By Francis Frangipane
"For I would have you know, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to men. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." (Gal 1:11-12)
The Bible is not a how-to book. It is not a history book, a religious crystal ball, nor a philosophy book. The Bible is a revelation of Jesus Christ. Indeed, you will learn many things reading the Bible. But the life of the Bible is Jesus Christ, not mere knowledge.
The Biblical word, "revelation", meant, "to unveil". When the Holy Spirit directs you in the Scriptures, it is to unveil or reveal Jesus Christ to you. Remember, Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life: and it is these that bear witness to Me…". (Jn 5:39) The purpose of the written word is to "bear witness" to Jesus Christ.
Many books deal with end-time events. All of them, invariably, include the author's interpretation of the Book of Revelation. But the Revelation of John is not merely a revelation of end-time events. Its primary purpose is stated in the first verse, which clearly states that this book is the "…revelation of Jesus Christ". The Book of Revelation is reduced to a Book of Speculation by those who fail to see Jesus continually revealed victoriously throughout its pages. In every warning there are those who triumph over "the beast", "the false prophet", and "the dragon".
As for the opening of the seals and the events that followed, each judgement is like the blast of the mighty trumpet, heralding the return of Jesus Christ into the world! The final three chapters speak of the return of the Lord, the coming down out of heaven of the New Jerusalem where the unveiled glory of the Lord replaces every other form of light. You see, this book is "the revelation of Jesus Christ"!
The Purpose of the Church
"But when He who had set me apart even from my mother's womb, and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles…". (Gal 1:15-16).
Not only is the Bible a revelation of Jesus Christ, but the church, as Christ's body, is also called to reveal Him. Indeed, what body is there whose words and works do not reveal the thoughts and desires of the head? When a body does not function according to the will of the head, that body is sick or crippled. Christ's body is to be the revelation of Jesus – not programs, not doctrines, not rituals, but JESUS. Jesus' hands cannot help others if our hands are in our pockets. His love cannot reach others if our love has grown cold or bitter. His victory cannot be manifested if our prayers are silent. We are His body – the means He has chosen to express and reveal Himself to the world!
"Or do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" (1 Cor 6:15).
Because the Spirit of Christ actually dwells in our spirits, our bodies literally become the body of Christ. Even as the purpose of the Bible is to reveal Jesus, so the primary purpose of your body is to give Jesus arms and legs, lips and a heart to make His nature known.
There are two people in your body: you and Jesus. God's purpose in the church is to grow up into "…all aspects into Him, who is our Head, even Jesus." We're told that God's definition of spiritual maturity is nothing less than "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (Eph 4-13). For that to happen, we must let Jesus live His life through us. Paul said, he was, "…crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me' and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me…". (Gal 2:20). Jesus and you both live in your body. In order for you to grow, your old nature must be crucified so that Jesus can live His life through you. Jesus will not and does not live only in Heaven. The Spirit of Christ in Heaven is the same Spirit of Christ in the church. Therefore, the goal of God for us is for Jesus to do His will in us, "as it is in Heaven"! Each of us must allow Jesus full access to every area of our lives, knowing that we are called to reveal Jesus Christ to this world.
Do you see this? The life of Jesus is to be manifested, revealed, shown forth in our mortal flesh! Paul wrote, "We are always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be manifest in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh." (2 Cor 4:10-11). This is not some "deep teaching". This is basic to true Christianity! We are "epistles", known and read by all men, the revelation of Jesus Christ that the world sees! And for them to see Him, we must step out of the way.
Three Types of People
In every true church there are three types of people. The first group is, by far, also the largest. It is comprised of those who believe in Jesus, who worship God and, hopefully, are saved. Yet, the exercise of their faith is limited to their own individual needs. Rarely are they involved in helping others.
The next group is significantly smaller than the first, but it is usually larger than the third group. These are those who have come to church to seek relief from emotional or physical trauma. (You'll remember the most frequent place Jesus healed and delivered people was at the synagogues. This group is usually a "nomadic" group, going from church to church seeking help.
The last group is the smallest. These are indeed the "little flock "who are given to seeing Jesus revealed in the body. They continually seek to help the hurting and afflicted. They also seek to encourage the larger, first group toward more involvement in the Kingdom of God.
It is this group who are truly the revelation of Christ in the congregation. If you want to see Jesus, look here, among this last group. Rarely are these people publicly thanked; less often are they paid. Their reward is the opportunity to serve. As Jesus Himself said, "I am among you as One who serves." In any congregation, if you want to find Jesus, He is found "…taking the form of a bondservant." (Phil 2:7) It is upon these "…bondslaves, both men and women", that the Spirit is poured out (Acts 2:18). To them the Lord says,
"Have I not promised, ‘In that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in Me, and I in you?'" (Jn14:20). "Know this as truth, that day of which I spoke is at hand. Even now through My Spirit and My Word, I am enlarging the expanse of your heart to receive My Word, My Love, My Presence and My Glory. For before I return, you will be as I am, even in this world." (1 Jn 4:17, Jn 17).
You Are to Be a Revelation of Jesus
The Greatest in God's Kingdom
By Francis Frangipane
Of all virtues, Jesus elevated meekness above the rest. Why humility? It is the door opener to grace, and no virtue enters our lives except that humility acknowledges our need and requests virtue to come. Without humility, we see no reason to change or appropriate future grace.
Yet, humility not only hosts other virtues, it is also the life essence that sustains them. It is humility that recognizes when love is growing cold and humility that confesses our need for greater purity. Without humility, our virtues harden into lifeless statues; we are outwardly religious, but inwardly unable to change.
Humility is the taproot of true nobility. For it provides increase to wholeness, and life and maturity to all other virtues. It is the antidote to Pharisaism and the cure for a Jezebelian attitude.
A Child
Consider: when Jesus was asked by His disciples, "Who then is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" He put a child in their midst. He said, "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matt. 18:1,4).
What a sublime wonder! In Heaven, the height of greatness is measured by the depth of one's humility.
Consider Wuest's Expanded Translation of Jesus' statement:
"Therefore, he who is of such a nature as to humble himself like this little child, esteeming himself small inasmuch as he is so, thus thinking truly, and because truly, therefore humbly of himself, this person is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven."
Jesus came to establish Heaven in the lives of His followers. Thus, He introduces the realm of God to His disciples with the words, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matt 5:3).
Beloved, the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the "poor in spirit." Who are these poor? They are people who "know their need" (Goodspeed Translation). Beloved, there are people in Heaven who were sinners on Earth. The streets of God's kingdom are filled with people who, at some time or another, failed and fell short. There are adulterers who've been washed and cleansed by Christ's blood, ex-drug dealers and prostitutes whose hearts are filled with praise to God - all who came face to face with their need, repented and found forgiveness of their sins.
But there is not one proud individual in Heaven. There are no self-righteous beings in Heaven.
Here on earth we see the strutting pride - the air of self-importance - manifest in leaders and celebrities. Again, we behold the air of false superiority in our cultural prejudices. We see unrepentant pride in the conflicts that lead to divorce and the offspring of pride - envy and jealousy - in the inordinate desire of men to be glorified before other men.
Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor in spirit! Not the perfect, but the poor. Yes, we are called to standards of perfection and strive we must toward that upward call. Yet, perfection in Heaven is measured, not in degrees of self-sufficiency, but in degrees of dependency and surrender. We can search for an eternity and we will observe truly: there dwells not one proud soul in all of Heaven.
Today, we cry for revival and pray for breakthroughs and persevere we must. Yet the Lord's eyes are upon a certain individual. He says,
"For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, 'I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite'" (Isa.57:15).
The disciples were arguing about who is greatest in the Kingdom. Jesus placed a child in their midst. This is greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven: to possess a humble heart.
Beware of the Stronghold of Cold Love
By Francis Frangipane
Is your love growing and becoming softer, brighter, more daring, and more visible? Or is it becoming more discriminating, more calculating, less vulnerable, and less available? This is a very important issue, for your Christianity is only as real as your love. A measurable decrease in your ability to love is evidence that a stronghold of cold love is developing within you.
Guard Against Unforgiveness!
"Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold" (Matt. 24:12). A major area of spiritual warfare that has come against the church is the sphere of church relationships. Satan knows that a church divided against itself cannot stand. We may enjoy temporary blessings and seasonal breakthroughs, but to win a citywide war, Jesus is raising up a united, citywide church. An earmark of this corporate, overcoming church will be its commitment to love. Yet because of the increasing iniquity in the end of this age, true Christian love will be severely assaulted.
