When we come and partake of the Word of God, whether in our personal time of devotion or by sitting under the ministry of someone else, our desire should be to experience Holy Spirit transformation as the Word is imparted. When we learn to walk with God in that manner, then the ministry of the Word will beget personal growth every time. Not just head knowledge, but heart growth. I want to encourage you that you are here to hear this message, meditate on what is said and let the Holy Spirit open your heart to receive it. Review it over and over and over again until it becomes heart revelation to you. You will never regret it.
We are going to be talking this morning out of 2 Corinthians, Chapter 3.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, again we are so thankful that You are here. We are so thankful for the work that you are doing in our hearts. We are so thankful that You are here to reveal Jesus to us, and to reveal the deep things in God to us according to our individual ability to hear and receive. I ask as You minister to Your people this morning, that You will speak to their hearts. Go beyond what I see and speak to them according to their need, their ability to hear, and their desire to hear from You. Help me to yield to You so that Your purpose can be accomplished. Help us to grow in the love and admiration of our Master. We are not here this morning to lift up man, Holy Spirit, but to allow You to lift up Jesus, for your Word says that if He be lifted up, You will draw all men unto Him. Let Him be exalted in our hearts and in our undertsanding. In Your precious name, Amen.
I am going to be reading out of the Amplified Version. I normally teach out of the King James because it is the purest translation. I know that a lot of the theologians will tell you that it is not, but we have already learned that we do not trust them anyway. The King James is the purest; that is why I normally minister out of the King James, but there are times when the Amplified, although it is not really a translation, expands our understanding just a little bit more to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying. So I am going to be ministering out of the Amplified this morning.
“Whenever a person turns in repentance to the Lord, the veil is stripped off and taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, emancipation from bondage and freedom. And all of us, with an unveiled face, because we continued to behold in the Word of God as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image and ever-increased splendor and from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 AMP
Our Christian life was never designed to be lived on such a low plane as we now live. Many years ago in the early 80s, I was in prayer and the Lord opened up to me the book of Ephesians. There I saw the difference, the great gulf between where the Church was supposed to be and where we actually were.
Now, I have not had the occasion to tour Singapore so I do not know what you have on this beautiful island, but in America we have a huge canyon called the Grand Canyon, a popular visitor site. It is a vast canyon, it is huge! This gulf I saw that was between where the Church is and where it is supposed to be was like the Grand Canyon. I began to weep and I said to the Lord, “How do we ever bridge such a gulf? It is so big it feels impossible. Where we are to walk is so high and where we are living is so low. How are we to bridge the gap? Is it ever possible?” And I wept and wept.
I would say since the 80s, the Church feels like it has matured. Most Christians will tell you if you ask them, “Do you believe that you walk in the Spirit?” they will say, “Yes." Now this is one of the problems that we have in the Church – the belief that we are all grown up in the Lord and need nothing more.
I have four grand-children and my grandson and my granddaughter’s ages at this time were six and five. We were sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch and I was having a “grandma talk” with them. How many of you have grandchildren? I love my grandkids. I told my daughter as she was having these wonderful children, “God, did not make children for moms and dads. He made them for grandmas!” And I believe that now more than ever.
So we were sitting there talking and we having a grandma and grandchildren talk and this is the way it went: “Grandma,” said my oldest grandson, “Grandma, I am smarter than you.” (He was six years old.) I said, “You are? My, oh my!” “And I am smarter than daddy.” (His father has his doctorate degree in law and is a very intelligent individual.) I said, “Oh! How did you get smarter than daddy?” “I just am. I know all kinds of things, many things that daddy does not know. And I am smarter than mama.” You are smarter than mommy?” (My daughter is a genius; her IQ is that of a genius.) I said, “Oh! And how did you get smarter than mommy?” “I just am!” he replied.
Then my grandaughter (who was five years old) said, “So am I!” I said, “So how did you two lofty children get smarter than all of these adults?” “We just are! We know all kinds of things you do not know,” they said. Then she adamently said, “And I am stronger than you, too!” I chuckled and I said, “Really?” Shen contintinued, “And I am stronger than daddy and I am stronger than than mommy!”
You see, at five and six years old, children think they are big. They think they know so much and by the time they get into their teens, they can hardly be taught by mom and dad. This is the truth right? And that is where the Church is.
The Church is very young, but it thinks it is very mature. Because it thinks it is very mature, when in fact it is very young, it cannot be taught. And yet God is calling us into the place of high glory. Somehow He has to reveal to us our great lack. He has to reveal to us that just because we know a lot does not mean we are mature. We can have a lot of knowledge of the Word and yet be very infantile in God. Do you know that? And so God wants to bring us into this place that I saw, a great, great place of incredible glory where only adult sons, the Bride of Christ, can live.
He wants to bring us into this place of high, high glory, but the first thing He has to do is help us understand that we are not there yet. We must be humble enough to hear, to be taught, to receive and to be changed, so that we can enter into this place of high glory.
My dear brothers and sisters, I have found that in my 20 years of walking with Him, just before every promotion in God comes a time of deep and severe humbling. Is that true for you? It is a deep and severe humbling until I feel that all the ground I thought I once gained, I have not gained at all. When He gets through to the place within me where I am finally broken enough, then He can begin to impart the higher places of glory and I will not come up out of it thinking that I have done something that only He can do.
To be continued next week…
In His Amazing Love,
Nita Johnson
