The Pneuma Review » Ivan Spencer

Daily Seedings: Revelation And Impartation

Ivan Spencer — Tue, 12 May 2020 22:04:16 +0000

Revelation And Impartation

Revelation of God not only brings conviction, but it also brings impartation. When one gets a revelation of the love of God, that love will be shed abroad in the heart. A revelation of the holiness of God will make one holy. A revelation of the knowledge of God will impart Divine knowledge. Each revelation brings transformation.

Many people have a revelation of the love of God; that is very wonderful. But in His character, He is much more than love. The Scripture states that our God is holy, just, and faithful.

These Divine revelations bring impartations of the Divine characteristics and virtues into our lives. If we have a revelation of the God of love, impartation of the love of God comes to our souls. Even when I sense my lack of faith and yet have a revelation of the faithfulness of God, the faith of God is planted within me.

When we have a full, well-rounded revelation of God, we come to be filled with all the fullness of God. This is truly the perfection of a Christian character. Thus, we can see that the great need of this hour is to have a full revelation so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.

I am reminded of the words of Jesus, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23). In the same chapter, Jesus also spoke of the coming of the Comforter. By this passage, I saw that God must still manifest Himself. The glorious fullness of Divine Character must still be in operation. The present-day expression of the Godhead is the expression of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Daily Seedings: Heart Revelation Not Head Knowledge

Ivan Spencer — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 21:31:39 +0000

Heart Revelation Not Head Knowledge

When John had a vision of the glorified Lord on Patmos, John fell at His feet as dead. The same thing happened to Daniel, and he said all his comely parts turned in him into corruption. Revelation of God always brings a sense of a deep heart need. If sinners can be brought into touch with the Lord, conviction will settle upon them.

The outstanding use of miracles is to bring revelation of God to people—to show His Presence, His power, and His love. It is not merely to meet the needy. That ministry which has not the supernatural and the miraculous in it is void of revelation of God and is lacking in spiritual results. It brings a mental conception but lacks heart revelation. The most of Christianity today is a result of logic and theory. Because it is so void of the supernatural, God has not been able to manifest Himself.

Oh, for the supernatural ministry today! It will come when God’s people come into revelation and knowledge of Him as John, Paul, and Daniel had it. Powerful anointing and ministries are sure to follow the revelation of the Lord.

In these days of mental development and learning, man gets almost everything that he knows by way of mental exercise. We have acquired this method of gaining knowledge in spiritual things. But spiritual things, if they are to become understood, must be by way of the heart. As it is written, “The world through wisdom did not know God” (1 Corinthians 1:21). But with the heart man believes unto righteousness.

What one gets by revelation stays with him and becomes a part of him. What you have received of God cannot be reasoned away.

Daily Seedings: Paul’s Revelation

Ivan Spencer — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 21:50:49 +0000

Paul’s Revelation

The apostle Paul met the Lord on the Damascus road in the days of his persecution of the Church. That vision brought a complete change in him in every way.

Almost immediately, Paul began to preach Christ as the Son of God. There were other revelations of Jesus that he had in his early Christian life which shaped his Christian character and gave him the message that he would afterward call, “my gospel.”

In Galatians 1:11–12, Paul declared he neither received the gospel from man nor was he taught it, but he said it came by the revelation of Jesus Christ. In other words, the gospel was a revelation of the Person of Jesus Christ. It was a revelation of His character and perfections as the Divine Son of God. Then, the gospel is not merely a set of teachings or doctrines, but it is what is seen in the Person of Jesus.

In Romans 1:16, Paul declared that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Then, the gospel in its outworking is the Divine operation of God’s character perfections in the lives of men who believe.

Not only was Jesus revealed to Paul, but He was also revealed in him. That is, revelation of Jesus brought impartation of Him into Paul’s heart and life. What he received by revelation stayed with him and became part of him. Christ was in him the Hope of glory!

This impartation of Christ was to enable Paul to preach to the Gentiles (Ephesians 3:8). And with Paul’s preaching, there was imparted to the hearers the very life, virtues, and perfections that he had received when Christ was revealed in him.

