the scribes, but He transcended them and the
professional interpreters of the Scriptures, and you find that you
have in the New Testament a very great deal brought in which was
merely the sense that was given to the Scriptures by the
professional party of interpreters. What had happened? The pure
language had been lost by the people, so that they could not read
the Scriptures in it, and an extra party took up the Scriptures and
gave what they thought to be the meaning, but it turned out to be
something else in the long run. It was the thought of their own mind
cleverly imposed upon God's Word.
We are in a like case today, beloved. The pure language of the Holy
Spirit concerning the Word of God has been almost universally lost,
and what we are receiving today is the professional, scholarly,
giving out its mind about the Word of God, and people are brought up
on that. The great mass of Christian people today are not brought up
on the language of the Holy Ghost in the Word of God. They are
brought up on what so-and-so says. Of course, I know the big
question arises as to who is to determine what is the pure language
of the Holy Spirit. Well, you can answer that question only
inwardly. The test is, Does it result in emancipation spiritually?
If it does, all right. If you are walking with God, then the Word of
God brought to you, being in the power of the Holy Spirit, will be
your spiritual enlightenment, your spiritual quickening, or
spiritual liberation. It must be tested out that way. How much does
it mean of real spiritual growth out of all those trammels and
limitations of our natural life? That is the language of the Holy
Spirit.
Now that is spiritual understanding. It is having the sense thereof
according to the true interpretation of the Holy Spirit. Revelation,
in a word, is the language of the Holy Spirit inside of the written
Word of God; not apart from it, but inside of it. Are we conversant
with the language of the Spirit? I simply mean this, as you take up
the Word of God and read certain words and sentences and phrases,
does the Holy Spirit give you a deeper insight into that, and by
what He shows you in that bring life into your heart, and liberation
and joy? That is giving the sense thereof. The need of revelation is
quite clear.
The Outward and the Inward
There is a heavenly background to everything in the Word of God, and
it is that heavenly background which constitutes revelation that you
and I need to know. If we are only seeing the things on the surface,
then we have but an earthly thing after all, and that has been the
trouble with God's people all along. They have seen the Old
Testament and the order of the tabernacle and the temple; and they
have reconstituted the church accordingly, with a ceremonial, with a
vestment-order of things, and elaborate buildings. Of course, it is
a beautiful reproduction of the Old Testament order of worship; and
they would appeal to the Scriptures, and say that Solomon built the
most magnificent temple for the worship of God, and point out how
your Old Testament is simply filled with this beautiful order of
worship. Yes! but that is on the face of things, that is not
revelation. You can have the spiritual good of that in an
emancipating way in a dungeon, in a catacomb, in a garret. It is the
deeper thing that is liberating. You can have all the outward form,
and still be spiritually in bondage, and that is for so many THE
bondage. But another will say, May we not have what is behind the
representation, and still profitably retain the typical order and
symbols? We find, however, that the possession of the spiritual
reality teaches us that to repeat the typical order is to miss the
whole divine intention, to rob it of its distinction, and to convey
a false idea.
To retain the typical order when the reality is come is to take a
formerly God-given thing and to perpetuate it as a thing of the
earth. This is, in effect, to set up an earthly conception of a
heavenly nature and life, which all who have been born anew from
above have now received and entered into by the Spirit. This earthly
conception ever conveys to the natural mind of man the idea that
spiritual life consists in the use of sacred words and forms of
address, the observance of religious rites and the like; that to be
godly and spiritual is, in a properly regulated life, to have a
department for these things, a religious side to life, to sanctify
the whole, in contrast to others who practise no such ways at all;
and that the doing of these things in public and in private is
itself spiritual life and that approach to God and worship such as
can be known of man down here.
The truth as we have seen is that God, on a ground of His own
providing in the Cross of His Son, gives into the convicted,
contrite and prepared heart a new nature, a new life, and it is in
this life that we know God, pray, worship, serve, and grow up into
His likeness.
This life is not without its expression and ordered way when its
possessors meet as a corporate company to worship God; for it is led
and directed by the Spirit of life within the members joined by the
same Spirit to Christ, their living and directing Head on high. But
to seek this life in forms of provided expression, or to confine it
within such limitations, is to hinder the true spontaneity of its
own expression from within, to suppress the pure activity of its
powers and glory, and often, if not always, to violate the very law
of its operation and freedom, and not least, of its warfare. It is,
in a word, to convey a totally false idea both of its nature and of
its law of increase, expression, authority and will. It is what is
behind that you and I need to know. There is a heavenly order back
of everything said in the Word of God.
"The Decree of the Watchers"
Here is an interesting, and I think, illuminating instance of that.
Look at the Book of Daniel, and at two passages in Matthew and
Corinthians.
