Copyright
© 1990
Warren Litzman. From the book Every Believer Must Have a Revelation of Jesus Christ.
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A Revelation of Jesus Christ: How Do We Receive It?by Warren Litzman
This is a truth which was hidden through the ages until it was exposed and elaborated upon by the Apostle Paul. There is only one mention of the ministry of revelation in the four Gospels, and that was when Jesus commended Peter, when it was revealed to him that Jesus was the Son of the living God, by saying, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed that unto you." We have no record in the Book of Acts of the truth of divine revelation, yet the very heart of the revelation ministry is presented to us in the person of the Holy Spirit. The acts of men are certainly not what is recorded there, but rather the acts of the Holy Ghost. In the Epistles, Paul declared that this truth, having been hidden in ages past, was now being revealed unto all men and that he -- who was called to be the Apostle to the Gentiles -- was preaching it (Ephesians 3; Romans 16).
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This is the truth which men have evaded because they cannot come to it without the help of the Holy Spirit. Many who have received the Holy Spirit have not come to the knowledge of the revelation of Jesus Christ because the ministry of the Holy Spirit has been greatly misused through ignorance. We have the Holy Spirit doing everything but the one thing Jesus said He would do. We have Holy Ghost revivals, Holy Ghost churches, Holy Ghost moves, Holy Ghost movements and Holy Ghost blessings, but the Bible plainly teaches that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to reveal Christ. The Holy Spirit is to teach us; He is to guide us. His work is the work of an assistant, a paraclete (one who goes alongside).
His ministry, so greatly misused in this generation, has been left to God's timing to bring about the renewal of the Holy Spirit's true ministry. The process, which the early church went through, will be the same for us in this day. The early church was first attracted to the ministry of Jesus, then later baptized in the Holy Spirit, and progressively the truth of divine revelation was taught to them.
The truth of divine revelation is taught as the answer to every problem in each Epistle. Each Epistle is written to churches which were blood-washed and Spirit-filled, so when Paul prays for such churches as the Ephesian church to have a revelation in the knowledge of Christ, he is praying for this to take place in a church which is blood-washed and Spirit-filled and coming behind in no spiritual gift.
Thus, it is obvious that if anyone wanted to make a point of it, he could have disagreed with Paul. Many didn't because to them it seemed Paul was bringing a new doctrine. But instead of being new, it was really the fullness of all that God was and is trying to do, wrapped up in a term. Man, within himself, cannot know God. Man, through the blessings of God, cannot know Him. Man, through the temporal life, cannot know God. Neither does man, through the free gifts of healing, salvation and the baptism in the Holy Spirit, come to know God. For these reasons, the Apostle brings the message of revelation to established churches.
This is not a controversial truth to most Bible scholars. The fact that we need a revelation of Jesus Christ is agreed upon by all those who are willing to take the Word, pure and undefiled, as it is written. The controversy starts over how to receive this revelation. As is usual in God's work, the doctrine never divides; it is always the method. If you just believed the doctrine and never put a method with it, you would be all right. Most people are pleased when I preach the crucified life. But when I state a method by which to live it, they get angry. They don't want to live a truth; they just want to talk about it.
The eternal securitist, for instance, is quick to say that he has been baptized in the Holy Spirit; but when you turn to the Scriptures and pick out occasions when people were baptized in the Holy Spirit and use that for a pattern for receiving the Holy Spirit, he gets upset -- he does not want methods. We do not want practicality; we do not want to get down to business to see whether or not we measure up to the pattern. We prefer to say "I have it" without ever having to produce it, live it or make it practical. It is amazing how much Christianity is based purely on talk and the receiving of blessings. The two go hand in hand. We have received blessings and we talk about doctrines, but we can do both without living the life.
The problem in going deeper with God begins with how we are going to do it. What are the methods? What is the pattern? We are a very strange people about patterns. We are willing to take the patterns we want out of the Bible, but we easily reject the ones we don't want. I have always been that way. I have been loud and long on certain patterns I have used. I used the pattern of Jesus healing the sick any number of times in my meetings, and I believe that He has healed them as a result of my doing that. I have told lame men to walk, as Jesus did; I have told them to throw down their crutches, as He did; I have told them to rise up in the name of Jesus; and they did and were healed.
I have used the pattern again and again. I have anointed with oil according to the pattern; I have laid lands on the sick, according to the pattern; I have used anointed cloths or blessed cloths; I have used the pattern right down the line. Everything I knew to do, I did. I did not equivocate or hesitate. I have used the pattern in salvation. When it comes to being born again, I have preached from almost every occasion in the Scriptures where people were saved, presenting to man the same methods for salvation as presented in the Scriptures.
I have gone into detailed explanation of Jesus and Nicodemus, of Jesus and Mary of Magdala, of Jesus and Zacchaeus, of Jesus and the dying thief. I have gone into detail speaking of Paul dealing with the jailer and of Peter, James and John dealing with the jailer. I have gone into the details of Paul winning an entire nation to the Lord. I have seen the pattern, and I have preached it.
