January 21
Father in heaven, O God! Blessed be Thy Name for ever and ever. Your word is settled in heaven; what is written concerning me cannot be broken. I, therefore glorify Your Holy Name forever and ever in Jesus Name. You are a great Deliverer, thank You Lord for saving me from the workers of iniquities and sitting me with the prince of peace. Praise God!
Yesterday, the Lord expounded His Word unto us and His Word is light and that light darkness comprehended it not. For us to “always growing”, we must spend time studying the Word of God, asking for fresh revelation on the Word, for the letter killeth but the spirit of God giveth life.
Today, we are going to encounter Christ again but this time opening our understanding of scripture. Beloved, do you know that there is a great difference between “knowledge” and “understanding”? I don’t want you to hear the details from me; come to the Great Master and be all ears:
“Thou shalt see greater things than these.” John 1:50
This is spoken to a childlike believer, who was ready to accept Jesus as the Son of God, the King of Israel, upon one convincing piece of argument. Those, who are willing to see shall see: it is because we shut our eyes that we become so sadly blind.
We have seen much already. Great things and unsearchable has the Lord showed unto us, for which we praise His name; but there are greater truths in His Word, greater depths of experience, greater heights of fellowship, greater works of usefulness, greater discoveries of power, and love, and wisdom. These we are yet to see if we are willing to believe our Lord.
The faculty of inventing false doctrine is ruinous, but power to see the truth is a blessing. Heaven shall be opened to us, the way thither shall be made clear to us in the Son of man, and the angelic commerce which goes on between the upper and the lower kingdoms shall be made more manifest to us. Let us keep our eyes open toward spiritual objects, and expect to see more and more.
Let us believe that our lives will not drivel down into nothing, but that we shall be always on the growing hand, seeing greater and still greater things, till we behold the Great God himself, and never again lose the sight of Him. Am sure someone is shouting Amen!
When Christ becomes our personal Teacher, the Bible said not only will the Word be illuminated to us, He will also open our understanding thereof as we have read. Come and experience the touch of the Great Teacher once again:
“Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.” Luke 24:45
He whom we viewed yesterday as opening Scripture, we here perceive opening the understanding. In the first work He has many fellow-labourers, but in the second He stands alone; many can bring the Scriptures to the mind, but the Lord alone can prepare the mind to receive the Scriptures.
Our Lord Jesus differs from all other teachers; they reach the ear, but He instructs the heart; they deal with the outward letter, but He imparts an inward taste for the truth, by which we perceive its savour and spirit. The most unlearned of men become ripe scholars in the school of grace when the Lord Jesus by His Holy Spirit unfolds the mysteries of the kingdom to them, and grants the divine anointing by which they are enabled to behold the invisible. Happy are we if we have had our understandings cleared and strengthened by the Master!
How many men of profound learning are ignorant of eternal things! They know the killing letter of revelation, but its killing spirit they cannot discern; they have a veil upon their hearts which the eyes of carnal reason cannot penetrate. Such was our case a little time ago; we who now see were once utterly blind; truth was to us as beauty in the dark, a thing unnoticed and neglected.
Had it not been for the love of Jesus we should have remained to this moment in utter ignorance, for without His gracious opening of our understanding, we could no more have attained to spiritual knowledge than an infant can climb the Pyramids, or an ostrich fly up to the stars.
Jesus’ College is the only one in which God’s truth can be really learned; other schools may teach us what is to be believed, but Christ’s alone can show us how to believe it. Let us sit at the feet of Jesus, and by earnest prayer call in His blessed aid that our dull wits may grow brighter, and our feeble understandings may receive heavenly things.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
Evang. Ifeoma Ohondu.
