"To be known by God: Part 7: To Sup with the Lord

 Dear Beloved Readers,

This is part 7 of this series "To be known by God." I pray it will take you deeper into the heart and person of the Lord, and truly understand His ways. Let me know if this is helping you in anyway. Write a comment on the bottom or email me at henry@flameoffire2007.org. I would love to hear from you in the USA and the nations. Now let us continue with this teaching:

Truly loving and knowing God does not mean that we don't preach the Gospel to the poor and those in need. What actively seeking the person of God does is "enable" you do do that work in the "strength and power" of God in the Holy Spirit, conversely doing that same work in the power of your own hands. There is a big difference between being "filled with the Spirit" or coming out "in the power of the Holy Spirit" like Jesus did after his time of testing in the wilderness.

The difference between the two is the amount of "power or anointing" you have. Is the power just "coming upon you," or is it coming from "within you and upon you?" Jesus said, "the kingdom of God does not come with observation, the Kingdom of God is "within" you." This must be cultivated and sought after as something to be desired. This desire takes us past just "doing" ministry. It takes us to the very heart of HIM that has called us to become a ministry. Jesus called the disciples and said, "follow me, and I will make you to "become" fishers of men." Beloved, what we are becoming in Christ is far more valuable to him than anything we could ever "do in our own power" to please him.

That doesn’t mean we don’t have the Gospel to preach, or heal the sick, cast out devils or make disciples of the nations. This calling is truly all of ours. In this series you have come to know the two different spiritual places or positions we can choose in our walk with God, it now becomes our choice on how God can effectively minister through us.  The difference is that one group will minister with "the anointing upon them" like King Saul, the other will have the "anointing within them and upon them," like King David. The first group will know the works of God apart from the God of the works. The other group will know the God of the works but more, they will know the “ways of God.”

The Lord invites all of us to intimately know Him. In Revelation 3:20 He is standing on the outside of every believer’s heart with one cry, one desire, Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." 


In the lasts days of the church age or 2000 years later, the Lord is not calling a church anymore, but He is seeking individuals who wants to know His person. He is standing at the doorway to our heart and knocking, and if any man hears his voice, and opens the door to “truly know the Lord’s person,”  he gives them a promise for intimacy, "I will come in and sup with him and he with me."

Oh Beloved Reader, what a glorious opportunity God provides for us to come into Him.  This knocking is not to come in to save us, because He already did that when we accepted Him as our Savior for the forgiveness of our sins. This coming into our hearts is to manifest His person to those who truly want him. He will come in and sup with them and them with Him. Here Jesus is offering to feed us with hte "meat you know not of".  Do you want that relationship, Beloved Reader? Do you truly desire to fellowship and sup with the Lord as He is as a person?

To eat at someone’s house is the highest form of welcome to give a person. Serving someone food at your house is the extreme act of hospitality and sharing. In January, the President of China visited the United States for an official state visit. When He came to our country, the President gave him an “official State dinner.” This is the highest dinner and welcome any head of state could receive from the President of the United States. This dinner represents the best the USA has to offer on behalf of our nation. It is a tie and tuxedo and ballroom gown event for all that attend such a high esteemed dinner.

Only specially invited guests are invited to come. The food at this State Dinner is of the most highest quality made by the best chefs in the country. The decor is the highest quality decorations including the table settings. Even the entertainment is of the best quality of the nation. The State Dinner is the highest honor we could give a visiting official. This "State" dinner is to show the very "best" America has to offer to a host nation. How much more could our King of Kings and Lord of Lord offer to all that will answer the knock on the door of their heart to sup with Him? Would he not give us a Kingdom as we press on to a deeper knowledge of who He is?

Now think of this beloved. Jesus stands at the door of our heart for this intimate fellowship. Do you think this fellowship with Him would be less than the President of the USA would give a visiting dignitary? No, it would be a million times better. Jesus would be welcomed into our house, and we would present to him our finest food.

Our best food given to Him would be the total surrender of our life and love to Him in complete obedience and desire for Him to dwell. Isaiah 66:1 captures this cry of the Lord, "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is My footstool. What kind of house would you build for Me? and what kind can by MY resting place?"

In Revelation 4:1, we see where Jesus truly desires us to eat the "deeper food," the "hidden manna" for us to grow by. He reward the over comers in the church at Ephesis with the right to eat from the tree of life in the midst of the garden." "He reveals to John the beloved His desire for true supping with Him by taking us up to a higher spiritual life, “Come up here, so I can show you the things that are to come.”  Beloved look at what John sees! John enters into the real house where Jesus is living right now! It is this house we are invited to come and sup with the Lord! Do you see what our God is offering you?

