Transcript: Seeing As God Sees

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The experience is a meeting organized by the Disciples Christian Network, where men encounter God, his presence, and his power in an atmosphere of worship and the word. Join apostle Emmanuel as he leads us into an experience with God. From verse one, read to verse two, the bible says, then so, still breathing threats and mourned against the disciples of the Lord went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that if he found any who were of the way, note the capital letter w in your bible of the way. Can you see that? Whether men or women, he might bring them to Jerusalem. If he found any who were of the way. That description or that designation, the way was the earliest identification of what we now call Christianity. So when he says who are of the way, he's referring to the person of Christ, who were of the way, those who follow Christ. Are you with me? Yes, sir.

Because Christ was the one who said that I'm the way, the truth, and the life. I'm gonna go to that later. We're still gonna open up that word way as we proceed in this teaching. Let's continue. In verse three, it says, as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly, a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? Then the Lord said to him, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goals. Let's jump to verse eight because I'm pressed for time.

Verse eight, the bible says, then Saul arose from the ground. When his eyes were opened, he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus because he was blind. Now the big question is, why did God have to blind Saul? Why was it important that that encounter led to blindness? Why this particular method in dealing with Saul? I mean, it wasn't arbitrary judgment. God was not punishing him. So why was the blindness necessary? That blindness you see was surgical.

That blindness was strategic. It was absolutely necessary for the transformation that God was about to walk in this man. And for three days, Saul was in Damascus. He was blind. He was fasting. He was praying. And the scriptures tell us that he was seeking the Lord during this period. Then God speaks to a man, a disciple named Ananias, instructing Ananias to go and meet Saul. When Ananias ministers to him, he delivers a message that I think contains one of the most profound revelations about the nature of spiritual science and prophetic ministry in all of scripture. Many years later, when Paul recounts this experience, it reveals what Jesus told him through Ananias in acts of apostles chapter 26 and verse 16.

So we began from the experience that Paul has on his way to Damascus. Then when he gets to... On his way, the bride light appears to him, and then God appears to him, and Jesus speaks to him. And then after that experience, he was blinded. Then God sends Ananias to him, and then we are trying to ask a question and then finding the answer to that question. But why was it important that Saul at that point be blinded? And after three days of prayer and fasting, Ananias came to him. And in many years later, he was recounting that experience, and he tells us in acts chapter six and verse 16 exactly what Ananias told him. Now if you read it in the new King James version, you would miss out on the original Greek inscription that was used. Maybe I should show you the difference.

This was what Ananias told him. But rise and stand on your feet for I have appeared to you for this purpose to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. That part of it, that last part of it is not how the Greek renders it in the original transcription. The King James version shows us how the Greek renders it in the original translations. Let us read. It says, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, To make thee a minister and a witness, both of the things which thou hast seen and of those things in thee. And of those things in thee, which I will appear unto thee. Did you see the difference? You didn't see the difference yet. Of those things in which I will appear unto you.

Not things which will appear to you. Not things which I will reveal to you. NKJV says, things which I will reveal to you. The King James version which shows the original Greek text used says, of those things which I will appear unto you. You're not getting it yet. You? Of those things which I will appear unto you. The Greek construction is very critical here because it speaks of Christ appearing within things. Not just Christ revealing things. He says of those things which I will appear unto you.

Do you understand this now? Unto you, those things, of those things. It speaks of Christ appearing within things, through things, in the substance and events and circumstances of life itself. Those things, those circumstances which I will appear to you, those things, those situations, those trials, those promises, those obstructions, those good things, those bad things, those things which I will appear onto Are you with me? Yes, sir. This is where the church has developed a tragically myopic and a very narrow tunnel vision. In the understanding of what it means to see Jesus or to experience Jesus. We have reduced the appearing of Christ to one singular form, and we have reduced it to a visual image. And that visual image is what we borrowed from Renaissance pictures or movies, Hollywood movies, Hollywood productions that bear no historical or no spiritual accuracy to who Jesus actually is or actually was in the flesh. And we've boxed the infinite God into one expected manifestation.

And so when a believer says that he saw Jesus, what he sees or what he thinks he has seen is a pictorial representation of an Hollywood imagery. Well, listen to what Paul is being told, that you will be a witness of two categories of divine revelation. First, the things you have seen. Referring to that Damascus road encounter, the things you have seen, that blinding light, that audible voice that appeared unto you. But second, and perhaps more importantly for ongoing ministry, you will be a witness of the things in which I will appear to you. This is revelation that comes embedded in the ordinary. This is revelation that comes concealed in the circumstances, hidden in the elements of daily life and ministry, yet Jesus is revealing himself. Look at the Israelites. Let me see if I can try to show you what I'm talking about. Look at the Israelites.

The bible says that they had a rock that they knew. They leaned on that rock. That rock was with them. And when they were thirsty, the bible says that rock provided water for them to drink. So much so in the book of numbers, God did not tell Moses to speak to a rock. God told him to speak to the rock, definite article. The rock. It was a definite article, a specific identity. Do you understand what I'm saying? And they drank from that rock for forty years.

They touched it. They leaned on it. They gathered around it. It was stone. It was mineral. It was a physical matter, seemingly nothing more than a geological feature of the desert. It was just a rock. And all there is to that rock was that they struck it or they spoke to it, and water would come out of it, and they would drink from it. So it is possible to live in that time, and all you would have seen was a rock. And that every time you are thirsty, the rock is no more than a tap water.

Where you just go to and then say Moses' time, we are we are thirsty and Moses speaks and then water gushes out, and then you drink. And you'll be deceived to think that that is all there is to it. Are you with me? Because in first Corinthians chapter 10 and verse one to verse four, Paul now begins to show us exactly what that rock was. And he says, he was writing under the inspiration of the holy spirit. I hope you know. And from verse one to verse four, he confirms that that rock was Christ, and the water they were drinking was spiritual water. Let's go there. It says, moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and all drank the same spiritual drink. And all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank out of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

And that rock was Christ. Are you with me? Now think about this very carefully. Imagine that you were somehow transported from this present moment right now back into the wilderness of Sinai, and then you are standing there with the knowledge of first Corinthians chapter 10 verse four in your spirit. And you look at this rock, this physical material object that just appears to be nothing more than a stone that people just come every morning to come and think what to do. But now you have this mystery. You know this mystery. You know that this is not just a rock. You know that this is Christ appearing in a form that the natural eye cannot discern without spiritual revelation. And you know somehow.

The question will be, how would you relate to it? How would you approach that rock? Would you see it the way others have seen it? As just a means for others to come when I'm thirsty? Is that how you would relate with it? As merely a source of water, is that how you will live with it? Or would you perceive the deeper reality inside of that rock? Would you perceive the spiritual substance inside of that rock? The person concealed within the provision, would you see beyond what your eyes can see physically? And would it affect how you relate with it?

Would it affect your perspective to the rock? Are you with me? This is precisely what Jesus meant when he told Saul of those things in which I will appear unto you. I'm saying that there are appearances of Christ that transcend the visual. There are appearances of Christ that bypasses what we expect, that manifest in form we would never anticipate unless our spiritual understanding is enlightened. And many sincere believers have been misled by supposed visions of Jesus because they have they have fixated on one form of appearance. Another appearance is the visual image that resembles Jesus of what they saw in the movie and has no authentic connection to the historical and the spiritual glorified Christ. And we must understand something crucial. That in second Corinthians chapter five verse 16, Paul himself was the one who said, therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him first no longer.

It means we can no longer know Christ according to the flesh, according to how he walked when he was on the earth, according to a visual image you saw on a TV screen that misrepresents to a large extent the person of Christ. Are you with me? Yes, sir. If you have truly encountered the risen Christ, if you have truly encountered the glorified Christ, one of the things you will realize immediately is that the reality of his expression is infinitely deeper than any movie could ever interpret. It it is deeper than any movie could ever capture. It's deeper than any painting. It's more glorious than any painting would ever represent. That in his true manifestation, there is a glory that is unmistakable, a glory that cannot be misrepresented. In his true manifestation, there is a weight of presence, a radiance of holiness that identifies him beyond any doubt. When you see Jesus manifest, you'll realize that it is not an imagination.

It's not something your mind barely imagines. Then you will carefully... Carelessly rather throw around the world, you know, I saw Jesus. I saw Jesus. And we don't even understand what we are saying. Glory to God. But that's not even where I'm going. There is another dimension entirely. The things in which he appears. This is where most believers miss God.

We miss him because we are looking for him in one form. We are expecting him in only one way. While he's appearing all around us in things, in circumstances, in people, in divine appointments, in challenges, in provisions, in closed doors, in open doors. He's appearing, and we do not recognize it. And many believers don't know that in your life, God will also appear in those unexpected places. The problem is that you are still trying to see with your old eyes. You know, remember that we are trying to answer a question. Why was Saul blinded? Stay with me. There are some seasons of your life that you call failure.

