Welcome Dear Readers to part 2 of this series, To be known by God. I pray that your hearts are open to find this God who wants to reveal Himself to us more than we could ever know and to be known by God. Let's pick up where we left off in Part one!
The focus of the Church in the USA and its present teaching to the Body of Christ is on "what is God going go do next," end time prophetic events, prosperity, and giving your money to ministries so they can do the work of God. All of these are truths from God, but they are not causing the church to grow to maturity no matter what the preacher's claims and boast these teaching are doing."
We cannot grow an a diet of teaching, "how is God going to bless and prosper me, or miracles, more power, greater anointing, sowing $333 dollars to get a blessing." It is actually stifling our spiritual growth because the focus is upon "my needs" instead of truly knowing God. Why is this the true condition of the spiritual food we get in the church today in the USA?
Why is making us feel good about ourselves the "hot word of God" being preached in our churches today instead of the "meat of the Word of God?" Most believer's don't even hear God's voice for themselves or know Him as a person. Should we keep serving this diet of food that is making good church goers that look nice to the world, but not true disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ?
The answer beloved on how this condition came about in the church is simple. Not many of today's modern preachers (not all of them) are spending quality time waiting upon the Lord to renew their strength and to get a "word in due season, for those that are weary." They are not eating the solid food in which they grow by to intimately know God.
Many good men and women of God study hard and get all excited on the platform to bring forth their revelation, but the substance of that revelation or "word becoming flesh" in them is not seen. Why? Because they are not known by God in their intimate relationship with the Lord. Only when a preacher pursues knowing God as a Person and being known by God can" the revelation" they receive become a spiritual substance in them that can change and effect the Body of Christ spiritual growth to maturity.
We must not accept the premise anymore that revelation from God WITHOUT being our life experience as real food to grow. The revelation may be "truth" but it is not "spirit and truth" from the lack of truly being intimate with God from the minister that preaches it. For those of you who are truly hungry to know the Person of God, you must look and find those ministers that have a spiritual substance that comes from knowing God and being known of God. A revelation from God alone does not make anyone mature.
Today the louder the preacher shouts, and the more the preacher run across the stage, or get all sweaty, or do the theatrics that cause us to laugh at their funniness produces one result in their ministries. Their teachings stimulate the emotional realm of the believer, but doesn't make a lasting change in the believer's life.
So many times this produces in the people emotionally stirred experiences. They jump at the revelation being preached, they may yell, or run around in circles, (which can truly be manifestations of the Spirit of God touching them. Often this is only their emotions being stimulated.
When the Word of God is not worked in you, then you can only preach it from your personality or person. That is why we have so many "personality" preachers today. Many good men and women of God have stop developing or never had personal intimacy with God or truly know Him as a person. This only allows the minister to preach the "revelation" or "surface meaning" of the Word, and can not preach the "substance" of the Word "made flesh" in their personal experience in the power of the Holy Spirit.
(I want to write here, I have experienced Holy laughter, shaking by the power of God, crying, goose bumps, fire from heaven and feeling like I have been electricuted by God. I am not against any manifestation the Holy Spirit produces. I am speaking of minister's that are preaching the word from the revelation of the word, and not the experience of that word worked in them!
This means they preach the surface level of the Word of God that was revealed to them that touches our emotional realm. The Word still works as it effects our emotions and even desire to change, but it doesn't go down deep enough to change us permanently into the image of Christ and grow in the Lord!) I will say one more time, I am not against manifestations of the Holy Spirit in His people! )
Many are receiving the revelation of God's word on the surface of their emotions, and not in the depth of their being where it is food to grow by. The word presently being preached is not "fully developed" in the preacher life that can impact the depth of the person hearing it to cause a permanent growth. The word has "not become flesh within them!" How can you tell? Because the message delivered was just that, a message and eventually it falls by the wayside.
If the revelation being taught never has time to take root in the preacher to become the preachers life experience it will touch us, but it won't change us. The word can be preached from the "emotional realm of that revelation" or surface level"where the word touches the emotions of the hearer, but for a moment. The revelation of God's word will have no lasting value to make permanent changes in the believer's lives.That is why in Hebrews 5 Paul writes, "by the time you ought to be teachers." So many of today's "got to go to conferences and meetings" are filled with this type of preaching. They bless you, but they don't make a lasting change in you.
So many believer's have told me recently, "I can't go to these meetings anymore or even watch a lot of what is on Christian TV anymore because there is little substance to change their lives." The preaching can change the unsaved, but to feed those hungry it cannot do. The sad part is after these conferences or TV programs many believer's leave unchanged or there is a change for a week, and then it is gone and also all your money from the "hype" your were to told on why you had to give it or pay for that conference.
