The Revelation of Jesus

On Monday, a dear sister in the LORD sent me a FB message of a Youtube video from the Christian worship team, Housefires.  The song is entitled Jesus What A Savior. (Kably, Kirby. "Jesus What A Savior". By Kirby Kably. We Say Yes. Housefires Music. 2107. YouTube). I know this sister hears from the LORD so it wasn’t just a FB message.  I am sure she was inclined by the Spirit of the LORD to share it with me. This song has such a sweet presence of Jesus on it. I listened to it over and over.  REPEAT. I have the heart of a worshipper so very rarely do I listen to an anointed song once.  By about the third listen, I had the song in my heart and had really entered worship. Before I even knew what was happening I was on the floor crying, sobbing.  I was praying from my heart because no words could even flow.  It was just tears and sobs.  I wasn’t just sobbing. I was feeling my conversation with Jesus inwardly.  I would think something and feel it and He would respond and I would feel it.  I kept playing the song over and over because He was there with me.  I wanted him to know my heart.  Then the sobbing increased because I realized I didn’t know his heart like I should.  I knew his heart for me but not for others.

Honestly, I have never really seen myself as a compassionate person.  I know people who flow in compassion and I know that I don’t operate at that level but I was feeling something inside myself that is difficult to describe.   As I worshipped and cried, I realized how much I needed his heart.  A powerful verse in the song reveals, “Your heart it knows no borders knows no walls. Your constantly moving towards me with open arms”. (Kably, Kirby. "Jesus What A Savior". By Kirby Kably. We Say Yes. Housefires Music. 2107. YouTube).  His heart has no borders-there are no walls.  This is His love and nothing can separate us from it when we are IN HIM.   (Nothing can separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus - Romans 8:39)  He is the exact image of the invisible God. You can’t know God outside of Him and yet He demonstrates His heart through the most simple and profound ways at the same time-so that we may realize our deep need for Him.  This went on for some time.

Then I realized I wanted to share the song.  I was being so impacted by this time of worship.  I shared it on social media and via private messages.  Then I went back to it again. I played it repeatedly.  I went back into prayer interceding for the President, the people of Texas, the nation, and the church.  I knew I heard Jesus speaking to me saying, “I need you to know (by experience) you are Christ (the anointed One) to someone every day.  Every time you go out to the lost world; you are Me to them.  I need your hands, your feet, your body and your heart to demonstrate our Father’s love.”  I am sobbing more as I think of how the people in Texas and all over that region are “loving” one another by serving one another through simple but profound acts that determine life and death.  SELAH. 

Then a random thought came to my mind.  I remembered when I taught history in a Christian school and we did a lesson describing a time of revival.  The textbook mentioned a novel by Charles Sheldon, In His Steps published in 1896.  It was the inspiration for the WWJD faith fad that was prevalent during that time.  Instead of just glossing over it, I decided my students and I would read his book.  The novel is about an challenge given by the pastor of a community church. He gave a sermon that turned into a movement. This  community with church members from all walks of life committed to seriously contemplate what Jesus would do with daily decisions in their lives for an entire year. During the height of the modern day movement you could find the acronym on everything. Today you can still find it in some stores or online.  I doubt that many people have heard of the novel, read it or knew roots of the phrase.  It is a simple but profound concept. It isn’t just the mental contemplation of what would Jesus do, a very westernized approach, but rather it is an action orientated experience of walking IN HIS STEPS. Jesus was talking to me about this experience of walking in his steps.  The words of the song and the images from the media coverage in Texas had stirred my heart so deeply.  I sobbed and prayed some more. 