Some things begin to happen to you and then unveil around your life that you begin to make plans many times, and then the plans don't come out the way you're expecting them to come out. And then you sit down and just say, you know what? I'm tired of this kind of life. I'm... I wanna give up. Things are not working for me, and I'm just feeling right now and then. It is obvious when you see believers speak by how they interpret what is happening in their lives, by how they interpret events and circumstances that many of us have not been taught to spiritually discern the things in which he appears. Otherwise, you will realize that what you might have termed a season of failure had just been a classroom where God was training you and putting a particular type of knowledge on your inside. Not because God was responsible for the failure, but because he has taken that advantage to appear the things in which he appears. Yeah.

I'm not getting this to them, sir. But there are several lessons he would want to teach you, and all those lessons will not come delivered on a pulpit on a Sunday morning. There are appearances you will not have in a prayer gathering. There are appearances you would have in a on your way to work. And if you have not been taught, if the height of understanding is not enlightened, you will miss out the things in which he appears. The event in which he manifests himself. You know, was talking to someone recently, and they were so downtrodden. The person was so defeated at heart. Sir, this is the fourth year I'm doing this, and the person was weeping and crying. And I said, Kai.

Kai. If only you knew how the will of the spirit is, you realize that it is the most foolish thing to do to give up. You will realize the most foolish thing a man can do. It's not even to give up. It's to first lose heart because giving up is the experiential reality of losing heart. So what happens is that you give up within. That's what the bible calls you have lost heart. You no longer have the heart to continue. You have been defeated within. It's a foolish thing for the believer, especially if you have been continuing all along, and then you get to a point to say, ah, things are not working.

And you know that you have been putting all the effort. Probably you have been marketing your business. You have been you have been working in ministry. You have been evangelizing, going for outreaches. You have been praying and fasting, and you're expecting that the breakthrough that God promised one day will manifest. And then you see, in your mind, you begin to think as if time is passing. Time is passing. And you begin to interpret life solely by the time that is passing. That vision is corrupted. And if something does not happen to that vision, you will miss out on the things in which he appears.

You call some people opposition because you have not been able to discern that they are Jesus shaping your character. You call some interruptions in your life delay because you have not been able to discern that these are necessary details in destiny that fine tunes you into a man capable enough to reach into the heights of what God has promised you. Do you know that many of the testimonies that eventually come to people, many of the testimonies that we hear, testimonies of favor and of breakthrough, did not happen at the instant they believed. Many of them were preceded by years of waiting, years of trying, trying again and again, and sometimes it will fail. And then in the third year and the fourth year, when they do it and it works, they come and then they say, you know, the man and god just prophesied. Because those who are sharing testimony are not sincere enough. They... It's not their fault, really. Because the bible says that when a man gives birth to a baby, the joy of the baby makes him forget the pain that it goes through. Do you know that this poor went through the most persecution any of the disciples went through?

Did you see his resume? Did you see his CV in the prison? There was a time when this Paul was afflicted. The bible says, we don't even know what the thorn in his flesh was because what? If you God. The the is Revelation that we now all use God every word single time. The bible verse that we now all quote every single time. But it came in peace. You don't understand what I'm saying? That a man was going through something he defines as a thorn in his flesh.

And as he was pressing into God to, God, help me. Deliver me. To this... Do that. God says my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in your weakness. But there is a dimension of strength that Jesus wanted to reveal to a man that would only be seen in things in which he appears. That is why there is a level of faith that has to be intensely personal. It can't be borrowed from another man's experience. Paul says in the book of Romans 14 verse 22, do you have faith?

Have it to yourself before God. You know why? Because there is a dimension of faith that is so personal that others may not be able to understand it. Because it is born out of the private dealings of God with your spirit. There are things in which he appears onto you. There are encounters in which he appears onto you. There are convictions and revelation of the circumstances in which he appears unto you, situations in which he appears unto you that may not be transferable, but that will shape your work with God and define your obedience with God. Not everything you experience physically will be relatable to the person sitting next to you. Of the things in which I shall appear unto you. This manifestation are often unique to your journey.

They are unique to your assignment. They are unique to your specific relationship with God. God appears to us differently, takes us through different routes in destiny, different dealings in destiny. He reveals himself to us according to what we need to see. Are you getting what I'm saying? According to the season that we are in, according to the work that he's doing in us. And so the path that it takes each and every man through is different with respect to what he's showing. And he begins to make advantage of everything happening within a man's life to reveal himself. But if your understanding is not enlightened, you will misconstrue situations because you were blinded. Are you with me?

Yes, sir. Spiritually, that is. Not physically. Because you were blinded spiritually. So when that song says, how can I know you by myself? One of the reasons is because there are many circumstances God will take a man through in an attempt for God to reveal himself to the man. But the man can be so aware of the flesh and of the physical that he will miss out the experience. He will miss out God and focus on the experience. Do you understand what I'm saying? The bible says out of the eater came forth meat.

Out of what destroys came forth something sweet. It means there are many experiences in the man's life that will look as though they want to destroy him. There are many experiences in the man's life that will look as though they want to hit him, they want to finish him. It might be financial bluff. It might be it might be parental crisis. It might be all kind of things. It might even be personal crisis. It might be crisis further from foolishness. But the bible says that if a man is spiritually attuned, he will realize that out of the ether can comfort meat. That out of what was meant to destroy, there is an appearance of Jesus inside it that he wants to show you.

He wants to show you that I am your strength in weakness. He wants to show you. I'm your help in Christ. He wants to show you. And when every man leaves you, when every man leaves you, when disappointments faces you right like this, when people promise you things and it looks as though they are failing on every side, that's things in which it appears. But if you've not... That's what I'm telling you. If your eyes have not been taught to see it, all you will see, all you will capitalize on is the experience. So what will happen that you're not in... You will be bedeviled.

You will be in pain and crying. Whereas, Jesus is in the burning tree. I hope you know that God was not the tree. I hope you know that God was not the fire. Because if God were the fire, the tree would burn. Bible says tree was in the middle of death, so God cannot be the tree. But the Bible reveals to us where God was in that picture. That tree. Tree. So God was the reason why the fire could not consume the tree.

He was within, and that's the reason why there was fire, but the fire could not consume. It wasn't the tree. It wasn't the fire, but it was the reason why the fire could not consume the tree. The things in which it appears that the fire can be burning the tree, and yet the tree will not burn. The things in which it appears. But sometimes it will not stop the fire. It would allow the fire to burn because it wants to give you a revelation of himself. Himself. You can only see when the fire burns. It's not up to your mental argument to know.

You come on knowing him as powerful. No matter how how educated you are in English, dimensions of himself to you specific to your circumstances, the things in which he appears. In the old testament, you see God appearing to men differently. To Moses, he was a flame in the bush at bond. He was not consumed. And to Elijah, he was not in the wind. He was not in the earthquake. He was not in the fire. He was in a still small voice. And yet, both men saw the same God.

Different expressions, different dimensions. The difference was in how he appeared to them. Now you would see the disciples of Elijah fighting disciples of Moses because every man is fixated on how they think God appears. One camp would say, oh, when God appears, God moves in power. God moves in demonstration. God moves in fire, in wind, in earthquake. When God appears, God shakes the waters. The waters begins to part. When God appears, Jericho splits when God appears. Then another man says, no.

That's not how God appears. When God appears, he's a... He appears in a still small voice. God appears in a whisper. God is not in the fire. God is not in the earthquake. But the bible says that Moses woke and the earth opened and swallowed some people up. You would see violent demonstrations in the appearance of God to Moses. And then in the same appearance, you would see differences in the appearance of God to Elijah. Now that he is not in the fire, is not in the earthquake, he is instead in a still small voice.

And the disciples would come and then they'll be arguing, saying this is how God appears. This is not how God appeared, and both of them are right but incomplete. Both of them are right, yet both of them are incomplete because God is not limited to one mode of identification. God is not limited to one mode of manifestation. Moses himself told us what God told him when he was building the temple. In Hebrews chapter eight and verse five, the bible says, God told him that you make all things according to the pattern which I showed you on the mountain. Are you with me? In other words, he built the tabernacle according to the pattern which he was shown on the mountain. Thank you, Lord Jesus. According to the pattern which he was shown on the mountain, There was the holy place.

There was the holy of holies. There was the outer court. Is that not so? There was all of these things. And these are three distinct sections that were present in the tabernacle, and each of them had their own specific furnishings. Each of them had their own specific functions, their own specific protocols for appearance and for approach. Are you with me? And Moses saw this in heaven and replicated it on earth. Was the one who said that God told him, build this tabernacle according to the pattern which was shown unto you. Are you with me?