Look at the house we are invited to feast at!  There are 24 elders casting crowns at Jesus feet. There are thunder and lightening proceeding from the throne of God. There are 4 living creatures with eyes all around them and has four faces in one. There is a sea of glass as transparent like Gold, and there is the place where the Father dwells. How cool is that ?

How is this for a place to come and dwell and eat with the Lord. The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:5-7, "even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

When the Lord came to visit the Children of Israel after coming out of Egypt, He had them to wait 3 days and wash themselves and be ready to meet the Lord. On the third day, He was going to come down and be with them and reveal His person to them as He did with Moses. I could preach 3 years on that verse alone. It was intention to show His person to Israel so that they would forever be His people and Him their God.

The 3rd day came, and the Lord came down from the mountain in a dark cloud and with thunder and lightening as he came in their midst. So terrible, awesome was this sight of God coming in their midst to be personally known, they ran from His presence. Can you imagine how God must of felt at this type of rejection of seeing and knowing His person? How empty and broken his heart must of been, because they were afraid to get close enough to know him as a person.

Many believers in America, preachers included say you “you must have a personal relationship with Jesus.” You need to pray this sinner’s prayer to have that relationship, poof you are done! Know you have that relationship. NO YOU DON'T.  You have entered into the Kingdom of God and you NOW HAVE THE POSSIBILITY TO HAVE THAT PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP, but it is not guaranteed.

When I was in my teens, I worked in a home for the mentally disabled. It was a very sad place to work in. I worked with a 25 year old man who had the brain mentality of a 6 month old. He could laugh, sit up and play, but he was a full grown man. He could not feed himself, change himself or do anything, but the basic tasks a 6 month could do like hold his bottle. He had to wear diapers and had to be changed like a baby. That was very hard to do, because he didn't have 6 month old stinkies, he had 25 year old stinkees. His body grew into a man, but his mind was a baby.

This is also so very true spiritually. We can get "born again" and begin to have a personal relationship, but if we don't cultivate it and desire to know the Lord we can be like that man. We can have an "outward appearing" full grown body, but spiritually speaking we have a "6 month old spiritual brain and growth."

This lack of spiritual growth is the reason why the church in the USA has a bad name to the world. We refused to go on past initial salvation "to know the Lord." We have stayed spiritual babies satisfied with going to church, paying our tithes, doing a ministry and living the rest of our lives for ourselves. We have not developed our relationship with the Lord where He actually changes our character and nature so we would truly be a reflection of His life in us.

The true relationship with the Lord and desiring Him will bring the deepest change in your life. The old Ford commercial used to proclaim, "the quality goes in before the name goes on.""quality in us" before he gives us "the true power and authority of what the name of Jesus means in us" BEFORE the "name goes on us!" This also must be true of our walk and relationship with God. When we answer the knock at the door, and the Lord comes into our house to sup with us, he sups with us as FIRE. This Holy FIRE comes and purifies us like silver and gold.

It is in these intimate times with God he puts the Malachi chapter 3 shows us the process of what happens when we open the door to allow Jesus to come in and sup with us. BEHOLD, I send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me. And the Lord [the Messiah], Whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; the Messenger or Angel of the covenant, Whom you desire, behold, He shall come,says the Lord ofhost But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? 

For He is like a refiners fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the priests, the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord offerings in righteousness."

A true relationship with the Lord as a person is costly. We must be truly serious about God dealing with us. He councils us to "buy the Gold that is tried by the fire." This is in contrast to our present church understanding. Many in the  present church leadership bring us to the door of that relationship, and in stead of teaching us how to truly develop the relationship with His person they offer us, “get busy, don’t you know that people are dying and going to hell.”   

The call for a real relationship with God is changed into a call "to work" for God leaving many beautiful believers in the spiritual state like that young 25 year old in the mental institution spiritually. "Ever learning but never coming to the intimate knowledge of God."

We as leaders begin to give the new believer the wrong food and then often a spirit of religion  begins to take over to take us out of truly knowing God as a person. If not detoured from this ever we may end up like the Pharisee's in Jesus day who said they knew God and had Abraham as their Father. Jesus said, "their Father was the devil." In our contrasting Bible characters in the book of Numbers, the Lord says this of Israel and of Moses, Psalm 103:7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

Do you see the difference? Israel ran from the person or manifested presence of God. They withdrew from the Lord and said to Moses, “you talk to God and we will do all he says, lest he comes down and kill us.” This was the ultimate rejection of God that hurt Israel up to this day. If they had responded rightly to this coming of the Lord, God would have established them as a Kingdom of Priest and King and an example of His Theocratic Kingdom to come. But they failed!

