In this message we want to see the way to receive revelation from the holy Word and see vision through revelation.
To receive revelation from the holy Word, we must read the Word and apprehend its contents in facts. If we want to receive revelation from Genesis 1, we first have to read this chapter with our understanding and with our memory to apprehend the contents. We have to know that Genesis 1 is a record of God’s creation. Eventually, God created man and put this man in front of the tree of life. These facts are very important.
To apprehend the facts we need the help of the original text in Hebrew and Greek. No translation of the Bible is perfect. This is why, if possible, we should study Hebrew, the Old Testament language, and Greek, the New Testament language. We can also use the help of certain word studies of the Old and New Testaments.
We also need to learn to know the types-figures and shadows-in the Bible. The Old Testament is full of types. Nearly everything in Genesis 1 is a type of Christ. Romans 5:14 tells us that Adam is a type of Christ. The Song of Songs, a short book of eight chapters, is full of figures and shadows. In this book Christ is the henna flower (1:14), the myrrh (v. 13), and the apple tree (2:3). Eventually, Christ came to be the vine tree (John 15:1), and ultimately the tree of life (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:2).
First, we need to read the holy Word to apprehend its contents. To read is by our mind. Then we need to receive the divine revelation, not by exercising our natural understanding ability, but by exercising our spirit to contact the Lord through pray-reading (Eph. 6:17-18). When I came to the United States to minister the word in the early sixties, many people told me that they had never before heard about the human spirit. That shocked me. If we do not know that we have a spirit or how to exercise, to use, our spirit, we cannot receive revelation from the holy Word. Without the exercise of the spirit, the holy Word remains only in letters, in facts, but it cannot be a revelation to us. But if we exercise our spirit, the written Word becomes the spiritual word, the word which is the Spirit, to be received not by our mind but by our spirit.
We have to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord because the Lord Himself is the Word (John 1:1). The Word, which is God, is God’s breathing, the Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16; Eph. 6:17). We must exercise the spirit to contact the Lord through pray-reading. Exercising our spirit, contacting the Lord, and pray-reading must be added together.
The term pray-read is based upon Ephesians 6:17-18, which says that we are to receive the word of God, which word is the Spirit, by means of all kinds of prayer, praying at every time in spirit. In these verses, we have the word, the Spirit of God, and our spirit exercised in pray-reading. Revelation comes from receiving the word, not just by the mind to understand it, but by the spirit exercised to contact the Lord through pray-reading it. When we pray-read, we have to exercise our spirit. Then we will receive revelation.
We receive the divine revelation not by our natural understanding ability or by our fanciful imaginations. Some Christians, especially those who are Seventh-day Adventists, understand parts of the Bible by exercising their imagination. Mrs. White, who established the Seventh-day Adventists, told people a specific date on which Christ would return. Some of them prepared to receive Christ on that date, but He did not come. She also wrongly taught that Christians should keep the Sabbath day of the Old Testament.
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