When John came, centuries after, John was caught up in a revelation, And John went to heaven in the book of revelation. And John goes to that same very place where Moses had his vision centuries before. Are you with me? When John was given his own report, what does John report? In Revelations chapter 21 and verse 22, John says, when I came there, I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God Almighty and the lamb are the temple that were there. Stay with me. Moses goes to the same place and says, I saw a pattern. So now imagine the disciples of John arguing with the disciples of Moses. Disciples of Moses are saying, how can you tell us that there was no temple there?

This man had a face that shone with the glory of God when he came down from that mountain. He came down from that mountain and people could not look at his continents because of the glory that came upon him. Is that what happens when you see God? When John saw his own, did his face shine? Look at the manifestation that followed the glory that Moses witnessed. And here you come to come and tell us that what Moses saw was not accurate. This man parted the waters. This man spoke and creation obeyed. This man opened the earth. This man bent nature to his will.

Are you with me? Isn't that what the encountering God looks like? And they are right. Moses truly, truly the supremacy of the glory of God. His testament is valid. What he saw is valid. His experience is authentic. Moses was not lying. He wasn't faking it. His revelation is real.

But when John saw the same thing Moses saw, he found that his revelation was somewhat different. Yet both of them were looking at the same thing. They both received revelation, and the revelation came from the same God, but they saw differently. Why did they see differently? Because Moses saw the shadow. John saw the substance. Stay with me. This tells you that even in the visions of the spirit, what you see and what we see are multidimensional. We can look at the same spiritual reality and then begin to interpret it differently. And two critical factors determine how we interpret things.

The first is the covenant with which we see, the covenants we are under. The second is the maturity with which we are seeing. The first is the covenant under which we are seeing, and the second is the maturity with which we are seeing. These two things determine how we would interpret the same thing we are seeing. Are you with me? So Moses, what covenant was he under? He was under the old test... The old covenant. Is that not so? A covenant of the law.

That's what... That that is where Moffitt was seen in. Moffitt was seen under the old covenant. A covenant of the law. A covenant of separation. A covenant of veils, of barriers between God and man. So when he looked into heaven, what he saw was a structure. He saw the holy and the holy of holies and the outer court, and then he saw separations. He saw cutting, separating the holy of holies from the from the outer court, and he saw another veil separating the holy place from the outer court, and then different separation, different kind of structure, different kind of order. Why?

Because in that dispensation, God was separate from man. That was the lens from which Moses was seen. Are you with me? Yes, sir. There was restricted houses. He wasn't seen wrong, but that revelation was appropriate to his covenant. Under the covenant he was seeing, he was seeing right. John saw under the new covenant, a new covenant of grace, a new covenant of access, a new covenant of the veil that has been turned from top to bottom. When he looked into the same heavenly reality, he saw no temple Because the separations that Moses observed were a shadow of a greater reality. And in the fullness of what God was revealing, there is no need for a temple because God himself is the meeting place.

There's no need for a temple because Christ himself has become the access. There's no need for a temple. There's no need for there to be an act of covenant that signify the presence of God because God himself has not revealed himself in the fullness of his presence. A man can now carry that presence everywhere that he goes. So Moses saw the same thing. John saw the same thing, but they interpreted what they saw differently based on the covenant they were under and based on the level of maturity with which they were seen. Stay with me. This means that what God was showing Moses, Moses could not see it as it truly was because it was not yet time for him to see it as he ought to see it. The revelation was veiled from him. It was filtered through the limitations of the covenant that he stood in.

Moses was not deficient. He was ahead of his time, yet still bound by the time that he lived in. Are you following what I'm saying? Remember that I'm building somewhere. So you should understand that there is a generation to whom the father wants to reveal himself plainly. Not bounded by curtains, not bounded by veils, not bounded by structures and by orders and by different kind of things. And God wants to reveal himself plainly. That generation is not after the order of Moses. In John chapter 16 and verse 25, the bible says, these things I have spoken to you in figurative language. But the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the father.

Plain revelation, unveiled truth, direct access to understanding, plainly about the father. No confusions, no figurative expression, no guesswork, nothing. And do you know that in Moses' day, he was the one that had the highest class of revelation than every other prophet. Are you aware of this? Yes, sir. God himself testifies to this. God said that if there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make himself known to him in visions. I speak to him in a dream, but not to my servant Moses. I'm speaking to Moses, I speak to him face to face as a man speaks to his friend. This is a class of people who receive visions in the night.

They wake up and they say, oh, I had a vision, and then God made the things that I saw come to pass. And that's a legitimate prophetic ministry. God is speaking to them through dreams and visions. But God says about Moses that Moses was not even at their level. Moses was at the higher level. When other prophets are receiving dreams from Jesus, receiving visions that needed interpretation, God was coming to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. When others were saying riddles, not as they're saying symbols, Moses beheld the very similitude of God's person. Moffitt saw the form, the appearance, the representation of the Lord. More than all the prophet that existed in his time. Yet even at that elevated level, even at that level, even with that face to face fellowship, even with that clarity of communion that Moses had, Moses could not even see as far as John could see.

Are you with me? Moses could not perceive as far as John could perceive because what he was seeing was hidden in the shadows that he was replicating. It's the manacle that he built with such precision and accuracy was pointing to something greater, something he himself could not fully comprehend, something that was more than his time, more than the... This penitron he was in. That is the progressive nature of revelation. That's why everybody must remain humble before God. That's why nobody must ever assume that there is snow there is to see. Because the bible said that even Moses, despite it was the greatest greatest of his time, what he saw was still limited. Are you with me, brothers and sisters? What he saw was still limited.

You should never limit God to everything you have experienced, and that is all there is to God. So, again, back to the question. Why did God make soul mind? Are you still with me? Or are you lost already? Why did God pick so blind? Why would he take away the sight of someone who was so zealous, so educated, so committed. Why? What was the reason behind it? I think to understand that we should study the history of Saul a little bit.

The bible says that Saul was born in Sicilia, and Saul himself describes that city to be no ordinary city, no mean city. Meaning, where he came from was a city of significance. Where he came from was a city of culture, a city of education. The bible says he was born to the Jews of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised on the eighth day as concerning the law, a Pharisee, as concerning zeal, persecuting the church, As concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. This was the resume of this man. So he was a Jew to the court. He was a Pharisee to the court. Are you with me? Yes, sir. This guy does not have most of the struggles that young people struggle with.

This guy is morally clean. He's religiously trained. He's he's intellectually sharp. He's he's zealous, spiritually zealous. His father was also a Pharisee, And the father gave him over to Gamaliel at a very young age, one of the most respected church in Jerusalem. You know that you know that story? And at a very young age, he committed him to serve under Gamaliel, the god that they all knew. And Paul himself testifies to this in in, I think, Galatians one verse 14. Give me Galatians one fourteen. Paul was the one who said, I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

So Paul was saying that, listen to me, guys. I was the best. It was. Beyond all my contemporaries, I advanced. I was the best. I was the most zealous. I was a young man who was specifically curious and passionate about the god I was introduced to. The bible says that he was exceedingly zealous for the traditions of his fathers. So where Paul find himself now is not his fault. He was introduced to it by his fathers, and he so committed himself to it.

Believed it to the core. Are you with me brothers and sisters? If you were looking for a student in Judaism, Paul was the top of his class. He was a brilliant mind. He was sharp in every way, impeccable conduct, unquestionable zeal. Maybe you should go and study the Judaic creed when you get home. Maybe you should go and study what they believed, what they thought so that you would know how Paul was being indoctrinated from a young age. What did they believe? What did they teach? What defined their worldview?

What defined their perspective? Because whatever it was, from a young age, this guy was ascribed to it. And he was so ascribed to it that he committed his life and his person to it. Are you with brothers and sisters? And when you understand the framework of how they see life, what they believe, what they teach, you're gonna appreciate why Paul uses that language that he was using in act of apostles chapter nine when he said, I persecuted this way. I sought out all men and women who were of this way. When you read the book of Acts of Apostles, you would see the bible repeatedly referring to Christianity as men of this way or the way. Are you with me? And thank god that that word way appears in capital letter in your bible because it's a theological statement. Jesus was the one who said, I am the way.

I'm the truth. I'm the life. No one comes to the father except through me. Now if you examine the Greek word for the word way, it is directed or directly translated into three different distinct realities, and I've taught you this before. Number one is saying, I am a manner of thinking. Stay with me. I'm a manner of what? Number two, I'm a manner of feeling. And number three, I'm a manner of deciding about life. So when God says, I am the way, he's saying, I'm a manner of feeling.

I'm a manner of thinking, and I'm a manner of deciding about life. The way there is not just a road path. It is a complete orientation of the inner man. So when Jesus says I am the way, what he's saying is that I am your manner of thinking. I have brought another way of thinking. I am the way that you think. I am the way that you feel. I have brought another way of deciding on life. I'm not just showing you a route to God. I am fundamentally restructuring how you process reality.