When it comes to the baptism in the Holy Spirit, there are five bona fide, iron-clad occasions mentioned in the Book of Acts alone of three distinct methods of receiving the Holy Spirit. I have used all three methods. Some people wait upon the Lord to receive the Spirit. Some receive instantaneously by the laying on of hands. And some have received just sitting in a crowd. The Spirit fell on them just as it did at Cornelius' house. We do not hesitate to talk about certain patterns.
But now, we leave the stage of free gifts and start talking about going deeper with God and what step is next. We believe the next step for the Church is for the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ in you. If we are to know how to receive this revelation of Jesus Christ, we ought to stick to the Word and receive the revelation of Christ according to the Scriptures, just as we do salvation, healing and the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
There are not many occasions in the Scriptures where men received a revelation. Because it is the entire act of God in the believer's life from the moment he is born again to his death, it is very difficult to pick out any one experience and elaborate upon it. Therefore, the Scriptures do not present a series of illustrations of people who had a revelation of Jesus, but rather teach that this is what you must have to come into the fullness of Christ. The Word implies that it will take all the rest of your life to know the fullness of Jesus Christ.
A revelation of Christ is not a single experience which you receive and then retain. It merely begins and will continue progressively throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. You will know when you have a revelation of Christ, but it is only the beginning of godly wisdom and understanding. So there can be no pertinent experiences given, although Paul did have the experience and writes about it.
Let us go to the first chapter of Galatians and see how to receive a revelation of Jesus Christ. In verses 6-24 we read in chronological order the process of Paul's experience.
Beginning at verse 6, we see the first of seven important things necessary to receiving the revelation of Jesus Christ. First, you must see a contrast between two kinds of gospels.
"I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel." Now, what has happened here is that the Galatians have not progressed. They have not continued being led of the Spirit into the fullness of the in-Christ position. Consequently, they have been removed from Christ. After people are born again, and especially after they are Spirit-filled, Jesus is in the center of their love affair. They love Him, they talk about Him and they are given to expressing the reality of Jesus. The center of their whole conversation and life is Jesus. But the Galatians, after having had this testimony of Christ-centeredness, have removed Him from the center.
Your first step in going deeper with God is to analyze your own life. You must consider, "Am I still in that vibrant stage of first love that I had when I first met Jesus?" It is not likely that you are because, since you first met Jesus, too many other aspects of the gospel have entered in and you have not retained that vibrancy of love. As you continue to walk with the Lord, you are going to continue to pick up new truth. A person may be very Christ-centered when he is first saved, but after a while he begins to concentrate on these new truths he picks up. It may be divine healing, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, or a great move of God. If you watch new converts, this is a consistent pattern. They become taken up with one of these things.
For instance, I often tell our denominational friends who come into the Christ-life movement that they ultimately will go through a state of demonology. It just seems to be a pattern. They are baptized in the Holy Spirit, and they go a little while trying to test God in every area; before you know it, they see demons in everything. They gravitate to the ministries of rebuking and casting out devils. Of course, that is important, but it needs to be placed in the proper perspective. I have ministered to some people who could not talk about Jesus at all because they were so devil-conscious. Their speech was all of Satan.
What does Paul say about these stages of truth? He says they are not another gospel because they are an intricate part of the gospel; but to concentrate on only one issue is to pervert the gospel. See verse 7: "Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ." Perversion will be Satan's greatest tool in the last days. The Last Day church will be motivated by the doctrines of Baalam and the sins of Jezebel, which are the sins of (spiritual) fornication -- perversion. What do we mean by that?
The church will not turn against Jesus, it will not forsake or quit Jesus, but it will substitute something else -- some thing He can do, something He did, or something He is going to do for "who He is." Paul says that is another gospel, a perversion of the believer's love affair with Jesus Christ -- the sins of Jezebel. She is the spirit in these last days that causes the church member to fall in love with something else besides Jesus Himself and commit spiritual adultery. He falls in love with Jesus' works, His ministries, His Church, His name, or any number of other things that can be traps set to turn him aside from his love of Jesus Himself.
So the first step toward a revelation of Jesus Christ is realizing and admitting that this is taking place, that your first love is gone. I believe that in every one of you who follows the Lord over a period of time, your first love will begin to depart unless the true gospel is preached to you. You are going to be taken up with something else. You can get so taken up with the baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, the gifts of healing or intercessory prayer that your love is no longer directed toward Jesus.
I think the Father allows this to show the believer that being involved in these works means he is not growing in spiritual strength. The church today has become more and more involved in these ministries and works in which there is no strength. That is the first thing God wants to teach us and the first step toward a revelation of Jesus Christ. There is no strength in the utilization of spiritual ministries. The strength is in Jesus; the life is in the Son. It is Christ who shares His all with us, and if we have His all, then all of these things will follow us in His time. But we cannot draw His strength from these things. That is why I preach that people can see the sick healed and still end up living for Satan. I know how that happens, scripturally. They begin to draw their strength from the works, from the need, and not from Him. Jesus alone is the only One who gives strength.
Copyright © 1990 Warren Litzman -- from the book Every Believer Must Have a Revelation of Jesus Christ. The Bible text in this publication, except where otherwise indicated, is from the King James Version. This article appears on the site: http://www.peterwade.com/.
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