Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 96. I Know God by His Revelation (my soul stirs for reconciliation of the heavens and earth)

Hello human.

The mystery of Christ is stirring my soul. The revelation of Christ in me. My apocalypse.

What happens when Jesus stirs my soul? When a bright light flashes from heaven on my daily road to Damascus? What happens to you?  What do others see in us?

Episode 96 is the second of two episodes that embrace and explore the WHY for BUOY. How I have lived Ephesians 1:17. The anchor verse for this journey. Just three episodes from the threshold of e99.

Ephesians 1:17

 

17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

This verse has motivated my spirit from within, held my gaze through the nearly past two years. It’s spirit has quenched my thirst to read more, pray more, discover more and share more. A few reflections weekly. Since October 2022. God has grown my faith through the divine persuasion of His faithfulness. He goes before me. And He leaves wisdom prints on His path for me to follow, so I embrace a life following Him, pursuing Him, to know Him more deeply.

Because knowing God is my heart’s desire. And that’s my desire for you.

In Episode 95 we heard Paul’s full prayer around that verse, that he prays for the Ephesians, Gentiles who want to engage in the mystery of Christ. He notes in verse 17, that God will give each of us an “apocalypse” … a revelation of the mystery of Christ.

We looked at Paul’s transformation and how he defines the “wisdom and revelation” he keeps praying for. He calls it by its Greek definition, an apocalypse. 

And Paul would know. He saw the light.

And for those who have not listened to e95, my understanding of Ephesians 1:17 has deepened with a study I am doing via The Bible Project, taught by Dr. Tim Mackie. I share his insights on the apocalypse in e96 as well. This study of Ephesians has been such a wellspring for every BUOY that has come before. Congregating the truth I have come to spiritually know into itself, the original, bountiful source, that reveals my spiritual life.

And all its potential.

The Apocalypse Marks the Beginning, Comprehend and Respond

Our secular culture has defined an apocalypse as the end times, the end of the world. The secular world is built on ending after ending after ending after beginning after beginning after beginning after trend after trend after, after, after. Because on earth nothing lasts. Nothing endures. No one reigns for long. Only the human nature that fell with Adam, and navigates toward a path of power, convenience, judgement, and talking, talking, talking to hear our own truths, our own voices. A world full of self-talk.

Paul knew this behavior all too well in 80 AD when he walked the earth. From his deep understanding of The Torah, from the Pharisees and teachers he worked with, from the Roman government.

Until the road to Damascus. What Paul is referring to in His use of the Greek word “apokalypsis” in Ephesians 1:17 is “the most important apocalyptic event in history: Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as well as the gift of the Spirit…. how to understand the apocalypse of Jesus, and how to respond to the apocalypse of Jesus.” (The Bible Project, Dr. Tim Mackie)

As Dr. Tim Mackie teaches, this is the power of Ephesians in our lives:  To comprehend and respond to an apocalypse.

What Did God Purpose in Christ? A Bigger Story.

Why did God send His beloved Son? Because He so loved the world, and His story is bigger than the earthly world He created. It is so much more.

Ephesians 1:9-10

 

9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

God’s endgame is to bring unity to heaven and earth, under His Son. The ultimate sacrificial spiritual warrior.

This requires a major mind shift. We start by taking the timeline away. It is not earth now, heaven later.

God is timeless. We affirm that the heavens have always existed. We live in both realms as believers.

And according to Ephesians 1:9-10, one day, the heavens will reign in the fullness of Christ.

Biblically, the word “heaven” is always translated in the plural in Greek and Hebrew. Because God has a bigger story. A quick but adoring moment on these verses from the Psalms. His timelessness. His heavens.

Psalm 93:2-5

 

2 Your throne was established long ago;

    you are from all eternity.

5 Your statutes, Lord, stand firm;

    holiness adorns your house

    for endless days.

Psalm 96:5

 

5 For all the gods of the nations are idols,

    but the Lord made the heavens.

Psalm 97:6

 

6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,

    and all peoples see his glory.

Why is this so important to how we witness?  Because our goal is “…to view this present moment in light of ultimate reality. And in ultimate reality, Heaven and Earth are one. But there are a lot of things that still need to be reconciled. We can identify places of disunity and brokenness in this world and in us, and we can work to live with an apocalyptic perspective.” (The Bible Project, Dr. Tim Mackie)

When the Bond Between Heaven and Earth Becomes Visible

Wait. What? Why is this so important to how we witness?

Because the heavenly reality has become invisible to many on earth. And an apocalypse is when the bond between Heaven and Earth becomes visible to a person. This happens when a human believes Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died for his or her sins. The heavenly reality becomes visible, and the Holy Spirit resides to help us navigate.

From Dr. Mackie:

Question: According to the biblical worldview, are Heaven and Earth distinct spaces? Why is this important for understanding a biblical apocalypse?

