The Knowledge of the Glory of God

His ministry was just beginning in full force. He had just called two brothers, the fishermen Peter and Andrew, to follow Him and become fishers of men. Then He went about all the territories of Galilee, teaching, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sicknesses and diseases. As the multitude gathered around to listen to Him, He went up unto a mountain and began to teach. 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:
 for they shall be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children
 of God.

 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the  kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:3-10).

Without doubt, one of the greatest of the Beatitudes, quoted above, is the line which states, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Surely, of all things, the most sublime is to “see God.”

Blessed are the Pure in Heart

He said the pure in heart are blessed because they will be given the enviable opportunity to see God.

What does it mean to see God?

The Scriptures tell us that God is Spirit and not a physical being, and unlike man, He does not dwell in a physical body or physical house. He dwells in the invisible realm above. Heaven is His throne, and the earth His footstool. He is the Spirit, the creator and Father of all. Solomon, by inspired wisdom said: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have built?” (I Kings 8:27).

He dwells in the infinite heavenly realm created by Him which cannot contain Him, and from there rules over all. This realm of which we speak is not visible to the natural eye and the communications there cannot be received by human except by those who have become new creation in Christ Jesus whose eyes have been enlightened and their ears opened by the Holy Spirit to receive transmissions from heavenly frequencies.

The Lord Jesus when speaking to the disciples said: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18 KJV).

The Weymouth translation of the New Testament renders this verse as saying, “No human eye has ever seen God: the only Son, who is in the Father’s bosom—He has made Him known.”  No natural eye hath seen nor can see Him. He is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.”(1 Tim 6:15,16).

Only the Son who came from Him can show Him to humanity. And so the Son of God came to earth to reveal Him to us. He came to make us see the Father. He came to make Him known.

Let’s ask the question again: What does it mean to see God? The word “see” used in the Scriptural passages quoted above is interchangeable with the word “know” and must be so understood.

In the original, for example, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” in essence means, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall know God.” To see God is to know Him. He’s not speaking here about seeing with the outward eye, but seeing with the inner eye. To see God is to know Him through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. We are not talking about learning about God through reading books or even reading the letter of the Bible but knowing Him through a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit in which He reveals the mind of God to us. No one has ever seen God at any time, and no one can see Him except those to whom the Son reveals Him through the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Scriptures often employ the term “see” to mean perception. And you hear people in everyday life do exactly that. You have probably heard someone, after learning some new fact, exclaim, “Oh, I see!” You have probably done that yourself. This expression, “Oh, I see!” denotes comprehension. There’s a sudden flash of revelation and the individual says, “I see!” A veil has been removed, and something that was concealed is now uncovered. God gave us the Bible so we can receive the Revelation of Jesus Christ by the help of the Holy Spirit as we read its content.

After going through those painful experiences recorded in the Bible, Job came to perceive what God wanted him to see. His eyes were opened, and he said, “I have heard Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee” (Job 42:5). We all agree that Job did not see God in the physical sense, but his experience brought him to a place where he began to know God’s ways. He did not see God literally, but he saw Him nonetheless. And he was blessed.

This seeing is with the inner eye, and the sight is an inner understanding. In the same manner, the “seeing God” that the Lord talks about is with the eye of the spirit man.

“In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.

All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.

And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard” 

Born-Again With the Divine Genes

The privilege and the ability to receive revelation knowledge from God is a tremendous blessing. This special privilege is available only to those whom the Son has made worthy. As the Apostle wrote in his letter to the Colosians:

“Giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light” (Col 1:12).

The inherent ability to hear what the Spirit of God is saying, and to ‘see and perceive’ the things of God is inherited by the New Creation man at birth. When a person is born again, the inner man is recreated in Christ Jesus and that new child of the living God has the divine nature. The new-born is a child of course, but it can hear, see, feel, and possess all the same features with its parent though in an undeveloped scale. The child can hear and see its Father and will gradually grow in understanding of what the Father says and does as it dwells in the same realm as He is.

Let’s step back a little and ensure we are all on the same page.

For every one of us humans, the natural birth comes first at which time we were born into this physical world, ‘born of the flesh’ from the falling human race. We were all in Adam, separated from the realm of God, dead in trespasses and sin, and under the kingdom of darkness. We all died in Adam. We walked in darkness, and darkness covered our eyes. Therefore we could neither see, nor understand the things that are going on in the realm of life.

