Seeing Things to Come 1
(week 07/01)
Olubi Johnson
HIDDEN TREASURES IN THE WORD
In our article on the integrity of God’s Word, we shared that the written Word contains in hidden types and shadows all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and God’s plan for every individual life:
Colossians 2:3 (KJV): In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 3:3 (KJV): For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Revelation 22:19 (KJV): And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to us hidden shadows of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and of our personal lives in the written Word.
Hebrews 10:1 (KJV): For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
John 16:13 (KJV): Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
By revealing to us in the written Word which contains all truth (John 17:17), the shadows of things to come concerning specific wisdom and knowledge that we need at each point in time and concerning our personal lives, the Holy Spirit shows us the good things to come that God has prepared for us in His marvelous Word.
John 17:17 (KJV): Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (KJV): But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (10) But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
In this article, we will see how the Holy Spirit reveals to us things to come through His Word.
SPEAKING MYSTERIES IN THE SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit speaks the hidden wisdom of the Word of God through us when we pray in the Spirit speaking mysteries in the spirit in an unknown tongue:
1 Corinthians 14:2 (KJV): For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
1 Corinthians 2:7 (KJV): But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
As we pray continuously for about 1 hr. each day in the Spirit without interrupting with prayer in the understanding, the Holy Spirit speaks the mysteries of the hidden wisdom of God through us for our lives for that day and the future: the things to come for that day and the immediate and remote future.
Ephesians 6:18 (KJV): Praying always (i.e. daily) with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Jesus Himself prayed daily in the Spirit and commanded us to do the same to follow His example in taking up our cross daily:
Hebrews 5:7 (KJV): Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
Luke 9:23 (KJV): And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Matthew 26:40 (KJV) And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?
Now when we speak in tongues our understanding is unfruitful: we don’t understand what we say; how then does the Holy Spirit reveal to us what we speak?
1 Corinthians 14:14 (KJV): For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
REVELATION OF HIDDEN WISDOM
To understand how the Holy Spirit reveals to us mysteries or the hidden wisdom we speak in an unknown tongue we need to understand the nature of words: words paint pictures.
Proverbs 25:11 (KJV): A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
For instance when you say the word “dog” you have the picture of a dog in your mind: you don’t have the letters D-O-G in your mind.
If you say white dog the picture changes in detail; if you say big white dog the picture changes even more. So the more words you use, the clearer the picture they paint in your mind becomes.
Now the picture words paint is the same even when the languages are different: for instance the word “dog” in English paints the same picture as the word “aja” in Yoruba or “chien” in French.
The same is true when we speak in tongues: the pictures the words we are speaking have meaning, but because we do not understand the tongue we are speaking we cannot perceive those pictures naturally as we would have for a natural language.
This is where the spirit of wisdom and revelation the Holy Spirit gives comes into play.
Ephesians 1:17-18 (KJV): That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, (18) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
As we pray in the spirit the Holy Spirit attempts to paint in our minds the picture of what God wants us to know about what we praying. God will not reveal everything to us in detail, as He reserves some details for Himself in His sovereignty.
Deutronomy 29:29 (KJV): The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Rather God reveals to us enough for us to be able to be victorious in everything that is coming into our lives for each day and the immediate and remote future: this is what the scripture means when it says God will show us things to come.
By supernatural revelation, the Holy Spirit paints in our minds a picture or perception of the will of God concerning the words we are speaking in the Spirit as we pray in other tongues.
This why the more we pray in tongues, the more perceptive we are concerning spiritual things. That is why Paul said, ” I would that ye all spake with tongues” (1 Cor.14: 5) and “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:” (1 Cor 14:18)
This is one reason why Paul had so much revelation and wrote two-thirds of the New Testament.
In our next article, we will see the importance of endurance in praying in the spirit and how the Holy Spirit links what we pray in the spirit to the written Word.
