Do you ever feel like God is holding out on you? Ever feel like you can’t quite understand what he’s doing, or why he’s allowing something in your life? Does it feel like he’s somewhere hidden beyond the universe and out of your reach?
If so, you are not alone. So far I haven’t found one person who has God all figured out. Luckily, he did send his son Jesus to Earth so he could give us a glimpse into his mysteries. Through Jesus, God sent the Holy Spirit, to dwell within us. This is the mystery of God dwelling within and revealing bits and pieces of him each day. But, even with all that, there is so much that remains hidden. Some find this disconcerting. Others find it frightening. And some, like me, find it fascinating.
Why fascinating you ask? Because God is in the business of being sought after. He invites us to search his word and his heart to reveal the hidden things. It isn’t a one time deal where we figure out everything in one great epiphany. You see, God is full of layers upon layers- so many that we could never get to each one in our lifetime, or in ten lifetimes. But, he invites us to dig deeper each day. We unearth hidden treasure each time we follow the coordinates on his map- The Bible. He often sends people along the way to speak truth into our lives. Through the use of our spiritual gifts we access tools to help us uncover the treasures.
In this post, I want to bring out some things that are hidden gems in the world of scripture, and in the world God created.
First of all, even science admits that we recognize and perceive only 4% of the universe. That means, 96% is unseen, unknown, or unperceived. If we were to only look at the oceans, we see that 95% of the world’s oceans have yet to be explored! This 95% includes the dark depths of the oceans- the hidden realm. When it comes to the human brain, scientists estimate we use only 10% of our brain. It would stand to reason that there is much we do not see, know or understand when it comes to the creation. God, of course, sees and perceives all there is in creation, and knows all there is to know.
Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”
By this verse, we see that God chooses to conceal many things, but as children of God he invites us to search out these things. We must always use the right source, however. The source is him, and his word (The Bible)!
Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
What we see from this verse is that God has the answers. But, we have to “call to him” in order to find these answers. In Hebrew the word for call being used in this verse is qara. This word means, to address by name. Specifically it means to call out to God for help and to use his name. So this means we have to speak God’s name- which is Jesus! After all, God sent Jesus to Earth to reveal himself. Before this, God was somewhat concealed or hidden. Jesus, however, came to Earth in human form. God became human in order to uncover his true identity. When we need answers about a matter, we call on Jesus by name and we talk to him! We ask him the questions. We make our requests known to him.
John 14:13,14 says, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in my name, I will do it.”
In John 16 Jesus says, “until now you have asked for nothing in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”
1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to his will , he hears us.”
God is no longer hidden behind the veil. When Christ died on the cross, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the people was torn. The hidden now became revealed through the Son of God. The key to unlocking this God who was once hidden became found in an amazing act of sacrifice- Christ on the cross. Do we receive Christ and find God, or do we reject him, and allow him to stay hidden?
When Christ died on the cross and rose again, he defeated the hidden forces of Satan. The reason I’m saying “hidden” is because we do not physically see Satan and his demons. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” The Bible says we are fighting a spiritual battle daily. We are actually fighting things which are hidden to our eyes, but they are as real as you and me. The fact that they are hidden makes them no less real. The sooner we realize they’re REAL, the better we can fight these “hidden forces” using the armor of God. Interestingly enough, this armor isn’t seen by human eyes. It is hidden within every Christian, but it has to be used to be effective. This armor that is hidden to the human eye contains every thing we need to fight the hidden, but very real forces of darkness.
Speaking of darkness, sin is something that is often hidden to us. Before we know Christ there a lot of sins that stay hidden, simply because we don’t recognize them. Once we receive Jesus, these sins often become revealed to us as the Holy Spirit seeks to mold and change us. The Holy Spirit will bring out these hidden sins and expose them to the light- not to shame us, but rather to free us. Things we once thought were ok may now feel uncomfortable as the spirit reveals them.