I asked for forgiveness for my hardness of heart.  I knew that recent current events (Charlottesville and the protests) had created hardness in my heart.  My whole heart wasn’t hard but there were areas. The amount of hate and racism that is pervading the culture is unnerving. It is tangible. Really it is, sad but true.  (And then there was a hurricane named Harvey. SELAH).  Now I  felt the need for forgiveness.  I also felt a deep need to have Jesus’ heart.  I kept crying and saying “Lord, I don’t have your heart.”  Then he reminded me of some other things that I had done in obedience.  Things that aren’t public knowledge nor my current FB status. These were things that demonstrated His heart. I felt conflicted, but grateful that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.  In some ways, I did have his heart but I heard him saying, “I am enlarging your capacity for Me.”  It was a word that I had received from Him a few months ago: enlarge your tent.  I did not fully understand what He meant then, but I understood more now.  Not all, but more. 

You might be wondering, all this happened while you were listening to a ten-minute worship song.  Well, yes because it was worship and I had entered something spiritual. I played it over and over until He came and sat down in my worship.  Then I just sat at His feet.  Ten minutes had turned into a couple of hours.  Singing, praying, crying and sobbing.  I would stop crying long enough to sing and worship and then I would feel Him moving in my heart and I would just start sobbing again. 

In all that I realized many things, some of which I don't know consciously now but I know I received a revelation of Jesus.  It was a revelation of His love and heart that I had not known. (“The Jesus I knew was handing me the Jesus I didn’t know and was saying this is Me”. Bishop T.D. Jakes- Paradigm Shift).  The experience is a bit of  something that is still difficult to describe.  It makes me think of the first scripture in the book of Revelation. In the Amplified Bible, it reads:

This is the revelation of Jesus Christ [His unveiling of the divine mysteries] God gave it to HIM to disclose and make known to HIS bond servants certain things which must shortly and speedily come to pass in their entirety.  And He sent and communicated it through His angel (messenger) to HIS bond servant John. (Revelation 1:1 The Amplified Bible)

One day while reading this scripture, I got a revelation.  The Book of Revelation is not John’s revelation but Jesus’ revelation. He disclosed it to John.  He shared it with John to share with the rest of us.  We need Jesus’ revelation and perspective.  THE REVELATION OF JESUS. We need to see what He is seeing; what the Father is revealing. THE REVELATION OF JESUS. The revelation of all that He is, is constantly unfolding. It is perpetual. THE REVELATION OF JESUS.  A knowing of His heart and His love that compels us to act beyond ourselves and our security on behalf of someone else. THE REVELATION OF JESUS.

The Apostle Paul expressed it this way…” I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord….and be found in Him not having my own righteousness…that I might know Him and the power of his resurrection…but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” (Philippians 3:8-12 NKJV.  I could have quoted all of verses 8 through 12 but this is already longer than I thought it would be!! I encourage you to read the passage in its entirety).

THE REVELATION OF JESUS.  Jesus is the Alpha and Omega; He is the beginning and the end.  He knew what his earthly assignment would require and He choose to love through death. His death gave us life eternal. No greater love. Jesus what a Savior.



© Ronda Wagner and Kelbey Chronicles 2013-2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without the express and written permission of this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.  Excerpts may be used provided full and clear credit is given to Ronda Wagner and Kelbey Chronicles with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Identity Revisited: Discovery

***I originally wrote this last year to be posted in a blog I write with three other Christian Women (pro31womenscompendium.com). I never submitted the post because I felt it was incomplete. Now it is complete. The original title was Identity.  However, I changed the title because I had to add some thoughts recently revealed. 

From the womb to the tomb and sometimes beyond that, we are given what I will call identifiers.  These identifiers are labels, names, terms, blessings and curses that become associated and connected to us as individuals.  For example:

birth

boy or girl

black or white

long or short

skinny or fat

cute or ugly

peaceful or ornery

And that short list can happen within 24 hours of your birth! So what happens when we have years of this mess just piled up on our subconscious, our spirit. 

Recently, (at the original writing) during a prayer meeting, I heard the Holy Spirit say “you don’t see yourself as God sees you…” Selah.  There is no argument there.  As believers we are to find our identity in Christ Jesus.   The book of Ephesians is full of “in Him” scriptures that testify to the spiritual reality of believers functioning as Christ’s Body in the earth.  Again, there is no argument there.  However, what if the Holy Spirit was really referencing not just spiritual origin, but original intent or maybe better said as original design. 