Why did the Lord come down in a cloud and thunder and lightening? He did this because He came hiding His person from them. He could not bare them having the chance to reject him in all His Glory and Majesty. Remember the Word of God says God is jealous over us. Exodus 34:14, "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:" 

James 4:5, "Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says, The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous love?"The black cloud, the thunder and the lightening was a lattice that God hid himself behind so that when they ran from was not the fullness of God, but only His part. The Lord withdrew His person waiting for another time, another people who would not run away from knowing His person.

Being born again by the Holy Spirit has made Jesus known to us as our savior, but it is not a guarantee to knowing Him as a person as our Bridegroom or King of Kings. Again, the word of God tells us there is a higher knowing of God and being known by Him. Hosea Chapter 6:1-3 declares:

 "COME and let us return to the Lord, for He has torn so that He may heal us; He has stricken so that He may bind us up. After two days He will revive us (quicken us, give us life); on the third day He will raise us up that we may live before Him.Yes, let us know (recognize, be acquainted with, and understand) Him; let us be zealous to know the Lord [to appreciate, give heed to, and cherish Him]. His going forth is prepared and certain as the dawn, and He will come to us as the [heavy] rain, as the latter rain that waters the earth."

Beloved, Let us know and let us be zealous to know the Lord, to appreciate, give heed and to cherish him as a Bridegroom to a bride or a husband to a wife. This is the mystery of Christ and the church. 

In Matthew 25 we find Jesus teaches us the parrables of the 10 virgins.  Five of them are wise and 5 are foolish. Again, the Lord shows us that there are two types of relationships with Him, the higher and the lesser. Without quoting the whole scripture verses, all 10 virgins had lamps representing salvation. The distinguishing identification mark between the 10 was 5 of them were wise and had extra oil, 5 of them were foolish and did not.

What is that extra oil? Oil represents the Holy Spirit power, working and person. At the midnight hour when the Bridegroom comes to call His bride in Matthew 25, their spiritual growth and condition was going to be proven for what it really is. Behold, the Bridegroom comes! All 10 her the call of the Bridegroom and trim their lamps of salvation. This means they had enough light to be saved, but only 5 had enough to make the journey to go through the dark and meet Him as a Bride or Over comer.

The foolish virgins now recognized they didn’t have enough oil to go on the journey, and they are in trouble. The  5 wise virgins had enough to go on to meet the Lord. They had paid the price to truly press on to know the Lord as a person like Jacob over Esau, Abel over Cain, David over Saul, The Shullamite woman chosen over the Daughters of Jerusalem. The example of the two women in the field, one taken and one left behind. These all speak of a people who are spiritually prepared to know the Lord as a person and our "known by the Lord."

This is a very special relationship offered to all of us as believers, “for many are called, but few are chosen.” The many are all believers called to this type of intimacy with the Lord.  The few are those willing to pay the price to know Him. The many live their lives content going to church, having a ministry, paying their tithes and living the rest of their lives for themselves.

The few have given up the pursuit of this world, and are not satisfied just being used by God or going to church. They have an "awakened hunger" for God that can not be quenched and they buy the extra oil. They have allowed the Lord to separate them out of this world and religious activity to truly know the Lord for who He is. 

They are now ready to truly demonstrate an effective ministry with the Lord verses a ministry of working for the Lord. They went into the desert filled with the Spirit like Jesus, but now they are coming out like Jesus in the POWER of the Holy Spirit. 

As a believer all have received the regeneration of their spirit by the Holy Spirit coming into their hearts to save them. This is what we call conversion. Some believers have gone past initial salvation to experienc the Baptism of power the Holy Spirit as found in Acts 2:4. Yet, there is a group of believers that are not satisfied with just being saved or filled with the Holy Spirit's Gifts. 

They are hungry for the "more" to truly know God as a person. They are pressing in deeper and allowing God to change them by His fire from the inside out.These believers are being prepared to be a bride. They are wise in their diligence in seeking God Himself and are making themselves ready to be a bride as in Rev. 19:7. These believers are going through a "special school of the Holy Spirit." They are learning to do nothing with the Lord and His presence. They are learning how to be a true and genuine disciple by denying themselves and picking up their cross and following Him. They will have been made ready to rule and reign with Him over the nations.

Psalm 149:5-7 (Amplified Bible) "Let the saints be joyful in the glory and beauty [which God confers upon them]; let them sing for joy upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and a two-edged sword in their hands, To wreak vengeance upon the nations and chastisement upon the peoples,8To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron, To execute upon them the judgment written. He [the Lord] is the honor of all His saints." Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

Revelation 2:26, "And he who overcomes (is victorious) and who obeys My commands to the [very] end [doing the works that please Me], I will give him authority and power over the nations."

