The Invisible God
21:48
At this year's Caribbean Conference of my ministry Bible Teachers International the Lord
taught us an awesome revelation of Himself. He gave us an eye to see Him in
eternity and by this he gave us understanding of His eternal plan for mankind. Genesis
professes that God made Adam in His image and likeness however the book of
Colossians teaches us that Jesus is the image of God.
1
John 1:1-2
1 That
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of
life;
2
(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew
unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto
us;)
There are three that bear record in
heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost: however the Word was
manifested in flesh and was named Jesus. Jesus therefore is the express image
of the living God, but Adam was made in the likeness of Him. The scriptures
recount on countless occasions that all creation was made by Jesus Christ; this
testifies that Adam was the fruit of His hands. That life which was from the
beginning was however manifested in time
after the creation of Adam.
The Lord ensured that He reminded us of
the characteristics and nature of the soul, at this conference. The soul is the
essence of the creature. It is where all thoughts, likes, dislikes, emotions
and personal perspectives stem from.
Leviticus
26: 11-12
11
And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
12
And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people
The Word is the embodiment of who God
really is. The Word is to God as the
soul is to man. Therefore just as Adam needed an earthen body to be given
expression on earth, likewise by salvation, God expresses his soul through the
body of Christ.
There is however a deepness of this
revelation that we must understand.
First of all, in teaching this perspective
on His image, you must embrace that the following is indeed the mind of God, a
mystery hidden from all but His Sons. The mystery of Christ cannot be discerned
with human intellect or carnal knowledge it must be spiritually discerned. It
neither depends on the passions and desires of humanity, but the mystery of
Christ is the pleasure of the Father’s will. In order for the Word to be
profitable in your life, you must purpose in your heart to agree with God
regardless of His disposition. Here a test
that will tell whether you are in the faith.
I will begin this teaching by asking you
two questions.
1.
If
you could see God, how would He look?
2.
If
you could touch God how would He feel?
Colossians
1:12-15
12
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light:
13
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into
the kingdom of his dear Son:
14
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15Who is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of every creature:
The
Invisible God
Let us take a while and review the
attributes of the form that God exists in the spiritual realm. Consider the
following scriptures:
Proverbs
15:3
The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
Job
36:32
He
covers His hands with the lightning,
And commands it to strike the mark.
Job
4:9
By
the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
Exodus
33:23
And
I will take away mine hand, and thou
shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
Isaiah 66:1
Thus
saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool: where
is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
God in the spiritual realm has a face,
with eyes, ears, nose and mouth. He has a back, and feet and His shape would
allow Him to take a seat on His throne. If we rely on these scriptures we can
safely say that God has the same image in the spiritual (invisible) as a human
does in the natural (visible). However His shape in the spiritual realm cannot
be seen with the natural eye it is invisible.
Let us not forget also that God also was
unapproachable. He professed to Moses, no
man can see My face and live. The hills quake and melt at His presence. He
attempted once to present Himself to Israel in His glory, and His was immensely
rejected. There was lightning and thunder and His voice would cause earthquakes.
He was too holy to relate to man. Israel responded to God’s visitation in these
words: “Speak thou with us (Moses), and we will hear: but let not God speak
with us, lest we die.”
It was however His heart to fellowship
with His people. How could this great and Holy God relate to natural people?
The only way He would attain this is by somehow becoming approachable.
The
Visible God
Hebrews
1:3
Who
being the brightness of his glory, and the express
image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high:
Express:
exact or precise
Image: a tangible or visible
representation
Jesus is not just what God looks like,
Jesus is God manifested in the earthen realm. When the invisible God transcends
the spiritual realm and enters into the physical realm, He is Jesus. Jesus is
the exact presentation of God. He is God visible and God tangible. Consider the
following scripture
John
1:18
No
man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of
the Father, he hath declared him.
The word declare does not strictly mean
that Jesus merely preached about the Father, but it means that He was the
presentation of the Father. We get an even clearer understanding when Jesus
spoke with the Pharisee Nicodemus.
John
3:1-3
1There
was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2The
same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a
teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except
God be with him.
