This teaching is part 4 of teaching number 96, What Does Jesus Desire? This is the final teaching of this short series.
What's so helpful is that while Jesus was on the earth, He revealed His glory to those who could believe and see past the flesh. The secret to experiencing His true glory doesn't depend on whether you are a flesh and blood person as much as it does consciousness. Because God made us spiritual beings with a spirit, soul, and body, we have the ability to access the spirit world through Him, which is to say, His Spirit.
While Jesus was a man, He opened the door to heaven in His death, burial, and resurrection. That was the key to the whole gospel succeeding. But before He died, He gave us everything we need to learn to walk in the Spirit and access His glory. Everywhere He went, He spoke about spiritual principles; even when He was using earthly parables, He talked about the spirit world within us.
When you read John's writings (Book of John, John's three epistles, and the Book of Revelation), you see a clear distinction of how Jesus should be viewed and perceived. John, out of all of His apostles, spoke of Jesus in a way that revealed His glory like no other. Whether on earth or in heaven, John revealed His glory so that we can have the opportunity to learn how to search Jesus out and find Him. That's why we can use John's gospel specifically to see a glorified Christ beyond the veil while He was still a man doing the works of God.
Peter began to see it when He called Jesus Christ the Son of God. Only God could reveal such a thing. Others began to see His glory as they learned His teachings and applied them to their lives while in the flesh. All because Jesus planted the seed of His glory in His followers when He taught His sayings to the people. Today, we have those same sayings, and we can learn who He is by remembering them and receiving His words in our hearts.
Jesus, the I Am.
Understanding spiritual things can be challenging for many. The earthly mind wars against having a spiritual mind, but that doesn't mean seeing spiritual things is impossible. Before we can get to heaven, we must first build a bridge from our world to His. That's where Jesus shines, and that's why He was sent to the world. He was the mediator between God and man. With His words, He builds a bridge in our consciousness that allows us to change how we think about Him. Every time He tells us who He is, it changes how we see Him and begins to show us His glory. Let's look at a few examples.
Jesus said,
I Am the Bread of Life. John 6:35, 41, 48, 51
I Am the Light of the World. John 8:12; 9:5
I Am From Above. John 8:23
I Am the Son of Man. John 8:28
I Am the Door of the sheep. John 10:7
I Am the Door. John 10:9
I Am the Good Shepherd. John 10:11, 14
I Am the Son of God. John 10:36
I Am the Resurrection and the Life. John 11:25
I Am the Way, the Truth, the Life. John 14:6
When Jesus made these statements about Himself, they weren't sayings to take lightly; they revealed His glory beyond the veil, which is His flesh. He was telling us who He was under that skin of flesh. While on earth, He created a bridge to heaven so that we could see Him after He was gone from the earth to sit in heavenly places with His Father. As you read through His description of Himself, it's clear He's not referencing a fleshly body. Yet, His words make it possible for you and I to begin to think about Him and imagine who He is within us. His words are transforming our minds to see Him without the flesh.
If you have read these writings on this website, you have noticed that I have focused on certain things. One is the inward man, or what's within us. But also, my focus is concerning the words of Jesus and His apostles. The word of God and its teaching is the key to accessing God's Spirit in every way, especially concerning Jesus. Let's take high regard in the sayings and teachings of Jesus and His apostles because they are the door to heaven, where the true glory of Jesus lives.
The bridge I'm talking about is the words of God in every part. His words are Spirt and life. (John 6:63) The teachings, whether in doctrine, reproof, correction, or instruction in righteousness, connect the bridge to God. These teachings are spiritual words and are our bridge to Jesus. If you take lightly your Bible or any teachings from God's anointed teachers, you will struggle to know Jesus in His glory and will only serve Him according to the flesh, which means you pick and choose His words to suit only your needs in your physical life.
Jesus is a bridge that will never collapse.
His bridge, the words of Jesus, becomes your mediation between you and God. That's made possible because Jesus is the Word, so everything He speaks is the Word. It's a bridge that will get you to heaven so you can sit with Jesus on His throne and share in His glory.