All Begins in Revelation

When We Move By the Spirit We See God's Results

Revelation causes us to see our need of the presence and working of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives. The church must have His presence. It needs the manifestations of His power in its midst, that it might be a glory and witness unto Him. We do not need gifts for gifts' sake. We need the gifts that the church might move in God by the Spirit. Without the gifts, the equipment that God has put in the midst, the church cannot move in a spiritual manner, cannot manifest His power.

Why do we fail in many instances? Is it not because we move out from our union with the Spirit? When we do, we do not have the direction of the Holy Spirit. When we move by the Spirit we see His results. This principle can be carried into any of the specific outworkings of God's plan, whether it be in the marriage relationship, relationships with our children, or our relationships with one another in every aspect of the church and the ministry. Wherever we might look, the question is whether the revelation is the controlling factor in our lives.

"He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." If we could only know this truth by the Spirit! If we could only see who we are in Christ! Those who are in Christ do not continue to sin. What a revelation! I am afraid we have too much knowledge in our minds and it gives us an ability to make excuses. We become slothful in our minds and our lives. We begin to say, "I can't." Revelation will show us that we are no longer doing anything, but that we are a new creation in Christ, and can do all things. Are we looking at ourselves, or are we looking by revelation at who we are in Christ? It is this revelation that will move us on in knowing Christ. It is this revelation that will cause us to run the race.

What is going to give us the strength we need to walk each day pleasing to God? The answer remains the same--revelation and the continuing revealing of the Spirit. Lack of a clear vision of Christ, what God is doing, and how we fit into God's working causes us to look to ourselves and start to bring in programs and systems which will only fail, because they cannot accomplish God's will. We need a zeal born out of seeing Christ, and then we will be able to move over the obstacles in our lives. Without it we stumble and fall rather than bounding over them. We have lost our youth in the Spirit.

We ought to move right over these earthly things that stand in our way, but we are so prone to fall flat on our faces because there is no revelation in our lives that demands all our attention, to possess and to control us. When we see that Jesus is building the church, we will not be so quick to put our hands on it or bring in our programs, because we'll know that man's efforts won't bring about what God wants to do.

Reading Paul's letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, we can sense his utter dependence upon God. Paul is not moving in himself, but by the Spirit. Paul is moving because he has a possessing revelation from God. He said, "That I may attain to that which I have been arrested for." In other words, God came along one day and arrested Paul for a purpose. God also one day came into your life for a purpose. The Spirit will reveal that purpose to each one of us. Now, we might come up with the excuse that we are not Paul, but that does not mean that God will not give us a revelation. God is going to open the eyes and understanding of every person who will believe Him. God will not give you the same grace that He gives every member of the body of Christ, but God gives the grace for each member to function in the place He has put them in. Grace is the ability to function in the revelation He has given us of Himself.

Next: When We Behold Christ We Become Like Him