Answer: Heaven and Earth are distinct places that intersect with each other. It is important because how they overlap defines the apocalypse that happens in each of us when we see Jesus as our Lord and Savior, as the Messiah of not just the Israeli nation but all nations, including the Gentiles.

He was making a point about Paul’s purpose. It was all about ministering to those who were not the chosen. This defies all logic, given his background. I won’t go into that now, but if we think about what it means to us, it is the question about who the Gentiles are in our lives.

How Do We Recognize the Heavenly Realm

So, how do we recognize the heavenly realm? James and Paul give us clear direction in two ways.

1. What Wisdom Does… First Pure, Then All the Things

James 3:17 (pure, then all of the things)

 

“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

2. Spiritual Realities Discerned Through Spirit-Taught Words

1 Corinthians 2:12-14

 

12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

The Power of Your Inner Apocalypse

So, here is where I am with this right now. Three things.

1. Every moment has the potential for reconciliation of heaven and earth in my own spiritual growth – what is uncovered about how I act, and acting on my purpose contributes to that reconciliation.
2. Paul affirms my primary challenge, that the heavens and a spiritual reality has become invisible to so many. How do I yield to God to use me to reveal what “living in the spirit” is to others. Sans awkwardness. Sans the gap we ask others to jump over just to listen. Wisdom and spirit-taught direction.
3. Knowing God deepens my spiritual ability to share my revelation with others. This is how my witness grows, deepens, and expands its reach.

Galatians 1: 15-16

 

15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being.

In my life, the import of the revelation of His Son in me is that my witness be open to all people on my path. And my witness is about creating unity between the heavens and the earth, under Christ, by living toward reconciliation.

Ever-Increasing Insight—Wide, Long, High, and Deep

Paul prays a second time in Ephesians 3, that God will give you ever increasing insight into the apocalypse. A prayer that claims God as the Creator of each of us, and that sourced by His glorious riches He will strengthen your inner being. And it is through this, we know the full power of Christ’s love, and it is in this, we are filled with the fullness of our Creator. Yikes. Apocalypse rising.

Ephesians 3:16-20

 

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

We Come to Know God Only by Revelation. (by apocalypse)

We come to know God only by His revelation. He tells us who He is and what He is like, and He shows us in ways we can understand through His Son. He does it through His Word, answering prayers, guiding our actions. This is why I study the life of Jesus.

Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9),

Paul says in Colossians 1:

 

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

 

And verse 19,

 

19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Turn Your Heart Toward Meditation

I am becoming more familiar with the life of J.I. Packer, widely recognized as one of the most influential theological popularizers of the twentieth century. I read that his nearly 70 years of writing and ministry was focused on the importance of knowing and praying to and communing with the triune God. His book, Knowing God, is on my reading list. It’s imminent.

Packer wrote at one point:  “When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology—but rarely of their daily experience of God…. Our sermons contain much sound doctrine—but little relating to the converse between the soul and the Saviour.”

That got my attention. “The converse between the soul and the Saviour.” So I searched for his thoughts on knowing God and meditation. Packer writes,

“How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.”

Packer defines meditation as, “an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God. Its purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let his truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself. It is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace.”

It’s Ephesians 1:17 all over again. And that this process that Paul wanted for the Ephesians, and that I want for everyone who jumps on the BUOY, is the process. Meditation is purposefully dwelling on God and his Word. We expect to hear him speak when we read and think about Scripture.

Psalm 1:2

 

2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,

    and who meditates on his law day and night.

 

I spend a good portion of BUOY in the scripture. I believe it’s the most powerful place to hang out together. I suspect I lose humans long before I say “His grace, my gratitude…” because of all the scriptures I note. But I do so as if studying the stars, like the shepherd David. The more I study His Word, the less I want to rewrite it. That’s a hard-fought truth as a writer.

God redeems my life through my witness. I can write about that because the more I study His Word, the more I want to live in His bigger story where the heavens and earth unite.

And He gives me a medium for sharing my spiritual gifts. God gives me, gives all of us one way to boast.

Jeremiah says in Chapter 9: 23-24: Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

God delights when His people truly know Him. Because to know Him is to love Him.

That’s how we witness. We boast in God’s sovereignty, His steadfast love, His bigger story, His everything.

A powerful witness is born out of my own inner apocalypse, so I ask this question:

Is knowing God through Christ the most valuable thing to me? Is it the most valuable thing to you, human?

We have all the time we need to meditate about, to boast about what God is doing. Every moment has the potential for reconciliation of heaven and earth in my own spiritual growth, how God’s Son is revealed in my actions, and what my purpose is, contributes to that reconciliation. Because our goal is “…to view this present moment in light of ultimate reality. And in ultimate reality, Heaven and Earth are one.

We have all the time in this world. We have every moment in this world and the heavens to witness about a timeless God.

1 Chronicles 29:11

 

11 Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in the heavens and on earth belongs to you. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom, and you are exalted as head over all.