I've become the way you feel, the way you think, the way you decide. This is literally the meaning of that Greek word. And why is this important? Because that is what Paul says he was after. Paul did not say he was after the Christians. He said he was after those who were after that way. Stay with me. So when Paul says, I persecuted this way. Understand what he's saying. He's saying that the Christianity of them had a way they used to think.

They had a mindset. They had a worldview. They had a way they used to feel. They had an emotional orientation, a heart posture. They had a way they used to make decisions. They had a value system, a priority structure. And all of this was contrary to the Judaic way of thinking. It was contrary to the Judaic way of feeling, how the Jews felt, how the Jews thought, how the Jews decided about life. So it wasn't just a matter of religious disagreement. It was a fundamental fundamental collision between two different operating systems for human experiences.

One was saying, I am the way that you feel. I am the way that you think. I'm the way that you decide on life. Paul, on the other hand, who represents the judaic system, have been trained in a way to feel. Also have been trained in a way to think. Also have been trained in a way to make decisions on life. And he was schooled from this from a young age. And the bible says he was so zealous in that way. And so what Christianity was doing was challenging the way that the Jews have been taught to think. What Christianity was doing was challenging the way that the Jews have been taught to feel.

What Christianity was doing was challenging the way that the Jews have been taught to decide on life. So when Paul says, I persecuted this way. What he was saying in a sense was, I wasn't just persecuting some people. I was persecuting the way they live, the way they thought, the way they decide on life. That's the reason why a man can be short because of the way he thinks. That was precisely what Paul was doing. Stay with me. That was precisely what Paul was doing because he had been taught to live in the way. Now you see someone who is living differently, thinking differently, feeling differently, and making decisions differently. And the way they've been taught also is to reject anybody whose opinion, whose thinking, whose feeling, whose decisions are different from theirs.

Not only not only to reject them, but to persecute them, to kill them. Whose god is different from theirs? Whose way of life is different from theirs? Are you with me? Yes, sir. And Paul, with all his education, with all his zeal, with all his moral excellence, he was locked into that Judaic operating system. His thinking had been shaped by it. His emotions were governed by it. His decisions were determined by it. He could not sit beyond that system.

Even though he was brilliant, even though he was sharp, even though he was sincere, even though he was blameless according to the standards that he knew. So based on how he had been taught, he felt he was doing the right thing, he felt he was serving the living God, he had been taught that way. And he had been taught to believe that anybody who doesn't believe what he believes is wrong. And why was he passionate about it? Why was he passionate about it? So when Paul sees people thinking differently, people feeling differently, people deciding differently, immediately, in his mind, these people are already off course. These people have departed from the truth. I thought Paul told them, these are heretics. These are blasphemous. These are a threat to the purity of the faith.

That was what Paul was saying. You have to understand that Paul was not inherently evil. He was living out what he believed sincerely to be true, that these people were blaspheming the name of the most high God. But how can these people claim that Jesus... You need to go and study the Judaic system. I don't wanna go into it. I don't wanna go into it. Because what the believers were claiming were completely opposite to Judaic beliefs. People who practice Judaism still believe that Jesus is coming in the flesh. And so you can understand there's someone who has been schooled in that system, who used to think from when he sees you, who claim to believe in Jesus who has arrived, who has come, who has died, who has offended to heaven.

Do you understand what I'm saying? So that's just one of many wide disparities. We just believe that only then by reason of the covenant that God had with Abraham and Moses and all these people are serving God and can serve God. They believe so much in the Mosaic law that if anybody wants to serve the living God, you'd have to go through the route of circumcision. Just believe, particularly speaking, the laws of Moses. Are you even now, sisters? So when he sees people thinking differently and living differently, he says, you know what? Let us prosecute this this way. Way. Let's Let's prosecute prosecute this this way.

Way. Not just the people, but the way, the belief system, the thinking, the feeling. This entire manner of thinking, this entire manner of feeling, this entire manner of deciding that contradicts everything that he has been trained to defend. And this is a lesson for believers because it means that you cannot truly stand for the way and not be persecuted. That's why Jesus tells his disciples in extension to us that in this world, you will face many tribulations. The reason is because you have ascribed to a different type of feeling. You have ascribed to a different type of thinking. You have ascribed to a different type of deciding on matters of life. And when people who have been schooled by science alone meets you, many a times they will fight your thinking. They will fight your deficient.

They will fight your stance because it convicts them in their heart. Do you understand what I'm saying? What's he trying to build? Stay with me. So when when Paul saw the risen Christ on his way to Damascus, God God looked at his track record and said, Kai, Kai, Kai, Kai, this is a Jew of Jews. This is a master in pharisaical laws. Do you know it takes twenty four years to be a Pharisee? And this guy called himself a Pharisee or Pharisees. If we leave you like this with all these things you have been taught to now add the gospel of Christ to it, by the time both of them blend blend, what will come out will be horrible. It will be an horrible mix.

We have to blind you first. The blinding was an intentional reorchestration of his sight to what he has always believed. Just stay with me. This was the reason why God had to blind him. Paul's natural sight had to be shut down because his way of seeing was preventing him from perceiving truth. His education had become his limitation. His knowledge had become his prison house. And the zeal that he had had become his blindness. That's why Paul Paul knew from experience when he heard I bear them witness. He said I'm speaking from experience because I've once been there.

Having zeal but without knowledge, I pay them witness. That a man can be zealous about error. And yet be zealous, truthfully speaking, be zealous. And Paul looked at them and said, Kai, I bear them witness because these people have... I have been where you are. Zealous about the wrong things, zealous in foolishness, and yet could not perceive that what you were seeing was a lie, and yet you were still very zealous in that matter. Stay with me. Stay with me. Do you realize that none of the apostles had to be blinded? But they also had their own limitations because they were also practicing the same thing that Paul was practicing.

Do you realize this? That when Jesus found them, they were all practicing Judaism. They were all listening to Pharisees and Sadducees. All of them. When Jesus found them, but none of them had their eyes blinded. And that is precisely the reason why none of them could do what Paul did. Stay with me. So the blindness wasn't God punishing Paul. He wasn't. God was performing a surgery on Paul's perception.

And for three days, Paul sat in darkness. And in that darkness, everything that he thought he knew was being dismantled so that something entirely new could be built. And when you study Paul's ministry, you would understand why he had to be blinded, especially when you study what he preached versus how he lived. Paul wasn't just preaching Jesus is Lord. Stay with me. When he came to Ananias and assignment is defined, when Ananias lays hands on him and then tells him what he tells him, right, that God will make you a witness, right, immediately, the bible says, therefore from his eyes scales, and he received his sight at once. His sights are opened. And when his eyes are opened, he begins to see differently than what he saw before. And he dwells in Damascus for some time, the bible says. And whilst he was in Damascus, the scripture tells us that he had only one message.

What was he preaching? The same thing that apostles were preaching. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is lord. That is all that he knew. And he went into the synagogues, and he was he was he was preaching Christ and proving to the people that Jesus was the son of god. Acts nine twenty and verse 22. Soul took twenty four years and many years of practicing it. So to wash it off, I would need to lock you away by myself. Delete everything that you have known and reconstruct you from ground up.

Stop ministry. And in Galatians chapter one from verse 15 to verse 17, God tells him, let's go to Arabia. And he was in Arabia for forty years. There was no ministry. There was no preaching. There was nothing. God locked him in Arabia. The bible says, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Are you with me? Yes, sir.

You start reading from verse 15 to verse 17. God takes him to Arabia, a desert place, a wilderness away from the people, away from the structures of religion, away from the opinions and traditions of men. Note, away from the apostles in Jerusalem. I will show you why. I'll show you why. Because Paul's ministry was a very distinct ministry amongst the other apostles. And so what God was building through him, God had to build by himself. There was no apostle in Jerusalem who was fitted to teach him because none of them had received his revelation. And Peter, who would have received it, also rejected it. I will show you.

Stay with me. Stay with me. It's good. Are you with me? The bible doesn't tell us the details of what happens in Arabia, but we know this, that the man who went to Arabia was not the man who came out of it. The revelation that he received while he was there became the foundation of everything that he would write and the foundation of everything that we now believe in Christianity. Are you aware? Everything he would teach, everything he would build, what he saw in Arabia became the foundation of all of these things. And when Paul comes back to Damascus, he ministers for a time, and then a couple of years later, he goes to Jerusalem. And what does it go on doing in Jerusalem?

To compare notes with Peter, with the apostles, with James. Because those were the apostolic voices of them. He didn't go to all the apostles. The bible says he went to the pillars of truth. In Galatians 12 verse nine, bible says, and when James, Peter, and John, who seemed to be pillars. So what he was after were the pillars. Let's know what the pillars believed. And the reason why Paul says this, he said, so that I will not labor in vain. Let me see what God has revealed unto Peter. Let me see what God has revealed unto John, unto all these people, unto James so that I can compare it to what God has revealed unto me.