There is no spiritual unity, and hence no lasting victory, without love. Love is a passion for oneness. Bitterness, on the other hand, is characterized by a noticeable lack of love. This cold love is a demonic stronghold. In our generation, cold love is becoming increasingly more common. It shuts down the power of prayer and disables the flow of healing and outreach. In fact, where there is persistent and hardened unforgiveness in a person or church, the demonic world (known in Matthew 18:34 as "torturers") has unhindered access.
The Scriptures warn that even a little root of bitterness springing up in a person’s life can defile many (Heb. 12:15). Bitterness is unfulfilled revenge. Another’s thoughtlessness or cruelty may have wounded us deeply. It is inevitable that, in a world of increasing harshness and cruelty, we will at some point be hurt. But if we fail to react with love and forgiveness, if we retain in our spirit the debt the offender owes, that offense will rob our hearts of their capacity to love. Imperceptibly, we will become a member of most end-time Christians whose love is growing cold.
Bitterness is the most visible symptom of the stronghold of cold love. To deal with cold love, we must repent and forgive the one who hurt us. Painful experiences are allowed by God to teach us how to love our enemies. If we still have unforgiveness toward someone, we have failed this test. Fortunately, it was just a test, not a final exam. We need to thank God for the opportunity to grow in divine love. Thank Him that your whole life is not being swallowed up in bitterness and resentment. Millions of souls are swept off into eternal judgment every day without any hope of escaping from embitterment, but you have been given God’s answer for your pain. God gives you a way out: love!
As we embrace God’s love and begin to walk in Christlike forgiveness, we are actually pulling down the stronghold of cold love in our lives. Because of this experience, we will soon possess more of the love of Christ than we had previously.
Love Without Commitment is Not Love
"At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold." Matthew 24:10–12
Allow me to be perfectly clear: there is no such thing as love without commitment. The measure of one’s love is found in the depth of his or her commitment to others. How often we have heard people say, "I loved once, but I was hurt." Or, "I was committed to Christian service, but they used me." When someone withdraws their commitment to a relationship, they are withdrawing their love. It is not one's commitment that grows cold; it is their love. It may not seem like they have become cold—they may still attend church, sing, and look "Christian"— but inside they have become hard and separated from others. They have withdrawn from love. Because their commitment is shallow, they will be easily offended.
Jesus said, "It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come" (Matt. 18:7). In your walk there will be times when even good people have bad days. As long as you live on earth, there will never be a time when "stumbling blocks" cease to be found upon your path. People do not stumble over boulders but over stones—little things. To stumble is to stop walking and fall. Have you stumbled over someone’s weakness or sin lately? Have you gotten back up and continued loving as you did before, or has that fall caused you to withdraw somewhat from walking after love? To preserve the quality of love in your heart, you must forgive those who have caused you to stumble.
Every time you refuse to forgive or fail to overlook a weakness in another, your heart not only hardens toward them, but it also hardens toward God. You cannot form a negative opinion of someone (even though you think they may deserve it) and allow that opinion to crystalize into an attitude; for every time you do, an aspect of your heart will cool toward God. You may still think you are open to God, but the Scriptures are clear: "The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20). You may not like what someone has done, but you do not have an option to stop loving them. Love is your only choice.
What do I mean by love? First, I do not merely mean "tough love." I mean gentle, affectionate, sensitive, open, persistent love. God will be tough when He needs to be, and we will be firm when He tells us to be, but beneath our firmness must be an underground river of love waiting to spring into action. By love, I mean a compassion that is empowered by faith and prayer to see God’s best come forth in the people I love. When I have love for someone, I have predetermined that I am going to stand with them, regardless of what they are going through. I am committed.
We each need people who love us, who are committed to us in spite of our imperfections. The fullness of Christ will not come without Christians standing with each other in love. We are not talking about salvation, but growing in salvation until we care for each other, even as Christ has committed Himself to us.
Many people will stumble over little faults and human weaknesses. These minor things are quickly pumped up by the enemy into great big problems. Oh, how frail are the excuses people use to justify withdrawing from others. In reality, these problems, often with a church or pastor, are a smoke screen that masks the person’s lack of love.
We need to overcome our hang-ups about commitment, for no one will attain the fullness of God’s purposes on earth without being committed to imperfect people along the way.
