Serving the Hiding God: I. His temperament & His work throughout the ages

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ไธญๆ–‡

9 ๐ด๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘’๐‘›๐‘™๐‘–๐‘”โ„Ž๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘ฆ ๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘’ ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘’๐‘๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘ฆ ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘š๐‘ฆ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฆ ๐‘–๐‘ , ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘โ„Ž ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘”โ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘”๐‘’๐‘  โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘  ๐‘๐‘’๐‘’๐‘› โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘‘๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘–๐‘› ๐บ๐‘œ๐‘‘, ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘œ ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘›๐‘”๐‘ ,
10 ๐ผ๐‘› ๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘Ÿ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ค ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ข๐‘™๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘  ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘ข๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ โ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐‘›๐‘™๐‘–๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘š๐‘ข๐‘™๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘“๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘  ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘ ๐‘‘๐‘œ๐‘š ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐บ๐‘œ๐‘‘ ๐‘š๐‘–๐‘”โ„Ž๐‘ก ๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘‘๐‘’ ๐‘˜๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ค๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘”โ„Ž ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘โ„Ž๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘โ„Žโ€ฆ (๐ธ๐‘โ„Ž. 3:9-10)

In the book of Ephesians, Paul gives us a very high revelation of the church. But in chapter three, there is an important perspective regarding the mystery that is given as a backdrop to this revelation. There are two specific words that Paul uses, repeated throughout the chapter: โ€œ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒโ€ ๐š๐ง๐ โ€œ๐ก๐ข๐๐๐ž๐งโ€ (or โ€œhidingโ€). Something in Ephesians is so mysterious, so hidden. The words โ€œmysteryโ€ and โ€œhiddenโ€ also bring to our attention another phrase in this chapter, which is โ€œ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ข๐Ÿ๐š๐ซ๐ข๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฌ๐๐จ๐ฆ.โ€ All these words spoken by Paul are instruments to usher in the revelation of the church, the main burden of this chapter and book.

So why does Paul specifically use these phrases to convey his understanding? Answering this question is fundamental for every believer in the church life today because there is a struggle that keeps us from reaching the very high revelation of the church: while we all want to mature, to be useful, and to serve, how can we truly come out of our iniquity and be transformed? The answer lies in Godโ€™s disposition and how He communicates with His people. ๐ˆ๐ฌ๐š๐ข๐š๐ก ๐Ÿ’๐Ÿ“:๐Ÿ๐Ÿ“ ๐ซ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐š๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐†๐จ๐โ€™๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ง๐š๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ž: โ€œ๐‘†๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘Œ๐‘œ๐‘ข ๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘Ž ๐บ๐‘œ๐‘‘ ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘œ โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘  ๐ป๐‘–๐‘š๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘™๐‘“, ๐‘‚ ๐บ๐‘œ๐‘‘ ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐ผ๐‘ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘’๐‘™, ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘†๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘–๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ.โ€ In the Bible, whenever God interacts with people, especially with His chosen race, He likes to hide Himself. In other words, ๐‡๐ž ๐ก๐š๐ฌ ๐š ๐ญ๐ž๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐š๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญโ€”๐š ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง: ๐‡๐ž ๐ฅ๐ข๐ค๐ž๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ก๐ข๐๐ž ๐‡๐ข๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฅ๐Ÿ. 

When you look at Godโ€™s creationโ€”the trees, the beautiful mountains and rivers, the animals and flowersโ€”you see that God likes to hide behind those things. After creating heaven and the earth, He hid Himself. The New Testament also records that after He became Jesus, He hid Himself repeatedly from men (Luke 24: 13-16). In all these interactions, including in the early days of the church life, God was hiding Himself. Until today, this very God chooses to hide Himself in humble human beings. Sometimes, we may be frustrated at His hiding, saying, โ€œGod, why donโ€™t You come out to administer justice?โ€ Yet God still remains hidden. Sometimes, we may ask, โ€œWhere is God?โ€ We try so hard to figure out who God is. Yet God still remains hidden. In our failures, in the experience of being broken, we pray, โ€œGod, show Yourself to me to make my life easier.โ€ Yet through all these experiences, God still upholds His temperament to remain hidden. Why?

