Spring
2001
The Unfolding
Purpose of the Lord
Edited from a spoken message by
John W Follette
The Lord has satisfied our spiritual hunger to some extent.
No one of us should be satisfied, but holding our spirit before
the Lord, seeking more. There is so much available to us from
the One who is the source of all life and truth. There is
yet before us an expansive field of spiritual reality, and
we are to venture there with the Holy Spirit to make our discoveries.
Our present attainment of spiritual life and experience is
the place to which we have been brought through Jesus Christ
our Lord. All this is a preliminary training school for the
ages yet to come. It is in the “here and now”
that we make certain qualifications for our placement in the
eternal ages. These qualifications are not given to us spontaneously
when we get there. Rather, we are being qualified for them
here, in time.
Then, in the eternal ages, that which has been acquired through
discipline and training - through the surrender of our old
life to the resurrection of the new - all of this will be
projected upon another plane of living in the ages that are
yet to come. Whatever we build up of spiritual value, vigor,
and vision, during our lifetime - this is all that the Lord
will take of us into eternity.
The method by which this is being accomplished will be the
way in which we live and our reactions to the Word and to
the movings of the Holy Spirit. These are the mechanics which
the Lord uses to trace the image and likeness of His Son upon
our immortal spirit.
We who have been touched by eternal truth and are seeking
to go further, must have a correct perspective and goal. The
Lord is very busy building His Body, of which we are a member,
training it and doing a thousand things with it, so in “that
day” there will be something glorious and beautiful
to be presented.
The day is coming when we will cast our crowns at His feet.
This crown is made up of all that we have become, so that
we may be presented to the Ancient of Days as the Bride of
Christ.
Each of us has a certain degree of spiritual hunger. This
hunger rests on certain levels of spiritual obedience and
experience, ever seeking to take us further. Thus, there is
a continual, progressive development in our spiritual living,
moving us from one place of discovery and life, on into another
level of discovery and life, and on to another. This speaks
of “the spiritual ascent of our being back to the heart
of God.” We do not belong here; we are here for just
a few fleeting years of training and discipline, and then
we will be taken.
We are to continually move from one level of spiritual understanding
and experience to another. This is determined by the amount
of spiritual illumination that we have obtained through our
responses to the Lord’s presence and His workings within
us. Because we are reacting agents, we learn our lessons through
these experiences. We were made this way in the structural
law of our being so this might be possible.
I have many very real spiritual experiences in God, however,
these do not make me less practical in my daily pattern of
life experience. I have discovered that I must carefully order
my steps, as I walk with the Lord. I must be continually sensitive
to His voice and responsive to His presence. Then He will
guide my path, as He disciplines and trains me in order to
push me up into a higher order of spiritual reality and life.
This process can be viewed as being “circles”
of spiritual movings, and then another circle, and another,
with the completion of each circle bringing us slightly higher
in our spiritual attainment. Our upward progress in this will
be determined by the degree of spiritual hunger which is registered
within us. The Lord alone can create this spiritual hunger.
My part is to hold before the Lord the possibilities that
He intends for me.
We become spiritually hungry on different levels according
to our commitment and desire toward the Lord. Sometimes people
say, "Oh, I know that as I heard it before - tell me
something new." We must come to realize that there are
a thousand facets of light in this glorious gem of redemption,
which radiate from it continually. Who can hope to ever think
that we might possess all of this light and illumination,
as our capacity of reception has not yet been fully enlarged.
All revelation is purely a progressive matter. It is eternally
moving and is inexhaustible. This lovely field of spiritual
life and experience that is before us is immense, emancipating,
and liberating. Anyone who tries to pull it down and label
it into a fixed doctrinal pattern will only hinder and frustrate
its full outworking. We must always remember that spiritual
truth is a progressive revelation which continually expands
and moves upward.
If we are unable to distinguish between certain things, it
will give us great trouble as we go on in our spiritual development.
We must be careful to not confuse certain terms and make them
synonymous when they are not synonymous. This is the calling
of teachers in the Body of Christ.
Teachers are those who have received revelation in the Word,
as they are moved upon by the Holy Spirit. This does not come
by reading books alone. As I move into a deeper understanding
of the Word of God, I must also move into a broader and a
more glorious revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus did not say, “I have some truth to share.”
All other teachers have been able to do this. Rather, Jesus
said, "I am the truth.” This means that all truth
is personified in Him and has become articulate and fully
expressive in this dynamic, marvelous, living Christ. The
nearer we get to Him, the more we will love Him. There are
profound unfoldings by the Spirit into the person of Christ,
“in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
There is much that we can have which is quite visible and
tangible. It is what we call the articulate aspect of it.
But there is much more that is evasive, which is within this
Christ. This is where I get blessed, as the Holy Spirit takes
me into this “darkness” for a glimpse of something
within this marvelous Jesus, who said, “I am the truth.”
All truth is summed up in this revelation; “He that
has seen Me has seen the Father.” He is not talking
about seeing a body, but rather, the manifestation of the
nature and character of God as seen in Jesus. This invisible
and marvelous God became visible and articulate in this wonderful
dynamic Person, God the Son, eternally identified with us.
Those who gathered around Jesus heard Him speak and saw the
manifestations of miracle power. They were the recipients
of His grace and healing, but not even the disciples had a
revelation as to His identity. After they had followed Him
for over two years, Jesus said to them, “Who am I?"
After Peter identified Him, Jesus said that he had come to
this understanding through a direct revelation from the Father,
not through any observation of Jesus. Jesus then told Peter
that he was hearing from the Father, as He heard. Now the
disciples were ready to be lifted into a new level of revelation.
He told them that He would die on the cross and revealed His
glory to Peter, James, and John, on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Many years ago, I exercised the energy of my flesh in seeking
a college education. It was a wonderful discipline, but it
did not produce the spiritual light and illumination that
I longed for.
When I began to seek the Lord Himself, I discovered that
each unfolding of spiritual truth lead me to a fuller revelation
and understanding of Jesus. I have been awakened to this lovely
truth and Jesus is becoming an increasing reality in my life.
With the Apostle Paul, may each of us pray,
“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to
His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection
from
the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already
become perfect”
“But I press on in order that I may lay hold of that
for which
also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” Phil 3:10-12
NAS.