The Manifestation Mystification
For the last month I've been meditating on John 17:6 where Jesus prayed, “I have manifested Your name to the people whom You given Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept and obeyed Your word.”
But the phrase that keeps pulsating in my spirit is the first part “I have manifested Your name...”
After a couple of hours of meditating on it I decided to break this down in the Greek:
“Manifest” is the Greek word phaneroō =
- to make visible or known what has been hidden
- to be thoroughly understood [who & what one is]
phaneroō comes from the Greek word phaneros =
- manifest i.e to be plainly recognized or known
phaneros comes from the Greek word phainō =
- to bring forth into the light, cause to shine, shed light
- be bright or resplendent
- to meet the eyes, strike the sight
phaneros in turn comes from the Greek word phōs =
- light [emitted by a lamp]
- a heavenly light such as surrounds angels when they appear on earth
phōs comes from the Greek word phēmi =
- to make known one's thoughts, to declare
phōs should be familiar as it is the root for our English words phosphorus, phosphate = things that, even in complete darkness, emit [a] light.
The word phōs is also found in John 8:12 “I am the light [phōs] of the world.”
In what spare time I have I've been reading The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch & in one of the chapters he talks about manifesting Jesus (& by extension, the Kingdom) wherever we are.
A while back when I switched on the TV for a few minutes I ran across a marathon of commercials & over half of them contained the words “fear, fearful, uncertain & uncertainty” & in just the last day or two several more commercials had the word “dark” in them. There was zero message of hope...
If you really take a look at the life of Jesus as the Light of the world, you'll see Him manifesting the name(s) of God (of which there are several = Elohim, El Shaddai, Adonai, I AM, Shekinah, Jehovah Rapha, Wonderful, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father, etc) wherever He went. This got me thinking about the Church, the Ekklesia & how we can manifest the name of the Lord in this “dark, fearful & uncertain” time, being a light & offering hope.
Let's be honest, there are many Christian leaders preaching gloom & doom from a fatalistic escapism mindset. There's a handful of others who are saying this is “a” tribulation, not “the” Tribulation & THIS, right here/right now, is the time for the Church to not be fearful but to really shine, to phōs, to “manifest the name of the Lord” as Jesus did everywhere, in every circumstance & in every way.
The world needs light & hope, it's not going to get it from anywhere else.
But the phrase that keeps pulsating in my spirit is the first part “I have manifested Your name...”
After a couple of hours of meditating on it I decided to break this down in the Greek:
“Manifest” is the Greek word phaneroō =
- to make visible or known what has been hidden
- to be thoroughly understood [who & what one is]
phaneroō comes from the Greek word phaneros =
- manifest i.e to be plainly recognized or known
phaneros comes from the Greek word phainō =
- to bring forth into the light, cause to shine, shed light
- be bright or resplendent
- to meet the eyes, strike the sight
phaneros in turn comes from the Greek word phōs =
- light [emitted by a lamp]
- a heavenly light such as surrounds angels when they appear on earth
phōs comes from the Greek word phēmi =
- to make known one's thoughts, to declare
phōs should be familiar as it is the root for our English words phosphorus, phosphate = things that, even in complete darkness, emit [a] light.
The word phōs is also found in John 8:12 “I am the light [phōs] of the world.”
In what spare time I have I've been reading The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch & in one of the chapters he talks about manifesting Jesus (& by extension, the Kingdom) wherever we are.
A while back when I switched on the TV for a few minutes I ran across a marathon of commercials & over half of them contained the words “fear, fearful, uncertain & uncertainty” & in just the last day or two several more commercials had the word “dark” in them. There was zero message of hope...
If you really take a look at the life of Jesus as the Light of the world, you'll see Him manifesting the name(s) of God (of which there are several = Elohim, El Shaddai, Adonai, I AM, Shekinah, Jehovah Rapha, Wonderful, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father, etc) wherever He went. This got me thinking about the Church, the Ekklesia & how we can manifest the name of the Lord in this “dark, fearful & uncertain” time, being a light & offering hope.
Let's be honest, there are many Christian leaders preaching gloom & doom from a fatalistic escapism mindset. There's a handful of others who are saying this is “a” tribulation, not “the” Tribulation & THIS, right here/right now, is the time for the Church to not be fearful but to really shine, to phōs, to “manifest the name of the Lord” as Jesus did everywhere, in every circumstance & in every way.
The world needs light & hope, it's not going to get it from anywhere else.
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