The natural man can neither access, see, nor understand the things of God because he’s dead. It is the Spirit that quickeneth (maketh alive); the flesh (with all its learning and natural understanding) profiteth nothing (John 6: 63). And that’s where we all were, doomed to rut under the dominion of darkness and of death.

Then the ‘grace of God that brought salvation appeared’(Tit 2:10), and through faith we received salvation by that grace from the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ; We believed, we accepted Jesus as our Savior, confessed Him as Lord and we, who were once dead, were quickened, recreated, born-again in Christ Jesus to a newness of life.

We who were once in the kingdom of darkness have been translated into God’s kingdom and become children of light. Born into the Kingdom of Light

God Who Commanded the Light to Shine..

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2Co 4:6).

Let’s listen to the Lord as He discussed this with Nicodemus.

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

These words from the Lord Jesus must have shocked Nicodemus. He was a top-class Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, who believed that by virtue of his birthright as a Jew he was already a member of the Kingdom of God. This was a term with which he had been familiar since childhood. But now, this young carpenter’s son Teacher from Nazareth, of all places, tells him to his face, that unless he’s ‘born again’, born from above, he will not see the Kingdom of God!

What does that even mean? he asked himself
Looking confused, he asks defensively, “How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” (Joh 3:4).

So the Lord Jesus repeated His answer with respect to entering the Kingdom. His first reply to Nicodemus was that except a man is born-again, he cannot even see the Kingdom of God talk much less of entering it. When Nicodemus posed his defensive retort, the Lord now repeated His answer with an additional progression saying
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (Joh 3:6).

Now, here’s where majority of Christians and even many preachers miss it, get confused and then confuse many. At birth, that is the natural birth when entering into this physical world, we were born of the flesh, of the falling human nature. And that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

Then we heard the Good News, the Gospel of Salvation. We believed, we accepted Jesus as our Savior and confessed Him as our Lord. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, God performs a miracle of creation similar to what He did with His Breath for Adam, we’re ‘born of the Spirit!’

Now, re-read the 6th verse of John Chapter 3 quoted above and listen carefully to what the Lord Jesus said. What did He say is born of the Spirit?
In the first birth, the natural birth, we understand He said that which is born of the flesh is flesh. He then stated that the second birth is of the Spirit. He said that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Again, in the next verse, what did He say is born of the Spirit?

Yes, you got it!

That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

It is your spirit, the inner-man, the hidden-man of the heart, that was born again, born of the Spirit(God’s Spirit) at new birth. Your body was not born again at new-birth, neither was your mind. The second birth is similar to Adam’s creation when God ‘breathed’ into a new, beautifully shaped clay and Adam became a living soul. The new you, your spirit-man, came from God at the instant of new birth. But unlike Adam’s case, you did not get a newly created body. And this newly born spirit came from God who is its Father. The New Creation man was brought forth by God at birth and it’s part of the breath of God as Adam’s was, during the first creation.

Let’s summarize the key points and the implications from the section above. This will form a foundation for understanding most of the articles and books that will be published on this site: 

• Man is a spirit being. His spirit came from the breath of God.
• At birth, we inherited Adam’s nature. Hence, born spiritually dead.
• God made a way for us to become new creatures with eternal life.
• We heard the gospel, believed, accepted Jesus as savior and lord
• We’re born again, new spirit, became a new creation in Christ Jesus.
• The Holy Spirit now dwells inside us, and we can communicate
• Our fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is restored
• We now have full access, ability, and privilege to know the things of God.

Now We Can Know the Things of God

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (Col 2:12).

Now that we are born of God, our spirit man which came from His breath, can communicate with Him and we can know the things of God. The verse above says that ‘we can know the things that God has freely given us’ since we have received the spirit of God. We can see God and we can know Him. There is no limit to how far we can go with our ‘knowlege of God’. It depends on us. We, individually, set the limit on how far we go with Him. Apostle Paul says:

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phi 3:13,14).

If Paul had not attained to the mark and was pressing toward it, how much more should we? As we run this race, we must never stop nor take a break until we reach the finish line and we must run according to the rules.

We must, like a marathon runner reaches out for the finish line, press forward even with our last breath for the price of the High Calling.

We must give everything and do everything in our power to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering so we can be found in His likeness. God is raising up a generation of seekers and worshippers who will not stop but will keep searching into the deep things of God. They will not be satisfied with the shallow and religious knowledge of God that the traditional system provides, but will keep searching, through a personal relationship into the deep things of God.