In this message we are consummating the series of messages on the Triune God’s revelation and His move. We have seen adequately God’s revelations from the facts in the New Testament. Now we are on the visions and God’s move.
The revelations of the New Testament begin from the incarnation of Christ. The incarnation of Christ is God becoming a man. These revelations continue through His human living on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, His crucifixion, and His resurrection. Through this process, the early disciples saw the historical facts of Christ’s work, but they did not have the revelation. They saw Jesus Christ as a man manifesting God in His humanity, but they did not see the revelation of God in His economy.
Today many Christians who read the four Gospels know only the stories. They see the facts, but they do not know the intrinsic spiritual significance, the revelation. Is the Bible just a book of facts to you? Or have all the facts recorded in the Bible become revelation from God to you? The intrinsic revelation of the birth of Christ is God becoming a man and God being brought into man. We need to see the difference between the revelations and the historical facts recorded in the Bible.
At the time of Christ’s resurrection, the early disciples got to see the intrinsic spiritual significances of these things, which all became revelations to them. On the day of resurrection, they realized that the buried Christ was gone, and they began to enter into the intrinsic revelation of what they had seen in His earthly life. They were with Him for about three and a half years and saw Him doing many things, but they did not understand the intrinsic significance of His doing. But on the day of resurrection, the situation changed. The resurrection opened their eyes.
Christ indicated that the disciples would receive revelation on the day of His resurrection in John 14:20: “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” There are three ins in this verse. The Son is in the Father, we are in the Son, and the Son is in us. The disciples did not know this before the Lord’s resurrection. But “in that day,” the day of resurrection, they knew it. In a general way, in that day means “in resurrection.” This is not just a matter of the actual day but a matter of the fact. In resurrection the disciples would realize that the Son is in the Father, one with the Father; that they are in the Son, one with the Son; and that the Son is in them, one with them. These three parties are altogether mingled as one. Many Christians believe in the Bible, but how many realize that Christ is one with the Father, that they are one with Christ, and that Christ is one with them? This one revelation can revolutionize all of Christianity.
After His resurrection Christ stayed with the disciples for forty days (Acts 1:3). 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. On the day of Pentecost, Peter would have even more realization that Christ was in him as the One who is in the Father and the Father in Him. The preposition in is meaningful to the uttermost.
Peter, James, and John were Galilean fishermen called by the Lord to follow Him. They followed Christ and saw many things but understood nothing. Then the Lord told them that He was going to die and be resurrected on the third day (Matt. 20:17-19). James and John, though, were concerned about sitting on His right and on His left in His coming kingdom (vv. 20-21). They and the other disciples did not understand what the Lord meant concerning His dying and resurrecting.
But on the day of Pentecost, Peter was clear. He had not only the revelation but also the vision. The vision is that we have to go to proclaim all the revelations, and Peter did this for many years. Peter’s doing was the move of God. He saw not only the revelation but also a vision, a scenery in this universe. Then he was motivated to start preaching. From that time this fisherman from Galilee became the first preacher of Christ.
God began to move on the day of Pentecost because all the early disciples were motivated. All of the one hundred twenty could preach Christ and prophesy concerning Christ. They all became “crazy,” like drunkards (cf. Acts 2:12-17). A drunkard knows only how to talk ceaselessly. The one hundred twenty on the day of Pentecost were like this. They were talking ceaselessly about Christ as the very God. If we do not talk to people about Christ, this means that we have not seen either the revelation or the vision of what God is doing in the universe. But I hope that we will see the scenery of what God is doing in this universe and begin to talk ceaselessly about Christ to others. Then we will be in God’s move. God is moving, but if we do not join this moving, God has no way to move. After seeing the revelation and the vision, we begin to move, and our move is God’s move. When we move, God moves.
One day I saw a vision that all the revelations which I had seen should be preached in the United States. In 1958 I was invited to visit England and Denmark. As I was passing through the United States, I received a vision that the Lord’s recovery with all its truths should come here. From that day I was looking to the Lord concerning His move to the United States. Eventually, I got into this move and came here.
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