Derek Prince - Is It Possible To Know Jesus Personally?
So let me just recapitulate those four successive phases of this encounter which is so basic, because this is how we lay the foundation of Jesus in our lives personally. First of all, there was a confrontation. Second, there was a revelation granted by God the Father through the Holy Spirit. Third, Peter responded with an acknowledgment. And fourth, he made a public confession.
Now you might ask, and people could ask: Is such a revelation possible today? Is it possible for people like you and me to know Jesus just as really and just as personally as Peter did and as the other disciples did? We need to see two important things. First of all, Jesus was not revealed to Peter as the son of the carpenter. He’d known Him that way for quite a while. He was revealed to him as the eternal Son of God. And the Scripture says in Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. There has been no change in Him, there never will be.
So, it’s not a question of language or culture or clothing but it’s a question of the eternal person of Jesus. That’s what Peter encountered maybe for the first time in his life. He really had a revelation who Jesus is. Secondly, the revelation was granted through the Holy Spirit. And the Bible calls the Holy Spirit: the eternal Spirit, the timeless Spirit. Time, fashion, history, customs, language, they don’t change the Holy Spirit.
So for those two reasons it is equally possible for you and me to have this direct, personal revelation of Jesus. Just as possible as it was for Peter. First of all because it’s the eternal Son of God who is revealed. And secondly, because it’s the eternal Spirit who reveals Him. Now we come to the next important practical issue. If you have laid the foundation, how do you proceed to build on it?