It was about 15 years ago and I could still remember it was in one of the afternoon when I was having my tea break in a coffee shop. Beside this coffee shop was a grocery shop and I was there buying some cough drops. I saw an elderly man selecting the expired canned food from a discount counter next to me.
As I was watching him choosing, I told him that these canned foods were expired and could be harmful for human consumption. He told me that he understood but his children loved this kind of canned food and he was too poor for the normal canned food… Indeed, the expression on his face told me that he loved his children very much.
With compassion in my heart, I asked him to get from the normal stock and I would pay for the difference. He took for himself half a dozen and I paid for him together with my cough drops at the cashier counter. I went back to my seat at the coffee shop next door.
After awhile, I saw this elderly man came out of the grocery shop with a big bag full of canned foods… Out of my curiosity, I went back to ask the cashier counter and the cashier told me that, the elderly man used the normal canned foods to exchange for the expired canned foods… and by doing this; he could have more canned foods for his children.
The key word here is, this man was POOR and yet, he LOVEd his children very much…
After the finished work of Christ, any born again believers are to live by the word of Christ. The word of Christ is the word reveals by the resurrected Jesus. The word of Christ only comes through revelation by the Holy Spirit. The revelation of the word of Christ had the power to transform a Pharisee of Pharisee into the Apostle of Grace. He was none other than the Apostle Paul, an Apostle to the Gentile. Apostle Paul himself mentioned in the Book of Galatians that he received the gospel through revelation from Jesus Christ.
Galatians
1:11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.
1:12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
If it was by revelation, Paul indeed needed the work of the Holy Spirit in him to unveil the truth because Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He only witnesses to the truth and He comes to glory Jesus. For us to understand the grace of God, we too, need the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the Gospel of Grace. That is why Paul prayed for the churches in Ephesians to receive the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation so that the Ephesians might know Jesus better and the eyes of their heart might be enlightened.
Ephesians
1:17 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.
1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,
In this grace dispensation, any minister ministering the grace of God needs the revelation from the Holy Spirit. If a minister is POOR in revelation, chances are, he is feeding the expired food to the congregation…, but it is still out of his LOVE for his people…. Like the poor elderly man loving his children…
Take heed, when the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation enlighten you, you are WISE and RICH... and the objective of loving is fulfilled through the revelation of Agape Himself...
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