Adventures into Holy Spirit revelation
I love adventuring into the deep places in God through revelation from the Holy Spirit. Every night before I go to sleep, I pick up the bible and ask the Holy Spirit to please give me revelation and understanding of His word as I read. I want it to soak into and saturate every fiber of my being so it will be there ministering to me and to minister to others in whatever way He deems necessary. That is part of my routine every night. Some nights I get deep revelation and others, I read, but nothing comes.
However, last night was different. I was reading Isaiah 53 in the Message bible and as I read from verse 1-7, I kept getting stuck on a particular piece (highlighted in red below): 1Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this? 2-6The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him. 9He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word.
I kept saying “Holy Spirit, what is it about this piece? What do you want me to get from it”? All of a sudden, I started to see this picture of how Jesus was beaten so badly that He was disfigured. It specifically says in the scripture above ‘it was our pains he carried-our disfigurements, all things wrong with us‘. We were made in the image of God, which means we should resemble Him in character. When we look in the mirror, we should see an image of Him, not us(our fleshly nature). Sin literally disfigures us and makes us unrecognizable as a son or daughter of God. As we journey with God and we allow Him to strip away the sin and replace it with His nature, our image is transformed into a likeness of Him. That is what attracts the world, the image of Christ-not our beauty, how well we speak, money or any other superficial thing. It is the image of Christ on display in and through us. Even that, our distorted/disfigured image God crucified on the cross.
Let us take it a step further. It says “But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. Think about it this way, our sins/flesh rips us away from dwelling in the presence of God. Jesus’ flesh was ripped and torn for our transgressions so that we could be made whole. As we journey through this life with God, we do things and make decisions that either bring us closer to God or away from Him. The visual analogy is the ripping and tearing of His flesh prevented Him from having a ’whole’ body. When we come back into alignment with Christ, we become whole beings. The fleshly nature which causes us to sin, needs to be ripped, torn, bruised and put to death in order for us to live and be made whole in Christ.
God told me a long time ago, what He says in the bible, is not because He has excess words to spew but it is there for a reason. I know that even though I have read the story of the crucifixion countless times, I never got the revelation of the disfigurement of Jesus representing our sin disfiguring us or the flesh being ripped and torn as an analogy for our flesh ripping and tearing us away from Him.
He gave me a revelation a few years ago about the cross as well. A friend of mine called and we were having a discussion about how to explain salvation. My friend was saying he has such a tough time explaining salvation to his coworkers. After hanging up, I began talking to God and asking Him for a simple way to explain salvation. Immediately, He opened up a picture of Jesus on the cross and the two thieves that hung on either side of Him. God then asked me “What do you think is the relevance of the two thieves hanging on the cross on either side of Jesus”? I had to admit that I didn’t put much thought into. Once again, God reminded me that He doesn’t just put things in the bible because He can. He began to reveal to me that that was the picture of salvation and it wasn’t as complex as we make it to be. Let me explain..
When Jesus was crucified, they also crucified along with Him two thieves. One on either side. Both had committed the same crimes and had led the same kind of lifestyles. The difference was tone recognized who Jesus was and the other cursed and mocked Him. Luke 23:32-43 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”[c]And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 35The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” 36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” 38There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 39One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.[d]” 43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” This is the simple message of salvation. One thief recognized he deserved to be crucified for his crimes/sins and that Jesus was not only innocent, but he didn’t deserve crucifixion-He was who He said He was…the Son of God. And the other one cursed and mocked him. We are born into a sinful world and therefore we sin daily. We all have a choice to make, live our lives for ourselves or realize that we can’t go it alone and need the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us and make us whole.
So, the next time you pick up the bible to read, ask the Holy Spirit for revelation and understanding, you never know what deep mysteries might be revealed that will propel you on an adventure into even deeper places in God.