"Well, as soon as I find a church that believes as I do, I will be committed." This is a dangerous excuse, because as soon as you decide you do not want to forgive or God begins to deal with the quality of your love, you will blame withdrawing on some minor doctrinal difference. The kingdom of God is not based on mere doctrines. It is founded upon relationships—relationships with God and, because of God, with one another. Doctrines only help define those relationships. We are not anti-doctrine, but we are against empty doctrines that seem like virtues but are simply excuses that justify cold love.
The Greatest Commandments
An expert in the Law once asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment. His reply was wonderful: "'you shall love the lord your god With all your heart, and With all your soul, and With all your mind, and With all your strength.' The second is this, ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself’" (Mark 12:30–31). Jesus said the second commandment is like the first. When you love God, your love for others will actually be like your love for God. The more you unconditionally love God, the more you will unconditionally love others.
To those whose attitude is, "I am content with just Jesus and me," I say it is wonderful you found Jesus. But you cannot truly have Jesus and simultaneously not do what He says. The outgrowth of love and faith in Christ is love and faith like Christ's, which means we are committed, even as He is, to His people.
You see, the kingdom of God is most perfectly revealed in our relationships with one another. We are being perfected into a unit (John 17). To have the kingdom, we must be committed to one another as individuals and as churches. If Christ accepts us while we are still imperfect, we must also accept one another. The people who possess the kingdom of God in its reality are people who overcome the obstacles of one another’s faults.
They help one another become what God has called them to be: the living body of Jesus Christ.
Remember, the goal of pulling down the stronghold of cold love is to see the oneness of Christ’s body revealed. You will be challenged in this, but if you persist, you will discover the height and depth, the length and breadth of Christ's love. You will become a body filled and flooded with God Himself.
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Adapted from Francis Frangipane’s best-selling book, The Three Battlegrounds available at www.arrowbookstore.com.
Day and Night Prayer
By Francis Frangipane
God has provided a divine antidote for every ill in the human condition; that remedy is Jesus Christ. When we see a need or a wound in the soul of our communities, we must apply Christ as the cure.
The stronghold that God provides to us as individuals has a divinely inspired, built-in limitation: The Spirit of Christ, which shelters us from the enemy, also makes us vulnerable to the needs of others. As it is written, "If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it" (1 Cor. 12:26). Thus, to perfect love, God unites us to other people; to empower prayer, He allows us to be vicariously identified with the sufferings of those for whom we care. If we cease to love, we will fail to pray. Love is the fuel behind all intercession. Are you weary or vacillating in your prayer life? Remember the love God first gave you, whether it was for your family, church, city, or nation.
The Pure in Heart See God, Part 2
By Francis Frangipane
God’s purification process cleanses the condition of our hearts and opens our eyes. Jesus warned that the Pharisees were blind leaders of the blind. Jesus wants us to see where we are going. The Scripture says, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11, KJV). The pleasures of this world are a dim reflection of the pleasures of eternity. But seeing eternity is not our main objective. We must aim to see the One who made it and live in fellowship with Him.
He did reveal Himself to people in the Scriptures, and they witnessed the glory of God—He revealed Himself to Isaiah, Abraham, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Solomon, David, and Habakkuk. God also revealed Himself to Peter, James, and John on the mountain.
The Pure in Heart See God
By Francis Frangipane
The whole of the mystery of our existence is centered in perfecting the conditions of the heart. It certainly is possible to be successful on some human level, being fulfilled in all the horizontal relationships that surround us and flow in and out of our lives. But the divine reason we exist is so that God can get to our hearts. In earlier stages of this spiritual training, we have learned that the trembling heart, the humbled heart, the honest heart is the beginning of change.
But God is after something more. The heart is the seat of reality—the reality that God looks at. God doesn’t look at the outer appearance; He looks on the heart and sees things you think you’ve secretly hidden away where no one sees them. He says: “Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” (Jer. 23:24, NIV). All things are laid bare before His eyes, and His word is “alive and active. Sharper than any double- edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12, NIV).
Removing the Burden of Regret
"Why did I disobey the Lord?"
"If only I had kept my mouth shut."
"If only such and such hadn't happened, my life would be so much better."
Regret. Nothing so chains us to our past failures like regret. I know too many Christians who were running well yet at some point fell into sin. The worst thing is they knew better. They were not ignorant of Satan's devices yet they fell. The outcome of their failure was that in the very place where their joy once shone brightly now a wearisome oppression exists. This oppression looks like an aspect of repentance, but it is not. It is demonic. It is a vision-stealer forged in the fires of hell.