Our lives are full of concepts that are so far from the original intent of the Father; remember we are living in a fallen world in need of restoration & redemption. Honestly, for some of us, by the time we are awakened to the gift of salvation, we have been through so much of life that salvation is literally a new birth.  It is not only a birthing of our spirit but I want to suggest it is a new birth of our soul as well.  Our spirit becomes alive to God and yet our mind, emotions and will have to be transformed.  This is the part of salvation and redemption that can get folks sitting on opposite sides of a fence.  Once we receive our gift of salvation, I earnestly believe we begin this journey of discovering who Father created us to be…and this identity goes beyond simply our function as part of the body of Christ.  This identity goes all the way back to the very breath of God…the original design and intent of the Creator.

Job 33: 4

            “ The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

In our culture so much of our identity is wrapped up in the accumulation of these identifiers.  The list just grows and grows.  Add-ons come from our education, our career, our community affiliation, our social status, our ethnicity …even our computer usernames!  If I have to create another personal ID…seriously!  Really what does it all mean?  In my humble opinion, it means that we are so easily distracted by what is truly unimportant that there is a lack of sensitivity and discernment to see what truly is important.  At the end of the day, we are created beings of a benevolent Creator.  Father is the Creator and we are the created. He knows far more about who we are then we do or any given day.  We must discover who it is that He created us to be.  That is not an easy task.  It is full of falsehood and deceptions planted by an enemy of our soul.  Only through the power of the Spirit of God and a seed of faith do we stumble into the truth that can set our soul free.  It is called a faith walk. A walk is a simple step at a time.

At the original time of this writing, I was struggling with who I believed God had “called” me to be. 

(Side bar- revelation: I am not a calling, I am a creation) Reflecting back, I can now see how the Father was working out the things in my soul that where not in alignment with who He had “created” me to be.  Several years ago the Father revealed that I was His Beloved.  I thought WOW, I need to Be-Loved.  Then later He revealed that I was His daughter. Again WOW, I needed to be Fathered.  Throughout this journey, I have realized that it has been a process of Him awakening me to the essence of who I am in HIM.  It has been a removing of layers of false identities found in my achievements, careers and life roles.  None of those false identities were even close to what He has wanted to reveal in me.  I received who He called me to be as His Beloved. I am continuing to walk in what it means to be-loved unconditionally. Love is eternal, therefore this revelation is never-ending.  I recently discovered why He revealed that I was His daughter.  As his daughter, He was fathering my soul.  He was healing the wounded areas of my heart. Wounds not simply from the lack of a father role in my life, but a much broader healing that encompassed any wound that was keeping me bound and captive.  

Recently, I heard a favorite minister of mine reveal that our soul is characteristically feminine but our spirit is characteristically masculine.  I won’t even try to explain. I pray you catch it in the Spirit. However, if you look into scripture you will see a slight delineation.  Adam was created with Eve inside of Him. She was taken out of him.  That means there was a part of Adam that was characteristically feminine. It’s deep, I know,  but I kept meditating on this.  After a few days, I sensed the Spirit wanting to open up my understanding to the process the Father was working IN me. 

In a moments of reflection, I saw all the different identities I had attached myself to in order to find acceptance, love and validation. (No need to list them. I hope you are getting the picture.) All to no avail.  It wasn’t until the Father started to reveal to me His thoughts that I began to unmask and walk away from the falsehoods.  Finally, I have come to realize that as the daughter of God, He fathers my soul to keep it free of bondage, but the time has come for me to walk in my sonship. What kind of son? A son of the Spirit. 

Romans 8:14

For as many as are lead by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God.

John 1:12

But to as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

I am a Daughter of God and a Son of the Spirit. IDENTITY DISCOVERED!!!

© Ronda Wagner and Kelbey Chronicles 2013-2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without the express and written permission of this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.  Excerpts may be used provided full and clear credit is given to Ronda Wagner and Kelbey Chronicles with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.