The scriptures are a deep and revealing ocean of literal meaning and shrouded mystery. The Word of God originates from the Great I AM who is whomever and whatever He wants to be and represent. His Almighty Power and creative creation cannot be contained or placed within human parameters. They are ever flowing, ever evolving rivers of living water, taking on whatever shape He speaks forth or breathes into them.
When we read the Living Word, our human minds tend to want to stay within man-made walls, but His word cannot be contained or held in place for our simple understanding. We must be open to His power and freedom to take His Word and breathe life into it so that it flexes and flows according to this current time of unfolding Biblical Prophecy and discernment of the times and seasons.
Much of the hidden meanings of scripture take wisdom to discern and understand. Some scripture is intended to be taken literally, and some of it was written in obedience of creativity and poetic layers that require us to spend time in His word to peel back the beautiful petals of mystery that reveal a deeper meaning of His Written Word. For example, when it mentions the last supper and states, "He broke the bread, blessed it, and ate it." This is a literal partaking of actual tangible bread that was eaten. When Jesus uses the bread to represent His body broken for us, then the word, "bread" takes on a new and significant representation of our partaking in the body of Christ. Scripture flows from literal bread to representative bread.
The further you go into the scripture, the more we are able to identify mysterious meanings of spoken prophetic events and can see that what is written to appear literal is in fact much more representative as an event or symbolic meaning. In the book of Revelation, the beast coming out of the water is often taken literal as a monster emerging from the depths of the sea, after all, the Bible is an amazing story of what took place and will take place, and it contains giants, war, intimacy, murder, rebellion, miracles and much more. The act of a giant monster emerging from the sea is not far-fetched when compared to the ability of our Mighty God to bring forth whatever He desires, but this is another scripture that requires wisdom. The water here, actually represents the various peoples and nations of the earth.
In Revelation 17, we read about the woman and the scarlet beast. "so he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns." The beast is the first beast mentioned in chapter 13 - the antichrist and his empire. Her sitting on the beast represents the intimate association between the antichrist and the harlot (an association of support, influence, or control).
If you read about Jeremy's vision of a huge man with red hair, (which we also refer to as a scarlet beast) you will see that what the Lord shows him in visions goes deeper than what Jeremy is shown. There is always a deeper meaning behind the visions and dreams, and He does not always reveal the meanings of the visions. Many times, we will not know until a year later or we are still waiting for the revelation to be given to us. We just know that we are to speak them forth as the directed by the Spirit. We will go into His word to search for understanding, and often times we are met with more mystery. In the book of Revelation, John was shown all of these amazing things, then given a scroll and told that it is not yet time for it to be revealed and it was to be sealed up for the end. We await revelation on many of the visions given to us. We are to be watchful of the times and seasons of the end, and to be obedient in delivering these visions. They may not be for us, but just come through us as we are all vessels for the Lord and belong to Him.
It is important to know though, especially as we gather new followers in Christ to explain to them the mystery of scripture as best we can, to show them that scripture is full of literal and symbolic meaning, and to not be afraid to ask for help from the Lord in understanding His Word. As new babes in the faith, a reader may declare the contents of the Bible to be unbelievable and just a wild story, but with the help of a seasoned follower we can take their hand and guide them deeper into the hidden meanings and beautiful truth that is the Word of God. We are to spread the gospel to as many as possible and if that means breaking down the scriptures and spoon feeding the babes then it is our (me, you, us) responsibility to reach back and pull them into the truth, lest they wander from the faith due to misunderstanding.
"Surely you have heard that God in His grace has given me this work to do for your good. God revealed His secret plan and made it known to me. I have written briefly about this, and if you will read what I have written, you can learn about my understanding of the secret of Christ. In past times mankind was not told this secret, but God has revealed it now by His Spirit to the holy apostles and prophets. The secret is that by means of the gospel the Gentiles have a part with the Jews in God's blessings; they are members of the same body and share in the promise that God made through Christ Jesus." Ephesians 3:2-6
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