In Ephesians chapter three, we see Paulโ€™s understanding: God hides Himself behind His multifarious wisdomโ€”that is His temperament, or His disposition. When we come to this matter of the Lordโ€™s intrinsic arrangement, or His multifarious wisdom, God often allows very sinful things to happen among us. He allows failures to happen in our life, and He even allows Satan to be among us, instigating all kinds of sins, fornication and division in the church life, just like we see Paul dealing with in 1 Corinthians. The Lord allows that to happen because it is a necessary process to exhibit all the facets of His wisdomโ€”which is all that Christ isโ€”through the church. Out of our fallen nature, the Lord touches us to lead us to that hidden placeโ€”to the spirit, to the place where He hides. 

When we deal with sin, the first reaction occurs in our conscience. The conscience has a purpose, and can be very useful when used in the proper way. When we preach the gospel to someone, we might try to prick their conscience, or when we discipline our children, we might try to revive their conscience. When we ourselves realize that something is right or wrong, then our conscience is active. But even after we have recognized our wrongdoings and want wholeheartedly to be right before God, why do we still fall again and again into our sinful life? Because touching the conscience isnโ€™t equal to being saved. While many people mix the conscience and the spirit together, actually, they are distinct. ๐ˆ๐Ÿ ๐ฐ๐ž ๐ฐ๐š๐ง๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐›๐ž ๐œ๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž๐, ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐š ๐ค๐ž๐ฒ ๐ฉ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ž ๐ง๐ž๐ž๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ง๐: ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐œ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง. ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐œ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค๐ฌ ๐š๐ฌ ๐š๐ง ๐’Š๐’๐’”๐’•๐’“๐’–๐’Ž๐’†๐’๐’• ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ง ๐ญ๐จ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ข๐ซ๐ข๐ญ. There is a difference between our conscience starting to work and our inner person starting to liveโ€”between knowing in our conscience and having the subjective reality of living in the spirit. 

Some people think being a spiritual man is something extraordinaryโ€”overcoming, victorious, otherworldly. But ๐ญ๐จ ๐›๐ž ๐š ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ข๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐š๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐š๐ง ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐จ ๐›๐ž ๐ฐ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐š ๐ก๐ฎ๐ฆ๐š๐ง ๐›๐ž๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐ž๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐›๐ž. When God made Adam, Adam didnโ€™t need a conscience because he had a spirit. God loves to mingle with man in his spirit. After the first fall of man, God allowed the function of the conscience to become active in human soulsโ€”in between soul and spiritโ€”in the hope that it could bring human beings back to their spirit. That is how human beings were made to existโ€”in our spirit! A human being is meant to be saved, and to be saved is simply to be in the spirit. Dwelling in our good conscience is not enough; we can only be changed and transformed by knowing the Spirit and being in the Spirit.

God likes to hide Himself in us. He likes to hide Himself deeper than our conscienceโ€”in our spirit. When we see Godโ€™s creation, how can we not think it is beautiful? It is. But even that kind of appreciation can be only soulishโ€”only from our conscience. That does not necessarily help you to be saved. God gives us all the signs and wonders, yet He still wants us to know that we have an inner personโ€”a spirit! We cannot know God without reaching into the depths of our being to our spirit. There is no shortcut. In the spirit, we can be truly transformed from someone to whom God is hidden to someone who has been initiated into the mystery of Christ and the Church.

