The Day of New Beginnings
Revelation Knowledge of the Lord
Ho 4:6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…
What knowledge is Hosea talking about? There are enough books about God to fill every library in the world. The thing of it is though, the knowledge that fills libraries and book stores is facts about God, not knowledge of Him. There is a type of knowledge that is greatly lacking among God’s people.
Eph. 1:
15* ¶ Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
16* Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
17* That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18* The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints…
It’s revelation knowledge that is lacking among God’s people. There should be a progressive revealing of Christ to our spirits. Recently, at a Bible Study I was attending, I felt a grieving in my spirit at seeing God’s people endeavoring to serve Him, yet without any real revelation of Him. There is something so diabolical about the religious spirit that is prevalent in Christianity today. It keeps a perpetual gulf between Christians and the Lord.
Mt 23:
37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.
38* "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!
39* "For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'"
Can you hear the cry of the Lord’s heart in this passage? He wants to gather us together like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. This implies an intimate relationship with Him. It’s a relationship based upon revelation knowledge of Him. Jesus said He is the same yesterday, today and forever. This means we can know Him progressively from day to day. We don’t have to serve a God who is far away in the heavens somewhere. “One day He will come back and wipe every tear from every eye…” He hasn’t gone anywhere! “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Mat. 28:20).” “But I’m waiting for His bodily return.” Back in our passages from Mat. 23, Jesus said:
38* "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!
39* "For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'"
We will not see Him until we say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” This means until we have a revelation of Him coming forth in a people, we will never see Him any other way. The Lord doesn’t want to be separate from us. He wants to inhabit us in such a way that there is perpetual fellowship. This is not for “when we get to heaven,” it’s right now. There should be in every Christian’s heart a crying out to break through to a perpetual revelation knowledge of the Lord. We should hunger to see Him as He is, because only then shall we be like Him (1st John 3:2).
Col. 3:
9* Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
10* And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Here is the key to moving into the realm where we can receive that revelation knowledge of the Lord. When Paul says “ye have put off the old man,” he is speaking of the work of the cross. It’s the cross experience that severs us from the realm that keeps us in bondage to a historical or futuristic Jesus, but not an ever-present One. The work of the cross kills the religiosity within us that we might receive revelation knowledge of the Lord. Notice that Paul says it’s the new man that is being renewed to a knowledge of the Lord. The New American Standard Bible says, “renewed to a true knowledge.” The “new man” is the nature of Christ that is formed in us through the cross experience. We are only capable of having a revelation knowledge of the Lord as it flows through His nature created in us. It’s His nature in us that receives the true knowledge of the Lord. If we aren’t partaking of His nature, we are incapable of knowing Him as He really is. Revelation knowledge of the Lord comes to our hearts as we die to self and take on His image.