Daniel, Chapter 4. This chapter shows the dream of Nebuchadnezzar,
of the tree that was cut down. Nebuchadnezzar had become exceedingly
high and exalted. "See this great Babylon, which I have made." His
pride caused him to reach, like this tree, unto heaven, and he had
the dream. The tree was cut down, and Nebuchadnezzar went out like
the wild beasts to eat grass; to eat grass like an ox, driven from
the habitation of men. Look at verse 17 of chapter 4. Do you notice
that extraordinary statement: "The sentence is by the decree of the
watchers, and the demand (or the matter) by the word of the holy
ones..." Have you ever thought about that? Matthew 5:21-22. "...In
danger of Gehenna." The fires of Gehenna. The judgement: the
council: the fires of Gehenna. The judgment is the lowest court,
where the first judgment is given about a matter, a fairly simple
matter. Moses appointed those in Israel to go as judges in secondary
matters. If any man had a matter that was more or less simple, he
went to the judgment. If a matter was more difficult it went to the
council, that is, to Moses. If the matter was criminal it went to
death, the final destruction and the stoning. You have got three
realms of judgment there. Now that which you have with Moses is an
earthly representation of something which is in heaven: "The decree
of the holy ones."
1 Corinthians 11:30. "...Not a few sleep." "For this cause... not a
few sleep," that is, die; "BUT if we would judge ourselves, we
should not be judged." What has happened? Something has gone to the
judgment, and it has gone to the council, and there is the death
sentence. "When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we
may not be condemned with the world." What has happened with these
Corinthian believers? The thing has gone to the judgment, and to the
council. That has worked out in the Lord taking them away, so that
they should not be delivered to the fire of Gehenna with the world.
I do not know whether you can follow that. I believe that is what
the apostle meant when, speaking about women having their heads
covered in the assembly, he said: "Because of the angels." Why? "The
sentence is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the
word of the holy ones." The angelic councils. In heaven there are
angelic orders, who are watching, and when certain things take
place, of a serious character, those angels come together and
deliberate upon that, and pass sentence. What happened with
Nebuchadnezzar? What happened at Corinth? The angelic councils saw
these things happen at Corinth, this violation of the Lord's Table,
and they were so horrified that they came together and said this
thing must be dealt with, and they deliberated upon it. "For this
cause not a few sleep." The decree is by the sentence of the
watchers, the demand by the word of the holy ones. You see you have
the presence of some other realm, for it goes on to say: "To the
intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the
kingdom of men." Do you see what that too indicates? That this
judgment and this council and this fire of Gehenna, which had a
literal expression on earth through Moses, is only an earthly
representation of something in heaven. There is something in heaven,
and the Lord Jesus, mark you, in this passage in Matthew is not
talking about the judgment and the council of Moses. He is not
saying, I say unto you that he that is angry with his brother shall
be in danger of this company of men in Jerusalem, who pass sentence
upon such things. They are in danger of the judgment, that is, the
court. And whoever saith "thou fool," his case is taken to another court in
heaven and is judged.
My point is this, that there is a spiritual and heavenly background
to everything that is here in the Word of God. I am not taking this
as a subject to apply for any purpose in this present gathering, I
am simply indicating one thing that is clear in the Word of God,
which points to the fact. We could accumulate evidence of this, that
God has simply given a pattern of things here in His Word, and that
is a pattern of things heavenly. The tabernacle is not THE thing. It
is a pattern of something in heaven. The temple is not THE thing. It
is a pattern of something in heaven. The judgment, the council, the
fire is only a pattern of something in the heavens. "Fear not him
who is able to destroy the body, but fear him who is able to destroy
both soul and body in the fire of Gehenna." That is something in
heaven, it goes to the council there.
Now, for our present purpose, what we need to grasp is just this.
Revelation is to come to see what that heavenly reality is as back
of the representation in the Word of God; and when you get the
revelation it is so emancipating, it is so enriching.
But remember that spiritual revelation - and spiritual revelation is
for all the Lord's children - is a thing which has bound up with it
a great price. It is a costly thing. The enemy is against it. He is
against revelation; he is against the receiving of it; he is against
the utterance of it; he is against the outworking of it. It is
fraught with conflict, and it explains why Paul had such a time as
he had. This was clearly because he was all the time giving the
spiritual interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures, while all
those who held those Scriptures were saying: Paul is reading into
the Scriptures something of his own mind; it does not say what Paul
says it means. And, therefore, they would have none of him, and even
Peter had difficulty: "Even as our beloved brother Paul in all his
letters, according to the wisdom given unto him... in which there
are some things hard to be understood." Peter is having difficulty
with Paul, but it is that revelation of the inner meaning of things,
that put Paul into a realm where so few could follow him, because of
the lack of revelation in them. That is one reason why I believe he
wrote the Letter to the Hebrews: "Of whom (Melchizedek) we have many
things to say, and hard of interpretation, seeing ye are become dull
of hearing." You have not spiritually grown, therefore I must keep
quiet about these things. It demands this spiritual faculty
inwardly, if we are to receive what the Lord wants us to have.
Melchizedek has a tremendous amount to say to us, but we will never
understand the seven verses in the Old Testament about Melchizedek,
and all the realm that is bound up in those seven verses, unless we
have got a spiritual faculty.
The Lord lead us to pray, as we have never prayed, that a spirit of
wisdom and revelation may be given unto us. That is what brings a
people out, into a price, into a conflict, but into a place of
living power, where they have something for the rest of the people
of God.
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