THE TRIUNE GOD’S REVELATION AND HIS MOVE

MESSAGE TWELVE

THE TRIUNE GOD’S REVELATION AND HIS MOVE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

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THE VISIONS AND GOD’S MOVE

OUTLINE

3. The visions and God’s move:
   1. The revelations:
      From the incarnation of Christ through His human living on the earth, His crucifixion, and His resurrection, the early disciples saw the historical facts of Christ’s work. At the time of Christ’s resurrection, they all got to see the intrinsic spiritual significances of these things, which all became revelations to them, as Christ indicated in John 14:20. After His resurrection Christ stayed with the disciples for forty days. The main thing He did in those forty days was to bring them into the spiritual realization of the revelations of what He had done from His incarnation to His resurrection.
   2. The visions:
      After the forty days, before He went to the heavens, based upon what He had shown the disciples as revelations, an issue came out, that is, the vision. In this vision Christ firstly charged His disciples to go out, based upon what they had seen, to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:45-47). At the end of His stay with the disciples, He charged them to be His witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8), and then before His ascension He charged the disciples to go and disciple the nations and teach them all that He had commanded them based upon the revelation that all authority had been given to Him in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18-20). After His ascension into the heavens, on the day of Pentecost, the first thing He did as the initiation of God’s move on the earth to establish the churches was to pour out the Spirit of power (Himself as the consummated all-inclusive Spirit) upon the disciples (Acts 2:1-4, 17, 33).
   3. The Lord’s move:
      1. After the Lord showed the early disciples the revelations of His earthly ministry, based upon which He presented them a vision for His move:
         1. They joined the Lord with His first move for the carrying out of His New Testament economy in raising up the church in Jerusalem among the Jews-Acts 8:1.
         2. Based upon the same revelations and visions, the Lord, through the Jews’ persecution in Jerusalem, moved most of the early believers to bring the gospel to Judea, Samaria, and even to Africa through the eunuch of Ethiopia (Cush, eastern Africa), in the Lord’s move-Acts 8:1, 4-5, 26-39.
         3. Based upon the same revelations, the Lord gave the vision to Peter that the Lord wanted him to move on together with Him to spread His New Testament economy to the Gentiles as a beginning from the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion-Acts 10:1-33.
         4. Then the Lord gave a further vision to the apostle Paul and the other four prophets and teachers in the church in Antioch, that they should go, in moving together with the Lord for the carrying out of His New Testament economy, to evangelize all of Asia Minor. Paul and his co-workers did this by three gospel trips-Acts 13:1-14:28; 15:40-18:22; 18:23-21:17.
            Note: By the Lord’s move in the above four points the Lord covered Asia and Africa and initiated His church among the Gentiles.
         5. The Lord gave Paul a further vision, the vision of the Macedonian call (Acts 16:6-10), to direct his gospel trip from Asia to eastern Europe. Then he evangelized eastern Europe, leaving Illyricum not touched (Rom. 15:19). Then by his fourth gospel trip he covered Rome through his Roman exile. By this he brought the gospel more strongly to western Europe, leaving Spain not touched, although he expected to cover that land which, according to the map at that time, was considered the uttermost part of the earth (Rom. 15:24, 28).
      2. All the saints should be motivated by the Triune God’s revelations and visions to join with Him for His move to accomplish His New Testament economy on the earth.