THE STATE FOR RECEIVING GOD'S REVELATION
THE STATE FOR RECEIVING GOD’S REVELATION
God is not a respecter of persons, but for that very reason He is a respecter of states. It is no question how Jacob has got into the state in which we find him at Bethel, not by any worthiness of his own certainly. But there he was, in a scene of utter desolation, the stones of the place his pillow, and he quietly asleep and receiving therein a revelation from God. He is not distracted by the desolation, but he sleeps; he is in a state of self-insensibility, the highest condition morally that one could reach, and the only one in which God could reveal to us His purposes.
If my self has been set aside in the cross, shall I hold to the nature which God has judged, or shall I let it go, and enjoy that which He has obtained for me? “He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal”. My old man is ended before God, because Christ was judged for it on the cross. How can I practically get rid of that which God has judged? By having that blessed One, who has judicially put my flesh away, morally before my soul. He who put it away judicially before God, puts it away morally from me - displaces it. God is in cloudless rest about me, unchangeable in the satisfaction of His boundless thoughts. If Christ be before me, self is as effectually displaced with me morally, as it is judicially displaced before the eye of God. And then I am prepared for His fullest revelations. I am in a state of self-insensibility. There is no hindrance to the Displacer, and the Displacer can declare Himself.
God in glory manifests Himself to Jacob as he slept. Sleep represents death - insensibility. Marvellous [p. 101] grace of God! He comes to make the poor, homeless, friendless wanderer learn His heart, disclosing to him what is the purpose of His grace, because he was in a condition to receive it. “And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven”. There is nothing equal to the revelation of God in glory in this scene of desolation and sorrow. But I must be asleep, not affected by the scene, and self set aside, in order to get the revelation.
The reason we enjoy so little what God has provided for us, and are so little prepared for His revelations, is that we are not in a state of insensibility. I must be conscious of the desolation here, but in quietness as to it, not occupied with it. I must be laid on the pillow when God comes to speak to me. I must have on the one hand the sense of perfect acceptance with God, and rest in His presence; and on the other, of quietness of spirit as to the desolation around, in order to enter into what He reveals. Who gets the revelation? The ‘perfect.’ “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect”. When the natural man is set aside, the deep things of God are revealed to the spiritual man by the Spirit. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.. .. But we have the mind of Christ”.