As I said in the previous message, that you may never have a literal vision of God this side of heaven, but you don’t necessarily need one either. There is another more effective way for us to experience God’s presence in this life and the word says that this method can be far better one for us. Jesus told Thomas after he refused to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead, that those who believe what He says, believe the promises of God are even more blessed than those who have seen Him in the flesh. He wants us to believe like this too. Believe what His word says about Him and His promises even though there is nothing there at the moment to be seen. It’s trusting Him. Then Jesus told him,
"Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:29
Jesus told Peter that the way He was going to build His Church was by revelation knowledge. Peter had realised that Jesus was God, for the Father had revealed it to Him. Jesus went on to say that this was the way He was going to build His Church – by revelation knowledge. Not so much by literal visions and manifestations but by the Spirit opening up scriptures to us. Opening up our blind eyes.
He asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven . And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Matthew 16:15-18
His most preferred way for us to grow in Christ is to give us His word and for us to then believe it and plant it in our hearts. His word has within itself the ability to produce after its own kind. It is a seed that produces what it was designed to produce, just like any seed. This seed is different, for its called the incorruptible seed.
“having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,” 1 Peter 1:23
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.” Luke 8:11-12
God’s word is also likened to food which we are to eat as the Children of God. When we digest His word it infuses its life into us and this is the way we are all meant to live. Jesus said that this is the way He lived while here on earth.
“But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4
God’s word was life to Him and health to all His flesh. He said to His disciples that He had food to eat that they knew not of. He was living by the word of God and loved God’s word more than food.
“But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” John 4:32
“Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;” Jeremiah 15:16
In the light of this truth we can have a continual feast from God, if we constantly keep meditating on God’s word throughout the day. King David said that he kept the Lord always before Him. How did he do that? I believe that the whole earth is full of the glory of God and can be seen. All around us are glimpses of what He is like and the scriptures tell us all about Him. He can be seen if we look for Him, for all creation shows us His glorious attributes. If you were told what a person looked like in a book or in an email and then went out into a crowd, there would be a good chance you would eventually find that person from the description that you’d been given of them.
Once you know these truths about Him in the word there is a way to constantly keep the Lord in your thoughts as you go through the day. It can become a habit and even an addiction. A simple illustration is what the word says about the face of Jesus.
“His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.” Revelation 1:16
His face shines like the sun. Most days we see the sun and you can be reminded of this verse about this attribute of Jesus in His glorified state. We can either ignore it as just part of life or we can use this truth as an opportunity to worship God. You can stop and say. “Lord your face shines like the sun.” You can repeat this verse and treat it like a seed. As you speak it, it releases life in you and is like perfume to the Lord. Inside that word is life. It doesn’t matter what scripture it is really, as long as it is the word of God. All scripture no matter how small has His life in itself. It is God breathed. The Devil wants you to think that you have to recite long screes of verses before God would be happy with your offering or before anything will happen. With this attitude we say to ourselves that it’s too hard to do and I will do it at home later or while on holiday and end up putting it into the too hard basket. Jesus says that His burden is light and not too hard.
“For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:30
The wonder of praise and worship is that God loves us doing it no matter how simple an offering we give. Every time we acknowledge Him in the busyness of our day, instead of letting the cares of this life consume our thoughts, thrills His heart. He knows that it will do us good when we look at Him and loves it so much when we love Him Back. He thinks it’s awesome. The bible shows us that we are far more beautiful that we think. We are new creatures in Christ. We are His Bride that He delights in.
“As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” Isaiah 62:5
Because we live in a fallen world and also have to deal with our unrenewed minds we don’t see it that way. We are like Thomas Who said “if I can’t see it then I won’t believe it.” We think we are useless or of little worth to God until we have our eyes opened and see what the word says about us and believe it. We are accepted in Him, and even more than that we are His Prize, His Beautiful Bride. We all know how awesome and beautiful Angels are, well we are like them too in our spirits, in fact even more beautiful, and one day we shall even judge Angels. When our earth suit is destroyed we shall be like Jesus.
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2
As a young single man you know what it’s like to be at a party with a lot of people and you see this really beautiful girl there and would love her to be your girlfriend, but she is right out of your league. Wouldn’t it be amazing if she noticed you and smiled while looking your way with a loving glance? Wouldn’t you get excited? “She has noticed me.” This is what it is like when Jesus’ Bride the Church starts to notice Him and starts praising Him. Just a glance of our affectionate love ravishes His heart. The trouble is His Church doesn’t even think they are worthy or beautiful in God’s eyes and she doesn’t notice Him either. She is just too taken up with other things which are harming her and making her blind. We were designed to worship. To give you another example. If you wrote a song and it got on the hit parade and became the number one hit. How awesome would that be to then hear people singing your song? Think of how much the Lord loves hearing us speak and sing His word as we go through the day, especially when we love doing it. Unfortunately, our earth songs will soon lose their lustre and another one take their place on the charts. We all get bored so easily, but not so the Lord. He always loves hearing us say
“‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
“Your face shines like the sun.”
He knows our frame and gives us lots of words to say and sing that speak of His praises. Even if you just said to God, “Your face shines like the sun,” all day long, the Lord would love it and it doesn’t lose its power every time you say it. It does us good as well for it’s infusing its life into us, because it’s His word. The trouble is we get bored. We are like little children that keep wanting the next toy only for a few minutes and are really hard to keep happy. The Lord loves His word and He knows we need His word to live by so as to experience His spiritual life. Look at this verse that explains what is going on in heaven.
“Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” Revelation 4:8
These creatures are saying over and over those words. “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” That sounds OK if said once, twice maybe, but day and night all the time for eternity seems very boring for us, but to God it is excellence and they love doing it too. It’s His word full of life and helps to fill the air with power and praise. These angelic animals are pure and have no sin. The word is like nuclear fuel to them and also charges heaven with spiritual electricity.. Sin kills our love of His word.
Hebrews 12:14. …. “without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
The more you separate yourself unto God the more you will see Him in your day. When you obey the Holy Spirit and surrender areas of your life to Him the more your eyes open up to see Him and appreciate Him. When you sin and don’t repent, God seems to be a million miles away and all intimacy on your side stops. His love of course is unrelenting but the hardness of your heart blinds you to this and you feel unworthy and unclean. The more we allow Him to purify us with His word the more we see Him. The bible says that to the pure all things are pure.
“To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.” Titus 1:15 If you want to see more of God in your day then you need to be careful of the things you watch and read, for they captivate your heart. Jesus is a jealous lover. His name is jealous. If you get more thrill out of a movie than Him then you will find it hard to see Him and He will continue to wrestle with you until He is number one.
“The sinners in Zion are afraid; Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? …. shuts his eyes from seeing evil: He will dwell on high; His place of defence will be the fortress of rocks; Bread will be given him, His water will be sure. Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will see the land that is very far off.” Isaiah 33:14-17
It so important to be careful what we watch in movies and on TV if we want to see more of God in our lives, for we can pollute our minds and it blinds us to seeing the Lord. Today we are bombarded with images and movies like no other generation before us and very soon you are captivated by the world.
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.” 1 John 2:15
Your love for God is quenched when the world means more to you than Him. Look at this verse.
“know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4 KJV
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.” 1 John 2:15 NIV