Daily Seedings: Peter’s Revelation

Ivan Spencer — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 22:33:26 +0000

Peter’s Revelation

In the first year of Jesus’ ministry, while preaching by the Sea of Galilee and being pressed into the water by the throng, Jesus asked Peter that He might get into his ship.

After preaching from the ship to the people for a time, He asked Peter to launch out into the deep and let down his net for a draft of fish.

Peter replied, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5).

Peter surely must have been startled. He, an old man and fisherman all his life in these very waters, was then taking fishing instructions from a young carpenter after he had fished all night and caught nothing!

Evidently, to prove to his instructor that He was wrong, Peter yielded to Jesus’ wish. But when he and his helper could not pull in the net because of the multitude of fish and had to call for help from James and John in another ship—filling both ships until they began to sink—he fell at the feet of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8).

Why was he occupied with his sinful state? Because, with the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God, there also came to him a revelation of his own condition. No one can come in vital contact with Deity and be the same again.

Daily Seedings: Man’s Vision

Ivan Spencer — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 20:04:21 +0000

Man’s Vision

God revealed Himself to Abraham as God Almighty and said, “Walk before Me and be blameless” (Genesis 17:1). In the Hebrew, El-Shaddai means the “All-sufficient One.” When Abraham had this Divine revelation, there came with it an enabling to walk before God and be blameless.

But to Moses, God revealed Himself as Jehovah. Jehovah means the “Self-existent One who reveals Himself.” It is the covenant-keeping and redemptive name of God. This name was so sacred to the Hebrews that they never spoke it. It is translated into our English as Lord.

At the time God revealed Himself to Moses as Jehovah, Moses was in real need of this revelation. Israel was in Egyptian bondage, and Moses was chosen of God to lead them out. God reminded him of His covenant to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give them the land of Canaan for an inheritance. This was too much for Moses. God had to intervene, and Moses had to see the God of ability and covenant-keeping.

When God was able to get Moses’ vision off the natural and centered upon Himself, He could intervene to do the seemingly impossible. Because of this revelation, through the rest of Moses’ life God was able to give him this marvelous supernatural ministry in bringing redemption to Israel.

Daily Seedings: The Revelation of God’s Character

Ivan Spencer — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 21:53:54 +0000

The Revelation of God’s Character

In the ancient East, proper names had a special significance. The name of a person often presented some characteristic of that person. This is true also of the names of God. In His names, He reveals His character and His manifold relations to His creatures.

Jesus’ life and ministry were revelations of the Father. He came into the world to manifest the Father in all His manifold character. The disciples would naturally know Jesus as a man after the flesh—as a Nazarene, the son of Joseph and Mary. To come to know Him as the Son of God, they had to have a revelation.

Additionally, each New Testament character differed from the other in natural traits and characteristics, so Jesus had to be manifest to each one in some special way in order for each to actually know Him as the Son of God.

Thomas’s unbelief, for example, had to be surmounted before he could know Him. Thrusting his hand in the riven side, he cried, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

The woman of Samaria was startled by the knowledge Jesus had of her past life. Then, He carefully unfolded to her what the living water was and who it was that was offering it to her. Afterward, she had to exclaim, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (John 4:29).

Daily Seedings: Revealing Himself to Man

Ivan Spencer — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 22:13:34 +0000

Revealing Himself to Man

“‘All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.’” — Matthew 11:27

Since the time of the fall of man, God has been endeavoring to reveal Himself to humanity. Man, with his back on God, must be arrested by Deity. God must act sovereignly, for man has not the power in himself to contact God, much less to understand Him. Deity must step in the path of man and stop him by a revelation of Himself.

Moses had seen many a bush burn, but on one day when he saw that a bush was not consumed though it burned by fire, he turned aside to see. When his attention was thus arrested, God spoke from the bush and asked Moses to take off his shoes for the place he was standing on was holy.

The revelation of God to the individual heart is progressive. At first, we may know Jesus as Savior; afterward, we come to know Him as Healer, Provider, King, and Bridegroom.

Such revelation of God also must enlarge from one age to another. God in Christ revealing the Father was an advance upon the revelation of God in the tabernacle worship. In this age, we have the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, revealing the other two Personalities.