1 Peter 1:8 says: 

1:8 ๐‘Šโ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘š โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘’๐‘›, ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข ๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ฃ๐‘’; ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘š ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘”โ„Ž ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘’๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐ป๐‘–๐‘š ๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘›๐‘ก, ๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘ก ๐‘๐‘’๐‘™๐‘–๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘”, ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข ๐‘’๐‘ฅ๐‘ข๐‘™๐‘ก ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘กโ„Ž ๐‘—๐‘œ๐‘ฆ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘ข๐‘›๐‘ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘˜๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘™๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘“๐‘ข๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘”๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฆ…

Peter himself saw the Lord as a human being in the flesh, but in this epistle he was talking to believers who lived after the era of the Lordโ€™s time on earth; they had not seen Him. But to have the Lord, to love the Lord, to exult with joy unspeakable and full of gloryโ€”it doesnโ€™t require seeing Him with our physical eyes. When we go beyond our conscience to our spirit, there is simply an unspeakable, overcoming condition through our inner manโ€”through our spirit. 

And there are many other believers throughout history just like those whom Peter was addressing. If we look at our own spiritual genealogy, many saints have given their lives to the Lord. ๐๐จ๐ง๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฌ๐ž ๐ฉ๐ž๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ ๐ฌ๐š๐ฐ ๐†๐จ๐, ๐ฒ๐ž๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ฒ ๐›๐ž๐ฅ๐ข๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐, ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐ž๐ซ๐ฏ๐ž๐. Have you ever wondered why these people can live lives in such an exulting, joyful, unspeakable, and full-of-glory condition? Actually, there are millions of unknown believers living in this same mystery. ๐“๐ฐ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐œ๐ก๐ฎ๐ซ๐œ๐ก ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ข๐ซ๐ซ๐ž๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ญ๐š๐›๐ฅ๐ž ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐จ๐Ÿ, ๐ž๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐จ๐ง๐ฒ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ก๐ข๐๐๐ž๐ง ๐†๐จ๐, ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ข๐ง ๐š ๐ก๐ข๐๐๐ž๐ง ๐ฐ๐š๐ฒ. ๐˜๐ž๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ก๐ข๐๐๐ž๐ง ๐†๐จ๐ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐š๐ฅ, ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ก๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ฅ. ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐ง๐š๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ž, ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ ๐†๐จ๐ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ข๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐š๐ฅ, ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ๐ก๐ฅ๐ฒ. Why is today’s church life so sinful? Because people are fleshly. People never experience something at the level of the spirit. We like to see physical evidence, not something hidden. This mystery is hidden not only from us personally when we are fleshly, but โ€œthroughout the ages.โ€ 

Today, the pandemic and the current, chaotic world situation are full of Godโ€™s hidden fingerprints. Actually, the Lord is speaking to usโ€”not in a superstitious way, but in a hidden way. For 6,000 years, the Lord has been executing His will on the earth in His own disposition, His own temperament. Thatโ€™s who He is. He is all over, hidden from the ages yet so intimately near to His believers. ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ž๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐š๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฎ๐ฌ. ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ ๐ž๐ฑ๐ž๐ซ๐œ๐ข๐ฌ๐ž ๐š๐ง๐ ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ ๐ž๐œ๐จ๐ง๐จ๐ฆ๐ฒ ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฎ๐ฌ. ๐„๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐  ๐‡๐ž ๐ก๐š๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐š๐๐ž ๐ก๐ข๐๐๐ž๐ง ๐ข๐ฌ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฎ๐ฌ. No matter where we go, we see God. Even when we breathe, the air is Him, is this very pneumatic Christ. We open our eyes and He is there; we sing something and He is there; even when we are sinful, He is there. He is hidden, yet so available. It only requires us to know and live in our spirit. 

Isaiah 45:15 begins with โ€œsurely.โ€ Amen, surely. โ€œSurelyโ€ is โ€œAmen.โ€ We can say โ€œAmen. You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, the Savior. Amen. Lord, thank You for You hiding in me. Today, I can see You, my hiding God, hiding in me, hiding in my spirit. Amen.โ€

(Above is part 1 of a series compiled from notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 11/20/2020, not reviewed by the speaker. Read part 2ย here.)

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