I will start by saying that the journey to acquiring your own gospel, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ revealed to you, is the greatest thing you will ever experience. It’s true, and if you join me in it, you will not regret it. It has changed my life forever. I’ve also watched my good friends and elders in our churches receive their own gospel in Christ and how it has changed them. We have some powerful witnesses among us today. The anointing they have received from the Lord has blessed my life and many of yours. The gospel of Jesus has a significant impact on your life, and I’m here now to tell you that you need this gospel in your life.
So far, almost everyone who reads this website believes in Jesus Christ. Let’s take the teachings of the believer to the next place. I know the gospel of Jesus has already impacted you in some way. But I want to ask, what is it doing for you? His gospel is meant to create a belief in you that glorifies God and testifies the Christ revealed in your life. Think about that for a minute. Your gospel is a reflection of your experience with Jesus.
The gospel is often defined as “the good news of Jesus Christ.” It is the message of Jesus and the Kingdom of God. When you teach or preach your gospel, you speak what has been revealed to you by the Holy Spirit. That might be different than just teaching the gospel. That is to say that anyone can pick up a Bible and preach the good news of Jesus Christ, but it doesn’t mean any of it has been revealed to them. The Bible has been used for self-gain for thousands of years. The true gospel is displayed when you have a Jesus experience, and the gospel of Christ enters your heart and changes you, and your testimony reflects your Jesus experience.
You can’t fake a Jesus experience; the evidence is real.
The most significant evidence we have today of the Jesus experience is the Bible. The Bible, just like us, went through regeneration of its own. It first was of old and was made new by the appearance of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament had a Jesus experience. It’s so clear that when Jesus appeared, the Old Testament was saved and transformed into the New Testament. He, by Himself, fulfilled everything that all previous men and women spoke of God, and at an instant, He made all things new. If we follow along in the story of the Bible, we will see that it was a pattern of how our story will go. Maybe not in the same detail, but the report will be true nonetheless. The apostles are a great place to start with witnesses. (I will address others later.)
Witnesses of the Jesus experience.
Peter was a disciple and apostle of Jesus. He was a man who followed the Old Testament and loved God, and was looking for a Messiah to come. When Jesus came forth and called him to follow, it was a lifestyle change for sure. He didn’t know for sure yet that the one He was following was the true Messiah that all the prophets said would come. Having a man in front of you saying He is the Son of God would have tested anyone’s knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures, especially being a flesh and blood man. But Peter learned a great deal from Jesus and became a chief apostle and witness of Jesus.
But Peter was also a man of many conflicts because of his Jewish traditions. He had to stay with Jesus on the earth for three and a half years to get to the place where he received the Holy Ghost, which is Christ in you, not outside of you. Whatever he struggled with in Jesus as a man, it got converted when he was filled with the Holy Spirit. After that, he was the first apostle in scripture to connect all the dots of the Old Testament and reveal that Jesus is the Messiah. His preaching in Acts 2 would be the words that changed the future of all believers who have followed God. All because he preached the Old Testament through the eyes of Jesus, the resurrection, and life. What a change he experienced when encountering Jesus as the Holy Ghost.
Paul was another man who was versed in Old Testament scriptures as well. He was taught them and studied them thoroughly. He had much knowledge of the Hebrew writings of the Old Testament and spoke of them often. Before his conversion to Christ, he was part of the sect of Pharisees that lived strictly by the letter of the law, which are the Old Testament teachings of God. Something changed when he encountered Jesus, though. Jesus opened his eyes to the new revelation he often called his gospel. Now his perception was through the lens of Jesus Christ and the Christ perception. Paul was a changed man and led the charge to the world as he knew it.
Both Peter and Paul were powerhouse apostles of Jesus because they encountered Him in the Spirit, and it changed the direction of their life on a dime. They learned a spiritual gospel and never looked back. It was a gospel that was not based on God’s laws on the earth. It was a heavenly gospel that revealed the secrets of God and even interpreted all of the Old Testament with the same understanding that Jesus had. They preached and taught Jesus everywhere they went.