I am not being critical, but God is having us separate the wheat from the chaff by speaking the truth. Why you ask? So those hungry to truly know God as a person can find those spiritual deep teachers who know God. These teacher are outside the "camp." These teachers take us past the mentality of the present church teaching and provide for those who are hungry the food to develop a deep abiding relationship with the Lord.
These "substance" teachers take us past the surface teaching for the young, and provide for us with the spiritual substance of the Word of God worked in their lives that we can eat from. They may not be known by the "Christian circuit" but they are known by God, and God will lead those hungry to know Him in reality to these "no name" teachers.
God will distinguish those have the "emotional revelation of the word", verses the "substance of the revelation of the word" in them. Beloved, you will be able to tell the difference between these two types of teachers because when a teaching is brought forth from the "emotional revelation" lacking it worked in the preacher's life the following will be seen. The anointing will rest upon them for a meeting, and effect very little change in believer's lives.
This "anointing upon them" will get many saved, and even filled with the Holy Spirit, but it won't bring "solid food for the mature." To truly know God and be known by God, we must find those teachers with the "substance of the Word" in them so we can grow. Most of what is in the church here in America comes from the "anointing upon the Pastor or Teacher" for a service or meeting and does not feed the spiritually hungry in many churches.
Those that have the "substance of the revelation" worked as their lives experience will have the "anointing coming from within them" and upon them in power to go to the depth of the heart of the believer to feed them with the "Spirit of Truth" to truly set free God's people and cause them to grow to maturity.
These true "substance teachers" will point believer's to truly know God intimately and be known by God for themselves. These "substance teachers" have no desire to use those entrusted to them to build their name or ministry. There only goal is to "feed the sheep" until the sheep grow when they too can feed others. They will take the hungry one's hand lift it up to God until that believer get a firm grip of the true knowledge of who God is, and then let them go to grow in the true knowledge of God as a person. This is quite a different type of ministry than what most believers experience, but it is vital for us to grow to maturity and become a full grown son and bride of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Please understand that I am not judging others or perpetuating one group of teachers better than another, I am just telling the facts of where we are in the Body of Christ, and how God has established a place for those who desire more of God to find Him and be taught of the Lord. Hebrews chapters 5:12-14 speaks of this very need in the Body of Christ.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
The apostle continues this thought in Chapter 6: 1-2, THEREFORE LET us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ (the Messiah), advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity. Let us not again be laying the foundation of repentance and abandonment of dead works (dead formalism) and of the faith [by which you turned] to God, With teachings about purifying, the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment and punishment. [These are all matters of which you should have been fully aware long, long ago.]
Beloved the teachers who do not have this "substance" worked in them can only take us so far. These "emotional revelation teachers" have "truth" revealed to the by the Holy Spirit, but not "Spirit and Truth" of that word or revelation worked in the their lives to become a spiritual substance for others to eat and grow. The "word has not become flesh" in the minister's lives experience so they have to preach it from the emotion realm or surface , and not the place of deep substance or authority with power like Peter or Paul of their times.
This requires a real dealing of the Lord in the minister's life and one who spends quality time in the presence of the Lord knowing him like Moses. Only when you have the accurate knowledge of who God is as a person can the "revelation (truth of God's word) become a "spiritual substance"in your life. This is the very issue at the heart of our study text about the relationship Aaron and Merriam had with God verses the relationship of friendship that Moses had with God, face to face.
When you have that "spiritual substance" worked in you like Moses did for 40 years you will be prepared to see the "burning bush" (a deeper revelation of God, then the God who lived on the mountain that Jethro knew.) God was on that mountain, but it was not until Moses noticed the bush on fire that wasn't consumed did God find a servant ready for the deeper relationship with Him.
It was the deep relationship of the face to face with Moses that established His authority with God. He was going to be sent to Egypt to "speak a word in power," The revelation of God's word birthed in Moses on the mountain top gave him power to "speak a word in season" to Pharaoh, LET MY PEOPLE GO!
Like the Apostle Paul, Moses could say, "my words don't come with the enticing wisdom of man, but in the demonstration and power of the Holy Spirit, so your faith does not rest in the wisdom of man but in the power of God."1st Corinthians 2:4. Beloved minister of the Lord you have the power to change the depth of the hearer's heart by the substance of God working His "revelation of His word" in your life. The "Word to become flesh" within us. Do you see why we must know God intimately as a Person?
Beloved, let us press on toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus! See you in part three!
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