The New Testament ushered in the fulfillment of all previous covenants in Christ, which gave us a "Better Covenant", the "Eternal Covenant" and reconciling us to God.
Hebrews 13:20
Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus, as Jesus commanded His disciples to "tarry in Jerusalem" that they might receive "the PROMISE of the Father.."
Acts 1:4 and, being assembled together with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, said he, ye heard from me:
In a nutshell, "the promises" of God are in Christ, and they include eternal life, salvation, deliverance, provision, protection, healing, and wholeness.
Nothing is left out, and we receive them when we are fully persuaded in faith that they are ours, and we keep our part of the Covenant by repentance, faith, and obedience.
-as we "abide in my Words", and "keep my commandments".. (as given in our New Testament Covenant).
What is "spiritual"?
Our "abiding city", "New Jerusalem" is a spirtual city. (Heb. 13:14, Rev. 3:12)
There is "spiritual food" and "spiritual drink" (1Cor. 10:3-4) for the "spiritual man" who has a born again spirit from above, and a new spiritual nature.
There are "spiritual brethren" , "spiritual gifts" , "spiritual songs" , "spiritual sacrifices" , a "spiritual body" , a "spiritual house", and "spiritual blessings".
There is "spiritual understanding" of "spiritual words" , and there is "spiritual wisdom and understanding" .
The "discerning of spirits" is spiritual. Speaking in tongues is spiritual language, there are spiritual visions, angels and demons are spiritual beings, and God Himself is Spirit.
Revelation from scripture is spiritual:
Galatians 1:12 For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it,
but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.
The church was expected to walk in spiritual "revelation" :
1st Corinthians 14:26 ...When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching,
hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation.
:30 But if a revelation be made to another sitting by, let the first keep silence.
Ephesians 3:3 how that by revelation was made known unto me the mystery,
as I wrote before in few words...
and Paul prayed for the saints in Ephesians 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;
Yes, we know some people can get flakey and over-spiritual.
And we also know that carnal-minded and letter-minded brethren will reject a spiritual revelation unless they have a gift from God to "see" and "hear" what the Spirit saith to the churches.
However the spiritual overseers of a spiritual assembly called the church, are spiritual brethren (or should be) that are given to judge and discern.
The apostle Paul even said "if any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge the things that I write are the commands of God".
He ENCOURAGED the saints to have and get "spiritual wisdom and understanding".
Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our message? and to whom hath the arm of the LORD been revealed?
Spiritual people received spiritual revelations often missed by the majority:
Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jonah:
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.
Luke 2:26 And it had been revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death,
before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And to the saints in 1st Corinthians 2:10 But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit:
for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
When we left the church world in 2004,
Linda and I had purposed to return to the diligent study of God's Word. Because we had followed Jesus Christ out of the sheepfolds of men, He became our teacher as He said in John 14:26 and 1John 2:27.... of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you; but as his anointing teacheth you; concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you...
At that time, what we read from others served to point us toward the Word for ourselves to "prove all things" as it is written, and we have done so ever since. The lexicons in Greek and Hebrew became tools used almost daily, Scripture word searches are examined numerous times per day also, as well as our regular reading of the Word.
And the Lord has blessed with non-stop revelation and understanding from the Word, much of which we never heard taught in "church".
Indeed, we hear a similar testimony from many others after they "exodused" from Church Inc. and the organizations formed by men.
Many obvious truths were hidden in plain sight. (Such as the naked truth about tithing never given to the churches by the apostles that gave us the New Testament writings.)
Other revelations come by prayer and study, and are a gift from God.
An example was the hidden prophecy of the endtime in Joshua 6, or the revelation of the Nicolaitane error that Jesus said He hated, true church government, and more as the Lord reveals.
In fact, once the Lord begins to open your eyes to some of the deeper truths ("But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God") you will realize how small our understanding is.
How wonderful it is when He blesses us with deeper truth and spiritual understanding than what is in the plain text in the letter! Jesus did so virtually every time He spoke! -And it was not only in the parables.
Let's read an example of Jesus "spiritualizing" the scripture:
Mat. 12:
47 And one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand outside, seeking to speak to thee.
48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
49 And he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren!
50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.
Huh? said the carnal brethren.
Now look at Jesus "spiritualizing" the law:
Matthew 5:27 Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
28 But I say unto you, that every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Matthew 5:21 Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
22) but I say unto you, that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment
And John wrote in "spiritual" terms: 1st John 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
They already knew it was wrong to murder but John "spiritualized" it to include hatred, which means "to despise"!
As we "searched the scriptures", we found the word "spiritual" only came into use in the New Testament, which testifies to the fact that a spiritual people who make up God's spiritual house.As we realize His temple is not "made with hands" but is built from "living stones".
1st Peter 2:5 ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices), who were "born from above" by the Holy Spirit.
The flip side is that we can easily lean on our own understanding which is the "natural man" and who loves fleshly reasonings.
1st Corinthians 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ.
-and see where Paul pointed this out in 1st Corinthians 2:14 Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him;
and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
spiritually: non-physically, that is, divinely, figuratively.discerned: properly to scrutinize, that is, (by implication) investigate, interrogate, determine: - ask, question, discern, examine, judge, search.
Let me ask this, can a prophet read someone's book in order to prophecy by the Spirit of God?
Can God give another man or woman a revelation about His Word that is not heard in "mainstream" Christianity?
Is God's truth limited to those with pulpits and Bible College Certificates?
1Cor 2:12 But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in words which man`s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
1 Corinthians 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory
Colossians 1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
-You don't get that from a book. Men may instruct, but revelation comes from God.