3Jesus
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus could not discern that what He
was beholding was not just an anointed person, but it was God Himself standing
before Him in a physical and non-threatening way. The body joint with the Holy
Spirit was the kingdom (or house) in which the soul of Jesus lived – it was the
Kingdom of God. Sadly, neither did His disciples understand this mystery prior
to their salvation.
John
14:8-9
8
Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
9Jesus
saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known
me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou
then, Shew us the Father?
The Father was shown plainly to Phillip
for 3 ½ years. He was not to be seen in the clouds or the sky in any bright
light but God was made physical for the sake of the world.. John 5:37 - Ye have neither heard his voice
at any time, nor seen his shape – until now, because that is what Jesus
came to declare.
So we have learnt and understood that
Jesus is the image of God, He is God physical, tangible and visible. He is God
approachable. Now fasten your seatbelts saints as we go deeper into this
mystery.
John
11:25
Jesus
said unto her, I am the resurrection,
and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
John
3:16
For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The
Holy Ghost
The name Holy Ghost is a name that is used
synonymously with Holy Spirit, but have we really considered the connotations
of this name?
A ghost in layman’s terms is the soul of
someone who has died living on; may manifest in the earthen realm but however
dwells in the unseen realm. If the Holy Ghost is indeed a ghost, whose ghost
would He be? Yes, you are right! He is Jesus Christ. The man that died on the
cross for the sins of the world, rose from the dead and became an eternal spirit.
He became the Holy Ghost. His Spirit is the fullness of His being and will
never die.
But let us view this from the eyes of the
Father.
Romans
8:11
But
if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his
Spirit that dwelleth in you.
The Spirit of God rose Christ from the dead
and it also quickened His mortal body that laid dead in the tomb. However the
perspective that God wants us to understand is that the presence of a soul in
not necessary for this Spirit to live in a mortal body. The Spirit is power and
life in and of itself. God Almighty can walk this earth as a man without the
soul of any other man joint to it (see Melchesidec). However it is the good
pleasure of God’s will to fellowship with the souls of men and to be joint to
them.
Therefore when we had put of the old man
in circumcision the Ghost of Christ desired it that He may live again. He then
gets inside of the body and quickens it from the dead and raises it righteous.
He however is not alone, but we are baptized in Him, to fellowship with him in
His life.
The scripture says that we are quickened
with Christ, this means that we have been carried along with Christ: not that
we were needed, but according to His will. Our souls now reside in the man
Jesus Christ, to be witnesses, co-labourers and to be tried and tested.
I do pray that a spirit of enlightenment
is falling on you as you are reading this material. The message that God is
relaying to us is this; that when God enters the physical realm in this
dispensation He is a man. The name that Paul gave unto this man that He has
become was ‘the new man’. The new man is Jesus Christ and we have put Him on.
Phillipians
2:5-8
5
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But
made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of men:
8
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross.
Jesus’ soul was in the form of God, that
form/shape was the body. Jesus was found in the man that God had become. Upon
this discovery He made Himself of no reputation and became a servant. Jesus
made no provisions for the flesh, because the flesh was not His – His body
belonged to God. Therefore His soul became dead to the flesh, and by that death
God almighty lived an uninhibited life. This is the equality – when the soul
make no provision for the flesh, God is fully expressed.
We have put on Christ. He have put on the
new man. We are now the image of God, because are souls reside in Christ.
Therefore for this life to be manifested, we must also become dead to the
flesh, and lose our lives that we might gain it.
2
Corinthians 5:1-4
1
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house
which is from heaven:
3 If
so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
4
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we
would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of
life.
He that is born of the flesh is flesh and
he that is born of the Spirit is Spirit – a spiritual being therefore needs a
spiritual body. This scripture teaches us that the saints have a spiritual body
that is in heaven until we finish our race here on earth. The spiritual body is
the true image of the new creature, but the earthen body is the image of God.
It is important to note that as we dwell
on earth we are the witnesses of what God is doing in the flesh. We dwell in
the body of God and do not profess that we ourselves are God. We (our souls) however
reside in His image (the man that God has become) and we behold His glory just
as a spectator. It is the role of the witness to proclaim what they have learnt
and obey that they may learn.
2 Corinthians 3:18 - But we all, with open face
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
0 comments