He that hath my commandments, and keepeththem, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. John 14:21 |
Fellow Believers,
Just before the Lord Jesus went to the cross, He comforted His disciples, telling them that He was going to prepare a place for them in heaven and promising to come back for them someday. Philip then said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."
Indeed, as we live as strangers and pilgrims in this hostile world, to have seen the Father personally would surely be sufficient to give us enough faith to face everything. If we, like Moses, had seen and talked to God face to face, then no matter how terrible this final tribulation period is, we'd know for sure that God is real and that He'll see us through.
Thankfully, that's not just wishful thinking. Jesus tells Philip that anyone who has seen Him has seen the Father. He further promises that He will manifest Himself to whomever has His commands and obeys them. In other words, if we are a child of God, then we should be able to relate to God as intimately as Moses did. That's because Christ has shown Himself to us and, having seen the Son, we have seen the Father.
Is Jesus revealing Himself to us through a vision, a dream or some form of supernatural manifestation? Of course, not. In these end-time days, the Bible repeatedly tells us, false Christs and false prophets are the ones who come with signs and wonders. Since our God is "not the author of confusion" (I Cor. 14:33), He would not be doing these thingswhich, in His own words, are sought by an evil and adulterous generation. He wants us to walk by faith, not by sight.
The Bible, of course, is one way through which Jesus reveals Himself to us. We really cannot expect to know God in an intimate way if we don't spend time reading His living word with a seeking heart.
But our sovereign God also manifests Himself to us through the circumstances that unfold around us. Oftentimes, He puts us through difficult situations and then gets us out of them in ways that are totally beyond our imagination. Experiencing such personal deliverance is that which convinces us that God is real and that with Him all things are indeed possible. And remembering such deliverance is that which empowers us to wait patiently on Him.
I cannot close without stressing that Christ gives the promise to reveal Himself only to those who love Him and obey His commands.
Third Quarter, 1998