The Pearl

"Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which when a man has found it, he hides it, and for the joy of it goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. 

Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."  - Mat 13:44-46

Pretty much anyone who has walked in the Gospel for a while knows these parables, and it is unlikely I can say anything new about it, but I believe it is good to remind ourselves what the Kingdom of heaven is all about, and maybe see it from a different viewpoint.

For those of you who have read my blog posts from the beginning, read my post on the manifold nature of God, and how Scripture is so deep that often it has multiple meanings.  I believe in these parables of the Kingdom of Heaven there are at least two meanings, and I want to talk about them.

A pale comparison of what heaven truly looks like.

First, let's look at the most common teaching on this, and that is this truth that the Kingdom of Heaven itself is the great pearl, a sort of reward for our lives given to Jesus.  I have been preaching on consecration so much lately that it seems only natural to tie that in here.

Salvation is indeed free, and yet Jesus asks us for our entire lives in order to live in heaven on earth and enter in to His eternal rest on the other side.  When the farmer sold everything he had, or the merchant, he had to make a sacrifice.  He gave up multiple good things, multiple pleasures, in order to obtain one ultimate pleasure.  That is Jesus.

In order to be disciples of Him we offer everything.  He may not ask us to move away, change jobs, or much of our external life, but regardless of that you have transformed from a doorway of sin and darkness to a gate of light that pours into the world around you.  No matter your physical surroundings everything changes spiritually.  The pearl of great price will draw looks, criticism for selling everything for that one object of your desire, and yet the joy the merchant feels conquers all those things.

"Many waters cannot quench love, nor will the rivers overflow it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be scorned."  - Song of Solomon 8:7

The lover here knows exactly what the merchant and the farmer feel, and I believe it is a parallel truth.  What we give up for Jesus, what we give up for love, in truth is nothing but junk anyway.  While other people may gape and laugh at us for loving Him to the extreme, in our minds we scorn the things we abandoned, just like Paul did.

"But no, rather, I also count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be dung, so that I may win Christ."
- Philippians 3:8

Paul was as blunt as can be, saying he considered anything that had nothing to do with Jesus to be dung.

How about we flip the coin and look at this from a different angle.  What if when Jesus was speaking to the crowd, trying to explain the what the Kingdom of Heaven was like, none of them or us really caught His heart in the message?  Being the human beings we are, we tend to look at things only one way, or the way we have been taught all our lives.

What if we are not the farmer or the merchant?  What if we are the pearl and the field?  Consider this:  Jesus is the merchant in heaven, doing perfectly fine as He was.  He really had no need for the pearl, it didn't make him any richer because the value of what He sold was equal to the value of the pearl, yet the pearl had much greater sentimental value because of his desire for it.  Jesus sees you, the pearl, and recklessly abandons even heaven itself, goes through the poverty, the pain, and by His blood He pays the ultimate price for that which He must have, you.

You are so precious to Him that He held back nothing.  How does that add in to the Kingdom of Heaven?  Well, because in God's eyes the Kingdom of Heaven just isn't the same without you, His most prized possession.

Second Hand Revelation

A couple of years ago I was speaking with an American woman who had come with a short term team for a few days to minister with us in Costa Rica.  I was doing what I like to do more than anything else, and that is sharing my testimony of what God has allowed me to experience and learn throughout the years.  I told a couple of miracles stories to her, and after I was finished I'll never forget her response.  

She said, "I've never heard of anything like that before!"

That is one of the biggest compliments anyone has ever given me. 

Look at what Isaiah 55:1-2 says.  It would be best to read the whole chapter if you can.

"Wait and listen, everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come, buy [priceless, spiritual] wine and milk without money and without price [simply for the self-surrender that accepts the blessing].  
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness [the profuseness of spiritual joy]."  (AMP)

I find this passage to be absolutely fascinating.  God invites anyone at all to come and drink from His water.  There are three requirement though.  You have to wait, you have to listen, and you have to be thirsty.  

If you are satisfied with what you know about God, or you don't have patience, or you aren't teachable, you don't get to drink.

Look down at verse two, it goes deeper and says to hearken "diligently."  Diligence is something almost entirely lost in our generation, and I am calling for it to come back on us in Jesus name.

Two posts ago I spoke about persistence and perseverance in prayer.  Today I want to talk about what I call second hand revelation.

Second Hand Store

What I am about to say may seem too bold, some may even be offended, but if we hide the truth God gives us He is unlikely to give us more.  Lately I have been hearing a lot about revival in America.  People want it, they long for it, and that is wonderful.  I can tell you that it is God's will for there to be another Great Awakening in the United States.  There is a problem though, the vast majority of Christians in the developed world are living off of second hand revelation.

What does that mean?  I mentioned when I talked about persistence that most believers are bench warmers, but it goes deeper than that.  Most Christians, even those who are actually doing ministry, have stopped seeking God for themselves.  Instead, they feed off of the revelation of other ministers.

I want to add a disclaimer here that it is not wrong to preach truth God spoke to another minister.  We are a body and God reveals different things to different people and we all share it.  That is the role of pastors.  God speaks to them and they share with the flock.

But most people, even pastors and other public ministers, do that their entire lives.  Instead of seeking God for His revelation of the Word, they study the words of other men and preach what they say.  It becomes second hand revelation to the pastor, he then preaches it to the people, making it third hand revelation.  

The Word of God is the Word of God, and is powerful no matter how many times it is repeated, but the fact is that the Holy Spirit does focus on different areas over different people at different times.  In my own life, for those of you who have been reading my articles, you know that He has been hammering me with the message of consecration.  But He may want to speak to you about His love!  

If you only drink from my well, you will never know the flavor of home, that being your own water.  It's like drinking from a cup someone else just drank out of.  It is still refreshing, but it just isn't the same.

Just like Mama used to make.

 Think of it this way.  When you move out, get married, and start your adult life, you get used to the new life, but there is nothing like going home and tasting your mom's cooking.  It doesn't matter how well your husband or wife cooks, or the best restaurants, there will never be anything as good as Mama's.

Spiritually speaking, when you spend your life reading books and articles like mine, and only getting the Word from your pastor, it is the equivalent of always eating out while Jesus is standing there with a warm, home cooked meal, and you keep passing it up.  

Second hand revelation is good, but there is nothing as delicious, refreshing, and exciting as getting thirsty, waiting patiently, and listening until that illuminating revelation comes to you!  It is wonderful!

I urge you, take the time to meet with Jesus and let Him speak directly to you.  It is going to take patience, you will have to wait until it is at His convenience not yours.  When He finally does answer you though, it will set you on fire like you have never experienced.  

It is famously quoted by John Wesley when asked how he attracted such great crowds, "All I do is set myself on fire and the people come watch me burn."  

Set yourself on fire today, burn for Him.  You may not be looking for crowds, but that doesn't make the presence of the Holy Spirit any less awesome.

Yesterday I had to go on a long drive, and as I was driving shouting my praise and singing to Him, I told Him, "Holy Spirit, I am so excited to have this time by myself to spend with you."  

He said something that caught me off guard.  "I am excited to spend time with you too."  

He is excited to spend time with you, and not just a few minutes in the morning and before bed.  He wants real, marriage building time.  When you do that, He will give you treasures to which others will respond, "I've never heard anything like that!"  If we get enough people drinking straight from His well, revival will not be far off.

“In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. ” 
                                                                                      ― John Bunyan

“In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you."
                                           - Mother Teresa