So he went there to compare notes. Are you with me? These were the men who carried work in the early church. We went to compare notes with them. These men were fresh from Pentecost. These men were filled with the holy spirit, performing signs and wonders with miracles following. And the only new one message, Jesus is Lord. Repent and be baptized. Are you with me? But Paul is coming back with a different insight from what they knew.

A deeper layer, a revelation of the mystery that has been hidden from the eyes of men, from age to come, that has now been revealed unto Paul. This was what Paul was bringing. In fact, the Bible tells us that he stayed fifteen days in Peter's house. The message version is well. Give me the message version of Galatians one eighteen in message. Look at this. One, three, go. To do what? Compare stories is compare notes. Let me see the sermon notes.

Let me see how God revealed to you, what God revealed to you. Let me see the extent of the revelation of Jesus you have. And let me see what has been revealed to me as well. And the bible says he was there for fifteen days. Look at how he described those days. He says, but what days they were? What made those days very intense that Paul says, Kai, what days they were? What made it so memorable to Paul? Because when Paul sat down with Peter and they began to compare notes, he found that what Peter knew about God was so different what Paul knew about God. Two men believing in the same Jesus Christ.

Two men saved by the same grace. Two men filled with the same spirit but at different levels of understanding. Just as Moses was seen from the same very place that John was seen, but both of them were seeing differently according to the covenant they were under and according to the levels of maturity. Didn't mean that any of them were wrong, but one was only superior in knowledge and understanding and evolution than the other. Are you with me? That is how two men sat down together, and Peter was trying to explain to Paul what he saw, and Paul wasn't understanding what he's saying. And then Paul is telling Peter, no. This is how it should be. And then it became a very confusing discussion, and then the one who wasn't sufficient to come to an agreement is, you know what? Let's go and sleep.

They come the following day and open notes again, and they begin this warfare of doctrine. And they say, you know what? Let's go and sleep. Paul says what days they were, and it was important for Paul to win over Peter so that his labor will not be in vain. Because Peter was more popular than he was. Are you with me? Yes, sir. Two men reading scriptures, but their depth of knowledge were different. Their depth of revelation is not the same. Their capacity to see is not the same.

Their ability to articulate what they were seeing is not the same. And every morning, Paul would come again and sit down with Peter, and he would convey notes. And Paul would explain something, and Peter would say, I I know explain again. And Paul would explain again, and Peter would say, Kai, no. It's not it's not clearing. And Peter would look at him trying to comprehend what he's saying, but the framework wasn't there yet. And then they would come again the following day. They would come again the following day, and this continued for fifteen days. Paul would come again and put it from a different angle. Peter would listen.

He would wrestle. He would question, and Paul would answer, and then they came again and start the same thing again. Day after day, conversation after conversation, this continued to happen. Scripture after scripture, expounding and exposing. And the gap between what Paul knows and what Peter knows is so different. Thank you, Lord Jesus. That they cannot understand each other until finally, after fifteen days, Peter now finally gets it. He didn't get this fully. He didn't get it completely, but he got it enough to recognize that there is a man who knows this thing better than I do. He got it enough to recognize that what you are saying is from Jesus.

He got it enough to recognize that this man this man is not against the spirit of the church. What prophesies, he prophesies. What he teaches, he teaches on the holy one. Jesus himself has taught you these things. He understood enough to know that I might not get it fully. And why? Why? Why? Why? I will show you why.

Are you with me? Sir. Peter knew that there is a death in Paul that I have not yet attained. There's a way Paul is seen that I'm not yet seen like that. That's why many years after, Peter was the one who said in second Peter chapter three from verse 15 to verse 16. He says, and consider the long suffering of our Lord is salvation. As also our loved brother Paul, this was Peter speaking. According to the wisdom given to him as written to you, next verse, he says, also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand. This was an apostle saying that... Let me tell you the truth.

Some of the things that Paul is teaching, they are hard to understand. You know why he's saying this? Because fifteen days, the guy was struggling. Fifteen days, the guy was struggling. He had questions he kept on asking. Is it... Hey. These things are hard to understand. And untaught and unstable people twist these things to their own destruction as they do all for the rest of the scriptures. Untaught and unstable people.

I don't want to go into untaught and unstable people. Are you with me? Untaught and unstable people. Paul himself had to be taught, and Paul was a master Pharisee. So what does untaught mean? If Paul was an educated Pharisee, a Pharisee of Pharisees. Of heart. Twenty four years of memorizing scripture, of learning the law, of learning traditions, of mastering and studying the law again and again, studying under the greatest teachers under Gamaaliyah. Four years of doing this thing. Imagine every book that Paul had read.

Imagine every law that he had mastered. Imagine everything he could quote from his heart. Every tradition he had learned. And yet the bible says, he still did not know. Even Paul did not know. He still needed Arabia. He still needed Jesus to open the eyes of his understanding. He still needed to be blinded from what he had always believed. And for his understanding to be freshly constructed from the start in that fresh revelation. Are you with me?

Yes, sir. He still needed to dismantle the education he has received all the while so that he could receive truth. Ask Paul. Ask Paul. So when Peter says, those who are untaught and unstable, twist the words of Paul. What does it mean? He's talking about people that don't go to bible school because Paul went to the best. He's talking about uneducated people, illiterate people. No. He's talking about people who have not been taught by the spirit.

The bible says, let the kings or the spirit gives life. People have not been introduced to the life that the spirit brings in scriptures. These people would see what Paul is saying and misconstrue it otherwise to spend it on their lust. Are you with me? Yes, sir. That's why when Jesus was speaking to disciples, he did not go to the hillites. He didn't go to the Pharisees and Tribeces. He didn't go to those who finished on the best bible schools. He went to fishermen. He went to tax collectors.

Why did he go to tax collectors? Because it was easy. He didn't have to go through the strength of the constructing the idols they have put in their mind. These people were raw and crude. The only task he had to do was construct. Are you with me, brothers and sisters? What am I saying? Peter understood it eventually. Not completely, not fully, but he understood it. That is why later on, many years later, when certain Jews who had believed in Christ rose up and started teaching that Gentiles had to be circumcised to receive Jesus as Lord and savior that was circumcised and come to love Moses in order to be saved, Peter was part of those who rose up in defense of Paul.

Are you with me? And that controversy was so strong that he wanted to split the church, and Paul was fighting them in doctrine. And Peter was one of those who had to what Paul was preaching because they had been an already existing understanding that Paul had to take Peter through. Even though laborious, he was profitable at the end. Are you with me? James and Peter were the only ones who understood what Paul and Barnabas were teaching. The rest of the apostles did not fully comprehend it. Even Peter who understood it did not fully comprehend it. Are you with me? And if if Peter had rejected it, Paul's ministry would have failed.

Because if we were talking about popularity, Peter had more popularity than Jesus than Paul. Because Peter was respected. James was was respected. John was respected. Why were they respected? Because they sat down with Jesus. They saw Jesus face to face. They ate with Jesus. They were at his resurrection. They were there.

They saw him die. They saw him resurrect. So there was this honor that they placed upon the disciples being that they were first hand witnesses that Paul did not have. Are you with me? And that's the reason why Paul had to be intentionally wise in his labor. He knew that Peter had to support me. Otherwise, I will labor in vain. So it was labor for him to bring Peter to a point of understanding. But when he did, but look at this. Peter who was more prominent was failing in understanding.

I'm going somewhere. Stay with me. God wanted to show this beautiful truth that he revealed unto Paul, and he skipped every apostle, even Peter. Do you know that if not for Paul, you would not have been saved? Because what all the apostles believed, they were practicing Christianity and Judaism together. That's why Paul had to be blinded. That even though the apostles were with Jesus, they were still loyal to churches of men. That was difficult for them to believe that all it takes for a man to be saved is faith in the name of Jesus. They were still propagating the idea of circumcision, Even Peter, whoever in the last of the Gentiles, could not stand for the Gentiles. If not for the ministry of Paul, who came and said, salvation is not in circumcision.

Salvation is not in practicing the laws of Moses. It's not in killing this and killing that, celebrating this feast, celebrating that feast. It is solely in the name of Jesus. Through grace have we been saved. By faith, in the name of Jesus. So that no man can boast. It is not in works. It is in grace. If Paul had not risen, salvation would not have entered the Jews because Peter was supposed to be the first erouter of that And God came to him and told him, eat this. And God brought some kind of animals to him, and this was God speaking to him, and God was telling him, eat this.