This reminds me of an experience I had while cleaning my son’s bird cage. I usually clean the cage every other day by removing the tray underneath. I just pull out the tray and take out the old paper towels that line the bottom. The paper towels usually have seed shells, bird poop and little feathers on them. I just dump it in the garbage and put new paper towels on top. Then, I just slide the tray back under the cage. After I do this the whole cage looks squeaky clean—— OR SO I THOUGHT. One day I decided it was time to do a deeper cleaning of the cage, so that meant I had to take the entire cage frame off, and then remove the base, which lies directly below the tray that I remove every few days to clean. I pulled out the base and almost gagged at what I saw. There were two big chunks of mold lining the base. In the mold were old seeds, feathers and I don’t know what else! I almost took a picture, but I suddenly felt like a bad pet owner because of the mold that covered the base and I cringed at what people might think of me! How did I miss this when I pulled out the tray above the base? I would have never thought that below the tray there lay a cesspool of mold! Then I realized- the mold was hidden. The other tray hid the mold because it fit right over and blocked the view. This whole time I thought the cage was so clean, but really I had only cleaned the surface. I hadn’t “dug deep” to clean the ENTIRE CAGE. Before long, the mold began having its way and I was none the wiser.
That is how sin is. Sometimes we want to cover it up, or maybe we don’t even know it’s there. Over time, it keeps damaging our lives and polluting us. We keep it hidden so no one sees, but it’s there. If we were to dig deep we would find it. The Holy Spirit’s job is to help us find it and clear it out before it does serious damage. Luckily, my son’s bird is fine. I caught the mold in time. But, I had to dig deep to find it. That’s what God tries to do with us. He brings the hidden into the light. This is how he does his best “cleaning.”
Daniel 2:22 says, “He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.”
Hebrews 4:13 says, “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
The truth is that God knows all and sees all. NOTHING IS HIDDEN FROM HIM. Even so, he is merciful and generous. In fact, the Lord says HE IS OUR HIDING PLACE. He is our secret refuge in times of trouble.
Psalm 91 says, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will dwell in the shadow of the Almighty.” The Hebrew word for secret is cether. The word cether means hiding place, shelter and protection. This verse is saying that whoever dwells in God’s hiding place will be protected. It is interesting that dwelling with God is referred to as dwelling in his hiding place. What a strange way to refer to God’s shelter. But, keep in mind that to much of the world God is seen as untouchable and unreachable. Many people do not realize he is not hiding himself in the heavens. He is not unreachable. His character is only hidden to those who do not receive Jesus. Once we receive Jesus, we can enter into this shelter- this hiding place. It is only hidden to those who do not know him. I’m sure you’ve played hide and seek some time in your life. If you’ve been the seeker you might have a hard time finding someone’s hiding place. At some point, you may give up looking for the person who is hiding. But, if you knew where the hiding place was to start with, there would be no difficulty finding it. God reveals his hiding place through his son, Jesus. This is how we find his shelter- his hiding place of refuge. We don’t have to look for the shelter- it is crystal clear- Jesus is that hiding place.
The ministry of angels is another aspect of God’s kingdom that is hidden to us. We don’t see them, though the Bible does say we may have entertained angels unaware (Hebrews 13:2). Psalm 91 says, “He will give his angels charge over thee.” This reminds us there is a hidden realm that is at our fingertips. God can dispatch these “hidden angels” in the blink of an eye. We can ask God/Jesus for this angelic protection ( though we do not pray to the angels directly). Angels are messengers, but their job is to do God’s bidding. They are not to be prayed to or worshiped! Only Jesus/God should be worshiped and he is the one we pray to. God has used his angels to reveal messages to people living on Earth such as Mary, Joseph, Daniel, Elijah, and Moses to name a few. But God still uses his “hidden angels” to minister today. Their ministry is key to the fight against evil.
When it comes to the End Times there is something else that is hidden– at least for now. This hidden part of future history is something many people fear, or hope to avoid. I personally hope I am not here on Earth to see this revealed. I hope the Rapture pulls Jesus’ Bride from the Earth before this hidden thing is revealed. But, alas, I can’t claim to have all the answers! Nonetheless, this hidden thing is actually a person- THE ANTICHRIST.
The Bible says that someday in the future a horrible, evil leader called the Antichrist will be revealed to the world. He will take his throne of power for seven years. These seven years will be the worst in history- this is why I say I DO NOT want to see this evil leader revealed! While we know history has seen some horrific rulers such as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Kim Jung Un, they were and are not THE Antichrist. The Antichrist mentioned in Revelation has yet to be revealed.
