Dr.  Ronald Powell     

Mysteries Revealed to the

Apprehended by God

Our Text: "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart" (Psalms 37: 4).

Introduction:

Before we tackle the desires of our heart, I want to take you up a path that will show you how to find yourselves enmeshed in the relationship God wants for you, " Friends".

When Jesus called disciples, they left everything to follow this King. Their lives would be inexplicably changed forever. Can you imagine Jesus hand picking you to labor with Him in His fields? If you are a believer... He has done just that!

Jesus said; "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." John 15:16

Imagine what it would be like to leave life as you knew it and become a Disciple of Jesus. Each day you would wake up in His presence and each night you would rest in his presence as well.

These Lost men were now found and these Sinner were now on the journey to sainthood, but first there were many conversations and real life experiences that each of them would have to encounter and have defined from the Mind of the All knowing one!

Being Hebrews, these disciples had previously been churched and taught in their synagogues that the way to God was with daily right choices and works or labors. Day after day they approached God through their rituals.  

This method never allowed the disciple to know God personally or intimately.  

But now things were soon going to be forever changed. Toward the end of Jesus earthly life, He gave His disciples the greatest promotion. He told the twelve that He no longer called them servants, but friends .

"No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you." (John 15: 15)

When Jesus gave His disciples this promotion, He did so by describing the difference between the two positions .

• Servants don't know what their master is doing. They don't have access to the personal, intimate realm of their master. They are task-oriented. Obedience is their primary focus.
• But friends have a different focus. They are relationship focused. Their concerns were not about works but about their relationship with this King day in and day out. They learned His ways and His thoughts, they sat at His feet in conversations and that changed their hearts, lives, thoughts and desires.

SHIFTED

The disciples' focus shifted from

• the commandments to the presence,
• from the assignment to the relationship,
• from "what I do for Him" to "how my choices affect Him."

This bestowal of friendship made the relationship we can continue to experience possible.

Changes:

First, what we know changes, as we gain access to the heart of the God.  

His heart unlocks mysteries and grants us access to information we need to function successfully in all of life:

And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: Mark 4: 11 (KJV)

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 2 Peter 1:3 (KJV)

We, as believers , have legal access to the realm of God's mysteries. It's that simple. The hidden things are placed in waiting for the believer to discover. They are ours by inheritance.

Jesus did not merely use parables as illustrations, but at times to conceal truth

It is the mercy of God to withhold revelation from those who have no hunger for truth, because they don't hunger for it.

• If you give water to a Snake it produces Poison, if you give it to a cow it produces milk.

Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? ( James 2:5 )

Paul Said: My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ( Col 2:2-3 )

Hidden Things

To put it simply, they slandered Jesus by saying how He could read and discuss the Scriptures in spite of being an uneducated man. When Jesus ate and drank, they labeled Him a "glutton" (Mt 11:19).  

They made people fall away from the faith by slandering Jesus, saying that He was uneducated and a glutton. So Jesus rebuked them, "You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to."

Jesus said to them, ". . . Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God." ( Jn 8:40-47 )

• Jesus spoke these words to those who did not acknowledge Him as God and opposed Him.
   

• He clearly revealed their identity by saying that they did not believe Him and His word because they belonged to the devil, not God. 

Those who tried to find fault in Jesus' life and surroundings

To those who believed in and followed Him, Jesus showed the miracle of feeding the five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish.

• When Jesus was confronted with the need to pay the Roman tax, He simply told Peter to catch a fish and pay it with a coin he found in the fish's mouth. He even showed them His transfigured glory on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Those who had such a great chance to experience the spiritual world grew stronger in faith, but the religious leaders in those days-the chief priests, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law-were never able to see the true nature of Christ.

• They tried to call into question every aspect of Jesus' life and surroundings and to find fault with Him so that they would oppose Him. So, the secrets of the kingdom of heaven were completely hidden from their eyes. How could the spiritually blind people see God?

On hearing his words, some of the people said, "Surely this man is the Prophet."

• Others said, "He is the Christ." Still others asked, "How can the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David's family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?"

Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why didn't you bring him in?" "No one ever spoke the way this man does," the guards declared.

"You mean he has deceived you also?" the Pharisees retorted. "Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law-there is a curse on them." Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, "Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?" They replied, "Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee." ( Jn 7:40-52 )

It was mostly poor and humble people such as fishermen, tax collectors and prostitutes who believed in Jesus. The influential and powerful people did not believe in Him.

This fact also became an excuse for the opponents to slander Jesus.

( Mt 9:9-13; Lk 7:39 ).

"Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." ( Hos 6:3 )

Since the Bible says that Christ is the mystery of God-the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, we must press on to know God. Let us not think lightly of the blessings God has given us in this age, but do our best as those entrusted with the secret things of God.