And Peter was telling God, not so. And you begin to wonder, do I want to kill you? I am your Lord and savior. And he looked at Jesus and tells Jesus, not so. Why? Because I've been educated according to the law of Moses. And in Deuteronomy, Moses said that these animals are unclean. It is for the typology of the people that God was sending Peter to. That was the day that his ministry was meant to be conscripted. His ministry to the Gentiles.

Do understand what I'm saying? It was on that day that grace was supposed to come on him for the Gentiles, but it was obvious that this guy had not been blinded. He was still a Christian but mixing what he had been taught in the law with Christianity. And so he rejected salvation for the Gentiles. He said, not so. Lord, how can I eat what is unclean? And Jesus have to say, my God, how can you call what I have sanctified unclean? How can you call what I have cleaned on? It was obvious that the grace could no longer fall this man. So the grace was traveling and looking for a man, and we'll not make the same mistake we made with Peter.

When we find this man, we will blind him first because because if you come the way you are, a lot of people a lot of people... I'm going somewhere with this. If you come the way you are and you begin to mix this truth with how you were taught, with how you were trained, it would cause a problem because you would have you would have people who the bible would call foolish. Note that, you know, we go around around asking questions like, can a can a believer be bewitched? And then we give answers to it. What kind of people give their own different answers to it? And then we use scriptures like Paul saying in Galatians three, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? To state that the Galatians were believers and that they were bewitched. But the bible did not say, oh foolish believers, who has bewitched you? He said, oh foolish Galatians who has bewitched you.

This shows you that it is possible for a believer to be bewitched under two circumstances, which Paul reveals in that statement. Number one, that believer must be foolish. One. Number two, that believer must identify with his nationality more than Christ. So he says, oh foolish Galatian, it was where you came for that make you foolish. The fact that you have identified more with your upbringing and your background and the traditions and the customs of men. The fact that you have identified identified more with how you were brought up as to think that that is truth. Yes. You are foolish. You are as bewitched.

So a believer is only bewitched when he associates more, It means you are more known with where you came from and the education and the background and the morals and the knowledge that came from your upbringing than what Christ has done. Do you understand what I'm teaching you here? So this guy says not so, Lord. If I will not hate what... I will not eat what is unclean. I've not eaten anything common. Because Peter is held by tradition in Leviticus, a dietary law, a regulatory boundary that told them what to eat and what not to eat. And even though the spirit of God is talking to him, even though the vision is clear, Peter cannot bring himself to transition. He cannot evolve between the ages. He cannot see what God is doing.

He cannot zoom out with the optics of the spirit to see the redemptive plan of God as as pertaining also to the Jews. To see that the clean and the unclean was a shadow that is going to nothing greater. He could not see it. He could not see it. And he was so blinded in what he had been taught that he almost rejected our vision for the Gentiles. That's why if it were up to Peter, if it were up to Peter, You have to understand how he was even preaching the preaching. Understand that it wasn't based on the conviction he had. Do you understand what I'm saying? So he clearly wondered that, you know what? According to church history, I'm gonna go to Rome to go and preach the gospel.

To a people that had not been given grace to preach to him, what happens? He was in Rome, but he was killed, Are you with me? But I'm building something here. I'm building something here. The question, the second question becomes, what is that which appeared or which opened in the eyes of Paul? The moment God blinded his eyes. What opened the moment God was done with Paul? What did Paul now start seeing that the rest of the apostles could not see? What was different in the revelation that Paul had that the rest of the apostles did not have? Are you with me?

What happened between Damascus and Arabia that brought him out of Arabia a completely different person? And why does this transformation happen after the Jerusalem experience? Why? Because the Jerusalem experience was a very strong one. It was a very powerful one. That was when Pentecost happened. And they left that place after the spirit has come, after the church has been established in certain order, Because Peter was healing people. His shadow was healing the sick. His shadow was healing the sick. They were casting out devils.

Philip was in Samaria. Souls were being saved in large numbers. And in the midst of all of this, God says, no. No. No. No. No. This thing is not complete yet. And if we leave these people's clothing like this, the redemptive plan of God will not be complete. And Paul had to be introduced, introduced at such a critical moment.

Why? Are you with me? What the disciples were emphasizing was the infinite of the holy spirit. That was all they knew. When Ananath and Sapphira met with that that man who had been preaching the gospel but have not received the baptism of the holy spirit, what they bring to him was the baptism of the holy spirit. That was what they knew. Glory to God. So God had to bring someone to balance the gaps in their understanding. So God brings Paul. He brings a young man who comes through the way of the law just like everybody else.

He walks to journey just like everybody else. He was zealous. He was committed. He was educated, religious, and then he gets an encounter. Mind his eyes. Open his eyes again. And God began to teach him in Arabia. And that teaching in Arabia started to change his perception. There was a transmutation of his perception. There was a fundamental change, a complete reconfiguration of how he was seeing things, about he saw reality.

There was a change of his vision. There was not just a change in how he saw things, but in how he looked at things, how he perceived things. So in Ephesians three verse eight, Paul says, to me, who am less than the least of the apostles, this grace was given that I should preach among Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Unsearchable. Paul calls it unsearchable. There there are things you cannot search out unless the holy spirit choose you. Unless light floods your spirit. That's why Paul's consistent prayer to those he ministered to was that the eyes of understanding be enlightened because this was something that happened to him. Do you understand what I'm saying? You can only find these things by grace.

They are unsearchable. They are beyond the reach of natural inquiry. You cannot find them out just by study. You can only position yourself rightly and then believe by faith and by grace that God shows them to you. Are you with me? And Ephesians three and verse nine, the Bible says, I'm to make all men see. To make all men see What is the fellowship of the mystery? Which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ to make all men see. How many men? All men.

To make all men see. Not to make all men believe. Not to make all men confess. To make all men see. Because they can be born again. They can be speaking in tongues. They can be praying. They can be operating in the gift of the spirit, yet they are not seen. And this was the case with the apostles. They were born again.

They were speaking in tongues. There was a revival in the church, but their eyes were still blind. They were not seeing what God was seeing. They were not seeing like God was seeing. So when Paul came, Paul says, there was a grace conferred upon me, and that grace was to make all men see. And in Ephesians chapter one from verse 15 to verse 18, we're nearing where I'm going now. This is where I'm going really. Paul now says Paul now says something strategic. He says, therefore, I also have... I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus.

In other words, after I heard that you have not been saved. After I heard that you have received Jesus as Lord and savior. There's somebody here that Paul is speaking right now. That after I heard that you have received Jesus as your Lord and savior. Next verse, it says, I do not cease to give thanks for you. I do not cease to make mention of you in my prayers. Remember, this guy comes to make all men see. And we would need time to sit down to study what is called making men see. That is what the manifest conference is about. Stay with me.

What is Paul making? It is it is I cease not to make mention of you in my prayers. Look at the next verse. What is he praying for? That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Note that this is the only thing in this prayer that God is giving to you. Watch the prayer very well. He said, I really want the father of glory to give you the spirit of wisdom, to give you the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him. Why? Why must God give you revelation?

Why must this happen to you today? Why must this happen to you in your Christian work, in your Christian experience, in your Christian life? Why must that happen to you? Next verse, it says, that the highs of your understanding being enlightened. It doesn't say now that this will be given to you. It said, by reason of what has been given to you, this is now without begin to happen to you. What would happen? The highs of your understanding will be enlightened that you may know. What is the hope of his calling? That you may know what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

Not that God will give you your inheritance. Stay with me. It is important to note that the only thing given is revelation. And revelation now makes you know every other thing that has been given. But when a believer begins to see with the old optics, when a believer begins to see with how he has been taught and grown up and brought up, what he sees is that everything has not been given. That's why Paul comes. Paul comes to show you that listen, believers, you're praying the wrong prayer. You're praying the wrong prayer because you're seeing wrong. You're praying the wrong prayer because you're believing wrong, because you've been taught wrong, because you're mixing the old truth. You're mixing what Moses saw and what John saw.

Knowing that both of them cannot exist in one context. He says, listen to me. The inheritance will not be given to you. They already give... What you need right now is revelation to see the inheritances that have been given to you so that you can begin to walk and live in them. Hey, Jesus. Stay with me. Stay with me. Stay with me. Next verse.

It says, what is the exceeding greatness of his power? Knowing that he would give us power, but that we would know and understand what is this great power. Give me the amplified version, the AMPC. The highest of your understanding flooded with light. Are you with me? That you may know what is the hope of his calling. The glorious riches of inheritance in the saints. What is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe? According to the working of his mighty power, which he walked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. Paul is praying for believers, People who are already saved.

People who already have faith in Lord Jesus. People who already demonstrating the love for the saints. People who already believe in Jesus. And yet he tells them I'd not cease to pray for What is it praying for them? That your eyes of understanding may be enlightened that you may know. There is a level of knowledge that cannot come when your eyes are not flooded with light. When your eyes are not things, there's a level of understanding that you cannot possess. You need enlightenment. You need the highest of your understanding to be flooded with light. It's the word in the Greek that you may know.