You could say they were examples of how Jesus taught the Old and the New. Peter learned his gospel by following the image of Jesus Christ on the earth. He was trained in the flesh by the Spirit through a man. It took roughly three and a half years before he experienced the Holy Ghost. When he did experience the Holy Ghost, he entered into the Jesus experience by the Spirit. I can’t say enough how that transformed his life. Peter was used for God’s will to teach us how the Old is transformed. To be taught in the flesh by the Spirit, through the image of a man, was an incredible effort of detail, trust, and intimacy.
Paul was an example of being taught by the Spirit without having to follow another man in the flesh. Jesus appeared to him in the Spirit, and after three days, he was filled with the Holy Ghost. His Jesus experience was instant. After that, he was continually taught in the Spirit through many visitations of Jesus and His angels. Some say that makes Paul greater than Peter, but I say both were taught by what God needed, which makes each of them equally important to the will of God on the earth. (It also lines up with Paul’s teaching when he said, “first the natural then the spiritual.”)
We can’t forget about the apostle John as another witness. He said, “we have handled the word of life, and the Word from the beginning.” His Jesus experience was amazing, and his epistles reveal a heavenly side to Jesus that most people fail to see. He had extraordinary visitations that unlocked (yet hid) many of the mysteries of the Old Testament.
These witnesses had life-changing encounters with Jesus, and each one had their world completely changed by His revelation.
Peter’s new gospel was that he had a more sure word of prophecy after experiencing the spiritual Jesus in the mountain of God and being filled with the Holy Spirit. After that, he preached only Jesus. Paul said he got his gospel from the revelation of Jesus in the Spirit after Jesus appeared to Him. Paul’s gospel was like Peter’s, all about Jesus. John summed it up well by saying, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; For the life (Spirit) was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us; That which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:1–3) He’s talking about the spiritual Jesus who is alive!
After their experience with Jesus, their gospel not only changed their world, it changed everyone who came into contact with them. It’s like they put on new eyes and new ears. Everything of the old was no longer old anymore. Their experience with Jesus made everything new.
Your gospel.
I’m sure you might want to compare yourself with these three witnesses I mentioned. But remember, you will learn your gospel according to how the Lord visits you and gives it to you. He may allow you to be taught by someone on the earth through the Spirit, like Peter and John, or you may encounter Jesus in the Spirit straightway as Paul did. Either way, the key to your gospel is Jesus Christ. If you’re going to have a true living gospel of God, then your gospel will be the gospel He gives you.
What makes it your gospel is that it is revealed to you, and you become one with it.
This part is very important. After you encounter Jesus like I am talking about, your life with Jesus gets very intimate. The gospel will always belong to Jesus; you can’t separate Him from His own revelation. But when He shares everything He has with you; it changes your life. Your new gospel becomes your revelation of Him. It’s your Jesus gospel, your baptism by fire, and you won’t be able to live the way you used to. Your gospel becomes personal at this point, and you’re willing to protect it at any cost. Nothing will separate you from the love of God after you have your Spirit-filled experience with Him.
Why is it so important to learn the gospel through the eyes of Jesus? First, there would be no gospel without Him. Second, even if you have a gospel without His revelation, your gospel is of the old and is unfinished. Third, under the Old Testament, you must live by laws and offerings as were necessary for a particular group of God’s people, mainly the people of Israel. All others are outsiders and are left out because the flesh is involved. But in the New Testament, it is all about the believer who believes in Jesus Christ. This new believers gospel is the gospel through the eyes of Jesus. People who are regenerated by the revelation of Jesus. It’s the believer’s encounter with the Spirit of God.
You may say you’re not a preacher or teacher in this world, but that’s not true. Your words preach a gospel every day. Your life teaches your gospel to all of us continually. You have a gospel, whether you know it or not. You will never change that part of your life. What can change is how you preach it. Now it’s time to learn your gospel through a Jesus experience. When you do, watch how everything in your life changes, especially you.