Did you notice this power is given to over-comers, the 5 wise virgins, the Bride of the Lord? They have the ability to go out and meet the bridegroom and are given power and authority to sit with Jesus on His throne as Jesus gained the right to sit next to the Father on His throne.. This meeting isn’t to say Hi, Lord how are you. This is the fullness of that intimacy where she is ready to rule and reign with Him by His side. 

Rev. 3:21, To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. " The Bride has made herself ready. Rev. 19:7. She has been permitted to where the clothes he has prepared for her. She has the extra oil of intimacy and God’s dealings with her that prepared her for a Glorious place beyond salvation.

Now the other 5 foolish virgins realize they will have no such place in their present relationship with the Lord. They say to the wise virgins, “Give us some of your oil.” You would have thought if the wise virgins really loved Jesus they would share with the extra oil with the foolish. Why wouldn’t they share it? Isn’t that the Christian thing to do? Beloved, you can’t share your intimacy and developed relationship with the Lord with anyone else. I can’t share my personal intimate relationship with my wife with someone else. We have spent 31 years together truly learning how to know one another thoughts and desires.

Those intimate times of fellowship belong to Donna and I alone. Even if I could tell them about them, they could never gain that experience by hearing about it. They wouldn’t have a clue to what it really was. It was "our" personal time of sharing, loving, conversing that belonged just to the two of us.

The wise virgins couldn’t give their extra oil to them because it was their personal knowledge of the Lord as a person. If they could have they would have. This "extra" oil was worked in their heart as a special relationship with the Lord. So the wise virgins tell the foolish virgins, “go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” Another words, you have to go spend time with God to truly know His person to get this extra oil. The wise then went off to meet the Bridegroom and went in to enter the marriage supper of the Lord.

The foolish come back later and knock at the door with what they had time to buy. Unfortunately, time was up. They were not prepared enough in their spiritual relationship with the Lord for Him to open the door and let them in. They would now have to watch the relationship they could of have had with the Lord from the outside. 

There testimony will be as I wrote earlier in Rev. Chapter 7 is they are crying, salvation, salvation! They had lost out eternally of this special position in knowing God that is offered to all of us to become Kings and Priests unto our God and rule and reign with Him forever and ever.

They now had to live in a lesser state of knowing God and being known by God in a lesser way. God still loves them, they are virgins and their garments come out of the time of testing as being able to enter in to the Kingdom. They will be like the daughters of Jerusalem one of the 10.000's and not the "choicest of her mother's womb." as found in the Song of Solomon.

The Lord still loves them with all He is, but He could not relate to them on the more fuller plain of knowing Him, His desires, or to share that place of ruling and reigning. They still have a place in the Kingdom tending the things of God, but not the fullness of His being near and with them like the bride. They come into heaven and have entered into heaven as ones who have escaped the fire. (1st Cor. 3)

1 Corinthians 3:11-16 (Amplified Bible) "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). But if anyone builds upon the Foundation, whether it be with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, The work of each [one] will become [plainly, openly] known (shown for what it is); for the day [of Christ] will disclose and declare it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test and critically appraise the character and worth of the work each person has done.

If the work which any person has built on this Foundation [any product of his efforts whatever] survives [this test], he will get his reward. But if any person's work is burned up [under the test], he will suffer the loss [of it all, losing his reward], though he himself will be saved, but only as [one who has passed] through fire."

Why should we go on to know the Lord as a person? Is it just to get a better place in the Kingdom? Is it to get more power to rule and reign with Him? No beloved, those are the benefits of knowing Him as a person.What we get is why the Bride make herself ready to be married. We get to be married to the Lord Jesus Christ in the most perfect union in which we were made in the garden. 

We will forever be with the Lord and be near Him leaning upon His love forever. We will have the sweetest most deepest fulfillment that eternity is not big enough to contain it. You can’t describe it. You can’t explain it. It is just the deepest love relation creation has ever known. For this we were made!

In that abiding relationship with the Lord as a person, He allows us such power and authority to rule and judge nations with Him so he can share His work with us as a Bride. The mistake that many in the church are making now is they believe God gives that relationship and authority to everyone, but He does not, nor could He. It would be like giving that 25 year old man in the mental facility the keys to the car and say drive on I-10 in Phoenix. That would be suicide for this man, and those in the man’s way.

Beloved, no matter how badly the 5 foolish wanted to go into the marriage supper, they could not. They weren't able to take the keys to the car sought of speak. My prayer for us is that in reading these words you would allow the Lord to create a new hunger for this type of intimacy with Him. I pray the Lord would draw you up out of the religious, out of the worldly, to the place he has made for you in our Father's house. Now to our God who can do exceedingly above all we could think or ask, to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.