I would explain this thing to you. Follow me. And when you know, you would know what has already been given to you. Not that it will be given to you. Are you with me? You would know what his calling is. You would know what his inheritance is. You would know what his power is. You would know your calling, your inheritance is, and the power that have been given to you, that has been given to believers, that has been given to believers. The AMPC of that power says...

Give me verse 19 of the AMPC says, but having the highest and so that you can understand and know so that you can understand and know what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing readiness of his power in and for us who believe. So the power of God is for me. And the bible says that the power of God that is for you is always available for you. It means the believer does not pray for power to be given to him. The believer prays to see the power that has been given to him. Stay with me. Just stay. Hold on. Hold on. On.

Paul never says that you'll be given. He said that you will know and understand. There are two kinds of illumination, two kinds of flooding of light that every believer needs. The first one is the illumination of your eyes to see. The opening of your spiritual sight, the activation of perception, the ability to recognize spiritual reality. The second spiritual illumination that you must have is the illumination of light on what you should see. There are two different things. The revealing of the object itself that you should see, the unveiling of the truth that is already present but hidden in darkness. Let me give you example. Two kinds of light a believer needs.

If you are blind, right, and I bring you into this room, would you see something? Would you see something? So what the first kind of light you need? The first kind of light you need is the ability to see. Now if you can see and I bring you here in darkness, would you see anything? The second type of light you need is light to see what to see. What I'm saying. Both of them is light. The light to see and the light for what to see to be lightened upon you. Otherwise, you will be able to see but not know what to see because you have been educated wrongly.

You have been brought up wrongly. You have been trained wrongly. You have been trained and brought up and taught according to the law. And so your delay and your stagnancy in life will be based on your faulty perception, your faulty way of viewing life, and your faulty way of seeing life. Do you understand what I'm saying? So there are Christians whose eyes don't see. There's no light in their eyes to perceive what is already available. They are spiritually blind, and no matter how much truth surrounds them, they cannot perceive it unless light floods their heart. But there's also a class of people whose eyes have been opened. They can see, but there's no illumination on the things which they should see.

Glory to god. Amen. What they were exposed to was religious tradition. Both conditions produce same result, ignorance. Ignorance of what God has already provided. Stagnancy and delay. So Paul says that the highs of your understanding be enlightened. That you may know and understand. That you may know and understand. That God is not going to give you power.

That you may know and understand. That God is not gonna give you an inheritance. That's a wrong prayer to pray. To enter into Ibadan and to say, God, give me Ibadan. When the holy spirit is showing some of these things to me, I realized that when you enter into the new covenant, how you are seeing must change. Because you cannot go by everything the old covenant prophet saw and then turn them into your prayers. Because that it is possible for prayers to be offered in the old testament based on the lens they were seeing from. That when a believer wants to pray the same prayer under the new covenant, your addiction changes based on the covenant that you are now him. And so when the believer is praying, ask God, will give you the nations for your inheritance, he's not praying, ask God how to give you. He's praying, ask how give you.

There's a difference in mentality and a difference in context to how a believer approaches life. But a believer whose eyes have not been opened to see this doesn't understand this, doesn't believe this. How do I tell somebody that God is not gonna give you power? How do I tell somebody that the power is already there? That the power is already at work. That the power raised Christ from the dead. And that power is already released. It's already available to you. The issue is not the absence of power. The issue is the absence of sight to recognize the power that is already present in the believer.

So I'm telling you that God is not gonna give you power to take over Nigeria. Now you would think that what I'm implying is that the power is not yet present, that it must be bestowed upon your life. Is that not so? And then you have to pray, you have to fast, you have to do some kind of spiritual transaction to get that power in your life. But Paul is saying something entirely different here. Paul is saying, I'm praying that the height of understanding be flooded with life that you may know and understand what is the immeasurable, unlimited surpassing greatness of his power that is already available to us and for us. And and that will be given already available to us and for us. So there are men praying for the same thing. Two different kind of men now, praying for the same thing, but one is praying from a completely different understanding. The other one is begging God to give in what he already has given to you.

The other one is asking God to open his eyes to see what he has given to you. The other one is asking God to open his eyes to see what God has already provided. You see, it's different to pray the prayer of Jabez. It's different to understand the blessing of Abraham. I pray that thou wouldest bless me and enlarge my coast. And God tells Abraham, I've blessed you and made you a blessing. But it's a prayer prayed by someone who was seen from a different light. And the light that you are seeing now determines what you can believe God for. I believe this is even to advance a conversation. Let's even start from how can you believe that your glory can be hidden?

Can you believe that your glory can be stolen? How can you believe that your glory can be exchanged? These are conversations that believers still have. And you begin to wonder how can you be declaring that you are blessed today and cursed tomorrow? How can you be believing that you are the blessed of God expressing your blessings in Christ, and then tomorrow you are saying you are the curse being blessed or trying to be blessed by God? How can your conversations be different every single time? That's what Paul calls foolish Galatians. Foolish Galatians Galatians who has bewitched you. And people come to me and tell me, oh, a prophet told me that, you know, there's a cause upon my life. I begin to wonder where did the cause come from?

Was Christ not made a cause for you? You see, you begin to wonder, what do you believe? What do you see? The bible says Christ has been made a cause for us, all knowing no sin. So if Christ was made a cause for me, what cause is left? Is there some other cause that Christ has not become? What cause can I be under? As to mean that I'm I'm needing deliverance every Sunday to break free from a curse? And you are wondering why your life is... What kind of demon is possessing you that would have not let you go?

How powerful is that principality? How powerful is that strong man? Don't you see that you are laboring the labor of fools based on the fact that your eyes have not been open to see that you are even fighting warfare that you you should not even be fighting? And there are many believers who are fighting this warfare. And many of you right now will be hearing what I'm saying, but you are interpreting what I'm saying from the lens of the old man. Sutton is telling you now, even though you can see it in scripture, Sutton is telling you that this man doesn't know what he's saying. My mother my mother, We're saying the believer should not be bewitched. I'm telling you that no demon should oppress you. For any reason whatsoever because all the power has been given to you. So what Paul is praying for you is that progressively, the highest of your understanding has been enlightened.

That a day will come you will know. And the day that you know, you will stop fighting with what you are above. The problem is that the believer's highest... That's why Paul says, I... The only thing you need is revelation. If God can give you revelation, many of the prayers we'll pray will be different. Many of the prayer we'll pray will be different. You know, we are called revival like that. We are praying for revival to come. Their own hands, believing God for a revival.

They are traveling for revival. And what scripture do we use? As soon as Zion travels, he will. And it is because they want to understand that scripture. Let me check on them then. What are Isaiah six six number seven? Have not seen it yet. Is your bible low? That is where you are. There are people that give birth before they enter labor.

There are people that give birth because they enter labor. What do you see? From what realm are you seeing from? That's the question. That I can give birth to a nation even before I enter into labor. Her pain came, she delivered a male child. Now the problem happens in verse eight. Because in verse eight, the bible then says, who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such a thing? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day or shall a nation be born at once?

So you didn't say, for as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children. Note the word children. In verse seven, it was a child. In verse eight, it was children. This is very, very important. Now when you read verse eight, begin to think that, oh, it means that as soon as Zion traveled to mean that it was in the process of the traveling. And when she started traveling, she gave birth to a child. And when you read like that, you don't understand what he's saying. Are you with me? Because the word as soon as in the Hebrew is the word barely.

Barely. Barely labor when she had her children. There are two prophetic understanding of the scripture. The first is in verse seven was the firstborn son that then allows for the other sons to be given birth too. So the first in the seven would be Jesus who was the firstborn son that then allows for other sons to be given birth to you in verse eight. Are you with me? But there is another prophetic explanation to this, which is before anything is born in the physical, it is born in the spiritual. And verse eight now describes the expression of the many realities you need to give birth to in this life. You need to start ministry. You need to start a business.

You need to have excellent results. These are children. But the bible says, before you begin to travail, before you begin the business of laboring, to find a job to make you rich, to start a business to make you prosper, to go to school to get a good result. Before you begin to travail, give birth. That it is possible for a man to have seen it, for a man to have perfected it, for a man to have released it even before the man begins to travel. Even before the man begins to travel. And... But at the end of the seven can happen. Then number eight, barely. But even when you start that business, before you barely begin, I'm not getting what I'm saying.

When you start the ministry, you are barely five years into it. Because picks up Jesus' resurrection. He told the resurrection. The second picks up the revival of all things, which is the best place that explains the word revival as we know it. Are you with me? Because the bible says that he died, resurrected, and revived. So the bible separates between resurrection and revived to mean that the revived, the bible was talking about is different from resurrection. Are you with me? It means the revived there was the common and life of all things. And the bible says that it is in past tense.

