Revelation

Hello Everyone!!! Woohoooo...is anyone here? Lol

I feel like such a jerk :). I haven't been on here in ageeessss...I apologize really, from the bottom of my heart, to everyone who reads this blog and comes back to check if I just fell off the planet. I didn't. I just became...I don't know...

But I'm sorry :)

Ok, so let's get right into it! (Rubs palms together).

I'm so excited because this is one of those things that we get (understand), but run off and pretty much forget. I just can't wait to get it out and see what the Holy Spirit brings out of me (that's my fav part of blogging with God, and ok, I'll stop with the parenthesis).

Ok, so just look at this verse, a close look at this one:

17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter (AKA Rock, as in BOULDER),^c and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades^d will not overcome it.^e 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be^f bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be^g loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16: 17-19, NIV, lifted from bible.cc)

So pretty much, Jesus and his close friends aka disciples aka people like moi :D were having a conversation. So Jesus, out of nowhere asks a seemingly random question. And Peter opens his mouth and said something that was like 'wow' (for lack of a better word to capture the essence of what just happened). Now, for been-in-Sunday-school-all-my-life people like me, we don't get that. Like, how did he NOT know that Jesus is the Son of God, that's so trivial, right? Wrong!

See, when Jesus lived among men, it was at a time that God swore that the Jews would pretty much be blind to him, with a veil over them that though they hear, they would not understand because He was pretty much frustrated with their attitude towards Him and His Holiness. They just didn't care that the Holy One was in their midst and had no respect or honor towards God. They dabbled into idolatry, threw their kids into fire for sacrifice, had temple prostitutes (male and female) as an excuse to be horny and look religious while at it. They desecrated His temple, but the main thing that really got to God, that I get from scripture in general, was that they shed innocent blood; prophets, kids, poor and oppressed people, and from their perspective they were doing no wrong. Pretty much, their hearts were stone-hard, dark and farrrr, very far from God. But see, these were not gentiles. They were sworn to God by an everlasting covenant that they walked into over and over again by themselves - with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Ezra/Nehemiah, David, Solomon. Like this was a serious contract. And they always said "let our blood be upon us and upon our children if we ever deviate from the words of this covenant". Pretty intense clause to add huh?

Well, being the Israelites that they were at that time, they were stubborn and unashamed (God's words not mine, even made an allusion to them being whores without remorse - I love my bible, no jokes). But this is pretty serious stuff.

Well anyways, they were living in "darkened" times by the time the Messiah was on earth. Revelation was scarce. And they couldn't recognize God talking unless it was a pharisee with his all flowing, elegant robes who said, "Thus says the Lord...". But they weren't really alarmed because, one, they were in many ways "unfamiliar with/strangers to" God (and oblivious to it), and so they could talk about Him, but just not know him and two, they were children/servants/descendants of Moses - you have to be a bible reader to get this.

Well, so God himself was in their midst. They could tell "Jesus" was God-related, but they couldn't tell it was God himself. And no one would be able to by their flesh and blood (brains and ogbon), unless God revealed it.

So Simon, just replied Jesus' "random" question and as I can imagine kinda like an eager 3rd grader who answered a question before anyone could put up their hands. Then Jesus let him know, he was right, but more than that, it did not come from him, but directly from Heaven. But here's where it gets really interesting...

...and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades^d will not overcome it.^e 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be^f bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be^g loosed in heaven.

Hmm. And on this rock I will build my church. What rock? Revelation that comes from the Father. Simple.

Now, let me slow down. Peter just had a gush of revelation. Then Jesus called him by a new name that means seriously, huge, strong, not easily broken, boulder rock. And Jesus goes on and says He will build his church i.e. Me (and of course Christians) on this rock, which would never be overcome by the gates of hell - think war, battle, heavy fighting from the devil. It would simply be like a speck of dust that gets blown away before it tries to get near you. Do you get it?

Let me go over again, cos I'm just too excited. Ok, so Jesus lets us know that revelation is as a boulder rock (remember the parable about the two men, one built his house on sand, the other on the rock, and when the winds came (gates of hell), it could not prevail against it. The one on sand of course crashed, it couldn't even stand a chance). But Jesus goes further the we would be built based on the revelation we get from Heaven. The more Revelation we get, no matter how contrary the physical seem, it would not shake us one bit and we would overcome all that gets thrown our way. But also, we get the authority to speak this Revelation back into the realm of the Spirit, and what ever we bind on earth would be bound in heaven and whatever we loose on earth would be loosed in heaven. Don't know about you but that kind of authority is pretty neat!

So, now you see, it is one thing to hear your pastor say something and you go and quote it. It's another to hear God tell you something, you get the revelation for it and speak it, stand upon it, decree and declare and shake the foundations of the earth that what you declare becomes established.

Wow, it feels good to be a Child of the Most High. No jokes, I'm a special kind of VIP. A vvvvvvvvip.

I'm so excited, but let me leave with these two scriptures. Leave your thoughts in the box below I want to keep talking about this.

It is the glory of God that hides the word, and the glory of the King that seeks for (investigate, search out, uncover, reveal) the word. (Proverbs 25:2, Aramaic bible in plain English, from bible.cc, with my extras in the bracket)

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach (create the knowledge principle in) you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deut 8:3, NIV, from bible.cc).

Phew...I did get something out, but I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface.