Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He began asking His disciples, saying “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjonas, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 16:13–17.
In this walk, having the doctrine and the teaching is not enough. We must also have a personal revelation of the Lord. Flesh and blood cannot reveal it to us; the revelation of it is essential. We do not get into this walk until God makes it a revelation to our hearts. Whenever I see newcomers who are moving right with the Body, I know that God has revealed it to them; He has borne witness on it. I don’t have to pull my punches about all the far-out things they’ve never heard before, because God will lead them right into it. There must be a revelation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in which He becomes Lord, otherwise, the truth of restoration can be just so many empty doctrines to a person—and when he is pressured with the problems and the battle that goes with it, he will be overcome.
From God’s viewpoint, why should He try to convince you through logic to become something you can be only revelation from the Lord and by the divine appointment and the grace of God? If it were possible for a man to work his way into this church, to mentally convince himself that this is right, then from day to day and from month to month, he would be constantly facing questions in his mind that would be almost insurmountable, because God would order his walk with so many spiritual battles from day to day that his mind would constantly reason against it, unless it had been a revelation to his spirit. People wash out of the walk because it was never a revelation to them. But if it is a revelation, then “flesh and blood hasn’t revealed it to you, but My Father.” And, He says, “the gates of hell can’t prevail against that kind of foundation, a revelation of Christ” (Matthew 16:18).
You can’t get into this walk by being talked into it. You can’t even be ministered into it through healing or any of the other experiences; otherwise, everyone who received the Holy Spirit would be in it, everyone who had ever been healed or that had ever been saved. This walk is unique and special in the Remnant of the Lord. None of you are here out of the will of the Lord, but if this walk has not been real to you, a revelation to you, we should have prayer for you; because a revelation from the Lord will enable you, later on down the road, to withstand the assaults of the enemy.
Think of all that Paul went through and how he finally stood before the Roman governor and talked about that vision of Jesus he had, those many years before. He said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). He had a vision of Christ that sustained him (Acts 9).
“Who art Thou, Lord?”
“I’m Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.”
“What will You have me to do?” And he received the instruction. He never forgot it, though his own countrymen tried to assassinate him; though he was shipwrecked, beaten, imprisoned, hungry, assaulted by devil power. The Lord was real to him. With all the doctrines and the teachings we have, we are not trying to emphasize a catechism in this walk. That is why it is necessary for the Remnant to have a revelation of the Lord. If you don’t have it, you won’t stand when you go through the pressures.
There’s nothing reasonable about this way until the revelation of the Lord has come, then everything that God puts you through seems right in your sight; it all has meaning and purpose and you can see the plan in your life. Looking upward at it from a human viewpoint, is like looking at the wrong side of embroidery work. You never see the picture, all you see are the many different threads which seem to go nowhere.
Don’t let a day pass without praying until the revelation of what God is doing becomes alive. You will know when it begins to burn within you. Remember when Mary, carrying within her the child that was to be our Lord, came up in the hill country to meet her cousin, Elizabeth? They had no communication together, but Elizabeth was a little further along with the baby that was to be John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. When Mary came near, the Word says the babe leaped within Elizabeth and she began to prophesy (Luke 1).
That same thing may have happened to you: you didn’t know what was happening, but there came the day you heard the word. Maybe it was from someone on the opposing side who came with an evil report. But even if it was an evil report, something leaped within you: “God is moving in the earth! He is real!”
All the lies of the devil can’t keep that witness of the Holy Spirit from coming within you: “This is the walk! This is the day!” God will meet you. That spirit will leap within you, too; that witness will come to you that this is the Lord meeting your heart. It isn’t the teachings alone that we have mentally; it’s the fire that burns in our spirit, that anointing witness of His presence.
Father, loose the people into that flow of it now. Let it be real and marvelous in their sight; let the Spirit of the Lord leap within them for joy, bearing witness, in the name of the Lord. We’re in this walk by our own choice but, more importantly, by Your choice. We’re not in this for the loaves and fishes, we’re in this for a walk with You. We remember the last promise You made to the church. We hear Your voice and we open the door; come in to sup with us, Lord. Be so real that we feel the communion and reality in this hour. O Lord, we open the door for every heart to cry, “Be real to me now, Lord.” Amen.
“As thou shalt cry unto me,” saith the Lord, “surely, I shall not turn a deaf ear unto thee; and I shall bless thee that thou shalt have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. I shall bless thee that thou shalt have a discerning heart in which thou shalt know the ways of the Lord and walk before Him tenderly.”
It is the promise of the Lord that cometh unto thee, O thou that do hunger and thirst after righteousness: ye shall be filled. O ye pure in heart that have turned away from rebelliousness and wickedness of spirit, ye shall see thy God by promise. He shall be revealed unto the eyes of thine heart. Yea, thou shalt perceive how that the Lord loveth thee and He hath drawn thee to this hour. O ye spiritually blind, anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. Draw from the grace of God and it shall become real to thee this very hour. Amen.
Remember how that the Lord thy God proclaimed Himself to be a God of battles? He has set before thee, that by the mighty arm of His strength He shall prevail over the enemy. Is not this the thing the Lord said unto thee? Even as He said to Joshua of old, “There shall not be a man stand before thee all the days of thy life.”
It is the Lord that has raised up a people in the end time; and hast thy heart and mind comprehended that the Lord has intended that they shall walk before the Lord invincible, that they shall prevail over the shadows of darkness, that they shall stand in the hour of judgment? It is not only to be able to prevail over the enemy to survive, but the Lord has intended that you shall be more than a conqueror, that the victory shall be absolute and complete. He has not intended that it shall be a partial victory; this is not the way that the Lord shall do. And it is not by thy might nor by thy strength that ye shall prevail, but by the Spirit of the Lord that shall come upon thee, even as upon Samson of old. If there be a thousand pitted against thee, yet the Lord shall bring them down, for it is the will of the Lord that by the Spirit of God thou shalt prevail.
Did He not say to Zerubabel of old, “ ‘Not by might or power, but by My spirit,’ saith the Lord?” and even if a host be encamped against thee, this shall be thy confidence: that the Lord is with thee; He is the strength of thy power. He is thy strength and song, and become thy salvation. Ye shall rejoice in the Lord with all of your hearts. Did He not say unto thee that this is not your battle, but the Lord’s battle? And therefore, thou shalt not enter into it as though thou were receiving a favor from the Lord to prevail, but rather that thou art an instrument that is set upon by the Spirit of the Lord to be used by God in a total and absolute victory, in the name of the Lord. Amen.
“This is the day that the Lord shall take thee in thy weakness, He shall take thee in thine insufficiency. Though thou be but a worm in thine own sight, He shall make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; and thou shalt thresh the mountains and make them small. It is the Lord thy God that goeth before thee into battle; and He shall get Him honor upon His enemies in this hour. Ye shall possess the possessions of the Lord, for has it not been written in the Word of the Lord, that the Lord thy God goeth before thee with a sharp two-edged sword coming forth from His mouth, that His garments are stained with blood and He doth lead forth the armies of heaven, seated upon white horses? And this shall be thy portion, that whither the Lord shall lead thee, thou shalt follow Him. Thou shall not take it upon thyself to fight thy foes, but thou shalt follow Him, and thou shalt wage battle and be victorious.”