It is in past tense. What does that tell you? That tells you that the revival you want to give birth to in every territory has been born. The difference is what Christian goes there and sees the revival born and begins to labor from the standpoint of already birthed revival. That believer, barely before he travels, He has barely even began traveling before fire breaks out. Because he's not laboring for what does not exist. I'm not getting this. I'm sorry. It's not laboring for what does exist. It's laboring for what has been given.

It's laboring for what God has already provided. It's laboring for what God has already produced, what Christ has already released, what Christ has already given. Are you with me? The bible says for to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived. So that the difference between rose and revived. And the revived was used in past tense. So when I enter into a place and I'm praying for revival, I'm not praying to God to bring something from heaven that has not been given. I first start from a place where my eyes are understanding has been enlightened to see, to see fire everywhere, to see Jesus died and crucified and buried for these people, to see the gospel spreading in that location. My eyes have been opened to see nations coming. My eyes have been opened to see.

And the moment my eyes is opened to see, I begin to labor. Labor. I'm barely barely. The problem with believers is that you see yourself as a poor man trying to be rich. So your labor is to try and birth wealth. You see, that's the problem there. You see yourself as a dollar trying to excel. So the students see themselves as a failure trying to excel. That's the reason why when things go against what you have believed, you are quick to believe circumstances because you have not seen how Christ appears to you in things. Because the highest of your understanding has not been enlightened to see that even in poverty, you are still wealthy.

The bible says I am your manner of feeling. I'm your manner of thinking. I'm the way. Your manner of feeling. Your manner of thinking. Your manner of deciding on life. That when your eyes of understanding is enlightened, you just see that many of the things you read in scripture are your inheritance. And the bible says that your eyes of understanding will be enlightened to see the inheritances that have been given to you. So the believers are squandering why should I fail? Why should I fail?

Why should I fail? Because I am the head and not the tail. Now when you read it in in the New Testament site, they're not saying I shall be the head. That's the old testament perspective. That's where Moffitt was seen from. When New Testament man is seeing the same thing, he's saying, I am the head. I am not the tail. Above only, I'm not beneath. It does not say that I will try to be the head. The New Testament man is not seeing the head as a place we are trying to get to.

He's seeing the head as a place he's already in. Listen. Listen. And many a times, your circumstances might not look like it. That's where the devil tries to come and blind you because he might tell you, oh, you you're saying you have all the power, but you still try to pray for the sick yesterday and the sick was not healed. You don't have any power. No. You don't have enough revelation. That's why Paul says that the eyes of understanding be enlightened that you may know, that you may understand. It means every time a man goes to pray, what he prays for is light.

Allow me to see. Allow me to see. When the Lord showed me this, I stopped praying for properties. I stopped praying for land. I'm no longer praying, God, give me my land. I'm saying, God, show me where my land is. Show me where the property is. Because the eyes of my understanding be enlightened. Show me where the job is. Show me where the business is.

Where are my people? Let them come to me. And then I go and get them. Listen. I don't have time to show you this thing. This was what Paul knew that Peter did not know, that his life did not know. Has given to you all things that pertain not to life and godliness. Do you... Oh, Jesus. Do you know that when you know this thing, I'm telling you, your prayer language will change.

The Bible says that the thief commit was to steal, John chapter 10, to kill and to destroy. If Jesus is coming to remedy this, what do you think Jesus would do? For what the thief comes to steal, he will do what? He will give it back, restore it. But that was not... That's not what Jesus said he would do. For what the thief or what the thief destroys, you would think that Jesus come and repent. That's not what Jesus comes to do. That the thief comes to do three things, and the solution to all these three things is life. In other words, if the devil has stolen from me, in the day that I realize what have been given to me, I begin to operate from the standpoint of where I've now seen and begin to take back what he has collected.

So restoration becomes your responsibility. You're not getting this music. Jesus says, the thief comes to steal. I didn't come to give you back what is true. I came to give you life. And that life settles everything. That by the time you have that life, you will refuse that your children will not die. You will realize realize that my business cannot die. You will realize that whatever the devil stole from me, life within my spirit can restore. You realize that the sick is not being healed be...

Because you prayed for them. When you know this thing I'm saying, you stop praying for the sick. You start healing the sick. That's why Jesus never said pray for the sick. He said heal the sick. Cast out devils. Not pray for devils to be casted out. Cast out devils. Rest dead. If they they were they were instructions based on a standpoint of revelation.

It means as a believer, he used to see. Listen, there's a place you see from. The way you approach your studies changes instantly. You are no longer trusting God to give you a miracle. You realize that the miracle was given to you when life entered you. What you do now, you use that life to study. And then that's why a believer cannot now say, I'm studying and not understanding. It's strange to the language of life. It's alien to the language of life. Now my reality right now in time might be that I really am not understanding what I'm reading, but that is not language of the believer.

The believer have a consciousness that makes him see that all things have been given to me. All things have been given to me. He would give me the holy spirit who would bring to my remembrance everything that I read. Everything that I read. The life inside of me, if the God kind of life, the very nature of God that makes God God. That life cannot forget things. It means the believer can sit down and start to bring life out of himself. After praying in other comes, after seeing I release life to my brain. I release life to my circumstance. I release life to my business.

I release life to my ministry. I release life everywhere in the name of Jesus. Listen. Listen. Do you know? That's why I believe I cannot be stagnant. I can't be stuck. I can't be stuck. Can't be stuck. I can't be stagnant because the life that God has put in me is always making progress.

So what do I do? Instead of saying that, oh, man of God, I'm just stagnant. Start moving. Stop waiting for God to break you out of stagnancy. Stand up and be moving. Realize that what is required for movement, what is required for progress, what is required for destiny is inside of me. Do you understand what I'm saying? Stop breaking the cost of poverty. Go and make money. Because listen, the inheritance will have been given to you.

Listen, this is my mentality with respect to prosperity, with respect to touch growth, and touch expansion. I'm not waiting. I'm pushing. Jesus says occupy till I come. He didn't wait. He didn't say occupy. Wait for me to give permission, then occupy again. It means the extent of your occupying is depending on how far your eyes can see. Is it as far as your eyes can see? Rise up on your feet.

Listen. We have barely begin to That's why it's called the finished works of Christ because it is done. It is called it is called yay and amen. That is how the bible puts it. Yey and amen. Amen. Whereas, your biggest responsibility is to see what has been put on your inside. That's why Paul says the only prayer I will pray, the only thing you need to be given is revelation. That progressively begin to see Progressively begin to see that it is possible to be seen, but you are still seeing from where Moffitt was seen. Do you understand what I'm saying?

That if you are still seeing from somebody get me to what I'm saying? It's possible to be seen, but you're seeing wrongly. Your eyes have been deceived to what to see. And you are blinded. You are blinded. You are blinded. And this spiritual blindness is a dangerous thing. It is better to be physically blind like the time that happened to Paul. Paul wasn't made blind spiritually. He was made blind physically.

A typology of what must happen to his education he has gotten physically. Already will be blinded to everything he has received in the physical so his eyes could be opened to what he has received in the spiritual. But right now, what has happened to believers, they were now blinded spiritually. And do you know what happens if you are blinded spiritually? We become like Rachel. We're meant to be a matriarch of faith. Matriarch of faith. Partnering with one of the greatest men that would ever work scripture. A man whose name will be trained from Jacob to Israel. That the promise of a great nation that God had given to Abraham would find expression in his life.

And you are privileged for that man to love you and to so love you as to slave his life away on your behalf. And all time you were associated with the man, you never came to know the God of faith. The man. How can you be so blinded? That you did not see the miracle of how the speckled ship and the plain coated ship and the miracle of the angel's appearance. That's not biology. That's no science. That's a miracle. You didn't see how God transferred God from your father to this man. You didn't see.

Even your father saw it. The all things are mine, but I still believe I should wash my head in a prophet. I still believe there's a possibility that they cause upon me. Let us be safe. Let's go and wash our head. That's Rachel syndrome. And you took scores with him. Of all the matriarchs of faith whether works dead, she died the youngest. And Of all the matriarchs of faith whether works scripture, she died the youngest and died without I know you have been wrongly indoctrinated. Oh, God.

Do you think things work for me every time? I make things work. I do not accept the reality of things not working. Friend the holy ghost where you are. Thank you for listening to this message. We trust you have been blessed. You can get more life transforming messages from apostle Emmanuel Boluatifa on our Telegram page at DCN media channel. You can also stream the messages on Spotify, Ocho Mac, and Apple podcast. Connect with us via our social media platforms on Instagram at d c n underscore nations, on Facebook at disciples christian network, on x at d c m central, and on TikTok at disciples christian network. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at disciples television.

If you have a testimony from this message, you can mail us at disciplescn@gmail.com. God bless you.