(Ver 1.4)  This of course is a very difficult subject for many Christians to accept or acknowledge.  So many Christians struggle with believing the concept that God would intentionally hide important information from us.  How could a loving God ever keep us from easily finding that which He desires us to learn and know?  I once heard a minister say that studying the Bible is like a natural man searching for natural gold and I found that I could really not improve on that analogy so I’ll use it to help you understand how the Bible was written by God’s design.  If you’ve ever panned for gold in Colorado or California you will have already discovered how difficult it was to find anything of significant value on the surface.  I tried it but I came up empty even after several attempts when I was in Colorado, I guess it was fun, but it would have certainly been better if I had left with something that I could have said WOW, look at this!!! Look at what I found.  This is a lot like reading the Bible and many do it everyday, but never walk away with the WOW, look at this.  “Look what I found in the Word of God”.  Why is that?  There are probably a lot of reasons and I cover many of them in this Blog.  Here is a verse of scripture about God and it describes a characteristic of His nature that must be understood if you are going to be a serious student of the Bible:

Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.

What an amazing statement of universal truth.  This verse clearly states that God is glorified by Him hiding information for us to find.  Oh yes, I should have told you first that we are the kings and priests of God that He is referring to in this verse.  Jesus is called the King of kings and the Lord of lords (Rev 19:16).  The reference to “kings” is us!  I know that bugs the heck out of religious people, but please get over it see what the Bible says.

Like digging for gold in the natural world so it is in the spiritual world with the Word of God.  People don’t usually find many big gold nuggets of truth on the surface of God’s Word by just reading the it. There we must ask, how do we find them?  We find them by digging deep for them.  It involves work and that is a four-letter word to many.  Proverbs 25:2 said that the honor of kings was in the searching of the information.  Searching involves effort and that is spelled W O R K!  There is a lot of information that can be found on the surface of reading the Bible, but the really good stuff is always found  much deeper within the text.  Did you ever notice the world’s largest gold producers are finding most of the valuable stuff deep underground using tunnels, blasting, digging and a whole bunch of effort.  Occasionally they might find a large vein and strike it very rich by digging deep.  Bible study is the exact same thing.  I noticed this scripture in the Old Testament that confirms that God has secrets:

Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he reveal his secret unto his servants the prophets.

This verse informs us that God has secrets, but it also says that God will not do anything without first revealing his secrets to His servants, His prophets.  That tells me the Old and New Testaments both have the potential of an extraordinary number of hidden secrets of God.  Some we have discovered and most that we have not yet found.

Proverbs 1:23  Turn you at my reproof: behold I will pour out my spirit unto you,  I will make known my words unto you.

God says in this verse in Proverbs that He will make known His words after He has poured out His Spirit.   We can see that the work involves the Holy Spirit.  We can also see the clear implication that the meanings of the words must be hidden if God is going to make them known.  You see we have had these words recorded for us to read for thousands of years.  But yet the implication is that there is still more to know.  Many will try to explain this away as having happened back with the apostles.  But that event was only the former rain and now is the time of the later rain.  Now is when God is again pouring out His Spirit unto men.  Now is the time for the harvest.  There are so many scriptures that tells us the same information, here is one from the book of Daniel:

Daniel 2:20  Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom  and might are his:    21  And he changed the times and the seasons: he removes kings and sets up kings: he gives wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding.   22  He reveals the deep and secret things: he knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with him.

You see from these verses that God is the one that holds all wisdom and that He gives it to us so that we can become wise.  But verse 22 says the main point of this Blog, God reveals the deep and secret things to us.  A “Deep” thing is an implied truth that is not easily understood or seen.  These are very strong statements of truth and teach us a lot about the Bible.  It tells us that everything in the Bible is not shallow and easy to find or understand.  It implies that there is an extended effort and a commitment necessary from those who want to find these “deep” secrets.  Let’s jump into the New Testament and look at another verse:

1 Corinthians 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory.

Here we read another verse that declares God has hidden things in the Bible and it even refers to them as mysteries.  What is a mystery?  A mystery to me would be a complex puzzle, a code, riddle or something that is not plain or obvious.  If you could look at it and immediately know what it was, it wouldn’t be a mystery would it?  So apparently if you haven’t figured it out, the Bible is written in a style that conceals many things and makes hidden much of the knowledge, understanding and wisdom of God.

Romans 16:25 Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.

This is another great example of the fact that God hid the revelation of Jesus Christ from the very beginning of our created world.   We can observer clearly in this verse that God must reveal this information to us in the form of a revelation given to us in this instance by the writer Paul.  If you didn’t know it, there are still Pauls in the world today that God uses.  God is revealing things, giving revelation to many within the body of Christ and all you have to do is recognize it when you hear it.  Yes, there will be false teachers, prophets and etc. in this world  But, the Word of God will always be correct when rightly divided.  Judge what people say by the Bible.  So we can see so many verses that declare that the Bible contains the mysteries and secrets of God, here is just one more:

Colossians 1:26 Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, now is made manifest to his saints.

This is a fantastic verse if you are one of God’s saints.  For if you are a saint of God then this verse assures that you are potentially destined to know these hidden secrets.  The implication is clearly given that they are intended for God’s saints to know and understand.  Some will attempt to explain, that was only for them, the early church and not for us now.  I can hear it all now.  But there is no way it is not for us right here and right now.  This is what Jesus said about the secret things of God:

Luke 8:17 For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest: neither anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad.

This is of course a little difficult to see in the King James version of the Bible, but it basically says that there is nothing that was hidden or secret that will not be made known or revealed so that we can see them, understand them and know them.  That is a powerful prophecy and the words of God himself speaking.  Has this occurred yet?  I really only think we have scratched the surface of this prophecy, but I believe it will be fulfilled before Jesus’ return.  You of course can believe whatever you like.  You might ask how can this be, is it possible that the body of Christ could unify and see the truth?  I think it is possible if we allow God to do it.  This scripture in Daniel shows us what God is capable of by just one Old Testament prophet:

Daniel 2:47  The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets seeing that thou could reveal this secret.

So the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar  recognized the power of God.  By God revealing a bit of information to him the king was convinced that he was the true God.  You see God just has to reveal a few key things to get people to see and He knows what those are.  I believe that is why we will see major changes in attitudes and major changes in the true church of the living God.

So what have we seen?  That the Bible contains mysteries, secrets, riddles and puzzles that God is starting to reveal to us in these end times.  If you start looking for them, and expecting them to happen, God will make sure that they do happen.  But since there are so many false teachings going around, here is what the Bible recommends for us to do:

Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

You should follow this example of the early church.  Be open to hear and learn, but search God’s Word everyday to see if they are really true.  Don’t buy into anything I say or anything anyone else says just because they said “Thus saith the Lord” or I have a revelation from God.  Too many ignorant people have done that and burned or died in a compound when their leader suddenly said it was time for them all to die.  God can and will show us if what is being taught is true or not in His word if we stop and ask and listen to His leading.  If God doesn’t bear witness within your own spirit that its right, reject it and run far away very fast.  Just remember that God still expects us all to search and work for it and to see what His word says.  God will reward them that diligently, meticulously, conscientiously, thoroughly seek Him.  It will be up to you, what you learn in these last days, more than it will be up to God.  Thank you for reading these Bible lessons and I pray that they are all a blessing to you.  Please tell someone about this website and help the Gospel go forth to as many as we can reach.