Colossians 1:26-27 “There is a divine mystery – a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now it's being revealed, unfolded and manifested for every holy believer to experience. Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory! This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for his people, and God wants everyone to know it!” Today's Episode is all about the fact that we have Jesus living inside of us. It was kept a secret for along time and yet God wants everyone to know it now! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
A Secret Surprise!
Colossians 1:26-27 “There is a divine mystery – a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now it's being revealed, unfolded and manifested for every holy believer to experience. Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory! This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for his people, and God wants everyone to know it!”
Have I mentioned lately how much I love the passion translation? It brings out the passion in the Scriptures. I love how this begins by saying there is a divine mystery- a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now is being revealed.” Doesn’t that make you sit forward a bit more in your seat so you can pay better attention? Doesn’t it make you wonder what this secret surprise is and why haven’t you heard about it before? I can’t imagine it is just me that feels this way. Who doesn’t like a surprise? Who doesn’t like to feel like they know something that others don’t know? I love to feel like I am on the inside. Like I am “in the know” as some would say.
I remember this is how I feel sometimes when I am sitting in Church and I hear a reading that I learned about in a Bible study. I love it when I learn more about Scripture in Bible study. I love when the person leading the Bible study tells us what the words were in their native language like the Hebrew word for peace is Shalom. Or when they explain that even though the word in the Bible has this meaning to us, back when the Bible was written it really meant this other thing. When I am sitting in Church and I hear a scripture verse that I learned more about in a Bible study I instantly want to share what I know with all those around me. I want to tell them all the extra info I learned. I feel like I have a secret and I want to share it with everyone else. I don’t want to keep it to myself. Have you ever felt this way, or is it just me?
This is probably why I loved this first line so much. It is setting us up with excitement that we are going to learn something that has been concealed from the world for generations. Not just from a few people but from the world. Not just for a little while, but for generations! We get to know the secret. Aren’t you excited? I like how is says, “but now it's being revealed, unfolded, and manifested for every holy believer to experience.” I like this because it shows the gentleness of God. He is not just dumping this big secret on us. He is slowly revealing it. He is allow it to unfold in our lives and He is manifesting it for each one of us to experience.
What is this secret surprise? “Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory!” Jesus Christ is living within you. Did you know this? We are lucky because we have the Scriptures to read about. We get to learn all about Jesus and what he did while He was here on earth, what He did for us, and who He sent to us after He left. However, what about the early church? They had to learn about Jesus slowly. They had to have the stories and testimonies told to them over time. I am sure it took time for the news of Jesus to spread. I am sure it took time for the apostles to spread the Gospel to all the corners of the earth.
I feel like the Holy Spirit is telling me that even though we have the Bible, even though we have heard about Jesus, and we know who He is and what He has done, this secret is still being revealed to each one of us slowly and more fully over time. God is revealing Christ within us individually to each one of us. He is allowing this discovery to unfold and manifest it in each of our lives in a different way and on a different timeline. Even for those in the Bible, each one had their own experience. Peter was learning more and more about Christ over the three years He was walking with Him. It took Him time and there was some back and forth with His belief. One minute He understood what Christ was saying and the next minute He wasn’t sure. However, with Paul, He knew immediately after his blindness was cured who Jesus was and that He wanted to follow Him.
Every one of our experiences will be different. We are all on a different journey and we will all discover Jesus and the truth that He lives inside of us. In God’s timing, this secret and what it means for us and for our lives will be revealed to us and manifested in our lives. I was confused about the meaning when it says, “The Christ who floods you with the expectation of Glory,” I had no idea what this meant. I had the inclination to skip it and move on. Every time I have that feeling I have learned to stop and look it up as I think we all really want to understand all of scripture. I think we want to really understand what it means, not just kinda get it. Here is what I found when I looked it up. A believer can be confident of eternity with Christ in heaven when he or she knows that Christ is already in them. When it says that Christ floods up with the expectation of glory it is talking about living in eternity with God and Jesus in heaven. Without Christ within this is not possible. Without Jesus going to the cross eternity with God is impossible. However, Christ is within us so we can be filled with the expectation of spending eternity with Him!
The last sentence says, “This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for his people, and God wants everyone to know it!” The mystery that Christ lives within us becomes a heavenly treasure of hope. How awesome is that? Can’t you just picture a heavenly treasure chest of hope? How many of us need a treasure chest of hope? We might have some hope, we might think we have a lot of hope, but do we have a heavenly treasure chest of hope? This hope is found within us because we know that Christ lives within us. It says the treasure chest is filled with the riches of glory for his people. When I looked this up it confirms what it said in the last sentence. This treasure chest of hope is full of hope that we will one day come face to face with Jesus. A hope that we will be spending forever living with the Lord, praising Him, and loving Him. No longer from afar, but right there in heaven with Him. Can you imagine that glory?
I love the very last few words of this verse. They are, “And God wants everyone to know it!” It is no longer a secret. We can shout it from the rooftops. We can tell everyone we know. Jesus Christ lives inside of you and He lives inside of me. With this knowledge comes a heavenly treasure chest of hope, filled with glory. Now that we know this, why wouldn’t we want to share it? Why wouldn’t we want all those we know to receive this treasure chest of hope filled with glory? Who do you know that could use a little more hope and glory in their lives? Do they know who is living inside of them? Do they know the power living inside of them? Do they know this divine mystery, this secret surprise? If not, why don’t you tell them today? We know from this verse that God wants everyone to know it!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening today. Lord, we love you so much. We thank you for the perfect way that you are revealing this secret to us. We thank you for all the ways you are manifesting Christ within us in our lives. We ask you to give us a holy boldness to share this truth and this secret with all those we know. We ask you to take away any hesitation we have to share this with those we know, those we love, and even those we don’t know. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you haven’t signed up for the retreat, you just have 9 more days! I hope you will consider joining us! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I. Have a blessed day and may the grace and favor of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you.
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in April 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Walk in my ways, my children. I tell you each and every day that I love you. It's as easy as that. Do not be confused if I tell you I love you. Believe me.”