“Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jeremiah 33:2-3
Has the Lord stopped His revelation to His beloved? When the Bishops of the Nicene counsel under the Roman Emperor Constantine met in 325AD and decided to put together the scriptures into one book (we now know as the 66 books of the Bible) and decided to build an organizational structure for the church regarding clerical versus laity and regular religious practices did that put all prophetic and any further revelation from God and the Holy Spirit to an end? Why did the apostle Paul write the chapters 12 and 14 in his first letter to the believers in Corinth? Did God stop His practice of calling prophets? Did the Nicene counsel stop God’s hand and the top two gifts (apostle and prophet) Jesus gave the Church? Can you point to those in your community who are called to that ‘role’ of prophet in your group? Are they a ‘gift’ to your community? What is the problem with the role of the prophet, any more than any other role / gift Jesus gave to the Church? Can’t any role of leadership in the Church be taken by a false / corrupt individual? Can’t wolves exist as Pastors as well? So why the big avoidance of the role of the Prophet?
Is there more to learn from God or is our Bible complete in all information about everything?
Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. John 21:25
Researching the ancient texts and reading about the time when the New Testament books were possibly written — the books of apostle John probably are the hardest to pin down as to exactly when they were penned. The current understanding is that possibly the book of Revelation was penned first then the 3 letters, and then John’s gospel. That would make the above verse possibly the last sentence penned in the Bible we know.
John is expressing the vastness of the works of Jesus — that is far beyond our comprehension. That would make Christianity more than just a ‘religion’. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead would also make Christianity more than just a ‘religion’, as what other ‘world’ religion has their founder still alive? Jesus constantly challenged the all of the religious sects of His own people. The Sadducees didn’t even believe in the afterlife. For them it was all here and now and then nothing. The Pharisees were more along the line of the correct theology – but still were trapped in the legalism of the ‘law’ and didn’t really care about the heart or love for God. Jesus called God His ‘Papa’ — a term of close tender endearment. There were just a few Pharisees who came to understand who Jesus really was / is. Legalism is a BIG strong bear trap.
Lately I’ve been pondering the significance of that close intimate personal relationship with Jesus that we have via the Holy Spirit. We can so easily be swept away by the busyness of our lives. We can become so caught up in “church work” or what we think is our ‘duty’ to God, rather than that deep intimate heartfelt conversation with Him. Jesus rebuked the biggest Church in Asia for losing their ‘first love’ of Him, and called them to repent. What is distracting you from Him? What is keeping you from those intimate times with Him? What is hindering you from hearing His Voice? The religious advice from the crowd is usually that we just need to read the Bible more. While reading the Word daily is a good thing — I’m sure the Church at Ephesus did that as well — yet their hearts had strayed from that innocent first childlike love of Him. What is it that is needed in our lives? The convicting / revealing power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Everyone who has really walked with Jesus knows … that relationship standard He wants with us. How important is that ability to recognize the words and work of the Holy Spirit in your life? Or is it just more comfortable and easy to just fall back into the ‘routine’ of ‘religious works’? Go to Church services, sing, recite, go have lunch.
We’ve all been there, myself included. We must be purposeful and heartfelt in our pursuit of Him .. daily.