The Apostle Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 : “Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who oppposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sits in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”
This is a key piece of scripture because it makes a notable point. The Antichrist cannot be revealed until a “falling away” happens. If you go back to the original Greek translation of these words “falling away”, you will find that it means rebellion. In scripture, when these words are used they refer to a rebellion against God. Actually, not just a rebellion, but a mutiny! Yikes! That is almost like saying the world will be trying to overthrow God and remove him from power!
Well, it grieves me to say this, but I see the beginnings of that right now. In fact, I fear we could be very close to what 2 Thessalonians describes! For this scripture to come to pass the world will have to be ready to embrace the Antichrist. They will have to come to a point where they do not see the need for an all powerful God. In effect, they will look to a man to be God for them. Everywhere I look nowadays I see so many people looking to anything and anyone but God to be their guide and source of power, peace and justice. Many people worship singers, actors, money, the creation, and even themselves, but they will not worship God. This is why I say the world is ripe for this Antichrist to be revealed.
In the verse above it says the man of sin will be revealed. This hidden figure will be revealed at the right time. In this verse the word sin is translated as lawlessness- thus, the Antichrist is the man of lawlessness. The word revealed in this scripture is the Greek word apokalupto which means something that was once HIDDEN has now been brought into view. The hidden has been brought out into the open for all to see.
The Antichrist is also called the son of perdition in the verse mentioned above. The Greek word for perdition is apoleia, which means rotten, decaying and ruinous. We can see the Antichrist is a horrible leader that will ruin anything he touches or influences.
Unfortunately, he will HIDE his true nature. He will appear to be a charismatic, skillful leader who will bring peace to the world. But, at just the right time he will unveil his true character- the rotten, decayed leader that he is. Once he does this, he will not hide his plans to be worshiped by the entire world! Actually, if you have ever studied the Feast of Hanukkah, you will see it foreshadows the Antichrist, who will behave in similar ways to Antiochus Epiphanes. Like Antiochus, the Antichrist will desecrate the Temple and demand to be worshiped.
Fortunately for humanity, Jesus will return and save the world ! He will return riding on a white horse and reveal himself as King to an unbelieving world. (Revelation 19) Those who thought God was just a figment of the imagination will be face to face with TRUTH, JUSTICE and HOLINESS! The King will be out in the open for all to see. And at that time, every living creature and human will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11
At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. He came to earth in such a hidden way. He didn’t come as a mighty warrior with weapons and haughty words. He came as a baby, born of a humble teenage mother, and his “earthly” father was a carpenter. He lived in the lowly region of Galilee and preached to the poor, the suffering and the sinners. The King of Kings lived among the poorest of poor. He became the meekest of meek, even though he was the Most High. He didn’t die in a King’s palace. He died on a cross of wood. Only those who received him saw him for who he really was. They saw past the things of this world and saw the man himself- Jesus, who is God revealed to us. They realized he wasn’t just a man- he was Jesus, the Son of God and the Savior of the world!
Though Jesus ascended to heaven and he is hidden to our earthly eyes, there will come a day when he will snatch his Bride from the earth at an event called the Rapture. This day will be a hidden mystery to many because the Bride will literally vanish in the blink of an eye. Some may wrongly assume they were snatched by aliens. In fact, it is possible the Antichrist will back up this claim, and even perform miracles to further perpetuate the lie. The Bible warns about believing these deceptions. The truth about the Bride will be hidden for a time as the Antichrist seeks to hide the truth. But, the Bride’s whereabouts will be revealed when the King of Kings comes back in glory, with his Bride by his side. Then, the world will no longer be hidden in darkness. It will be shrouded in a light that will never be hidden again. All those who have received Christ as King will know this light face to face. And he will reign forevermore……………………..
Can someone give me an Amen!!!!
The feature photo of the blog is my son’s bird Charlie. One day he flew out of his cage and we found him “hidden” in the Nativity scene. Blends right in doesn’t he???? One of my favorite pictures!!!! Merry Christmas to you and your family…………….. Here’s one more photo below to laugh at……….this time Charlie is “hidden” in a display of nesting dolls. Nesting dolls are also hidden because each doll is “hidden” inside the other. My set actually has ten dolls and the smallest one is the size of a thimble………….
References:
Holy Bible: King James version and NIV
Rick Renner Ministries https://renner.org/
Revelations About Israel and the United States 